Don't look in the Mirror

A few nights had passed since the medicated oil incident. Nothing unusual happened since and I was still sleeping in that room alone.

Until one rainy night...

A storm had just started. Everyone in the family was asleep except for my mom who got up to close all the windows in the house. I helped her to close the windows in the hall while she did the ones upstairs and in the other rooms. After which she went back to bed while I headed up the stairs to curl up in bed with a good book.

I was upstairs alone in the attic room feeling rather cosy while it was pouring cats and dogs outside. I was well engrossed in my book until I heard some tapping noises that came from the roof. It sounded like someone was walking on the roof.

The logical part of me deduced that it was probably a stray cat or a wild monkey (yes, we have lots of those here cuz behind us is forrestation). But why would an animal be walking about on my roof in a thunderstorm like that? Ignoring it, I went back to my book but couldn't really concentrate on it after that.

Like any thunderstorm, this one too had lots of lightning and thunder. Being one who's always been intrigued by nature's powerful forces, I put down my book and went to the window to watch the beautiful zig-zags of lightning across the black sky.

I was standing there for about 5 minutes when suddenly my dogs started howling in unison. But I didn't think it was unusual because my dogs howled all the time. Nothing new there. But 3 seconds later, the entire neighbourhood's dogs started howling as well! Normally, they wouldn't do that even if my dogs did. But then I thought that maybe it was just the thunderstorm that was making them all restless.

The next minute I heard footsteps running up the stairs and then the opposite room door (my sister's room, also up in the attic) slamming. You see, our attic is very large and the previous owner of this house divided that large attic space into two bedrooms, one facing the front of the house, and the other facing the back. The doors of these two rooms were just opposite each other. However, these two rooms are hardly occupied by my siblings because they'd usually sleep in my parents' bedroom downstairs for convenience and also to save on air-con electricity. It might seem a lil' weird to you but that's the way it works so don't ask. ;-P I don't use air-con much.

So I thought that maybe my maid didn't know that my mom had already closed the windows so she'd probably gotten up to close them. Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to go out to investigate. But when I opened my door, my sister's room door (which was facing me) was wide opened! I was puzzled. But I didn't think anything was out of the ordinary cuz maybe I'd heard wrongly... But somehow...

Anyway, curiosity again got the better of me so I went into my sister's room to investigate.

There was no one there. Nothing seemed out of place. The windows were closed. But I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was in the room a few seconds ago... Anyway, I left and closed the door behind me. I thought that since I was already out, why not go downstairs to check and see if anyone was still awake and might have indeed gone upstairs.

So first, I went to my parents' room. Both my parents and my sis were fast asleep. My other brother was sleeping in his room (also downstairs) and Bro#2 was out at his friend's.

Next, I went to check on my maid. She was fast asleep too. The dogs had stopped howling a while ago. So I went back up to my brother's room to get some sleep as it was getting to be rather late.

I went into the room and closed the door behind me. Now my brother's room door is not your typical solid wooden door-type. It's the PVC folding type that you might normally use in your bathrooms.

So I went inside, closed the door, and for some unknown reason decided to go stand in front of the window instead of going back to bed.

I stood in front of the window and stared outside. It was still raining heavily but the rain was starting to slow down a lil'.

It was then that I heard it again. Footsteps. Coming up the stairs. Only this time, they weren't hurried. Just a normal walking pace, climbing up the wooden staircase. They seemed to be reaching the top of the staircase. Then they stopped.

Suddenly, I heard the drawling noise of my door opening very slowly. Then the same footsteps continued. They moved very slowly, causing the floorboards to creak each time they stepped over it. The atmosphere had become unnatural. I couldn't hear the rain anymore. Nor were there any other noises. Except for the footsteps and creaking wooden floorboards, which magnified with each step.

I was paralysed with fear. I couldn't move a muscle! I just stood there, not daring to turn around, knowing that there was a very sinister presence in the room. And just when I felt the floorboard behind me creak, the footsteps stopped. I did not dare to look at the window in front of me for fear of what I would see in its reflection. I knew I would surely see something. So I stared at the window sill below me instead.

Suddenly, an icy breeze blew at the back of my neck! All my hair stood on end. I closed my eyes tightly, praying like I'd never prayed before.

I didn't know how long I stood there with my eyes shut tight. It may have been a short while. But it sure felt like eternity! But when I opened my eyes again, the atmosphere was back to normal. I could hear the rain. There were no more footsteps or creaking noises. I instinctively knew that whatever it was that was behind me was gone. Sure enough, when I turned around, there was nothing.

Immediately, I went back to bed with the covers pulled tight over me. Still shaken by the ordeal, I had a very uneasy sleep that night.

