I’ll never forget the araw I had encountered a ghosts with my best friends. And I will be happy to share that story with you.
It was August 20th exactly one week before the start of middle school. My best friend Alex and I sat outside on the curb and ate our half melted presa ice cream on a cone. It must’ve been 95 degrees outside because we could feel our sweet dripping off our faces. We didn’t say much because the calefaction made us not want to be social. We sat there in silence and licked our ice cream.
“What do you think middle school will be like, Collin?” Alex broke the peace.
“I’m not really sure. My oldest brother, Joseph, sinabi it’s not really hard if you get on the teachers good side.” I answered him back flicking a pebble into the road.
Alex had mixed skin, a brown buzz cut, and brown eyes, short and scrawny. He was the height of 4’11 and weighed around 90 pounds. He was 13 at the time Alex was the type to play video games all araw and eat rather than be outside and run around. He was very intelligent, reasonable, and observant. He was very shy so he didn’t really have too many friends.
I was the complete opposite. I was 5’6 and weighed 115 pounds. I had dirty blonde hair, with light cobalt eyes and had the perfect tan. I was tall and muscular for my age, if I do say so myself. I was also 13 at the time I was always hyper and loved to play sports from football to baseball to putbol to lacrosse. I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. I was skilled though when it came to sports. I was very popular and outgoing and could make anyone near me crack up with laughter because I was just that hysterical.
“Do you think we will be able to make friends?” Alex asked me staring at me.
“I know I will.” I replied back.
“How do you make so many mga kaibigan so quickly? Is it because you’re athletic or because you come from a first class family, or what?”
“Do you want to know how I make so many friends, Alex?”
“Yes, yes, yes please tell me!” Alex begged with his tuta dog looking eyes.
I took a deep breath in as if to tell him the meaning of life. “I don’t ask tanong all the time!” I snapped because the only thing Alex was only accomplishing at the moment was the ability to get on my nerves.
“You know even Einstein asked questions, right?” Alex asked another one of his dumb questions.
I just stared at him and could only feel sympathy for myself and his family. Who would want a kid that only knew how to ask not answer questions? I know I wouldn’t want a kid like that. If I did that, child would drive me up a wall.
“What are you two doing?” Asked Cali Rightson.
Cali was 14 and was known for her bad reputation from being mean to others all the way to doing drugs. I did have to admit even thought she was a trouble maker she sure did look pretty. Her brown wavy hair pushed back into a high ponytail so every time she walked her ponytail bounced back and forth. Her hazel eyes sparkled with the sunlight and her mascara, eyeliner, and sparkly hayop ng mink eye shadow made her eyes stand out even madami beautiful than they actually where. She was wearing a black halik t-shirt and undersized shorts that looked like they were clawed. Her seresa red and white, fresh All bituin Converses made her look smallish than she actually was. I was pretty sure she was around 5’2 but she looked like she was 4’11.
“Because we can be here. You got a problem with that?” Alex answered her in a stuck up tone of voice.
“Alex, you need to say hello first before you ask one of your unlimited unnecessary questions.” I shot back to him giving him a dirty look.
Cali chuckled under her breath. She’s so pretty I thought admiring her. That also was the first time I noticed that when she smiled she got two small dimples.
She began to play with her rook earing. “Well, since there’s nothing else I can do in this small town I shall sit with you two.”
I scouted over to make room for Cali. As she sat down the scent of her perfume was amazing. It was a mix between vanilla and honey aroma.
“You look nice today”. I complimented, “are you going anywhere special?”
“You say I ask stupid questions” Alex sinabi under his breath and rolled his eyes
I nudged his knee with mine as if to tell him to shut up.
“No, not really I might take a walk to the park with a friend but I don’t know.” Cali answered my tanong as she tried to ignore Alex’s remark.
“Ah, I see.”
“Yeah…” She sinabi as if she had something bad on her mind.
“What’s wrong Cali?” I asked staring at her.
“What’s wrong Cali?” Alex mocked back. He never liked Cali and always called her trash. He sinabi the way she dressed and acted made him wonder why she wasn’t a mother yet.
“I think I should be going”. Cali stood up and started to walk towards her house.
I knew that time Cali was sick of Alex’s inappropriate remarks and that’s why she was leaving. “Alex! Why do you have to be so rude to people. You wouldn’t approve of someone treating your daughter like that!” I busted out in anger. “Cali, wait up!” I jogged toward her. “Look I’m sorry about Alex sometimes he doesn’t know the right thing to say at times. I’m really sorry.”
“It’s not you I want to hear an apology from.” She sinabi with her head down. “And not Alex’s either.”
“What?”
