Katatakutan

Bangungot Horror Film Festival

2011-10-10T11:21:00.002+08:00

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Freedom Forever!

2010-06-12T08:50:00.001+08:00

24 Hours

2010-06-02T21:55:00.001+08:00

Check out the details here.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T15:02:00.001+08:00

Ouija Board

2009-12-16T11:09:00.002+08:00

I wasn’t there when my grandfather died.

He was my grandmother’s brother and I was his favorite apo. I remember as a very young child, I was all but spoiled with gifts of toys, money, and candy. My mom was his favorite pamangkin and when she had me I became the new apple of his eye.

I was in second year college when he passed away.

The family was going to have an intimate birthday celebration at my lola’s house that coming Saturday and I was supposed to be there...but I wasn’t. I can’t remember exactly why I wasn’t able to make it in retrospect. Maybe it was for the play we were busy preparing for, a band rehearsal for an upcoming gig, or a meeting for a big event by our student activist group.

I was all over the place doing a hundred things all at once back then and I guess I still am but I digress...

I got in late that Sunday, my mom catching me at the door as I got in.

“Why weren’t you here yesterday!?” she asked quite distraught.

“Nag-practice kami kahapon tapos may meeting ako kaninang umaga kaya ngayon lang ako nakauwi” I said as I entered the house looking for food.

“Hinahanap ka ng lolo mo.”

“I’m sorry I missed the party” I said apologetically.

“Anu’ng party? Your lolo’s dead.”

It was like a punch in the gut and for a few seconds I felt that I couldn’t breathe. My mother was explaining everything, how it was all so sudden but her voice was just a dull sound in the background as the rush of blood was like a roar in my ears.

I was numb for almost a week after that. I did everything by rote and outwardly I didn’t let on about what was happening inside me. I didn’t really know how to deal with the guilt that was eating me up.

I wasn’t there when my lolo died. He was looking for me and I wasn’t there.

One night as my friends and I were sitting around in my dorm, one of my buddies who was into the occult mentioned that he had recently acquired a new Ouija board and that he was raring to try it out. Having nothing better to do I went along for the ride.

It was your typical juvenile session with the girls asking about love and crushes and the boys asking if they would be successful and accomplished later in life. There were laughs and giggles as several fingers touched the planchette as it moved around from one letter to the other to answer the questions as fast as they were asked.

I was content to just watch and let them have their fun.

Besides, I don’t think the planchette can accommodate more hands with five people already touching it.

Midway into the session however, the planchette stopped then suddenly started moving again in a circular fashion. The others got a bit nervous and started accusing each other of manipulating the planchette which everyone denied.

At this point the owner of the Ouija board declared, “there’s someone else here who wants to talk”.

He instructed everyone not to panic and to not let go of the planchette.

After everyone has calmed down a bit he asked, “sino ka?”

The planchette spelled out a name no one recognized...except me.

It was my late grandfather’s nickname.

Everyone was seriously freaked out at this point and then the planchette started moving again. One of my friends was busy scribbling the letters while the rest of the group did their best to keep their courage up.

“Hindi ako galit sa ‘yo, apo” it said.

At this point the tears just started streaming down my face.

“I just wanted to say goodbye.”

I whispered, “I love you, lolo”.

The planchette spelled out “I love you too, apo” and then it was still.

We never used the Ouija board again after that day and I’d like to think my friends developed a new found respect for the supernatural but it’s most probably fear more than anything else. I walked out of that room not with fear but with a lighter heart knowing that a loved one who passed away continues to love me even in the afterlife.

“I love you, lolo”.

Third Eye Blind

2008-09-25T23:38:00.001+08:00

Arnie Lopez and Janie Mariano were the best of pals since time immemorial.

If you didn't know better you'd say they were siblings. They did everything together: school, extra curricular activities, and boys (not at the same time, of course…).

The two even have similar physical characteristics and features. Both were of moderate height and dusky complexion (though Arnie will swear her skin tone is a shade lighter) and enjoyed the outdoors.

They we’re smart, young, and outgoing.