Since then, I have never slept in that room alone again.

Except for once, when I fell asleep whilst watching TV upstairs...

But nothing happened.

* * *

-Liz, Singapore

Strange things happened in my house during a period of time. This was one of them...

I'm very used to sleeping alone in my brother's room, which is up in the attic - and that he seldom uses or sleeps in.

One time, my brother's friends (a group of young teens) together with their instructor, Alex*, came over to spend the night. I used to hang out with them pretty often at the time even though they were mostly younger than me, save for Alex. So that night we all slept upstairs in my brother's attic room on some spare guest mattresses.

Around 3am, Alex was awoken by the strong distinct smell of medicated oil (the type that's only used by Malay people). The next day, he told us what happened and asked if any of us smelt anything that night. No one did. And I said that no one in my family uses that type of medicated oil, much less in my brother's room. Jokingly, I asked if he was dreaming. But he insisted that he did smell medicated oil in the middle of the night.

Now Alex was unusual in the sense that he has had many experiences and encounters with the paranormal kind.

So later in the afternoon they all got ready to leave for some outing (including my brother) and I went to see them out the door. At the front gate, Alex paused and looked up at the window of my brother's attic room. I noticed and was curious so I asked what he was looking at.

He pulled me aside - away from the others as he didn't wanna scare them since they were only kids - and told me that for a second or two, he saw a lady with long hair at the attic room window upstairs.

Something was wrong with that picture.

Because at that time, there was only my mom, my maid, and my mom's good friend who used to work with her before. Dad was out at work and my sis wasn't home too. There was no one upstairs. Mom was chatting with her friend in the study. My maid was out in the backyard preparing lunch. All 3 women in the house had short hair. The only one with long hair was myself.

Alex also said that there's something weird going on in that room and cautioned me to never sleep in it alone.

After they'd left, I stood at my gate pondering at what Alex had just told me. Then I looked up at the window and gazed at it for awhile. I didn't see anyone or anything unusual but a momentary feeling of unease came over me. Shortly after, I broke out of my stupor and headed back into the house.

While I went about my day's activities, I began to forget about what had happened the night before and earlier in the afternoon.

That night, after feeling sleepy, I went up to my brother's room to sleep as usual. I'd fallen asleep almost immediately after my head hit the pillow as I was so tired.

Later, I was awoken at around 3am by a strange smell. It was the smell of medicated oil. But I'd never smelt that type of medicated oil before. I didn't think much of it at the time since I was really tired so I just went back to sleep.

First thing in the morning when I woke up, I remembered the smell from the night before. But it had already been gone. I sat there for awhile, wondering where it came from, and if it was the same smell as the one Alex got from the other night.

To be continued...

* * *

*Not his real name.

-Liz, Singapore

During our recent trip up to Genting Highlands in Malaysia, we took alot of photos. One of the photos we took at a particularly dark spot in the early morning around 5ish turned out weird.

It was taken at the same exact spot. Same location too. The first one appeared normal but I can't say the same for the second...

See for yourselves. The only alteration done to the second photo was the addition of the black mask to protect the person's identity.

Here's the first photo:




Here's the second:



Notice the weird white light zig-zagging its way up from the bottom. I have no idea how it got there...

-Liz, Singapore

When I was in Kuching (Sarawak), my mom rented a house and the lady who rented it to us assured us that it was ok and there was nothing majorly wrong with it.

The house seemed fine when we moved in for the first time but we wondered why the neighbours acted strange when we asked them about the place. It was as if they were trying to evade our questions ('Ahh it's nothing.')

So for the first few nights, nothing much happened. Everything was normal until...

That frightful night.

* * *
My brother was downstairs watching TV and me and my mom were sleeping on the floor in the bedroom (there were no beds yet) when my mom happened to awaken and spot my brother standing outside the door.

He was wearing a red shirt but the peculiar thing was that the last time we saw him before going off to bed, he was wearing a white shirt...

She called out, 'Gerald is that you?'

No answer. But "he" started walking into our bedroom.

Still thinking that it was my brother, she called out his name and said, 'Don't frighten me lar!'.

Still no answer.

I was, however, awaken by the commotion and groggily mumbled, 'Shhh... I wanna sleep...'

She then told me to look at the figure and asked me if it was my brother.

So I looked.

Somehow, the image of the red-clad figure standing there looked a little blurred to me and I couldn't really make out if it was my brother.

Just then we both saw him walk out the room...through the wall.

Instantly, my mom shouted for my brother and he came running upstairs, still wearing the same white shirt we had seen him wearing before we turned in.

My mom then ordered him to turn off the TV and switch on all the lights in the house.

