Chapter Six Phasmophobia

          My name is Brendan and I am Professor and I have Phasmophobia or fear of ghost that’s why I got my silver ring engraves of a Crow that symbolizes the spirit.

            I have a third- eyed. Some people says it’s a gift but for me it’s a wound that cannot be erase.

            My first encountered in my bedroom.

            I was about to sleep around 10:30-11:00pm.

            The setup of my room at the time was the actual main part of the room had my TV, closet, a couch. My bed was in a little alcove that used to be a small porch so that my bed was flush with the windows that looked to the backyard. I put my pillow on the couch and walked over to the bed to go to sleep.

            It was the middle of the night when someone knocking on the wooden bedframe woke me up. I thought it was my siblings doing some annoying pranks to scare me. For sure, they've run out of the room hiding somewhere giggling. I flipped over to yell at them but didn’t see them.

There was a girl about the age of 10 with black long hair wearing a yellow hoodie just smiling at me. And I could see right through her to the rest of the room. I watched as she, slowly faded away, I am completely terrified until she was gone but I had distantly familiar feeling of not being alone.

I turned to face my bed, closing my eyes in the vain hope that I could fall back to sleep.

           The next morning I had almost talked myself out of it, thinking it was a dream or had really been my little brother and sisters. I asked them the next morning if they had knocked on my bed but both were sound asleep. My mom overheard me and said she had seen the girl too.

            Since that night I started to notice I creep into the darkness of fear of ghosts.

            My second encountered in the house of my friend.

            I went to the bathroom but I hear footsteps coming from the kitchen. It was sound of such in a hurry so I need to walk fast and follow the footsteps until I saw in the kitchen of the house and I could see a dark, ghostly figure standing nearby the kitchen sink, standing silently and staring at me. I was alarmed when my friend called me from the living room and he is about to go into the kitchen, eventually, after a few minutes, the figure left. I asked him if there was someone in the house except his father and mother and his siblings but he said no one. I thought it was a prank but then I didn’t tell him what I’ve encountered because I didn’t want him to freak out or think that I was crazy.

Through some years I thought my previous encounter with the ghost will finally end but I was wrong.

My sense of unease grew with each passing day, pushing its way under my skin, deep into my mind like some form of cancerous infection. Lingering and trapped my whole life.

As someone who is trained in the science, I cannot prove that what happened to me was real, but I can swear that what I experienced was genuine horror. A fear which in my life, it has never been equalled.

I finished high school at the top of my class then I applied to a university across the country. Expensive, elite. My Scholarships covered the tuition. As time goes by, I went through college much the same way as I went through high school. I couldn’t bear the thought of my family coming to visit, looking around at my dorm. I didn’t make friends, or girlfriends I shied away from people because of my fear of ghosts that it will follow me through the people I love most.

For the past years, I’ve done everything alone until I became a college Professor.

I live alone, work alone, eat, and sleep, breath alone. It’s the only way I’ve been able to find some peace in the world. The Ghosts has never assaulted or visited me when nobody else is around.

            But I guess fate found me in my most vulnerable memory that I cannot escape for the rest of my life.

The third experience was the most terrible of all.

Now, I was standing in my memory.

            I was thirteen years old back then when I went to secondary school.

            This is the day where my unforgettable experience with a spirit haunts me.

              I remembered a strange feeling of unease creeping slowly from the back of my mind.

I went to the bathroom and in front of me, there was a kid. He is pale and cold as ice, full of bruises and burns. His feet didn’t touch the floor. I was terrified; suddenly the kid entered one of the cubicles and shut the door. I quickly entered the one next to it. I waited there for what felt like a century and then went out slowly. The window of the cubicle next to mine was wide open however the door was closed. I was about to leave when the kid suddenly faces me. He put his hands around my neck and grip hard, he choked me to death. I cannot grasp it, I tried to take away his fists but it was too strong. I can’t this any longer because, in a few minutes, I will die.

            “Lord! Please save me. I cannot die right now!” I called him in my unconscious mind.

            I waited for a few minutes and as I save my remaining breath, I closed my eyes and start a conversation with the dead kid in my mind.

            “Who are you? What do you want from me?” I ask.

            He whispers in my head.

            “Justice!” he growled.

            I heard his hollow breath.

            “Justice for what?” I ask. I tried to squirm out of his grip.

            “Justice for my death! I was killed by crazy addict vagabonds in the street and I will seek revenge.” The kid said with full of angst.

            “You’re long gone dead, and I think God will punish them for the wrongdoing. You need to go in peace. I will help you, and we save our prayers for you.” I tried to speak again, but only a pitiful squeak came out.

            That shut the kid up and he released me.

            The pattern of lights in my mind came to total darkness and little by little I passed out.

            It was a near-death experience.

            The dead kid was a former student in my school. The old principal told us that he was killed by the vagabonds late that one night and he seek justice with his death.

            Even though I was afraid of the spirit, I tried to survive this critical situation. I open up my eyes stand to where I stood and looked around but the kid was nowhere to be seen. I ran into the corridor and I saw a priest, it was late in the afternoon and few teachers and students left. I asked his permission to give a small prayer for the kid as well as the other people around the campus.

            We recited prayers and offerings in the comfort room. I felt relieved, and I found peace in my mind and soul. After that event, I had never seen the kid again. I found peace especially to him and to myself; I conquered my fear when I faced these painful teenage experiences of mine. I looked up with the ring encircled in my finger and wondered why I need to suffer from all those years fighting my ego towards that spirit.

            I was about to leave the campus when someone hit me and my vision blurred until I collapsed on the floor.