Room 607

I still remember that particular night when I was staying in a hotel at Dumaguete City. The trip there was a 2 days stay and it was my first night.

But first let me tell you little about myself. I'm 22 yrs old and I'm working as a project engineer. Yes I'm too young for my job (I get that a lot). My company always sends me to different parts of the country for monitoring purposes of our many projects. That particular week (2nd week of January 2017) I was assigned 2 projects in Negros Oriental. Accompanying me are two guys, one of which is also an engineer, and the other one is our boss.

Now getting back to my story, Dumaguete City is just one of many tourist destinations here in the Philippines, so it was hard for us to get a room reservation. Luckily, a bystander (fishball vendor) informed us that there are still available rooms in a hotel called bayview hotel. We grabbed the opportunity and headed directly there. Since I'm with two guys, I asked them if I could get a separate room for myself and they agreed. It was a long and tiring day so my plans for that night is just to hit the sack and call it a day, but my colleagues told me to grab something to eat first before settling in. We went to a small "kainan" or roadside bar and before I knew it, it was already pass 11 in the evening when we got back. because it was a really tiring day, I opened my room, brushed my teeth, lock the door and went directly to bed without changing my clothes. I left the lights on the room open because I usually left them open whenever I go to sleep. It was maybe 2 in the morning when I was awaken by the noise of running water. I got up and asked myself if I left the faucet open after brushing my teeth. I quickly went to the wash room and closed the faucet. I went back to bed convincing myself that I really forgot to close it after brushing my teeth but before I even close my eyes, the faucet was open again. This time I was so sure that I closed it before going back to bed. The first thing that registered in my mind is that someone or something must've opened it. I felt goosebumps all over my body. For the second time, I closed the faucet at the wash room and left the lights on. I was so scared that time that I couldn't even go to sleep anymore. I thought of going to my colleagues room but I don't want to disturbed them at this kind of hour. I said a little prayer, closed my eyes and forced myself to sleep again.

The next morning, I met up with my two colleagues. They were already eating breakfast when I joined them. They asked if I slept well, and I told them what happened earlier. I was expecting a disbelief or humored face from them, but all I got was "binuksan mo sana lahat ng ilaw" (you should have turned all the lights on). I was shocked from the fact that they also experienced the same thing as I did that night.

Going back to manila, the first thing that's on my mind was to finish my report and to remind myself to never visit that hotel and to never spend a night again on that room.