The Hideout Spot
You don't know paranoia and helplessness (and stupidity) until you start to think that every ant you see is a baby cockroach. That happened to me a few years back. It was the first time ever that I picked up Baygon and sprayed at them like mad. But ants being ants, they're never gone. I even traced them all the way to their hideout spot, which turned out to be that tiny hole at the corner of the bathroom.

I told my dad that too many baby cockroaches lived in the house and there's nothing we can do about it, because we shouldn't kill animals.

And then my sister told me that those are ants, and that broke the illusion that formed itself in my head.

From then on, I made sure to literally blow the ants out of the way before showering so I don't kill them. One day, I saw the ants carrying a dead lizard and squeezing it into the hole.

After a while, the ants mysteriously vanished.

The Monster in the Ceiling
A few years before that, I looked up at the ceiling of the bathroom for the first time and saw dirt/corrosion/whatever-that-is in the shape of a human, with an angry face. I got afraid and hasten all my showers and stuff from then on. Soon, I forgot about it.

Today, I looked up again and it's gone, probably covered by even more dirt/corrosion/whatever-that-is.

Rats Invasion
There were two times when rats came into our house. The first time it happened was through our gate. We lived on the first floor, near a park connector. So, it's hardly suppose to be surprising that a rat entered. We were eating in the living room and I saw this figure at the other end, sneaking towards the food offerings we gave to our deities. I wondered if it was a giant cockroach, and the next moment, I think my brother exclaimed that there's a rat. My family is terrified of rats.

The other time, a rat ran into our kitchen, and my father spent a very, very long time trying to subtly lead it out of the house. We built a barricade that created a pathway for the rat to run out.

The Black Cat
When I was a kid, I was sitting innocently on the living room sofa, and then I saw a black cat suddenly, staring at me, a few distance away. Panicking, I ran to my grandma and told her about it, and she wasn't surprised. When she came out to shoo it away, it wasn't there. She said it probably ran out, but my brother told me that black cats meant ghosts. For a long time, I didn't dare to be alone anymore.

I then wrote this story for S-folks, or S-fogs, I can't remember. When I was a kid, that's a popular website everyone submit their horror stories to. That story never got accepted.

Monster
When I was even younger, I loved ultraman. We went to buy ultraman toys, and one of them is a really scary-looking monster that I was so afraid of. My sister (or brother) bought it and I was trying my best to avoid it.

My sister couldn't believe how afraid I was of it, so she pretended to turn into that monster. I believed her and I cried.

Childhood is funny. Children are stupid.

Labels: family, reliving those days