Real Horror Stories of My Own Experiences (Episode 3)

School

Back to the horror stories. This time, I'm telling you about those things that happened at my school.

So, when I was in Junior High School, when I was still on the first year, our school made a camping night. Students who owned tents can use the grass yard and those who don't can sleep in the class rooms. I happened to use my class, the class room 1 - D.

 

The activity was from the evening, we play games, sports competition, outdoor dining (which we brought our own meal in box - students from the Monastery Dorm can just walk to the dorm and eat before going back to the school again), and dance to musics until late. It was done on Saturday night. 

It was already 11 PM when we were all still dancing, suddenly someone screamed and pointing to the library area, where all the chairs from the class rooms that used for sleeping were stacked at. Most of the other students also scream and stepped back, I remember being panic and run with my other friends and hug each others at the side where we feel safe at. 

I don't remember the detail because I didn't see it myself, but my friends who saw exactly what the others were screaming about told me, there was a Dutch girl, blonde, her hair braided, standing in front of the library looking at us with sadness. You might think, okay, is that all? But no, the girl wasn't just normally standing there, she was standing at where the chairs were stacked up high, where most lower part of her body stood through the chairs and half up her chest to her head is above the chairs, as if she was a hologram. She was there for about a minute and gone. Our headmaster then told all of us to gather, the music had stopped, we say a prayer and dismissed to sleep. The night wasn't smoothly passed, most of us girls struggled when we need to go to the toilet which located behind the library, to access the toilet we had to walk passed the library area and go through a narrow hall, not to mention the toilet was also huge and has so many small rooms. We had to wait until there a more than three others who wanted to go to the toilet then go there together in group, luckily our PA teachers and Art teachers were patrolling that night so we feel safe. I don't know about the boys though, their toilet located at the back of the canteen, which is the furthest from the front yard.

Talking about the toilet, it has its own story too. So, inside the toilet, there is one at the corner that is bigger in room size, the only one with bigger water tub, have toilet seat (the other has squat toilet), and used white tiles on the floor and walls. Story said there was a girl who slipped and died there, she was the marching band majorette, she went there when the practice was on break, they said it was on break for Angelus Prayer, so when she slipped there in the toilet, all the students were chanting Angelus Prayer all around the school, no one heard her fell. Her head was bleeding badly and she was too weak to scream for help. So, students had this belief that when it's Angelus Prayer, no one should go to the toilet, and if you hear closely, the marching band instruments in the storage would play faintly.

In my third year, on out free time at class, we somehow managed to get Ms. M (our History teacher) to leak some truth to us regarding the horror stories that was spread among the students for quite sometimes.

Ms. M said, you can actually see that blonde girl in front of the library roaming around the school if you have the ability to see ghosts. She was a top student in her time at the school, she was half Dutch - half Indonesian (wasn't sure about her true ethnicity), one day when she went home, she was caught in an accident just right in front of her house after she hopped off her car, it was only a week before final and she would graduate. Those who can see ghost usually saw her inside the library or inside the laboratory, but she never scare people or disturbing anyone, she would just roam in silent or sitting as if she was day dreaming. That night when she shows herself, it was probably because of the liveliness created that night was too much different than her usual peace. 

Ms. M also confirmed that the majorette story was also true. But it doesn't stop there, Ms. M told us about the mysterious 'three nuns' carved on the stone walls at the small field over the creek that separate our grass yard with the hill to the Hospital (Gunung Maria Hospital), she said the carvings were already there for a long time, no ghosts in that area, but that place will always be kept clean and sometimes flowers will be put there. Maybe it was a private grave.

But after talking about that with my grandma, she said it was not a grave. She then told me for the first time, that when she was about 6 years old, she actually lived in that Monastery with her two sisters, one was older and one was just born. They lived there before the World War 2 officially started but according to my grandma, the children there were all evacuated from their home because the issue of the war was already spread, however, when Japanese started their invasion, all the parents take their children home or away in hiding, especially those who have Dutch relations or officials, in my grandma's case, her father was a police commissioner.

Grandma said while living there, there was an annual Christmas Drama show in the Monastery for the children and they would use a real baby to be baby Jesus, three of the babies died before their second Christmas, and then there were never real baby used as baby Jesus ever again, my grandma's little sister was the third baby that died. So the location where the carvings were at, was the place where the show would be held at, so the carvings must be made to commemorate the babies that died after their show there.