“You heard me. It’s just everyone is always talking about me calling me every name known to man but the respectful words. I’m sick of it, you know? You’re so popular and have all the mga kaibigan you need and more. You’re so nice to people and athletic. I wish I was like that”
“You’re nice to me and you seem athletic.” I reformed her statement.
“HA! No I’m not. I don’t even know how to kick a putbol ball.” She bawled.
“Well, where all different.” I said.
After a few weeks went by, I became really good mga kaibigan with Cali as well as Alex. Cali and I even started to date. We ate lunch together every araw at school and talked about the most randomness things.
“What are we going to do for Halloween?” Alex one araw asked taking a bite of his red apple.
“Ummm isn’t that a while from now?” I asked taking a swig of milk.
“Well I suppose. But Halloween is where you can get into a true chiller.” He countered back.
And after a few weeks it was Halloween. Alex wore an astronaut suit, Cali was wearing a female pirate costume, and I was dressed up as Edward scissorhands.
“Where are we going tonight” Cali asked as she adjusted her eye piece.
“I was thinking about Smith’s Graveyard.” I told them.
“The graveyard?!” Both Alex and Cali questioned at the same time.
“Yeah come on guys it will be awesome all our parents are out and no school tomorrow it’s as if we own the night.” From there I took Cali’s hand and started to run to the road that led to the graveyard.
In a matter of minutos we were entering the gates of the grave yard. The metal worn down gate squeaked as we pressed them open.
“I doubt this is a good idea we should go back” Alex stuttered glancing at the tomb stones.
“Stop being such a wimp, Alex.” Cali shot back. She leaned on my shoulder and snuggled up close to me. I laughed and put my arm around her. She giggled back. Man did she have the most amazingness laugh!
“Have you two ever played the game 100 candles?” I asked sitting under a dead oak tree.
“What’s that?” Cali asked
“It’s a group of people sit in a bilog with 100 candles lit. Going around the circle, each person tells a ghost story then blows out one of the candles, until all the candles have been blown out. Once all the candles are out, a portal to the other side is supposedly created.” I answered as I started to pull out candles from my book bag I brought along.
“That will be so awesome to play!” Cali exclaimed as she started to help me pull them out and light them with her lighter she uses when she wants to smoke.
“Heck no!” Alex disagreed, “where not playing any of that paranormal stuff. It’s so stupid and we don’t have a big enough group so forget it.”
“Why are you a sissy when it comes to this stuff?” I asked him handing the last candle to Cali.
“Because the other world is not something you want to mess with, people get possessed.” Alex started to raise his voice which seemed to surprise Cali.
“Stop, Alex. You’re pagganap crazy-“
“Crazy?” He interrupted me, “I’m not the one who wants to mess with the dead. You two have all the fun you want but I’m going tahanan and, Cali, if you don’t fallow you are just as dumb as him.” Alex started heading for the gate.
“Why is he pagganap like this?” Cali sinabi out loud.
“Don’t worry, he will come back.”
“How do you know?”
“I know him since I’ve been four. He won’t do anything to stand up for himself. So he will come right back in about five minutes.”
And like I said, he came back just as quickly as he left.
“Told you he will be back.” I assured her.
We sat there in silence for a while and stared at one another. The night was getting colder and darker as each segundo pasted.
“Well, are we going to play or look at each other?” Alex asked clearly frustrated.
“Yes!” Cali squeaked happily as she rubbed her hands up and down together in excitement.
“Who goes first?” I asked staring into the flame of the candles.
Cali shot her hand up quicker than a bird fleeing from the sound of a gunshot.
“Cali I suppose you’re first” I laughed and Alex, of course, rolled his eyes.
“I was less than 2 years nakaraan that I went to my grandparents, mother's side, house for summer vacations in Dallas. This was a yearly practice. Our main attraction of going there was the river and we could swim in it for hours together until my grandpa came and took us back home. One such morning I was ready and too excited to go to the river. I was accompanied sa pamamagitan ng my cousin, sister and her friends. There was a bridge on the river which connected my grandpa's town to another town, so we used to jump in the river from the bridge. We were walking on the bridge and were all set to spend some time in the river but on the other side of the bridge we saw a lady wearing an old long dress, looked as if it was from the 1800s. It wasn’t normal for us, to see a young lady wearing such an ancient dress in the middle of the woods. However, I clearly remember she had golden hair. Then she suddenly started calling us to save her. ‘Help me! Please help!’ And that voice kind of still echoes to me. We ran away but we could hear her voice very loudly on the other side of the bridge. We told Grandma about the lady and she sinabi she must be the women who married the man who owned the bridge. And that the women, somehow, fell into the water and didn’t know how to swim. She drowned and sinabi to be at the bridge waiting to be saved.” Cali said. She picked up her nearest candle and blew it out.
