My ‘Out-of-this-World’ Experience No. 6

Have you ever had experience a phenomenon that cannot be explained no matter how you tried to understand it?  Are you familiar with the phrase ‘beyond one’s imagination or understanding’?  If you have this some sort of experience that makes you feel that hair-raising/eerie or déjà vu feeling, please share through email message to merlinagp@gmail.com.  It is my pleasure to post your experience in this Blog.  Let the circle of sharing begins.

Experience No. 6: “The Doppelganger”
(Shared by Darcy Aniasco <aniascodt@gmail.com>)

I lived in the province for quite some time. I’ve spent my Elementary days (from 5th Grade – 6th Grade) and my entire high school years (from 1st – 4th year) in La Castellana, Negros Occidental.
There was this particular time/season when “Spider Derby” (Pahibag Damang as we call it in Ilonggo) is very popular to kids as well as to some grown-ups. We used to collect spiders for our entertainment (If there is anyone of you that happens to be particular about animal cruelty, I beg your forgiveness for what I (we) have done to those spiders).  We make them fight (sometimes for fun, most of the time for betting).  We position two spiders at both ends of a stick (any stick would do, as long as it is not too thin and not to thick).  To determine the “winner” of the fight, one of the spiders must be knocked off the stick for three times, must run away and lastly get killed (usually they are alive they are just covered in the opponents web).  Hope you get the picture on why it is so popular not only to the kids but also to some adults.
It's summer time, I, my little brother and 3 of my cousins decided to do a sleep over at our grandparent’s house for a specific purpose and that is to collect spiders.  We chose to do that in our grandparent’s place for the reason that of course we won’t worry about waking up early in the morning to go to school.  We can do it anytime we want.  Go as far as we can. And go home as late as we want.  We chose to do our “spider hunting” late at night about 9 in the evening because that’s the time when big spiders used to come out (that’s what we were told).  We were equipped with flashlights (we can’t use sulo “torch” because we were surrounded by sugarcane plantations “tubohan”).  My brother was with me (of course I can’t leave him alone or I’ll be scolded by my mother if anything happens to him or her knowing that I left him all by himself inside a sugarcane plantation).  All went well.  We had a good bounty of spiders so as our 3 cousins who were just nearby.
As we continue our journey further into the night, we stopped for a moment and regrouped with our cousins on an open area where there were trees and big rocks.  After a few minutes of rest, we started again hunting for spiders. Moments later I noticed my little brother was not with me anymore (my heart started to beat faster than usual, knowing that my brother was not with me and I’m really screwed when my mother finds out about what happened).  I started calling his name “Denden (Denver) diin ka?” (Denden Saan ka?) “Denden sabat dayon” (Denden sagot agad).  I hurriedly went back to where we started.  Upon nearing the exact spot where we left off, I heard a faint sobbing and saw a figure on one of the big rocks where we left off (it has the same clothes my little brother was wearing that time).  I called my brother's name again and again but the sobbing continued and he did not answer my calls.  As I’m about to approach the “being” on one of the big rocks, my 2 cousins that heard me shouting my brother’s name suddenly told me that my brother was with my other cousin Ricky (they were still near the place where we left off because they were having a hard time getting the spider that they saw).  That was the time when all the hair on my body went up.  I shivered.  The late night breeze was not reason enough to justify the coldness that I felt.  My feet won’t move.  It’s like something is preventing me to move a little closer to that “being”.
When I looked back, I saw my cousin Ricky with my Brother Denden.  Ricky asked me why I was going back to the rock when he kept on saying that my little brother is with him.  I told him I didn’t hear anything he said (in fact I didn’t hear him say something like that).  But he was seconded by my other 2 cousins and my brother.  They said that they answered me the first time I called my brother’s name but I didn’t hear Ricky and my brother’s answer to all of my calls.  All I heard was my 2 cousins saying that my little brother was with Ricky when I was already about to approach what I saw and thought it was my brother resting on one of those big rocks.
I looked back to the rock, the figure I heard sobbing was gone.  I asked my 2 cousins since they were closer to where we left off if they heard a faint sobbing or saw a human like figure. The answer I got made me much colder, as if I froze.  I wanted to run to them as soon as I can but it’s as if I can’t.  Instead, my cousins and my brother came to where I am.  By the time I can move my feet, they asked me what happened and I told them the thing/being that I saw and heard.  Upon hearing it, they told me that we should be heading home and just talk about what just happened there.  So I quickly grabbed my little brother’s hand and “walked” home as fast as we could.  It’s like we were already running.  Huge quick steps, ignoring all those rocks on the road.
As we got home, our grandfather was waiting for us, he told us “nga’a gaparanglapsi kamo?” (bakit kayo namumutla),  “sin-o galagas sa inyo”  (sino humahabol sa inyo).  As soon as I catch my breath I told him what happened, what I saw, what I heard, and what I felt.  Then he just said, “ang ubra niyo nga ina ang makadisgrasya sa inyo” (yang ginagawa ninyong yan ang magpapahamak/makakadisgrasya sa inyo), “bal-an niyo nga riit na didto, nag sigi pa kamo kadto” (alam niyo naming delikado doon, pumunta parin kayo).  “RIIT” (this is a term used to refer to a place where unnatural things, and unexplainable sightings is seen).  He then told us that in that particular spot, he also saw something/someone sitting on the rocks for several times already but he’s ignoring it (he used to pass there when he brings the carabaos to eat early in the morning about 2 -3 am).  By the time he told us that, we swear we are never going back to that place to do our spider hunting. 
And we never went back to that place.  We still do spider hunting but after that incident, we never strayed too far away from our grandparent’s house, and we kept close to each other when we are finding spider (without my little brother of course. I was dumb enough to bring him on that night).  Yeah, you guys can call us cowards, but after experiencing that, there is no way will gonna go there when it’s dark. We might still pass that place but we assured ourselves we will just do that when the sun is up.  
When I remember that up to this day, it always makes me remember how stupid and cowards we were those days.  Impossible but it happened to me!