Instinctively, my brother realised what was going on and obediently did what he was told and then went straight to sleep.

The next day, we asked the neighbours what was going on with that house. Finally, they gave in and told us that the owner of the house died before the construction of the house had been completed.

And the wife of the owner had been renting the house out ever since.

On that day itself, after hearing the story, we moved out immediately.

* * *
-Gabriel, Singapore

I like cemeteries. For some reason, the atmosphere's oddly serene whenever I'm there. It's quiet, peaceful and the air's fresh. Especially during the middle of the night. I used to enjoy taking long late-night walks there. Or have a friend drive me through with the car windows wound down to let in the cool night breeze...

Not anymore.

One incident changed it all.

* * *
It was around 3.30am and we were still reluctant to go home after a heavy supper. Feeling adventurous, I suggested we take a drive through one of the local cemeteries. Cindy*, also the adventurous type, was all for the idea.

Nigel*, who was most reluctant at first, finally agreed to drive us.

So we set off and soon reached the entrance of the cemetery where Nigel paused in hesitation. We managed to coax him into continuing. And so he did.

We drove deep into the heart of the cemetery for about 20 minutes. The whole time, Nigel was nervously asking when we could leave.

"Wait lah! We're not even halfway through...", I replied in our infamous Singlish lingo. Cindy, who sat at the backseat, agreed nonchalantly.

Nigel had no choice but to go on.

After about another 10 minutes, he asked again if we were ready to leave.

"Aiyah, ok lah ok lah! You no fun one...", Cindy exclaimed. I giggled in the front seat at Nigel's nervous and slightly scared form.

And so we began our journey out of the cemetery. We passed by a few bus-stops. At the third or fourth one, I spotted a lady standing at the edge of the road. She seemed to be waiting for a ride.

I didn't think it was unusual at the time because people do go there at odd times of the day or night to pay their deceased loved ones a visit. Also, she wasn't wearing a long white dress like your typical female ghost. Hers was a normal-looking floral-printed dress.

So I jokingly nudged Nigel and said, "Hey, why don't you give the poor lady a ride? It's so late already and there's hardly any cab here."

Nigel looked at me, his face pale as a sheet. "W-w-what l-lady?", he stammered.

"Noh...that lady standing there waiting for a cab lah.", I replied, pointing at her standing on my side of the road while we drove past. "Cindy, you also saw her, right?", I asked again innocently.

Now try to visualise this: I was pointing at the lady the entire time we drove right past her and I actually had to turn my head too in order to follow her stationary form by the roadside while Nigel and Cindy both followed my pointing direction.

Cindy, in the backseat, replied, "Where got lady?? Nobody there what..." I glanced behind and saw that she wasn't joking when she said that.

Nigel was now wiping the sweat off his brow as he once again stammered the same question, trying to keep his hands steady on the steering-wheel.

I realised then that something was not right. Through the rear-view mirror, I caught a glimpse of Cindy looking a little spooked.

Seeing the terrified look on Nigel's face, I attemped to change the eerie atmosphere by saying that I was only joking.

They both didn't answer.

10 minutes later, we were nearing the exit of the cemetery -- which was already a reasonable distance from where we were 10 minutes ago -- when we passed by another bus-stop.

Imagine my fright when I saw, once more, that same lady in the same floral dress, standing at the same side of the road waiting for a cab.

As we drove past her once more, I froze in my seat and forced my gaze forward.

This time, I didn't mention anything to either of them.

* * *

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

-Liz, Singapore

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I'm with the Police force. In this line, we experience a lot of weird things. The story I'm about to tell is one of them.

Late one night I was out patrolling with my buddy near a cemetery. I can't exactly remember the time but it is safe to say that it was sometime between 2 to 4am.

I was the one driving. My buddy, D, as usual, was being his chatty self. Which helps because you do tend to get washed out at this time of night and desperately need someone to keep you awake.

We were nearing a bus-stop when my buddy spotted an old Chinese man sitting alone there. He seemed kind of lost.

We didn't think it was unusual then. Anyway, lots of elderly folks tend to have dementia and end up lost on the streets. Maybe this old man was one of those folks.

So D got off and went up to him while I waited in the car. He asked him why he was there at this time of night. The old man replied that he was waiting for the bus. Then D explained that there wasn't any bus service at this time and that he had to get a cab if he wanted to go anywhere. The old man merely nodded at him but continued to wait for a bus.

D then asked him for his IC, which he produced. D took one look at it and ran like crazy back to the car.

I was puzzled and was about to ask D what happened when D yelled at me to "just drive on! FAST!!"

