Here we are in the month of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins! October! The month when most of us, especially the children, want to scare and be scared. And, what’s the best way to scare and be afraid but to tell a story or two about the supernatural beings and paranormal activities around us.
I grew up in the Philippines, where there are many stories about ghosts, creatures, and monsters. As I was growing up, I heard many of them that were supposed to be “real,” “true to life” experiences of a friend, a relative, a friend’s friend, a distant relative of a friend’s friend’s relative. You know, the experience of someone else other than yourself.
Here are five (5) ghost stories that I heard, knew, and even believed at a certain point in my life. It is not to say that these stories are true (or made up or unreal), but one has to accept it or take it with a grain of salt.
White Lady of Balete Drive
Balete Drive is one of the most famous streets in the Philippines. The road is a two-lane undivided road and is a major thoroughfare of many vehicles in one of the largest cities in Manila. The road is also lined with Balete Trees, which are huge trees and are believed to be homes to different scary creatures, ghosts, and terrifying entities.
This story is the version I heard. (There are many versions of this story as you can imagine).
One late night, a beautiful young woman was in a taxicab, going home to her parents’ house. To reach her parent’s house, she will have to pass through the main street, Balete Drive. As they were traveling through Balete Drive, the taxicab driver noticed how beautiful she was and was so enamored with her. He stopped the cab in a dark area of the street and forced her out of the cab. He then raped and killed her. The driver buried her body behind one of the Balete Trees.
Soon after the killing, it was said that a moaning woman could be heard during the night. And, when taxicabs pass through Balete Drive, a white lady appears in the middle of the street. Taxi drivers who see her stop their vehicles to avoid hitting her. But, she disappears right before their eyes. Just as soon as the lady disappears from the street, drivers find the white lady at the back of their taxicab. Then, POOF!!! She disappears again. The belief is that the white lady is looking or waiting for the driver who raped and killed her to possibly scare him to death.
The Balete Drive Tragedy
Another story of the Balete Drive was about a couple whose car broke down late at night. The man went out of the vehicle and told the woman to stay inside the car while he tried to fix it. The man opened the car’s hood and looked inside the engine. The woman’s view of the front of the car was blocked by the opened hood. So, she could not see what was happening with her partner while fixing the car.
Suddenly, the hood came down. Instead of seeing her partner, the woman saw a disheveled man, with scars all over his body, wearing dirty and torn clothes with blood all over, looking like a zombie. The disheveled man was holding a chain and was dragging something at the end of it. The woman screamed and looked around for her partner but could not find him. She locked all the doors of the car, and screamed for help.
She was so frightened by this man as the man came closer and closer to the passenger side. When the man reached the door, he raised the chain and showed her the head of her partner. The woman screamed and yelled at the top of her lungs, but she was so sure that the man won’t be able to get to her because she locked all the doors of the car (this story was in the ‘80s, so vehicles were opened only by putting the key on the keyhole). But then, the disheveled man raised his other hand and in his hands, was the key to the car.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!! What do you think happened next?
The Gushing Water from the Upstairs Room
This story is a story my family and I experienced ourselves.
It was the 9th day of my female cousin’s death, and we had a novena prayer for her. We were all gathered in the family room at the bottom of the stairs. My cousin’s room was on the second floor. She had a bathroom inside her room. While we were all gathered in the family room and about to pray, a gush of water came running down the stairs from the second floor. And just as it suddenly started, it also suddenly stopped. We all thought that there was a broken pipe. My other cousins went up to the second floor to check if there was anyone upstairs or if there was indeed a broken pipe but did not find either. The only explanation that our elders could think of was that it was probably my dead cousin just saying hello to all of us. Hmmmm….S-C-A-R-Y!
The Voice from Beyond
I am not sure if this one is true, but I heard it anyway. This one is about the same deceased cousin from the previous story.
It was one stormy night, some weeks after my cousin died, my aunt was feeling depressed. Her 19- year-old daughter just passed, and she was feeling so bad and guilty for not spending more time with her when she was alive. The guilt was killing her. Then, the phone rang. My aunt answered the phone (again, this was in the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, so we used a rotary phone, and since it was a stormy night, the phone lines could be full of static). She answered, “Hello?” No answer. The line was static. “Hello?” Again, no response. Then, with static in the background, she heard a faint female’s voice, saying, “Ma?” My aunt was stunned. She only had one daughter, and she just passed away. “Ma? I love you.” And, the line went dead.
How’s that for reminding you that you are loved by your child? A DEAD CHILD!
The Woman in the Picture
A beautiful young woman hailed a taxicab. The taxicab driver stopped for her. When the woman got inside the cab, she gave the driver a piece of paper where an address was written. The driver assumed that this was where she wanted to be taken, so he drove off to the location. The woman did not speak. She was quiet during the whole ride and only looked outside the window.
They arrived at the address, and the woman went down without saying a word and went inside the house. The driver assumed that she went to get money to pay him, so he waited. Five minutes, ten minutes, the woman has not returned. Fifteen minutes later, the driver went down and knocked on the door. An older woman answered the door. The driver told her about his passenger and that she has not come out to pay him.
The older woman was not too surprised with what the driver told her. He asked him how the woman looked. He described her in detail. As he was describing her, the older woman just nodded her head. She then asked the driver to go inside the house with her. As he entered the house, he saw a picture of a beautiful young woman hanging on the wall. He then told the older woman that the young lady in the photo was his passenger. She then smiled and said, “that is my daughter.” She added, “she always came home in a taxicab after a day’s work. But, a week ago, she got into a terrible accident in a taxicab, and she died. Ever since that time, she has been seen coming out of a taxicab, entering the house. Today, she has come home. With you in your taxicab.”
Then, the older woman paid the taxicab driver.
Are Ghosts Real?
Ghosts. Real? Made-up? Or, a figment of our imagination? I don’t know. All I know is that we all have a story to tell. A story that impacted us one way or the other. A story that will be with us and shall be handed down from one generation to the other; from one Halloween night to another.
“We need ghost stories because we, in fact, are the ghosts.” ~ Stephen King
