The Unknown Woman

by Franccesca Salgado
(Philippines, Laguna)

When we were kids, we often heard stories from relatives and maids about people walking, talking or playing on the staircase. Well, as a kid, I would naturally want to experience things like those, so we would often do fake spirit communications.

Now that we are a little bit older, our house got renovated. Now it has 3 floors; ground floor, 2nd floor and the attic. My siblings and I wouldn't dare go there without anyone with us.

Since I turned 12, I couldn't go to sleep early anymore. That's where it gets scarier. Every night, when we are getting ready to sleep, my brother would often go to our room to sleep there. When we are already in bed, we would often hear big brother slamming the door of their room. And in the morning we would always ask him why he slams the door.

As usual he would answer "WHAT? WHY WOULD I CLOSE IT WHEN IT'S SO HOT?", so we gave up on him.

At night, when my brother wasn't asleep, we would often talk. That's when big brother's door kept slamming that we got irritated and went to see for ourselves. To our surprise, there wasn't a door opened! My brother and I quickly ran inside again and pulled the blanket over us. Then we heard someone. It was like she was walking above us or walking in the attic. Then she would roll a heavy thing on the ground, something like a barbell.

And when my mother would ask us to open their room, I would often catch a glimpse of a woman coming down the stairs. And big brother would often say that there was a woman climbing the stairs up until the attic.