I guess it's safe to say that most people in our country, the Filipinos, are firm believers in myths, proverbs, sayings, and all things supernatural. It's part of our culture. But I have never been one with them. I never believe in anything I don't see — whether it be supernatural or religious or anything. Seeing is believing.
Yet, I somehow had second thoughts when I encountered something and have seen them with my own eyes.
When I was a sophomore in high school, me and my friends were going to a practice during the weekend for a school dance. All of us were at our meeting place at our agreed time. Except for one of my friends — and for censor purposes, I'm just going to call him Ethan.
After half an hour, we decided to go pick Ethan up at his house. We didn't want to — in fact, we were pissed at him by then for making us wait — but the dance wouldn't work with one person down.
We got up to the street to where he lives. We haven't made it all the way to his house when we already saw him hanging by the nearby lamp post. We stormed to him and we're all like, "What the hell, Ethan? What are you standing there for?" He didn't say anything and just let us finish ranting. He didn't defend himself or anything. He just let us yell at him. After, he said nothing. So we turned around and started walking away. After a few steps, we realized he wasn't coming with us.
"What is up with you today, man?" one of my guy friend's said exasperatedly as he grabbed his wrist and made him walk with us. He obliged without any words and then we were off.
The whole walk back to the place, Ethan was quiet. He stood and walked in the middle of us with a neutral face and not saying a word. None of us minded since, as said, we were still pissed at him. We didn't notice anything peculiar.
The moment we arrived, he immediately went out somewhere in the corridor. We all thought he was just going to go to the bathroom — he wasn't speaking to any us so we let him be. We thought it was pretty hypocrite of him to be mad at us for yelling at him when it was his fault in the first place.
Yet, as seconds and minutes turned into a whole hour of him not returning, we had it. The boys from our group said they'd look around the building for him. Us girls agreed and we waited at the hall room.
After a few minutes, my phone went on, indicating a message. I fished it out my pocket and my whole body froze at what I read. Written there was a text message from Ethan's number saying:
Guys, I'm really sorry I can't make it. My mom grounded me. I tried to sneak out but I couldn't outsmart her. Now I got double grounded. I guess you're going to have to replace me.
In that exact moment, the boys came back to the hall and said they checked everywhere but found no signs of Ethan. Still in shock, with my throat dry, and my whole body cold, I made everyone read the message.
Everyone were in the same state as I was. Yet, with every not logical moment, there will always be a sort of doubt that we might not be thinking rationally. We thought he might just be playing a prank on us.
So, to be sure, we went back to his house. And that second time, we made sure to reach exactly his house, not just down the street. We rang the doorbell and when his mom answered and saw it was us, her face immediately scrunched with annoyance, "Ethan is not allowed to go outside."
Ethan popped behind his mom, wearing nothing like the clothes we saw him wearing earlier, with an embarrassed face as he mouthed, "Sorry."
It was as if everything stopped. We wanted to think that his mom was on this prank or something. But judging her very serious face, we knew it was no joke.
We then explained what just happened to us earlier that day in fright. Ethan's mom's face softened and was replaced with what I could tell as fear. She made us go inside to tell the story more detailed.
We found out the Ethan never stepped one foot out the house that day. He stayed in the house cleaning with his mom. But we knew who we saw, we knew who we were with, it was Ethan. And as the thought came back to my mind, a trail of chills rushed through me. If it wasn't Ethan we were with earlier, who was?
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