For those studying at TAR College, they may have come across many ghosts stories around the housing area of Setapak. A lot of houses, even new ones are supposedly haunted in that area. Perhaps, it is a very old area and may even had been a burial ground of some tribe in the olden days. A cousin of mine is currently staying there and his house itself is claimed to be haunted.

My cousin told me a story about his friend’s house in that area. One of the tenants, who claimed to have the ‘third eye’ (ability to see ghosts), said he saw his housemate brought home a male ghost during the seventh lunar month (on the Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival, see General Stuff). According to him, the male ghost followed his housemate into the house as he came home from supper late one night. Up till today, the ghost is still wandering around the house. None of the others have ever seen the ghost and the ghost has never done anything harmful either. However, he seems to be following this guy, who can see him, around the house a lot. The ghost also has this ‘bad habit’ of staring at him close on the face as he was about to wake up in the morning. That often gives him a scare.

In my cousin’s house itself, there were several bizarre happenings since they moved in. On one occasion, they came back to the house all lighted up at night. According to them, none of them had returned since they left the house in the morning, after making sure all the lights were switched off.

On another night, one of them reported hearing one of his housemate playing the guitar upstairs. However, he was shocked to see his housemate coming through the front door a few minutes later. No one else was at home then. Apparently, the ghost has a passion for guitars. One night, after they came back from supper, they found all the three guitars in the house gathered in the kitchen.

Nothing really scares any of them until a very strange incident happened. On a hot and humid night, Ah Fook and Lim decided to go downstairs with their mattress and sleep in the living room. They were sleeping soundly under the fan until Ah Fook woke up at about 3am. He found himself sweating because it was so hot. He looked around him and realised he was no longer under the fan in the living room. Instead, he was, still on his mattress, inside the kitchen. He knew something was not right and he went straight back to his own room.

The next morning, Ah Fook asked if anyone had pulled him into the kitchen but everyone said no. Then he asked Lim if he had a good sleep, which Lim agreed convincingly. Afterwards, he told everyone what happened the night before. Everyone, especially Lim, was not amazed with his story. Lim scolded him badly for leaving him behind to face the ghost!