Unpeaceful Centre

​Confession by Eugene Tay

I was a tenant of Peace Centre from 2007 to 2012, and had forged very close friendships with neighbours. Even the lady boss who was in-charge of property management would sit with the tenants at the third floor cafe to chat during the slow weekday afternoons. Ghost stories, especially in Asia, is the one conversational topic that immediately bonds those of different races and cultures. For an old building like the Peace Centre, the stories are endless. Many of these tales, though as scary as they are when narrated, oftentimes are urban legends - from someone who has heard it from someone who has heard it from someone else… and veracity yet proven.
 
The story I'm about to narrate is slightly more believable because it came directly from someone who worked in the management office. ‘T” was not known to be someone who joked a lot. Besides my mother, T was the only other person I know who could smile with a frown. I had a love-hate relationship with T, my landlady. Each month when I saw her, it was usually to pay rent, but there were also times where she and I would sit down to gossip about the events that took place in the next building, Peace Mansion.
 
I remember in one conversation where I was due to renew my rental agreement and asked for a cheaper rate, she had offered her 7th floor office as an alternative. It had a bigger floor space and she was practically giving it away for free. So I asked her what was the catch?
 
"It's haunted," she said. Just like that. No set up, no preamble. "Things can move around. Cupboards can open and close by themselves."
 
"But you were in that office for many years, aren't you afraid?"
 
"This place quite common. You can see spirits walking around the corridors at night. It's not harmful. They are like our tenants. We are used to them. That's why you see some offices will leave packet drinks and sweets outside their doors."
 
"Then why move out?"
 
"Last month the haunting in the office started getting violent. Got one new staff said he don't believe in all these nonsense. Around 5pm, before we knocked off, he heard the office chair rolled around. He went to check but most of us had already left for the day and there's no one in the adjoining room. He decided to scold the spirit.

That's when the glass partition shattered and a large piece of glass cut his neck. He didn't die of course but since then, many of us in the office don't feel safe anymore. The energy got a bit darker. So we moved to the third floor."
 
"Any ghost there?"
 
"Yeah have, That one quite interesting. The room used to be rented by a church for their congregation, but then they moved out already and we used it as a store. There's a timid child spirit there, and I think over time, the place attracted other children spirits. The shifu [a holistic movement practitioner] on the fourth floor said that these are aborted child spirits. They got nowhere to go. But the mood is a lot better than on the seventh floor. They like music. Anytime of the day, our office radio can turn on and play on its own. Sometimes they even change the channel on their own. If you walk past and you hear music, that's not for us; it's for them."