Demon

One night back when I was 12, I had just come home from playing with my friends. My father had told me to go brush my teeth and go to sleep so like an obedient son, I did. At that age, I was heavy on scary movies. As a result, I scared easily. Even the slightest noise would render me sleepless. I asked my parents to keep the hall light on at night.

That night, after being asleep for what seemed like five hours, a strange noise coming from the mirror at the foot of my bed woke me up. I opened my eyes to see if something was causing the noise. I saw nothing out of the ordinary. I closed my eyes again assuming I'd only been dreaming. What happened next startled me that it was one of the memories I will never forget my entire life.

I heard the noise again. This time, I sat up. As I sat on my bed, I saw a figure in the mirror doing the same thing--sitting on my bed. However, the one reflected in the mirror wasn't me. What I saw was unbelievable. I saw a man who looked probably in his mid 40s, with reddish complexion, dark brown horns like an ox, eyes at least two times the size of a normal man's--pure yellow, with black slits down the middle from top to bottom. The only thing worse than the eyes was the smile: big teeth, each one was pointed and must have easily been an inch long.

I stared for probably close to a full minute, after which his smile got wider and bigger. At no point during the first minute did I move. I was too scared. He raised his arm and pointed at me and then he began to speak, even though I never saw his mouth move. His words to me were simple and clear, "I'm here for you now."

As soon as I heard that, I screamed for my father. I heard him coming from his room, down the hall to mine. Over the sound of my father's footsteps, I still heard the "man" in the mirror talking to me, with a deep grumbling voice. My father turned on the light in my room. I instinctively blinked to adjust my eyes to the sudden brightness and just like that, the "man" in the mirror was gone.

I'm a student now and eight years later, and I still think about the incident from time to time. Something happened a week ago that made me recall every detail of that incident. I awoke at 2:37 am to the noise of my backpack shaking violently. I sat up straight in my bed to see the same figure in my mirror again! At first I thought I was dreaming. I blinked like the first time in hopes it would go away, and it did. The backpack, however, was still shaking. I crept to the edge of my bed to check it. As soon as I looked, the shaking stopped.

I can't quite say I was visited or threatened by the devil or a demon. I am still an atheist, but what happened these nights I just can't explain. My dad still thinks I was dreaming..but I haven't told him about the most recent time I experienced it.

By Gabriel Fernandez, courtesy True Philippine Ghost Stories book 22.