The Spider Above My Bed
Short stories of my encounters with the paranormal and supernatural. These stories are based on real events. Enjoy :)
From a very young age, I think I was able to “feel” certain things. Physical reactions to these “energies” range from the normal goosebumps everyone had felt before, to extreme allergy swelling of my face and body. Nothing too life-threatening, but it’s been quite unpleasant each time.
Deep inside, I always felt that there are things that exist, can be experienced but couldn't be seen or explained. Till today, I still couldn’t figure out how to categorize them. Are they ghosts? Energy? Evil? No idea.
I am a Christian by faith, and in principle, if I believed in God, then spirits and demons must be real too. But I wasn’t brought up in the faith. I found God during one of those special encounters which only I experienced. But that testimony should fall in as one of the stories that I would be telling in this series.
My family lived in a humble three-room apartment on the 13th floor of the block. I lived there for a good twelve years. My relatives always told my parents not to stay on the 4th (tetraphobia), 13th(triskaidekaphobia) or 14th (tetrakaidekaphobia) levels. Back then my family members are a very superstitious bunch of people. Temples, mediums and ghost festivals are just part and parcel of what I needed to participate in every year. In the 1980s, Singapore was still a very raw melting pot of many cultures and beliefs. It still is, and we tend to do our best to follow a mix of superstitious beliefs and practices of Chinese, Malay and Indian (sometimes Western) origins.
From my earliest memory, I think everything started when my parents wanted me to sleep in my own room. I was around the age of three, going four. Basically, I was forced by my parents and was very unwilling to. Sleeping with them in their room made me feel safe. I loved the dark tiny corner where I slept, and of course, the air conditioning (Singapore can get very warm and humid at night).
On the very first night in my new room, my dad was kind enough to stay by my bedside, watching me sleep. That night, like every other night, was a normal one. There was a warm nightlight at the corner of the room. My dad thought that I might be scared of the dark when I’m alone. He switched it on and started coaxing me to sleep, patting on my leg like how he does it when I was a baby. But I was just not tired. I started to stare at the ceiling when something caught my eye.
There was a strange-looking spider in the corner of the ceiling. It was weird that I didn’t see it earlier. It wasn’t too big but I remembered the stripes and markings on it. I started to stare at it so intensely that my body stiffened, and my breathing became laboured. From my point of view, the spider seemed to be growing bigger and the stripes were starting to squiggle on their own. My dad noticed my discomfort and followed my line of vision.
“What’s wrong, son?” He asked.
“Spider. A big, scary spider.” I said.
Dad looked puzzled and asked, “Where? I don’t see anything.” ‘
I then turned to look in Dad’s direction. What I saw next were even stranger things.
The shadows behind him looked really weird. I was very sure that there was more than one shadow on those walls. In fact, I tried counting how many were there. The dark shapes were swaying slowly, real slowly, from one end of the room to another. They still stayed on the walls. I couldn’t remember what happened next, but I think I ended up crying uncontrollably. I was just a small kid then and I didn’t think I managed to explain myself very well between the sobbing and sniffing.
I remembered one thing though. I asked Dad to switch off the nightlight.
Since then, where ever I slept, I always insisted that all lights must be off. When there is no light, there will be no shadows on the walls, and no strange spiders spying on me.
All I wanted was a dark little corner to sleep in. And the light scares me.
If you like what I write, do head to my profile at www.ganknow.com/hossivart, give me a follow, or even a tip if you have a spare dollar.
(Gank is a commission-free platform for content creators)
Are you a content creator too? Here’s a referral link for you to start on Gank — https://ganknow.com/Hossivart/gRHcBy