D looked like he had just been to hell and back. I didn't probe about what happened. We drove in silence for the rest of the time as we continued our patrolling at other places.

By the time we went back to the station, it was nearing day-break. It was only after 2 cups of coffee did D finally calm down enough to tell me what happened.

Turns out that the old man's IC had a hole punched through it. Living peoples' ICs do not have holes punched in them. Only that which belongs to the deceased does.

-Lee, Singapore

This incident happened when I was in Secondary school.

* * *
Exams had just ended. We were waiting for the school holidays to begin. The teachers, like us, were also in the holiday mood. So they let us do whatever we wanted in class, except make too much noise or kill anybody.

One of my classmates introduced us to the Pen-Spirit game, or Bi Xian in Mandarin. It works almost the same way as the Ouija board or Coin-Spirit game, only there's no board.

Instead, there's a piece of paper on which we write the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 to 10, and the words 'Yes' and 'No'. It basically looks something like this:



Or, you could just use a blank piece of paper and let the spirit decide what it wants to write.

It's played by only two people. The two people hold a pen or pencil like this:



Then one of the two will 'invite' the spirit to enter the pen. Then you start asking questions.

The twist about this game, however, is that no one actually knows WHO is really controlling the pen. In other words, it is possible to fake the whole thing.

So we played it in class (me and another girl) on a piece of blank paper. For some reason it didn't work. Someone suggested it was too bright and that we needed to go somewhere darker for it to be more effective. Also, the teacher realised what we were doing and stopped us.

So during recess, we went upstairs to the school hall viewing gallery to try it out again. The viewing gallery is the most deserted place in the school since no one really ever goes there. It also gets pretty dark since there are no openings to allow any light in. It's supposedly off-limits to students and the doors are always closed and locked.

But when we went up there, we found the door opened. It was strange but we didn't think much of it at the time because we just wanted to continue with our game.

So we chose a dark corner right at the far end of the gallery, away from the exit so no teacher would suspect there was anyone in there.

There were 4 of us. Two played, and two watched. We used blank paper again. This time, I just watched. My friends, S and A, played. S 'invited' the spirit out. We waited for like 10 minutes. It was getting dreadfully warm and stuffy for the lack of ventilation.

Nothing happened. The other girl who was watching, L, was starting to get hot and bothered. But we kept silent the entire time, watching...waiting...

Suddenly, A gave a small 'yelp' in excitement. The pen was moving. We got all curious as it started to scribble something on the paper. At first, we could only make out some rubbish doodling. L and I thought they were bluffing but they both swore they weren't controlling the pen at all.

All of a sudden, Chinese words were slowly being scribbled out on the paper. Not clear, but legible enough to read. They looked like this:



We all watched in amazement as the pen continued scribbling. Halfway through, I happened to glance at L. I was shocked. She had turned pale and was shaking, her eyes wide as she stared at the words that were still being written.

I nudged her and asked if she was alright. She just continued staring. I even tried to calm her down by telling her that S and A were only bluffing and it was a joke.

What she said next brought chills to our spines. She told us that she had never believed in any of this before, and that she thought the whole thing was a joke and a waste of time. So in her mind, she was actually cussing at the 'thing' or 'spirit' or whatever.

We all freaked and ran out of the gallery as fast as we could, leaving behind pen and paper. We never looked back.

The words on the paper read 'Ma Wo' in Mandarin. It literally means 'Scolding Me'.

I don't know if there were any strange things that happened afterwards to the two girls who played because they weren't supposed to let go of the pen without the spirit leaving it first.

-Liz, Singapore

I took this picture of Sisterbabe at the hotel we stayed at in Malaysia.

After I uploaded it on the computer, this is what we saw:



-Liz, Singapore

It was late one night and I was driving home. It was dark on the road and fog had just started to set in. I turned onto the road that I live on and I checked my rear view mirror as I always do when I make a turn. In the distance I saw a creature like a wolf. Running and jumping up from the fog that settled near the road. As I continued to drive the creature started to gain on me. I sped up and the creature kept coming jumping over the fog to let me know he was there. I thought this dog is crazy. Then I saw it was no dog. I was going as fast as I could. Then just when I thought the creature was going to get to the back of the car it disappeared. When I pulled into the driveway. My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I finally got calmed down and was going to try and go inside. I looked in the rear view mirror again and this time a set of wolf ears rose from my back seat, in the darkness I saw the outline of a werewolf’s face. I quickly swung the door open and ran inside. Hours passed and I hid under my kitchen table. When morning came I went outside finally and saw the car door was still open. In the back seat, strange hair and scratch marks. Strange day indeed. I never told that story before to anyone else.

-Zipline, USA