Even when they went to separate colleges after graduating from high school they still tracked parallel paths. Arnie took up mass communications in Ateneo and Janie pursued Fine Arts majoring in Advertising in UP. They plan to open a company together after college.

If ever there were a difference between the two it was one that was not easily discernible to the naked eye.

Arnie had a gift that Janie did not share.

"Arnie, get your ass in gear and let's GO!"

Arnie struggled with her bag trying to stuff the whole bulk of it into Janie's 95 Toyota Corolla without much success. It was 4:30 in the morning and without her usual frap fix she was as good as brain dead.

"Tell me again why we have to go at this ungodly hour?" Arnie croaked in her caffeine deprived stupor.

"The sunrise in Tagaytay is simply spectacular at this hour! You need a bit of visual stimuli in your life."

"I don't need stimuli. Coffee will be just fine."

Arnie finally managed to wrestle her baggage into the trunk.

"This trip better be as good as you say it is, Janie" Arnie said as she fastened her seatbelt.

"Hey, have I ever lied to you?"

Janie gunned the engine a few notches higher than normal as Arnie proceeded to enumerate quite a few instances from the top of her head.

"Tagaytay, here we come!"

True to her word, the sunrise was a sight to behold as Janie navigated the somewhat tricky road to Tagaytay. Arnie literally let her hair down and enjoyed the cool morning breeze. And being the friends they are, Janie stopped by the first Starbucks they spotted so that Arnie can get her first caffeine fix of the day.

"So, what have you been up to?"

Janie's question brought Arnie out of the reverie she has been in after her first sip.

"Later. My higher cognitive functions are barely returning."

"I swear, Arnie! You're such a caffeine junkie!"

"And a geek to boot!" Arnie said before she sipped more of the hot aromatic concoction in her mug.

"I've been seeing someone" Arnie spoke through the mist of the coffee.

"Ah, now that's interesting."

"No, it's not like that. He's a shrink."

"So!? Psychologists are people too you know. Besides there are a lot of cute Psych Majors. I remember this guy in my sophomore year---"

"No, Janie. I mean I'm seeing him. As in for treatment."

Janie blinked a few times. At that moment, Arnie was very much reminded of an old clunky computer on the verge of hanging up.

"Whatever for!?"

"I've been having a harder time dealing with all the things I've been seeing and I thought it would be nice to get another perspective on the..."

Janie was looking at her with her arms crossed over her chest, her legs crossed, and her face wrinkled in a smirk conveying disbelief. And somewhere behind her back a decaying corpse was standing.

"Arnie, don't tell me you're still talking to your imaginary friends up until now."

"They...they're not imaginary."

"Well, you're the only one who can see them while the rest of the world doesn't. That pretty much qualifies as imaginary."

The rotting corpse has its arms around Janie and was licking her ear while she was talking to Arnie.

"Uh, Janie. I think we should go."

"Yes, let's. It's suddenly got a bit chilly in here."

It was 5:00 PM and the girls are on their way back to the metro after a full day of sightseeing at Tagaytay. Janie was fidgeting at the wheel while Arnie was staring outside at the passing scenery.

"What exactly do you see?"

Arnie turns to her friend who was keeping her eyes on the road.

"See what?"

"You know. The things that you see...ghosts, spirits, whatever. What do they look like?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"Aw c'mon, Arnie. I'm sorry if I'm such a bitch about it before. But if it's bad enough that you have to go to a shrink about it instead of talking about it with your best buddy...well, I always said I'll be there for you, didn't I?"

Janie was looking at her most intently now.

"So, tell me."

There was silence in the car for a few minutes. It seemed that Arnie was going to keep her thoughts to herself when she suddenly started speaking.

"Well, they look kinda like us only with some differences."

"What kind of different?"

"Some that I've seen look disgusting. You know, like rotting…corpses. Some are just plain ugly."

"What do they do?" Janie shifted in her seat to be able to listen better to her friend.

"Well, usually they just stand there and..." Arnie's words died in her throat.

