EXUVALIA

Story Time | The Supernatural (Part 1)

April 07, 2019

The Toilet (Year 1998)

I used to study in an all-girls Catholic Primary School (CHIJ Toa Payoh). Like most kids in Primary School, I was afraid to go to the toilet by myself, so I asked my then best friend 'Y' to come along with me. There was a toilet situated on the same floor as our classroom, so we headed there as it was the nearest.

Before I start the story, here is a rough sketch of the layout:

Yellow: Window
Purple: Mirror
Blue: Cubicles
Red: Where that 'sock' was.

Upon entering the toilet, we saw a crumpled sock on the ground lying beside the wall on our right. If it was just a crumpled sock, we would have thought nothing of it. But as it was covered with blood, we jumped and screamed at the top of our voices, freaking out as soon as we saw it. Probably to reassure myself that I was overreacting, I told my friend that it could belong to one of the Primary 6 girls who has gotten their period for the first time. Perhaps she didn't have a pad or didn't know what was going on with her body, so she ended up using a sock. We immediately calmed down after that and continued walking into the toilet. However, we felt uneasy.

As soon as we got into the 'main area' of the toilet, I felt that it was very stuffy. Looking up at the windows, I noticed that the windows were firmly shut. No wonder there wasn't any fresh air in here. While I was processing this thought in my mind, my friend proceeded to enter one of the cubicles and started walking to the right. I had to go to the toilet too, but something told me to look to my left. Turning to look at the mirror, I noticed some blood residue sprinkled on it, spelling out a word: DIE. I screamed at the top of my lungs, and this alerted my friend to turn around and face the mirror too. This time, we screamed in unison.

Before we could plan to run out of the toilet, the doors began to slam one after the other. Like a domino effect.

"Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!"

My first reaction was to run as fast as I could, screaming in fear. I managed to escape from the creepy toilet. But wait. How could the doors slam one after the other if the windows weren't open? Also, the wind couldn't have come in from the main door as the layout of the toilet wouldn't allow it to happen. As far as I know, the domino effect can only happen if the wind travels in a straight line. And hold up, where was my friend? If she was frightened too, why was she still in the toilet? I was concerned about her well-being but was too afraid to check on her. So I stood against a wall at a distance from the toilet, waiting for her to come out.

This was the layout of the level we were on:

Yellow: Balcony
Blue: Toilet
Red: Classrooms
Green Wall

I was very worried that something really bad had happened to her. After a long 5 minute wait, she finally walked out. However, she looked like she was possessed; in the sense that she walked really stiffly, hardly turning her head as she walked. Her eyes were fixated on the balcony as she headed straight for it as soon as she emerged from the toilet. A lot of questions came into my mind. Why did she just look straight at the balcony and walk towards it? Why didn't she come to find me after the scary encounter we both had in the toilet? I kept quiet and watched her silently from afar. Something was wrong, and I could feel it in my bones.

All of a sudden, I noticed something extremely weird. She was holding on tightly to the support rails of the balcony but looked like she was being pushed at the same time. 'Y' then screamed, "Marie, stop pushing me! Stop pushing me, please! I'm really going to fall." Wait, what on earth was she on about? I was leaning against the wall and wasn't even near her, let alone push her. So if I wasn't the one pushing her, who was? As soon as this thought came into my head, I screamed for the very last time and ran back to class, leaving her behind.

Upon returning to class, I asked my friends whether they had heard anyone screaming. To my horror, they said no. But our classroom was situated near the toilet, so there was absolutely no way that they couldn't have heard it. Anyway, 'Y' eventually came back to class (safely) but she seemed 'out of it' somehow. I can't put my finger on it, but she was just not the same anymore. I never talked to her again because I was THAT scared.

The Explosion (Year 2008)

One day, my friend 'G' came over to my place for a sleepover. We slept late that night. As it was the day that I held a birthday party, we spent some time cleaning up the mess in the house. 'G' told me that she felt hungry, so we ran to the kitchen to see what there was to eat. I briefly glanced at the clock on the wall in the living room, as we walked past it. It was 2.55 AM. Talking while ransacking through the items in my kitchen pantry, the light exploded.

