I have been using it,  for so many days, so many times. I have got used to it and also got used to the abuse, the hatred. I traveled in the local bus, daily. The reason for this abuse and hatred was my beard. It told everyone that I was a Muslim guy. Just because of my beard, they forgot the I was also a human.! They even forgot that I traveled with them everyday.!

Not everyone though. There was Suhani, my colleague. She never said anything, which hurt me. She was very sweet. But then, she was sweet with everyone. I wasn’t special. But at least I was equal.

Then there was Rahim Chacha. He was another person whom I talked with. He told his daily experiences to me. What all they told him to the very first day they realized he was Muslim was very painful and in fact to be correct, disgusting.!

I had studied in great places, very reputed colleges and was now working at a very good company. But this daily abuse was pathetic. They never missed a chance. They just said,

“Kaum hi kharab hai sali”

They might be just a few words to blabber, but they rang everytime in my head.!!

Today was the perfect day for them. Neither Suhani nor Rahim Chacha were present today.

“HEY! Mr. Terrorist! Come here.” One of them hauled. I went towards him.

“Hmmm…Can you prove you are a Muslim?” What kind of question was that?

I didn’t answer. HOW CAN I???

“Answer motherfucker..!..Alright. I’ll check it for myself.”

I was not sure what he was upto. But what he did was shameful, disgraceful..! It was a perfect day. And he did his best to embarrass me to the edge.

He suddenly pulled my pants off.!

Everybody started laughing.

I would have cried, but I didn’t. It was the perfect day. The Bus stopped and I got down from it. It wasn’t the destined stoppage, but after going through what happened, I just wanted to run away as quickly as I could.

The bus started to move and suddenly it was blown to pieces..! Booooom….and what was left was only the non-living parts of the bus.

It was a perfect day and I did it.!

No Regret.!

PS: As far as I know this is hypothetical.

PS: It only takes 2 seconds to do the evil.

“Hey! How are you?”

“Hi Rahul. I’m good. I was about to wake up. Anyways thanks for waking me up. How are you?”

If it was you and you call a girl early morning at about 5, you wont see her happy. No ways, it can’t happen..!
But it was Rahul and the girl was Ria. Ria was totaly interested in Rahul and it showed. They talked for a little bit more.

” Hey! I wanted to tell you something.” Rahul said, a little hesitatingly.

“What ? Tell me.”

“Not now. Lets meet today at 7 in the evening at the central mall.?”

“Alright. I’ll be there.”

“OK. Bubye !!!” And he hung up.

He was happy. No! In fact he was on cloud 9. He went up to his best friend’s house to tell him this. Rohit was in his room, still sleeping offcourse.

“Wake up buddy!” Rahul shouted.

“What the fuck are you doing at this time?” :O

” Don’t worry its just 7 a.m. I gotto tell you something.”

“What? Can’t you wait and tell me some other time..?”

“No! Just can’t”

“Alright. Just tell me what it is.”

“I’m in love and I’ve called her today at 7 in the central mall to propose.”

“Woohoo!! Who’s the gal?”

“Ria”

It came as a shock to Rohit. He always liked Ria. He just couldn’t say. But he was suddenly angry.

“What the fuck?” He shouted.

“What happened?” Rahul asked suprised.

“You cheater! You knew I liked her.”

“No. I didn’t.”

“you knew it!”

“What? I didn’t knew anything about you and her. You liked her, you should have told her. Now when I know I love her, why the hell you creating trouble?” Rahul just said this and left.

The day passed waiting for 7 p.m. He was almost ready to go, when the phone rang.

“Halo”

“Halo Dog.!! You know what, I’m going to end this today only. I’m going to kill the bitch who created this new divide between us.”

“What? Rohit calm down.!” The phone was dead till now.

Rahul was confused. He didn’t knew what to do He called up Ria, but she didn’t pick it up. May be she left for the mall.
Everything seemed to fall apart. He didn’t have a choice but to go to the mall.

He went to the mall and found Ria on the spot he mentioned. Rohit was still nowhere to be seen. But Rahul knew he would be there any moment.

“Ria. Lets go away from here.”

“But Rahul you were about to tell me something. What is it ?”

And Rohit came. He fired one shot towards Ria, but Rahul came between the bullet and Ria and the bullet hit him straight into the heart.

“Rahul!!” Ria screamed.

“Rahul?” Rohit was surprised that his shot didnt hit the ‘desired’ target. He had killed his best friend. It was not in his plan. There was fury at the place. Everyone was running. Even Rohit could have escaped, but he didn’t. He was too shocked to be running away.! Instead, he went to Rahul.

“I was about…to ..tell you something.” Rahul said, gasping for every bit of air, to Ria.

“yeah..”

“It… was…that..”And he died.

But he left a note in Ria’s hand. She read it with a shock and handed it to Rohit. Rohit, confused, read it.
It was written

you are so lucky that Rohit loves you..!!

I feel hazy and foggy this moment. This day was a totally tiring, exhausting, grueling and nerve-wracking one. As I try to piece together the events that had happened to us, in my family, in our home, many years ago, many months ago and many days ago, you wouldn’t believe that we were really mingling with unknown creatures which our bare eyes could not see, which our sensitive arms could not touch and which our receptive ears could not hear.