Behind Janie was the rotting corpse she saw at Starbucks earlier.

"Yes? And?" Janie was getting impatient now that she was getting into the discussion.

"Most...most of the time they just stand there and do nothing. And then there are those who are downright nuisances."

The corpse had its slimy arms wrapped around Janie's midsection and was beginning to lick her ears again with a long scaly tongue.

"Hey, it's getting chilly again. Anyway, what exactly do they do when they're a nuisance?"

The corpse now had its bony hands grasping both of Janie's breasts.

"Oh, you really don't want to know."

"C'mon, Arnie. I'm your friend. I want to be in this with you."

"Well, they squeeze girls' breasts."

"Eww! That's disgusting!"

"You have no idea" was all that Arnie could say as she stood as unwilling witness while the corpse entity molested her best friend.

"I'm glad that never happened to me" Janie said.

“Er…”

Arnie was afraid of voicing out what she was seeing for fear that her friend might panic and cause an accident and kill someone, particularly themselves.

The corpse started sliding its hand in between Janie's legs while looking at Arnie straight in the eye.

"I'd absolutely die!"

On the other, hand dying a horrible death via a violent accident as compared to being molested by an undead dirty old man might no be such a bad idea.

"Church!"

The squeal Arnie let out nearly gave Janie a heart attack.

"What?"

Arnie was now pointing to a turn in the road up ahead. "It's Sunday and we have to go to church!"

Janie was much bewildered while the corpse ran its fingers inside her inner thighs. "But you've never been much of a church go---"

"Well, there's no time like the present!" Arnie uttered with such vehemence that the car lurched a bit as Janie was taken aback and stepped on the brakes harder than she had intended as they were parking. Arnie half dragged, half carried her buddy to the small church as their unseen admirer lurched after them.

The mass was already halfway through when they barged in the door.

Arnie found them a place somewhere in the middle of the congregation and took no mind of the piercing stares of the much scandalized parishioners. Soon enough the mass plodded on and the pair was left in relative peace.

More importantly their unseen admirer, at least to Janie, was nowhere to be found.

Arnie breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was really weird of you, Arnie"

"Sorry, Janie. There was a..." once again, Arnie's words die in her throat for the second time of the day.

The corpse was once again shuffling toward them from the side hall.

"...disturbance in the force."

"I swear, Arnie. You're such a gee---HEY!"

Janie yelped in surprise as her friend once again dragged her helter skelter out of their seats and dashed straight back into the parking lot. Possessed by the strength panic bestows upon mere mortals in moments like these, Arnie tosses her friend into the driver's side, bolts to the passengers compartment, and utters one word to Janie.

"DRIVE!"

The car takes off from the parking lot like bat from hell.

Arnie looks behind to see if pursuit was being offered. Seeing none she begins laughing a relieved laughter.

"Arnie, you're beginning to scare me. What's going on? Are you okay? Talk to me!"

"Everything's going to be okay now, Janie."

"You're acting very strangely."

"Well what would you do if..." Arnie's eyes bulge out in disbelief at what she is seeing.

*LICK! LICK!*

"AAAAAAAARRRRRGH!"

The men in white made sure that the jacket was wound tightly around Arnie who still hasn't stopped struggling. Despite being two burly men, it took a good amount of time (not to mention double the usual dosage of sedatives) to get Arnie under control.

She had grabbed the steering wheel from Janie and it was just luck that they survived the crash.

Janie was in the background trying to look over the shoulders of the medical team who subdued Arnie. After the crash, Arnie grabbed a nearby branch and was swatting at Janie with it with exhortations to stay still and she’ll take care of the pesky critter.

"Don't worry, Arnie. Everything's going to be okay."

"No, it's not going to be okay! Look! Can't you see him!? He's licking your boobs! Run, Janie! Run!"

Finally they managed to load Arnie into the back of the van after they gave her another dose of sedative. They rolled off a few minutes afterwards without much more fanfare.

The last thing Arnie sees through the window of the asylum van is the sight of Janie waving goodbye. The corpse was nowhere in sight which brought some relief..