There was a flash of light coming from the light bulb, and a loud 'BAM!' came from it. At the same time, the lights in the kitchen started to flicker for about 5 seconds before we were caught in absolute darkness. In shock, we stood there in silence for the next 3 seconds before screaming in unison and racing to the safety of my bedroom.
PS: As I was running to my room, I did try to turn on the light switch, to no avail.

That night, we didn't take a shower or brush our teeth. We were too scared to leave the room, so we stayed in, the entire night. The next morning, I woke up and went out into the living room to check on the clock and light switch. What I discovered gave me the shivers! While the light still worked when the switch was turned on, the clock in the living room had stopped at 3 am. This made me believe that it was a supernatural event rather than our own imagination. How else could you explain the clock stopping at 3 am as soon as the light bulb 'exploded'?

Since then, I try to make it a point not to stay awake at odd hours in the night just in case I come across a similar encounter. I've been told by many that supernatural activity peaks around 3 - 4 am in Western Christian tradition, and I personally think it's always better to be safe than sorry. You know, just in case. Freaky stuff.

The Seventh Month (Year 2018)

This happened sometime in August last year. According to Chinese tradition, there is something called the Hungry Ghost Festival which occurs in the seventh month. The Chinese believe that ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, come out from the lower realm during this month to pay a visit to the living. During this month, people avoid surgery, buying cars, swimming, moving house, marrying, whistling and going out or taking pictures after dark. As I was on a holiday in Taiwan then, it was near impossible not to go out at night. I thought nothing much about it as nothing had happened to me during the seventh month before.

I was invited to visit my friend's 'L' place, which was situated in the rural part of Southern Taiwan, Kaohsiung. I jumped at this rare opportunity, with the chance to have a local as my personal tour guide. Our mode of transport was a scooter, and we headed to our destination from Tainan. Upon reaching, we met up with one of his friends who I had befriended a few months back. We spent some time discussing our plans for the day, what to do and where to go. His friend suggested that we ride up the mountain to play near the springs.

Agreeing with the suggestion, we slowly made our way to the destination. It was a nice sunny day, with the wind blowing through our hair as we rode on the scooter. As I wasn't used to this mode of transport, I held on to my friend from the back (in fear that I'd fall). On our way, we were just chatting about random topics. But as I briefly mentioned that it was the seventh month, my necklace broke into two and for some odd reason, I managed to catch on to it as it fell apart. I told 'L' about my broken necklace, and he commented about how strange it was for it to break out of the blue. We left it at that and didn't think too much into it.

Finally, we reached the mountain and began making our way up. His friend was ahead of us, leading the way up the mountain. He would stop occasionally to wait for us, as we were riding at a very casual pace. All of a sudden, we skidded on the rocky path and it was clear that we were unable to find our balance. 'L' decided to jump off the scooter, and as I was hugging him from behind, I flew off with him. We rolled to a complete stop, before noticing that we had actually fallen off the scooter from losing our balance. The first thing I did was to check myself for injuries. Looking at my legs, they were fine. Sore, but nothing too serious. Next, I had a good look at my arms. A few small cuts on my fingers, knuckles and wrist and some deep wounds near my elbows.

Because I didn't feel any pain, I didn't see the seriousness of it. Upon getting up, the pain began to kick in. I started to bleed profusely and my friends were very concerned about my injuries. We made our way to a nearby house, where a very kind lady helped washed our wounds with clean water. We then headed back to 'L's' place to rest for a bit and to share everything that happened with his dad. We were told that the necklace breaking into half was a very bad sign, probably warning us to halt our plans. We should have taken that as a hint.

It was getting late, so 'L' and I decided to make our way back to Tainan. We rode way under the speed limit, as we were still traumatized from falling off the scooter a few hours ago. Suddenly, we were chased by a mad dog which barked and ran at us at full speed. I swear it almost bit off my leg as it was a few inches from me when it went crazy. It scared the shit out of us and we couldn't stop shaking, as we continued our ride home. As soon as I got home, I needed to use the toilet. I realised that I was on my period and it had leaked a little, probably the size of a 5 cent coin. Then I came to the realization that my period could have attracted the attention of the ghosts and spirits who were out during the seventh month. Because I had mentioned them, they had thought that I was calling for them and started following me after that. To rid myself from bad luck, I threw the stained item away.

Everything went back to normal after that. True story.