I don't have the picture of the carvings because back then when I went to school there, students were not allowed to bring any gadgets, not even an alfalink was allowed. But here I'll leave some pictures of my grandma and her family, grandma's little sister, the nuns, and the children in the monastery.

(from left; Grand Uncle Rudy - Great Grand Father - Great Grand Mother (holding Grand Uncle Boy) - Grandma (the one in the front) Theresia - Grand Aunt Thelma - Grand Uncle Lexy) : this photo was taken after grandma left the monastery, this house is where Great Grand Father was task to leave as he was the Head Police in the area

(this is Grand Aunt Conny: April 4th 1939 - September 20th 1940)

Here are the picture of the children in the monastery back in that time, my grandma wasn't in both of the picture but Grand Aunt Thelma was in one of them.

Here are some of the nuns in the Monastery that was in there when grandma entered the place.

Remember the story when I saw a nun in the dorm, she was wearing an exact same robe as the nuns above were wearing. Back when I was in the dorm, our head-sister's robe was different and a bit shorter where you can see their shoes.

Up next episode: The Haunting in my House

Real Horror Stories of My Own Experiences (Episode 2)

The Dormitory

This is another events I experienced when I was in a boarding school back in 2000. I have lived in a Catholic Monastery Dorms for 6 months. I have experienced a lot of things in this dorm in that 6 months.

First I should share the schedules so that readers could get the feeling of how it was living in the boarding school. 

Now, here's the dorm areas.

Ground level of the Dormitory Area

 

At the  ground level there are 1 large living room, 3 smaller guest rooms, 1 office room for the head of the dorm, 1 huge dining room, 1 big pantry, 1 huge main bathroom, 1 smaller bathroom with toilets, 1 huge locker room, 1 broom cupboard, 2 stair case sides.

Started with the story about the creepy broom cupboard under the stairs at the side of the huge main bathroom, some students said they could heard voices from inside the cupboard. It is also located side by side with the only toilet that was locked and forbidden to open. They said that toilet was locked since the dorm was still used as nuns dorm, the myth is a nun died committed suicide in there, but the head of our dorm confirmed that was only a hoax.

Here is the upper level of the dorm

1. Huge Bedroom
2. Toilet
3. Small bedrooms (5 - 6 rooms)
4. Locker room
5. Bath toiletries storage / clothes and towels drying hangers
6. Hidden room from the past
   

 

 

 

 

Accessed only from inside the second floor locker room, there was a secret door that led us to this hidden 8 rooms that would be annually cleaner up, the rooms were for special nuns that used their time only for praying.  Inside the room was a small bed, a sink, a toilet, and a table with a chair, and a chest. When i was in that dorm, i experienced the cleaning party. I personally think it was more like a prison.

I myself never experienced things from those places, but we (as in me and my friends) once saw the head of our dorm walked down the staircases from the monastery to our dorm while talking to her side, as if there was someone walking with her side by side, but there was no one.

Some says it was a Dutch nun, and some says that head-sister was actually talking in Dutch. It could be true because the one who said that knows Dutch since her father is a Dutch. But it could also be a lie because we (the others) don't know the language at all. 

What I experienced myself was when I saw a very pale nun walking through inside our room from the main door, passing my bed, through the door to the locker room. The thing is that door to the locker room is closed and locked since it was blocked with lockers. At first I thought it was our head-sister,thought it was only my hallucination because I was between wake up and falling asleep, but then the real head-sister came in and walk through the whole bedroom while knocking soft sticks around, chanting Hail Mary prayer.

About two weeks after that, our dorm make a renovation at the Toilet (#2 on picture above) that was closed with permanent wall on its door for so many years. There was a story around about the history of the toilet. They said a nun died in there when she was sick, she died there after coughing blood and the blood stained the walls, couldn't be cleaned. So the renovation started, and just a day after the wall demolished, one of our senior that had her bed next to the toilet door fell sick. Another story came out, she said she had a dream where she saw a nun died in that toilet from aborting her baby, and that the fetus and her blood was drained in that toilet, which is why she haunts that toilet. One Saturday night when most of us were either dancing or watching TV downstairs, some students who were taking care of this senior ran downstairs, screaming, asking help from us and some ran to the monastery to get our head-sister. They said, this sick senior was sleeping when she suddenly got up and speaks gibberish, pointing at the door with wide eyed, they tried to pull her away from the toilet (the renovation hasn't finished yet), but this senior seems to be so strong no one can pull her away. She keeps banging on the toilet door that was locked.