“God! These crazies are just popping up everywhere!” The driver of the van was saying to his partner.

“Yeah, but this one’s not half bad looking.”

“Ayyy…here we go again.”

The driver only shook his head as his partner continued leering at Arnie.

“Wonder why she’s smiling though?”

*LICK! LICK!*

The Dog that followed me Home

2008-09-18T23:31:00.002+08:00

A friend and I met up one late night for a couple of beers to unwind from the work week.

I live quite near our favorite watering hole and thus have no problem getting home even when I’m stinking drunk since I live a scant five to ten minutes away, definitely walking distance.

Unless of course I can’t walk anymore but I digress…

We capped off our session at about 2 o’clock in the morning and we proceeded to walk back to my block since that’s where he catches a jeep back to his own home as well.

We were a bit drunk at that point to say the least.

We were barely a hundred meters away from the bar when I noticed a dog was following us. It didn’t really look particularly dangerous so I didn’t pay it much attention. After about a block I noticed that it was still a few feet behind us.

I finally mentioned it to my buddy.

“Hey, this dog’s following us” I said.

He took a glance at the mutt and just laughed about it. A few minutes later the dog was still on our trail which made me wonder why it was following us.

“Do you have food or something with you? Maybe that's what it's smelling?” I asked.

“Wala. Just yosi.”

“I think it likes you."

We were walking somewhere near the establishments at the nearby mall. Just for fun (and to see if the dog will still follow) we skipped over to the pedestrian lane.

And it did.

“Wow! I think it really likes you, Neil” I joked.

The dog was making me a bit uneasy though. What if it was a mad dog?

“C’mon!”

On a whim, my buddy and I cross the four lane street, a major thoroughfare which normally would be swarming with vehicles on more decent hours.

Thinking that we had finally lost the dog, we looked back and lo and behold!

The dog was crossing the street and I could’ve sworn it looked both ways before it crossed. A few moments later it was a few feet behind us again as we continued on back to my place.

This is seriously freaking me out.

This dog shouldn’t even be up at this hour much less active since canines aren’t supposed to be nocturnal. The only thing that I could think of was that maybe it was an insomniac and was walking around to help it get to sleep.

Still trying to make light of the situation however, I came up with a quick plan.

“You cross this side and I’m going to cross to the other side of the street” I told Neil as we approached the street’s intersection.

“Let’s see who this dog really is following.”

We go our own separate ways (within seeing distance of each other of course).

After crossing to our respective side of the streets we stopped to see what our four legged friend would do which would be to cross the street…in my direction!

What the f---!

Neil was looking at me from the other side of the street with a very perplexed expression that looked like he was also at a loss at how to explain this particular situation.

I racked my alcohol addled brain trying to think why this dog would be following me.

As it got nearer I crossed the street back to Neil’s side of the street (safety in numbers and all). Yes, the dog also proceeded to follow me and at that moment was checking both ways before crossing.

The only thing I can think of at that particular time why the dog is following me was that it was an aswang and it wanted to eat me.

Not this boy, nosiree!

I thought of confronting it and asking why it was following me just like in the old Komiks that I read as a child about the supernatural.

There were still some people in the street however despite the time (this is Makati after all) and I didn’t want to look like some loony giving some random dog a piece of my mind.

“Why are you following me? You want to eat me, ano?”

No way.

So my friend and I did the only thing two grown men who had a bit too much to drink can do at a time like this.

We hid.

There were some electric posts and we hid ourselves behind those carefully avoiding the animal’s line of sight as it got to our side of the street.

It was tracking our footsteps keeping its nose close to the ground as if trying to find our scent.

After a few moments it seemed to have lost the trail and went back to the other side of the street as if trying to find my tracks. All this time we were behind some posts watching the mutt trying to find us.

After minute or two the dog stopped trying to find our trail and went back the same way as we came.

Ha! Once again we thwarted evil!

We started walking again, relieved that we finally lost the dog.

I felt a bit sheepish however.

I mean it was just a dog after all.

