We saw You Changed My Life last week (shut up). We were early so we caught the trailers. Amongst them was this:

It’s the trailer of T2, the new horror flick of Maricel Soriano at Mika dela Cruz. Now, my friends and I love watching scary films together. We get a kick from the adrenalin rush and the accompanying (and sometimes lingering) paranoia. But if there ever was a horror film I needed to get talked into watching, this would be it.

It’s too similar to the creepiest experience I’ve had, which has been responsible for my “I do not not believe” stance regarding the paranormal. It happened when I was in high school, weeks after All Soul’s Day. I had been reading leftover scary articles. Feeling braver than usual, I scoffed at them, and thought “Yeah, right”. I was in my grandparents’ bedroom then. (I used to sleep in the divan in their room even though my sister and I had our own room.) I used the bathroom in their room before turning in. Shortly after settling in, I heard something from the empty bathroom.

Like in the trailer, someone or something was making that ‘psst’ sound. I tried to ignore it but it came incessantly and in regular intervals: “psst……psst……psst……psst”. I panicked and woke up my grandparents. They don’t hear it but I still could. I hid under their covers, my hands covering my ears. Mind you, my grandparents were already laughing at me then. I didn’t want to look stupid but I couldn’t do anything else since it still persisted. It only stopped when I started praying (scared as I was, I was also partly amused me cause things were playing out like a good ol’ Pinoy movie). I was so shaken, I wasn’t able to use that bathroom for a week.

Now, I’m aware that that could’ve been a hallucination. I mostly refer to it as such. But that it could’ve been real is not that far off since creepy noises are a staple in our house. They could be dismissed as hallucinations too, if only shared hallucinations existed. For years, we heard sounds like someone sweeping (yung parang walis tingting) in our garden…at night, every night, after the gate leading to it was already locked. A maid claimed to have seen someone sweeping. We all just learned to ignore it. It disappeared some time in the last couple of years.

There were also sounds coming from the dirty kitchen. My sister and I don’t sleep in our room (the windows of which faced the kitchen) but we sometimes stayed there until the wee hours of the morning because our computer was in there. On most nights, it sounded like someone was rummaging through the pots and pans. I mostly attributed it to the dozen or so stray cats my grandma keeps there. But when it was my sister who was using the comp, the cats always seemed bigger and more aggressive. I’d be watching tv in another room when she would come and ask me to accompany her while she shuts down the PC. She has had way weirder and creepier experiences than me. She’s one of those people who sees things. I’ll save that for November (or not).

My experience is not the only reason why I may not go see T2. I’m starting my junior internship in 2 weeks. I’m gonna be at the hospital most of the time. I think abstaining from horror movies, stories and everything else with even just a tinge of the paranormal will be good for my sanity. I’m neurotic enough as I am.

PS. Please don’t share creepy stories in your comments. Thanks. :D