Though against our belief and our religion, we consulted a paranormal as a medium for us to be able to find out what’s really happening to my niece-ward who was forced to stop schooling, now in 4^th year college because of a display of unusual behavior for the past couple of months. So much has changed with her. She’s no longer the bubbly and ever-smiling beautiful young lady who’s got a happy disposition in life and who’s got great dreams for herself and her family. Instead, she turned into a weird-acting girl who would suddenly give you those dagger-look eyes if you try to look at her face to face. She often gives statements which gave us a hard time deciphering like: “ I am no longer the good girl you have known”, “evil spirits reside in me”, “my soul is already being burned in hell”, “there’s nothing left with me except this physical body”, “the girl you have known no longer exists in this body”, and many more.

We went to the paranormal’s house, an hour’s drive from our place. We only brought with us a picture of my niece. Upon seeing the picture, the paranormal-medium felt hairs on her arms as well as on her head raised, that eerie feeling, you know. And that feeling did not leave her throughout the time we were in their house. She told us the evil spirits are just too strong. We tried to contact my niece who’s already back with her family in Pampanga but we can’t connect to her phone and only just the text could reach us. And again, we were left frightened by what’s happening.

The paranormal-medium suggested she wants to see our place and we willingly obliged and brought her with us back home. And what she was seeing in her mind was confirmed when we reached our place. She saw the two big mango trees near our house where the evil spirits are residing for quite a long time now, according to her. We went inside our home. Suddenly, she went into a trance, and then spoke with a different voice. We were shocked, coz she uttered so many things my husband and I were left in awe. King Philip was the name of the evil spirit who nagged us why we were trying to bring our niece far from him. He liked her; he wants her because she’s a very good girl. He wants her to be his wife. And he’s mad at us for bringing her to a faraway place. The evil spirits complained that the neighborhood has reduced their kingdom into a garbage pit. They demanded that we clean it and even demanded that we also make our home spic and span because they also live with us. That sent shivers into our spine. Who the hell are they for trying to demand that we try to make our home clean always? Though I know that I always make it a point to make our home clean, I just wonder how clean they would want it to be. And why they would stay with us and consider our abode as their permanent dwelling?

They further demanded that we should always offer them food. What? Feed those we can’t see? I was thinking differently. That is, if the medium was speaking the whole truth about it. We just listened while she talked to the evil spirits. And at the end of the medium’s encounter with them, I surmised one thing; I am not really a firm believer that there are evil spirits residing in our home. If it is so, so much harm would have been done to us. I casually asked the medium that if they really reside with us, why is it that they don’t bother any single member of our family? The medium answered and told us that these evil spirits never bothered us because we’re good people and we have a very strong faith in God.

However, on her concluding statements, the medium told us to abandon our house before things get worst. She advised us to look for a new home far from the place. What? Abandon our home? The home which we have built through sweat and blood and through many sacrifices? At the back of my mind, I already doubted the medium’s tone of statement. I may now believe that she’s out to play a trick on us. If we will believe her, then we will be searching for a new house where we may be boarders and transients. Of course, I am not into it. This is our beloved home and we will never surrender it because of what the medium told us. I believe that not all paranormals say the truth and that what they say is not always true.

We paid the medium P500.00 for her services. And she took the picture I showed her (actually, the whole family is in that picture plus Nicole, our niece, and except my husband, he’s not in the picture). I am afraid she would use that for an experiment. I prayed hard she will not use it. She promised to continue her encounter with the evil spirits and request them to let my niece go, heal her and let her live a normal life in this world since they are from another world.

Lessons learned from this? It was a mistake consulting a paranormal. Our life would have become a mess if we tried to follow her advice. But what I am thankful for, she told us that we should continue to pray and that there should always be prayer meetings at home. After all, she’s a God-fearing paranormal and believed in the power of God and the power of prayers. The truth is, evil will never overcome the good. Evil cannot defeat God.

I tossed and turned in my bed and could hardly sleep tonight. It was about my hubby’s story. It was about the paranormal who secretly conducted an exorcism of the devils around the neighborhood, at the heart of a banana plantation near our home. According to the paranormal’s story, they reside there and not exactly in the mango trees where the first paranormal had said. Under the mango trees are just their playground and also within the green painted house (huh? that’s our house, the only house painted with green in the neighborhood?).

But what is exorcism. Based from the research I made, Exorcism is a practice of expelling demons or evil spirits from people or places that are possessed, or are in danger of possession, by them. Exorcism usually is performed by a person with special religious authority, such as a priest or shaman. The practice was common in ancient societies and was based on the practice of magic. Ancient Babylonian civilization, in what is now Iraq, had special priests who  would destroy a clay or wax image of a demon in a ritual meant to destroy the actual demon. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks had similar rites. Many religions in various parts of the world continue the practice of exorcism.

The Bible includes a number of references to demons and exorcism. The New Testament describes occasions when Jesus Christ expelled evil spirits by prayer and the power of his command. In the Roman Catholic church, exorcism is an order that priests may practice with special permission. It is mainly used as a preparation for the sacrament of baptism.

Hopefully, this time, what the paranormal have done will work. I am not really a firm believer of these things but everyone in the neighborhood does. According to the story and I continue, the man asked some rice and salt in the house beside our house because we were not home when he did the rituals so we didn’t actually see what rituals he conducted.

This time when I heard the story, I didn’t feel any creepy feelings anymore. Maybe they’re gone now, thanks to the salt and rice being offered, maybe it worked. So that’s the end of my story about evil spirits residing in the neighborhood and within us. As what my friend said, paranormal or otherwise, evil cannot defeat God. And maybe, we ourselves can exorcise the evils around us just by trusting in God’s omniscient power.

Image Credits