This is what happens when you’re drunk, have an overactive imagination, and have an abundant store of stories about the supernatural supplied to you care of your yayas back in your childhood days.

Eventually we get to my condominium building and Neil takes a jeep back home.

I take an elevator up beginning to feel drowsy and sleepy.

I get to my floor and as I was walking down the hallway to my unit, the lights flicker a bit, and I think I hear footsteps behind me.

Footsteps of the four legged kind.

I run to my door, fumble with the keys, and got inside as fast as I could. I never looked back, not once.

I slept with the covers over me the whole night.

Stupid overactive imagination!

The Medium

2008-07-10T22:59:00.008+08:00

Ferds tries to coax a light from his near empty lighter.

It’s half past midnight and he’s almost through his third pack of cigarettes of the day. He finally gets a light going enough for him to light his last stick of Marlboro. His nerves calm somewhat as the nicotine hits his system.

The place only contributes to the sense of unease that Ferds tries to bottle up.

From the look of the underground parking lot you would never have thought it was located in one of the most opulent malls in the business district.

It has seen better days, definitely.

It’s not yet totally decrepit but it seems inevitable. There are some pieces of trash lying around and water running off a broken pipe somewhere. Intermittent pools of light provided by some florescent lamps overhead provide some illumination but most of them are broken leaving much of the environment in total pitch-black darkness.

“Why am I even here?” Ferds mutter more to himself as he exhales a long stream of smoke.

Of course, he already knows the answer before he even finishes the question. What Madame says, you do.

And she says he has to be here.

A Mercedes-Benz is parked nearby one of the pools of light. Three other figures aside from Ferds walk around the circle of light provided by the fluorescent overhead as if in a cage, unable or afraid to venture beyond.

One is a man in a short-sleeved barong Tagalog, black slacks, and an ill-concealed firearm on the side of his hip. He sports a goatee to cover up a scar on his chin, which he professes, was from a child hood accident. The nameplate says “Bodjie” though no one can really be sure if that’s his real name.

Madame was pretty hard to miss. She was tall for a woman, easily towering above most of the men in the room.

She’s getting impatient. She is a businesswoman after all and businesswomen of her stature should not be spending their time sneaking about in the dead of the night performing rituals, incantations, or whatever it is they were supposed to be doing. She is not a great believer in the occult but if it could stop these “disturbances” that was driving away much needed business from her real estate, she was ready to give it a try.

The fourth person is a very old woman sitting on her haunches writing symbols on the floor using a viscous liquid from a small earthen jar, which seemed a lot like blood though it was pretty hard to tell with the poor lighting conditions.

She is dressed in an old somewhat ratty t-shirt and a black skirt but is wearing a native headdress and beads on her neck and wrists. Her face is leathery and has many lines, the kind that tells you the person who owns them has had a hard life under a burning sun.

Her eyes are sunk deep into her sockets but they glitter like needles catching light in the dark.

“Matagal pa ba? I have important matters to attend to” Madame hisses at Ferds irritably, thinking of the sweet young thing she picked up from the mall earlier waiting for her at the hotel.

“Ma’am, please be patient. These things take time. We can’t just---“

“We can begin.”

Everyone jumps at the little native woman’s piping voice. There was a few seconds silence as the woman regards them within her circle of intertwining symbols made from the black liquid. Several items are place neatly around her in a semi-circle: a stalk of some kind of herb, a small knife, a small earthen jar half-filled with the black liquid, another bigger jar with a lid, a coiled piece of copper wire about two feet long, a thick black candle, and some matches.

“Please take your appointed places.”

Madame and Ferds sit on either side of the Native Woman but outside of the circle of symbols and items she has placed around her. Madame places her handkerchief on the hard concrete to protect her delicate knees.

Bodjie chose to hover near the car to light a smoke while sitting at its hood.

The old woman places the candle in front of her and strikes a match. She pauses a moment before touching the naked flame to the wick and looks Madame then Ferds directly into the eyes.

“Whatever happens, don’t leave the light.”

