I grew up in a small municipality that eventually turned into a city. And while the development was ongoing, the landscape within my area did not look any different. It still reminded me of our life in the province: vast lands, fresh air, farm animals, and muddy pathways.

We stayed in our house for so long. I think I was about three when we moved here. Not even multiple typhoons, floods, and earthquakes made us leave this place. It was probably because it was the only property we had, and we never really had a choice.

Even if we knew from the start that someone else was living with us here. Someone who has been in this place for a very long time.

As you have guessed, yes, it's a different entity. Never really the type to show up and scare people. It was just around, lurking in the darkest corners of our tiny house at night. A very keen and observant one, if I must say.

I have always been sleeping alone while my younger brothers are piled up with my parents in their room. They never liked staying with me because they get scared whenever I talk to Miss— the name I used to address this lurker at night. Short for 'missing.'

One particular night, my youngest brother was getting changed after he peed his pajamas. By force of habit, I said, "Miss, are you there?" I saw my brother having a hard time putting on his pajamas because he knew I would scare him. Instead of helping him, I said, "Would you like to be accompanied by Miss?"

My brother ran out of the bedroom, limping because he only had one leg in his pajamas. He called out for my mom, but I was left laughing. I played for the rest of the night, enjoying the whole room by myself until I fell asleep.

It was around 4 am when my alarm went off. Mom was supposed to be up earlier than I was. I don't hear anything outside. When she is cooking, I can hear her and smell the food. But that time, it was as quiet as night.

I decided to get up and go to their room to wake her up.

I saw their door open. Mom would be fuming when she found out someone had left the door open. It was very dark in their room when I came in. I can't even see clearly because I just woke up. But I saw my second brother sleeping on the mattress on the floor. I was about to go in when I heard footsteps running towards me. It busted the door open wider! I felt a strong wind run past me as if it pushed me out of its way.

There was nothing. And because the door loudly slammed open, everybody woke up. They saw me there and blamed me. They thought I did it.

I kept mum about that experience. But the one making me experience these things never shied away from me since that night.

I stopped calling her and referring to her as "Miss." Hard, but I have to admit that I got scared. Because now, even without calling her, she appears more frequently.

It's not clear, but she always appears as a shadow. Still lurking in the dark parts of the house, she was always around. Since then, I have asked my brothers to return to our room. I said I would throw their belongings out of the room if they did not return. Of course, I need to put on a tough act. Also, I stopped scaring them so they would stay.

One night, I was the last to enter our room because I had to finish some chores. I saw my youngest brother sleeping on the mattress on the floor. He was faced backward at the door where I was standing. And from behind him, I saw my other brother, covered in our blanket, reaching out to the youngest to scare him.

I laughed and immediately ran inside the room to join. I grabbed him by his wrist and tried to drag him down to the mattress. He resisted. I was having fun because he is just as strong as I am since he is just a year younger than me. I pulled onto the blanket, and he resisted even harder.

All the commotion awakened my younger brother. He was pulling on my pajamas and kept on calling me, "Kuya! Kuya!" I knew he would join, so I just ignored him because I had to focus my strength on our second sibling.

My youngest brother then yelled, "Kuya, it doesn't have feet!" What he said caught my attention, so I stopped. I was about to look at the blanket I was pulling when someone spoke behind us.

"What are you doing?" our second sibling said. He was outside the whole time. He was standing there while watching me struggling with what was inside the blanket.

If it's not him, then who's in the blanket? Whose wrist was I holding? I slowly turned my eyes back to the blanket when I felt that it fell, and there, my sanity almost left me.

I heard our youngest brother screaming and storming out of our room. While I was left there facing this unknown entity.

It was in the form of a young girl. She was smaller than me, around the height of a six-year-old. Her thin hair covered her face, her eyes about to fall off their sockets because her lids were stretched wide open. Her forehead was wrinkled, and it was as if it was hardened to stay that way. I was still holding her by her wrist. And the moment I realized that I suddenly felt cold. It was the kind of cold that made you shiver. At the same time, her smell started to register. It was the same as the smell of a rotten corpse of a rat. A very strong putrid smell that I have never known before.

My knees felt weak. I wanted to run, but I couldn't. I was still holding her, and she was still there, emotionless. Then the lights in my room started flickering until she was gone. I saw her backing away into the darkness. I never even felt my hand letting go of her wrist. When she disappeared, I sat on the mattress, slowly taking everything in.

"Missing…" I said in my head. Then a scream filled the room. It was shockingly loud, engulfing the whole room with anguish and sorrow. Her screams sounded so bad as they echoed in desperation. I felt a strong wind going out of the room. And heard the door close.

When I went out, I saw my brothers outside the room with my parents. They are waiting for me to come out. My father hugged me tight and said that it was gone and that he saw it go away. I hugged him back and started crying.

That was the last time I saw Miss face-to-face. Upon asking people who lived in our area before us, my parents found out that before we bought the house, the body of a dead girl was found on the vacant lot in front of us. They said no one recognized the girl because her face was distorted due to molten rubber smothered on her face. They said they saw the girl two days before finding her in that state, as she used our vacant house then as a temporary shelter because of heavy rain.

After the incident, my family moved on as if that night had never happened.

But I can't. Because I can still see her in the dark, hiding, watching.

Waiting for me to call her again.

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