Who doesn't love spine-tingling tales? Do you have any stories of the supernatural to share? Write to us in 700 to 800 words (in Word or Text format). There is no payment for submissions, and we reserve the right to edit all submissions. Email lifestyle@thestar.com.my with the subject "Spooky story".
Ever since we were staying in one of the government quarters Off Jalan Peel (which has been demolished to make way for Ikea), I have feared big trees.
I was scared of the cermai tree that grew behind the wall of our courtyard. The family dining area overlooked the courtyard.
Doing homework after school at the dining table, having brunch or tea was perfectly alright... but at nightfall, studying or having dinner there was, to say the least, an anxious experience for me. I would see a lady in white perched between the branches, from a distance. She was shrouded in darkness and I couldn’t make out if she had long or short hair but surprisingly I could feel her smiling eerily at me.
When I mentioned it to Mak, she brushed it aside and treated it as an overactive imagination of a six-year-old. I brushed it aside too but I daren’t look up from my plate at dinner time.
Some years later, after coming back from my studies abroad, as newlyweds, my husband and I moved to our own place, a small near-dilapidated house in Taman Pertama, near a vast field which was lined with tall droopy weeping trees.
The house which belonged to my cousin had been left unoccupied for some time, so he was only too glad to have us move in.
I remember painting my front door blue to brighten the house.
In the nine months we stayed there, I felt the presence of a lodger whom I could not see.
The lodger exuded the most foul stench imaginable. I could sense if it was in the house. It stayed mainly at the backyard behind the toilet. I was not scared but I was not keen on having it around.
The first time I was aware of its presence, it gave me goosebumps and my hair stood on ends. There was no fear but I was panic-stricken that, after a sojourn of peace with no sightings nor encounters, it had started again.
I always wondered how the lodger looked like – I got my wish on a drizzly grey day.
After asar prayers, I took my Quran to recite. Lo, and behold! What appeared before me snatched my sanity away temporarily! I caught sight of a pair of gigantic legs astride, spanning the distance of my hall and a bit of the dining area, and the rest of him was above the house. This was no wispy Casper!
I backed away inching slowly to exit my blue front door, focusing on the pattern of my marble floor. When I looked up, he had vanished. I didn’t have time to feel scared as I was caught totally by surprise.
I taught at an international school. At one time, we had to bring the students to this lovely campsite near Port Dickson, the thematic accommodation had wigwams, wagons and rustic log cabins. The girls slept in one of the rustic houses and the teachers took turns to keep watch at night. I had the graveyard shift (1am-5am).
The night ticked away uneventfully but, as dawn approached, we teachers trudged across the field to our tents. Against the pitch black sky were myriads of wispy white beings, flying.
I asked my colleague who was looking ahead, what she saw and how she felt, hoping to get some response on the flying objects. She was oblivious to them; all she said was that she was only too glad to get back to bed. She obviously did not see them, I thought, crest-fallen. She was not aware of their presence.
That night, at prayer time my student, a young boy, came up to me and told me about a lady in white on the tree who was looking intensely at me while I was reciting prayers.
I was relieved that there was someone else who could see those beings and I was not alone.
Recently, while I was trekking along Jalan 15 and calling for my cat Wilson at 5am, I caught sight of what I thought was a crane which loomed high against the dark dawn sky.
It turned out not to be a crane but an extremely tall figure dwarfing the houses at the end of the road. In that split second, I saw him turning his head to look at me before making his way back towards the virgin jungle which lined the horizon.
The scariest truth is that this is not a spiced-up horror flick with suspense written into the script; it really happened to me. The supernatural beings made themselves visible to me! The knowledge that among the human population, I stood out like a beacon to them and kindled their interest enough for them to come into my realm is most disturbing and extremely petrifying!