With that the old crone lights the candles and begins an incantation in an unfamiliar dialect. It has odd inflections and a slight percussive but rhythmic sound. The candles’ flames seem to be dancing with her odd rhythm.

Ferds, already uneasy to begin wind feels his hackles rise as the slight breeze he was feeling earlier turn into a violent gale that seems to be circling them.

The fluorescent lights suddenly start exploding beginning to plunge the rest of the parking lot into darkness.

Everything is still all of a sudden.

Madame and Ferdie are slightly illuminated by the candlelight, which miraculously didn’t go out. Bodjie is still near the car, his hand going for the gun in his hip holster.

Madame was very uneasily. “Bodjie, maybe you should join us---“

Hands from the darkness suddenly grab Bodjie as he screams in futile terror. Madame puts her hand to her mouth suppressing the overwhelming urge to scream. She forces herself to turn away from the horrific sight of Bodjie being dragged into the darkness by bony like hand covered with rotting flesh.

He ears are filled with wet flesh being torn and the unmistakable sound of noisy chewing.

“Question.”

Madame is still holding her mouth and tears are streaming down her cheeks. Ferds on the other hand is on his ass no longer kneeling and is looking very terrified at something he seeing in front of him.

Madame managed to blurt out “what?” and then she saw what Ferds was seeing.

The old woman’s hair is now floating about her without wind of any sort and her eyes are now pools of darkness with an eerie inner glow where the pupils should be.

The old woman has lost her piping voice and is now speaking in a tone that belongs to a man.

“You have…summoned me. Ask me…your…questions.”

Madame is now crying almost hysterically.

“Oh, my god. Ferds, let’s get out of here. Take me away from here.”

“No, she said not to leave the light.”

Ferds, trying to muster his courage, directs his attention to the old woman now smiling a toothless smile.

“Please…who are you? Why are you haunting this place?”

“I live…here.”

“Please leave us alone. You do not belong here.” Madame’s knees are making contact with the bare floor, all notion of delicacy forgotten. The old crone’s head jerked suddenly towards Madame’s face with a sudden motion.

“I did not want to…be here. Neither did…any who haunts…these halls. But you…kept us here. We didn’t have a…choice.”

“I never did such a thing!”

The old woman’s face is now contorted by such hate that it’s almost painful to look at her.

“Remember…the…accident?”

Bodies appear in the darkness vaguely dressed in typical construction outfit. Not much can be seen of because of the darkness but every so often there’s an impression of rotting flesh and bones.

“We…were working…day and night.”

The bodies seem to be acting out the narration like in some grotesque play as the crone drones on her story in her otherworldly voice.

“It was…three months before…your grand opening…this precious mall. It was not complete yet…so you…made us work harder.”

“We were behind schedule. I…”. Madame didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence as a terribly cry of anguish emanated from the motley crew of the rotting corpses.

“The third floor crashed…the cement was not yet…dried…but…we were behind schedule.”

Suddenly twelve faces appeared in rank behind the old woman, all looking intently at Madame.

“Thirteen…of us was…buried deep…in the cement.“

“I’m sorry.”

“But what…did you…say?”

“I tried my best…I mean, my reputation was on the line…”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY!!!?”

Madame’s face is now buried in her hands trying futilely to stem the flow of tears.

“They’re already d-ddd-dead anyway. Just b-bb-build…build over them.”

Madame’s voice already lost their regal quality and instead it was very small, like a little child’s.

“We’re b-bbb-behind…behind schedule.”

Ferds is in shock over what he has just witnessed and heard.

“Thirteen of you here? My god…”

“Yes…and now…” The old woman proceeds to blow out the candle. Madame only had time to scream before darkness enveloped them.

“There…will be…fourteen.”

There were the sounds of rustling feet and a muffled voice after which silence returns. Ferds was too afraid to move and stays where he was.

“Madame? Madame?”

*Chk! Chk!*

Ferds get a small light going with his disposable lighter. He holds it up high and find that he is alone.

He takes one last nervous look all around before he bolts out to the parking lot exit.