“I want to go now.” Alex volunteered, “Really soon after I moved into a small house before I moved here I started feeling there was something in the hallway. I tried telling my parents but they didn't believe me. If you gave one step out of the bedroom you would find yourself at the end of a corridor with the living room door in front of you. Another step and you would have entered the living room. Well, the thing is, after giving just one step, if you looked with the corner of your eye you could see a little girl standing almost at the other end of the corridor and she was like dancing, or moving, not really sure. If you turned your head completely to take a better look, she was gone. I would say, sa pamamagitan ng her height, that she must have been 6 years old. I grew madami afraid of open doors, so at night when we were going to bed, I could never sleep if I knew the bedroom door was open. I was always afraid of her getting into the room. Then my parent decided to finally ilipat to the city. When we did we went to register our new address at the City Hall. They asked us where we used to live and we gave the guy the address, then he sinabi the most amazing thing: "so you two are moving to the city but not the little girl?’ ‘What little girl?’ my dad asked. The guy sinabi there was a little girl living with us according to his records. We asked for the name but he noticed we had no idea who she was so he sinabi he shouldn't disclose information. Like I said, perhaps this is nothing. It could explain what I saw in the corridor, but it also could mean the girl moved out and she didn't register her new address ever since, but she should because it’s needed for school paperwork.” As he finished he also picked up a candle and blew it out.
“I’m next.” I sinabi straighten up my back from my lounging position. “When I was around 7 years old I was at my house and my friend Tony came over and he asked to sleepover like we would always do every Saturday night. During the araw we would laugh and play games, getting darker and darker outside, it was close to midnight. I pulled out the sofa kama and started getting everything ready. Tony threw a unan at me and I threw one back. After a while I was getting kind of bored, so we turned on the TV. With the sofa kama pulled out, we could see the front yard through the huge window in the living room right susunod to the bed. I saw the reflection of the TV in the left-top corner of the window and thought it looked cool so I decided to jump on the other sopa and look at the TV's reflection through the window. While Tony was still on the sofa bed, I glanced up to the sky and looked at the moon. The moon's light was so bright it shined into the open front yard. I glanced back down into the front yard and suddenly looked away, not knowing what I have just seen. I then realized something was there and looked back into the middle of my front yard. I stared, fright in my eyes, and couldn't look away. Standing in the middle of the yard was this orange, human-like figure. Then the figure started walking forwards towards me as if it was coming for me. My puso was beating so fast, but I had to see if it was just my imagination. I tried blinking, but still, I saw it. As it got closer and closer, I could see it madami clearly. What really scared me is that there was no face on this human figure and its body was slightly see through. I couldn't handle this pressure anymore so I quickly closed the curtains and closed my eyes. I gripped those curtains so hard with my sweaty hands, shaking so much; I couldn't think what to do. I thought in my head these exact words, "Lord, I'm scared. Please keep me safe." I opened my eyes, puso still pounding, and then I opened the curtains again. Where had the figure gone? It was nowhere to be found. Could it have been the TV reflection? Then I thought, no it couldn't have because the TV was in the top-left corner of the window; not the middle. Well, could it have been the reflection of Tony in the window? I asked him, and it turned out he was laying down the whole time watching the TV, and I already knew that because I glanced at him a few times while looking out the window. I sat there trying to come up with a solution, but couldn't find a reasonable one since I didn't believe in stuff like that. Still scared, I stood up and went to all the windows to cover them up with curtains. Luckily Tony was there with me or I would have had a worse reaction.”
After madami and madami stories went by, the candles where out. We just stared into the darkness and I felt like we were not the only ones there anymore. Chills went up my spine as I thought about each and every story each of us told.
“Come on guys it’s midnight we need to go back home.” I started to throw the unlit candles back into my book bag as quickly as possible and each of them helped.
As we started to leave we heard a noise behind us. It sounded like a lobo howling. All at once we all turned and saw a shadow. A dark, gloomy shadow. And right susunod to the shadow was a tall man who was fat and wearing a white shirt. It was right susunod to where we were just sitting, the dead oak tree.
We all just ran as fast as we could not worry about anything but running. Finally we made it to my house. We all panted and our hearts where louder than drums as they banged in our chest.
“I’m going home.” Alex panted and walked across the kalye and opened his front door.
“Do you want me to walk you home?” I asked Cali. She looks so scared I thought. I should have never brought her to play that game. What kind of boyfriend wanted to scare their girlfriend like that?
“No thanks, I was going to ask you if I could stay the night.”
“Yes you can.” I put my arm around her and led her into my house happy to not be the only one in the house.