When the head-sister came with some other nuns from the monastery, we were all told to go to the dining room and stay there until dismissed. Some seniors were told to guard us and one nun came with us to make sure we were in order. It was Saturday night, we were supposed to have fun, but instead we were told to sit in the dining room, praying Novena. I couldn't remember the time, but it took long until our head-sister came in and told us that everything will be okay from now on, we were also told to keep the toilet clean and not smelly when the we use it in the future.

Horror stories about our dorm spreads out, some got seriously scared, I was scared, but the reason why I only lived there for 6 months before moving to another dorm outside the school complex was not because of this scary experiences. It was because we could only go home once a month, every first weekend. Any kind of comic books and novels were forbidden, no gadgets are allowed to bring in. Means, no fun unless it is watching TV or listening to music and dancing on Saturday night. I couldn't adapt to it, i grew up reading encyclopedia books and comics, I spent time listening to radio or cassette tape, and I always gets ranked high in school (elementary).

After I moved in to another dorm outside the Monastery area, I could bring my handphone and spoke with mom every day, I can read books / comics when I don't feel like taking a nap, I can listen to my favorite music while studying, and my studying went well. I even ranked #1 in class. Meaning, you can't control your children, you should let them learn and study the way they feel most comfortable, even if they don't ranked as best students, you should never tell them how to live their life.

Real Horror Stories of My Own Experiences (Episode 1)

The Beginning

This probably wasn't the first experience, but this is the furthest back I could remember. It was when our family just moved to Bogor, West Java, in 1995. I was only 6 years old, I shared bedroom with my 9 years old brother. The house we moved in to was rented for a small company before we take it over, the building belonged to my father's brother in law, it only have one level but was really big.

My brother and I used bedroom 2, only across our parents' bedroom. It was late at night, we were just trying to sleep, then I heard a female's voice calling softly but clearly, from the window, calling my brother's name, in repeating manner. I cried and peeking on my brother on his bed at the other side of the room, he was staring at me in horror. He suddenly got up and pulled me off the bed and we ran to our parent's room. When we cried and told them about what we heard, our mom said it was actually her and she was calling us to sleep with them. Well, it was a lie, we would know if it was her, we know our own mother's voice, but we got through the night by pretending that nothing happened. The truth was told to us when we moved back to Manado, North Sulawesi, in 1997. 

It is not a surprise for the place to be haunted, it was abandoned for some years before a company rented it, then it was left empty for about 5 months before we moved in. 

Not only that, across the street was a traditional market that only active in the morning, and there was also train rail there. Place like that here in the land of Java, means places for the ghosts.

We once hired a worker to help out mom cleaning up our house, she refused using the guest room at the very back of the building and prefer to sleep at the TV room using a type of futon. One night, she said she saw a middle-aged couple standing side by side on the opened front door, they were standing there for about an hour, she watched them in silence and just pretended to sleep, she thought it was mom and dad, so she won't disturb them. She was surprised and confused when she heard dad coughing from the bedroom, when she look back at the couple they were gone, she got up immediately, say a prayer from the door before locking it twice, and then went back to sleep. She couldn't sleep actually, she waits till morning and then tell my mom and dad, when my brother and I back from school, she had already left, resigned.

My aunt once came from Manado and stayed with us in this house for about a month, she used the guest room at the very back of the building, she said she saw some ghost appearances, but she wasn't really care. She's not scared at all, she used at haunted apartments before so ghost don't scare her anymore.

One of my uncles once stayed over and sleep at the TV area, he saw a man walking back and forth from the living room to the kitchen all night making him unable to sleep.

The house is now sold to other people and the building has been demolished.That house back then in Bogor was really haunted, a lot of things happened there when we lived there. But nothing was really serious, i think we were just living alongside with another beings there. But it was all just the beginning.