Story 2 - Penang Hotel - Come Play With Us

Eugene, I need to get this story off my chest. It’s an experience I had during the June period almost a decade ago, but each year around this time I will recall this incident and the memories haunt me. The trauma is so real that since then, I’ve not traveled or stayed in a hotel.
 
The problem is my husband doesn’t believe it - or rather he chooses not to believe it - but it’s also easier for him to turn a blind eye because he was the one possessed and I was the one who saw and remembered everything! It’s damn unfair lah!
 
We stayed in a heritage hotel in Georgetown. It’s a beautiful colonial style hotel with paintings and furniture that added to the vintage vibe of the place. Even though it’s old, it didn’t give off the haunted hotel vibe. The carpet was a bit musky and the wallpaper is dated, but that’s to be expected.
 
We checked into the hotel by midday, went to makan, but by around evening time my husband said he wasn’t feeling well. Counting it off as probably exhaustion from the traveling and the heat, we went back early to rest. He took Panadol, and slept. It was only our first day in Penang, and if he got sick now, the holiday would be pretty much over.
 
He only had a short nap before waking up about two to three hours later. It was after sundown, around 8pm. He suddenly woke up and for a while he was a bit disoriented. Kept asking, “where am I? Why am I here?”
 
I felt his body and it was hot. His fever had just shot up. I didn’t know what the temperature was but you could tell it was very high by feeling around the forehead and neck area. He was also perspiring. I went to the toilet to wet a towel when I got back, he was sitting up facing the window and humming a tune. I don’t know what song that was but from the melody it sounded chinese.
 
I even joked with my husband. I said, “You so sick until the brain sot already ah?” He didn’t reply.
 
I toweled his neck and back then and then let him lie back down. He looked at me and asked who I am. I even joked back that this one special service better pay me for this extra. He didn’t reply. Just closed his eyes and dosed off.
 
Throughout the night he was murmuring in his sleep. I had a shallow sleep all the way till sometime in the middle of the night, then exhaustion overtook my conscious mind and I also fell asleep.

When I got up in the morning my husband was already awake and in the toilet showering. When he got out he was in high spirits. There was no fever. No lethargy. No recollection of anything from the previous night.
 
He said he remembered feeling tired and sleepy. He came back to the hotel and slept till morning. I called him an ungrateful twat but was just glad that he was ok now and the holiday wasn't ruined.
 
Second day we went out for more sightseeing. No fever at all but complaints of mild headaches and aching back, but by nightfall the fever started again. This time he said the migraine was unbearable. We skipped dinner and headed back to the hotel.
 
The behavioral change on the second night was drastic. He came in and crashed straight away. Didn’t even take off shoes, just fell face first to bed. I took off his shoes and flipped him over in case he suffocated and died.
 
That’s when he totally freaked me out.
 
 
When I flipped him over, he started to giggle. Giggle, ok!? Giggle! And it’s in a girly voice!
And there were voices coming out of him even though his lips weren't moving. I managed to catch the words - mari kita mayain. Let’s play together, in the malay language. Those were the only words I understood, the rest sounded like conversations between two people.
 
And then more giggles.
 
I kept thinking it was just my husband playing a prank on me. “It’s not funny,” I said. “You keep this up, you’re on your own. I’m leaving the room.
My luggage, which was open, slammed shut.
That shocked the piss out of me. I swear, I think at that time I really did piss myself a little. Then I looked back at my husband, but by this time his eyes were opened and he was sitting up, but one look at him and you could tell the “lights were on but there was no one home”.
 
It’s like looking at you but through you.
 
I was done here. I tried to run out of the room but the door wouldn’t open. My husband was bouncing his way forward from the seated position towards the edge of the bed. Till today, I close my eyes, and I can still recall him bouncing forward. Retelling you this story is giving me goosebumps!

The only place left to go was the toilet. I ran in and shut the door behind me. I’m not a religious person so I don’t have any mantra to recite or gods to call but I did attend Sunday school when I was in kindergarten so I called out to Jesus for help.
I avoided looking into the mirror because I can’t bear to see the reflection of my eyes looking back at me. The memory of looking at my husband’s glazed eyes is still fresh in my head.
Knock, knock, knock, on the toilet door. “Go away,” I screamed. “Fuck off!”
Then the handle started rattling as it tried to force its way in. “Sorry sorry! Just leave me alone!”
Knock, knock, knock, again.
I pressed my back against the door, and held on to the lock to prevent it from turning open. I just kept praying.
Then the light went off.
What else can I do? No phone, nothing. Just stood there in total darkness braced against the door. Outside I can hear the giggling, the banging. Things being moved about. Talking: I don’t understand the language but from my guesstimate, it sounded like three maybe four people were talking.
I stayed in the toilet, sat there in total darkness, until it was totally quiet, and then waited even longer until I was very, very, very sure there was no more sound for another hour or two. I waited until I saw a bit of light from under the door.
Opening the damned door was the scariest part. I braced myself to slam the door shut with my body weight if anything popped within line of sight. I waited a bit, opened the gap slightly, waited a bit more, then opened the gap slightly more.
 
Until I felt really safe, I stepped out of the toilet. It was already morning and the light was coming through from the parted curtains. My husband was in bed, snoring. I was very confused at this point. Everything looked normal. I half expected the place to have been turned upside down with all the noise from the previous night.
 
I left my husband there to sleep and ran downstairs to the front counter. There I just broke down and cried. The manager came, and other female staff were all present. I was shivering and crying uncontrollably. When I could speak, I told them what had happened. According to the night shift staff who was still on duty, there was no complaint of noise from the adjoining room or any guest seen on CCTV that had entered my room. Two of the staff offered to accompany me back to my room.
 
I stayed outside with one of the staff, the other went in to wake my husband. When he woke up, it was as if nothing had happened. He was surprised to see the hotel staff in the room and me standing outside, probably looking like a mad woman. He looked genuinely confused.

After the staff had ascertained that everything was safe and sound, they left. My husband had zero recollection. Once again, in the morning, no fever, and he was feeling fine.
 
We had one more night stay, but there was no way I was going to stand another night. I broke down again, packed my bags quickly and insisted that we book a flight home. I didn’t feel safe.
 
Poor husband, confused as hell, just went along with what I wanted. We flew back to Singapore and everything was normal. The husband felt fine, the fever was gone, and so were the aches and headaches.