When You Don't Follow A "Philippine Saying"

"Never Sleep When Your Feet Are Centered Towards A Door"

It was the end of classes when me and my friends “Samuel, Chris, Carl, James and I were hanging out in our usual spot and the back of our school stage playing games, each one of us not wanting to go home early. At the end of a ranked match, Samuel blurted out about the “Fiesta in Brgy. Sta. Ana is coming up soon. That’s were Chris and his family lived. All our attention was on Chris, still fiddling with his phone. “Aren’t you going to invite us?” said Carl. Chris replied with a “Yeah, ill invite you guys but first l have to ask my mom since she is planning it. Nice, we could have a sleepover there since its on a weekend, I said with a smile. Yeah that’s a great idea! James said with a loud squeal. We nodded in agreement and started head out of the campus.

Two weeks after that Chris started a group call to which all five of us accepted. He told us that his mom agreed for a sleepover. All of us screamed “Yes!” cheerful and with excitement in our eyes. After the call I asked my mom for her permission and she agreed instantly after hearing the whole story. So packed my bag for the sleepover which was only 2 days away. The day arrived and all of us meant the at the station were all the tricycles for hire are heading to Brgy. Sta. Ana.

We rode on of the tricycles and went off. It was just a normal ride to Chris’ house and right on time too. It was noon when we got there and all other visitors already left leaving the four of us as their last for the day. We ate lunch and got ready to explore. Ill spare you the story of the exploration because it was just outright ordinary.

After dinner, we prepared our sleeping gear, the usual mats and pillows. We positioned ourselves one beside the other. Me, Samuel, Chris, Carl and James respectively. We told scary stories and try to scare each other before we sleep. I was the always the storyteller because of my love for the genre, I laughed at Carl and Chris who are shacking in their mats, Samuel simply said “nice story” but James was always the hard one to scare. He didn’t believe the supernatural, he only believes in science and facts. I know, a real killjoy but when it comes to tests, we can always rely on him. We were almost calling it a night when Chris’ mom came to check on us. She was just making sure that everyone of us is there and stop at James. Her comforting look instant became a look of worry like when mother saw her child trip on a rock. She gestured to James while saying” you should change your position, its bad to sleep when your feet are towards the door. We all looked at the James part of the room and he was. His feet are center towards the door where Chris’ mom is standing. She told him to quickly change position and left the room.

My parents also have beliefs like that some made me curious while some were just plain weird but all of them made me ask “WHY?” but I never thought I would get an answer that every night. After Chris’ mom left, James bravely said “it’s not true, what’s bad sleeping when my feet are towards a door?” Chris replied with a “oh just do it man, its like a tradition here in the village”. James slowly shakes his head and said I don’t practice such nonsense”. Carl returned it and said, how about a dare then?” and the room got intense. Samuel and I were just watching as they declared their dares. Carl said if he does it, he will do his math problems by himself without copying from him. James, with a smirk simply replied with “Deal”. I didn’t pay much attention to that but to be honest I was curious. He was about to break a very old tradition and I wanted to see what would happen but I wish I hadn’t. We all fall asleep after the deal was made. I suddenly woke up at the dead of the night the clock on the wall says that it was 3:00 am, “The Witching Hour” my first thoughts. It took me a whole 3 minutes before I notice, I couldn’t move. I could move my head slightly and I can move my eyes normally. The feeling of primal fear was coursing through my body and I started panicking internally until I heard something. It was a low squeak and barely audible. I started darting my eyes around and tilting my head as far as it could. I stopped when I saw the door move slightly. I watched the door narrowing my eyes to quickly adjust in the darkness and then I saw it. The door was slowly opening. My eyes widen at the phenomenon happening before my very eyes. When the door was fully opened, can only see pitch darkness. No hallway, no other doors just pure darkness. It was dead silent in the room but nothing happened for a whole minute. Just when I was calming down, there was movement from where the door was. I quickly but reluctantly checked for what it might be and my heart sank. A thin, lengthy arm was creeping out of the door and laying its fingers on the floor like its was Spiderman when he is climbing a wall, it dripped black slime as it crept towards James’ mat, I wanted to scream at this point but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It’s like I was in a sleep paralysis. After a few seconds, it was above James merely inches from his face and then other thing creeped out of the black door, it was its head. It was completely covered with slime and the only facial features it had where two white orbs for eyes. As the head matched the length of its arm. It looked at James like he was its food. I glanced at the wall clock it was still 3:00 am sharp, I returned my attention to the creature it just grabbed James whole body, despite its thinness it was strong able to lift him up without struggle. As it was returning inside the door, it stopped for a second and then slowly turned its slimy head towards me. My heart still pounding in my chest as the thing watched me. I saw nothing in its yes, I could only describe it as pure malice and hatred. Then it whispered something, I didn’t know how it wasn’t just in my ear. It was talking in my mind somehow and what it said will haunt me for the rest of my life. “always believe the ancient laws” then in one quick motion it returned into the darkness of the door along with my friend. As the door close shut, everything went black.

I woke up with the smell of fried eggs and rice filling my nostrils then I realize it was morning, 8:30 to be exact. As I stood up and instinctively stretched my arms. I noticed that I was alone in the room I figured that they were at the kitchen eating breakfast, I packed my sleeping gear and groggily walked to the kitchen. As expected, there were all their expect for James. I ask where he was while sitting at the table. They looked at me with a look of concern in their eyes. It was Samuel who replied me with” who’s James?”. I felt my heart sank once more and by instinct asked “excuse me?” my eyes transfixed at the wall Carl replied this time with a concerned tone in his voice, “who is this James guy you’re looking for dude?” then the memories of last night started flooding back in my head. “It wasn’t a nightmare” mumbled to myself and I felt Chris’ hand on my shoulders, I recoiled and looked at them. “Are you okay?” Chris said. And I looked to Samuel and Carl all of them looked at me like I was crazy. I’m fine just a little shocked from a nightmare, I guess. And relief filled their faces and eased up. You should lay-low with all those horror stories I think it is getting into your head. I just laugh softly and said “yeah, I know right?” but I was sure it wasn’t just a nightmare. As we got ready to go home, packing our stuff said our farewells to Chris and his family. While we were walking to the tricycle station, the memory of what happened last night played a loop inside my mind. It was about a year ago, when they threw back on that day at Chris’ house, the only thing I remember was that thing and what I said to me. I asked my friend if it was just the four of us, they replied with “yeah! since high school, why?” I just simply said nothing just remembering somethings.

One thing is constantly flying through my mind more that the creature in the door, more than my friend was erased from existence before my very eyes. No, what really keeps me up at night is this. If that was real, the so is the other saying that floats around in our country. But one thing is for sure, I am not going to break any one of them.