Katatakutan Stories Book Series

True story 12 : Barracks

The Barracks Howler
I enjoyed UP ROTC so much, that I decided to become a cadet officer back then. When we were finally allowed to, it was a great honor to be allowed to stay in the Barracks. Wow. Cadet life and all, that would become our dorm.
I didn't sense anything there for the longest time - because I didn't have time to stop and wait to feel and see what couldn't be seen. Always busy, as cadets and cadet officers often are. But as the months passed, and I began to spend evenings more often there, there were times when I'd be surprised by the sudden fatigue that would hit me in the female barracks. It only happened when we crossed into the mid-part of the room, closer to the upperclassmen's end. It was a strange, cold fatigue, even if I'd drank coffee. As though I were suddenly anemic and needed to rest.
One calm summer afternoon, this cold tiredness struck me, and I could feel something like a whirlwind of rage, hear this echoing howling through the whirlwind... At the center of this invisible, chaotic whirling was a woman, a howling, enraged white woman. (I don't mean caucasian, just ghostly pale white). I couldn't see her legs, and if she had arms her claws were scratching about within the whirling... This angry, howling, whirlwind of ghost woman was focused on me, could sense me, and - I'd soon realize from my fatigue and headache - was trying to drain me.
I prayed a lot, and after some time one of my batchmates arrived. Surprised by my paleness, she asked what was up, and I told her about the ghost. After fifteen minutes or so, the ghost finally faded out of my sensing. I had to ignore it.
The next time I sensed the howling woman, it was another afternoon or evening. At the time, one of my upperclassmen was passed out on her bunk, a few bunks away from me. We often saw her there during the day. Though she was a good cadet officer, whenever she reached her bunk, we rarely ever saw her awake. She'd complain of headaches and go back to sleep. Now I knew why. Her classmates would later say she was sensitive. And the howling woman knew it too. She was affecting my upperclassman whenever she was there.

This is why we don't talk to ghosts. Though the consequence for talking to friendly ones, like Daniel Craig in the Vanguard 1st floor, is that the ghost will often try to get your attention whenever you're in the area, the consequence for talking to the bad ones is that they'll try to scare you further because they're HUNGRY for attention. They'll try to drain you if they're strong enough, and that's bad. You'll end up all sorts of weak and ill and blah and that just won't do. Its also why I learned to turn off my ability to sense during ROTC. When you need to be alert, you can't afford to be distracted by spirits. Unless the spirit is a direct danger to you or those around you, just leave it be.

The Howling Woman in the barracks isn't always there. She only seems to be on the female side of the barracks, closer to the upperclassmens' side of the room. From her energy-draining nature, I find it possible she might never have been human to begin with. She never has words, she doesn't seem to care about gender, or show scorn beyond her ice-cold rage and howling, and the whirlwind that conceals the rest of her. Whatever caused her to be, perhaps an older generation of UP Vanguard may know.

I do remember a time another upperclassman of mine was frightened by a sighting while on duty one evening. A woman drifted by the window of our barracks holding a silent infant. People aren't allowed to pass so close to the barracks, off-limits kasi, so my upperclassman went out to ask the woman what she needed. The woman, disheveled and covered in rags, mumbled something about her baby, and my upperclassman was surprised to notice other unnatural things, like not seeing feet touching the ground, the baby possibly dead, things like that. Somehow or other, the woman wandered away or disappeared. I never heard the full story, but my upperclassman always asked a classmate to stay with her during duty after that.