Halloween Special: 1st of 2 parts
SUMMER break was about to come yet there were still a number of students who stayed in the dormitory. It was already the last week of May.
The students who were staying inside the campus to take the summer classes were given a designated room by the dormitory's manager and I was assigned to stay alone in a big room at the back portion of the dormitory.
The dormitory was an old 2-storey building and is divided into 3 areas: the left wing, right wing, and the back.
The room I was occupying was huge to the point where you can practically put 20 students there together by fitting 10 double-deck beds yet it still has a vast space for a huge study table at the center and a number of closets at the corner.
It was on the third night after I arrived at the university when I had the unforgettable and frightening experience.
I was pretty much convinced that the experience was not just a product of my imagination as a result of fatigue after taking up the long trip from my hometown to the university since I was fully rested for two days.
While lying on the bed inside my room, I drifted off into a sleep. Then I had an unforgettable nightmare. It felt so real, that I can still describe the old man I saw in my nightmare, 16 years even after I left that dormitory.
Now that I am already working, the experience still haunts me.
I can still vividly recall an old man with a long, white hair who appeared in my nightmare. His face was very close to mine when he threatened to kill me in my sleep.
I can still remember the old man’s two sharp eyes which can be likened to a cat's when flashed with lights. His eyes were gray but the pupils were darker and sharper that looked more like two fangs rather than eyes. He wore a dirty white buttoned t-shirt paired with dirty denim pants covered with mud like he had returned from plowing a rice farm.
The old man flashed his sinister smile at me and as fear had already crept into my senses, I could only say the Lord's Prayer.
"Our Father who art in Heaven..." I began reciting but as I went on saying the rest of the words, he only mimicked my prayer. I was taken aback when I realized that he seemed to be very adept in reciting the prayer.
Amid the panic and suffocating fear, I found courage in the thought that if God is the God of all then He must also be the God of evil-which means He has power over the evil forces.
But of course, the evil ones are there to challenge and mock God. They don't respect God at all. If God is the God of the evil ones then they must also be familiar with the Lord’s Prayer.
In fact, the old man only teased me after mimicking my prayer by saying, "See, I know your prayer!"
I turned my eyes to my right side and although I was asleep, I could still feel and see my surroundings at that time. I caught a glimpse of Mother Mary’s photo which was posted on that side of the wall. The old man followed my gazed. Suddenly, the picture of Mother Mary transformed and I saw her lips curled into a smile that revealed a set of sharp teeth.
I realized then that it was not Mother Mary anymore! It was the old man distorting her image! He mocked my faith and I heard him say, "I can be them!" as he bared that sinister smile, showing his pointed teeth.
Then I remembered a boom I once read where a monk said that "anybody can imitate Jesus Christ's image. Anybody can imitate His works of miracles, even making the dead come back to life. But nobody can imitate His love for us."
Right there and then, I imagined Jesus on the Cross on mount Calvary and His love for us all.
Right at that moment, I saw the old man's face slowly fading away in every thought of God’s love that I conceived in my mind and heart. As he vanished, I saw the anger registered on his face because I defeated his purpose of killing me.
I saw his mouth move like he was uttering something to me but my imagination of Jesus dying on the cross was stronger and more vivid than that of the old man’s. That was probably the reason why I could not read what his lips were trying to say. When I woke up, I thought he was already gone.
But boy was I wrong!
Two years after that incident, one of the residents at the back portion of the dormitory screamed one night which roused almost everyone in the dormitory. She was screaming hysterically like she was mad. She said that she saw an old man with a long white hair and sharp teeth at the window of the same room where I saw Mr. Nightmare.
I realized then that he has come back, perhaps, to take revenge...
Who wants to sleep alone in Room 302?
(This is based on the true experience of the writer, Cristina E. Alivio, when she was still a student of a certain university in the Philippines.)