Stories Of Strange Things At Night

I believe that everyone has their little bits of experiences that would make them think twice and asked: Am I imagining things?

Things that go bump in the night aren't only for Halloween talks because I had listened to many of my dad's stories of his experiences back from his province and I did found it interesting and I'm always all ears. I had a hub about one Philippine ghoul we call Aswang. There's also some other more stories and these would be either my dad's or mine and all happened back in the homeland. My mom? I'd say she has some too but happens rarely.

So let's go on with the stories?

And on another story:

We lived in the province of Oriental Mindoro in the Philippines and I was around 10 or 11 years old at the time. And if you didn't know, inuman or we call drinking session has been part of living in the country. Men do it for celebration, or on weekends or whenever friends and neighbors had decided to grab a beer or any liquor, foods to go with it, and have the inuman.

My dad was in an inuman that night on one of his closest friends. They were having it alongside a friend's house and while younger brother and I are waiting for them to finish, we either watch tv or play with the neighboring kids or his friend's two kids. I sat there staring on the night sky, only their laughter and talk breaks the silence of the night as it was probably 11 or past 11 pm. The road was empty and vehicles rarely passed by. As I sat there waiting for their inuman to finish, I either look across the street on the shadowy field, on the night sky, and in the vacant field ahead of me of some bananas and tall grasses.

And what did I saw? A bull grazing on the vacant lot! I just can't believe what I was seeing as no one in the neighborhood owns a bull. I stared at it in amazement and disbelief and it looked back at me, I looked away and then looked back after few minutes. And guessed what? The animal, to what I believed was a bull was now gone on the vacant lot.

It sure does scared me when I realized it could be something. It was just there few minutes ago and was gone minutes later. And I can't forget that almost round horns, reminded me of the horn of the Taurus sign on the zodiac as we walked passed by the vacant lot when the inuman was finally finished.

This is one story that I had repeatedly heard and it doesn't bore me. I could listen to it many times, and it can still creeps me out when I hears it.

We lived in a nipa hut in a woodland in the province of Zambales (my birthplace.) Near the main road where there's not much vehicles or travelers was a path heading to the woods where mostly pine trees inhabits the area. There where also fruit bearing trees such as mangoes and coconuts on our part of the property. There's no neighbors nearby and the next house would be about less than a block away, as mom tells me.

Their story was that I would always cry on the same time of the day. And that would always be around 6 in the afternoon or around dusk. We uses kerosene lamp and dad and mom says they couldn't figure out why I would cry on that very same time everyday, and they were starting to think I was seeing something. Along with that, the dog would also howl or bark.

Maybe I was hungry, I said jokingly one time they were retelling the story. Or maybe I need diaper change.

My mom's voice echoed in my head as she says, " your papa came with the idea of making a cross-shaped kerosene lamp from a big empty biscuit can. And it worked! After that you stopped crying when darkness settles in."

Also my dad would add, " I once was feeding the dogs and all of a sudden they were bothered, as if someone had kicked them from behind and wimped out from their bowls. And they didn't touched their food that early night."

Hearing that part always creeps me out and I even asked dad one time if he got scared and what did he did? He said he looked around but nobody's there aside from the three of us, the dogs, and the chickens.

Every time my parents reminisce those days back in the province on where I was born, they would more likely retells this story to me.

And as always, I would come or sit closer to them as I am a scaredy cat. I still wonder what made the dog acted that way? Was it the same thing that made me cry at dusk? I believed it might have been something frightful. But I was thankful with the idea of making the cross-shaped lamp, it really did served its purpose, it had kept away whatever it was that was bothering me.

And have I told you yet about my shadow person story? I don't think so, so here it is. It also happened on the province of Mindoro.

I was about on that same age when I had spotted the bull, I was either 10 or 11 years old. This time I was tri biking with the neighboring kids. It wasn't late in the evening, I'd say about 8 pm to 9 pm. Some neighbors has electricity but there's still those who uses the kerosene lamp. Some vehicles passes by once in a while. People either watch tv on one of the neighbors which has television or hangs around at the mini store alongside the road and have a chit-chat.

Tri-biking, hide-and seek, running, climbing, and watching tv was the kids activities back then, well to our province. And we chose tri-biking that night. It was fun and we take turns on the pedal. We had just passed by on the mini store when I saw this man crossing the street. I keep my eye on him as he, and the way he crosses the street was strange. First, he was all black, from head to toe. I took a good look at him as I wanted to see other color aside from all the blackness, maybe a white shirt, or a blue pants, anything. Next, he wasn't taking steps to get across the street, and he was few inches above the ground. I can clearly see this figure of a man in total blackness as a passing vehicle lights up the street. The vehicle had passed by and the shadow was still in there, crossing. Then, it vanished in front of a banana on the same vacant land.

Who would think I would see a shadow person that night? I didn't even know at that time there were such a name to a dark shadow.