My previous company sells educational software to higher learning institutes and every few weeks, we’d hold presentations and workshops for lecturers and professors to teach them the usage of our products.

This story was told by my Boss, Mark and Managers, Ray and Carl. Mark and Carl are brothers.

Long before I entered the organisation, they had a workshop held in one of Penang’s famous tourist hotel aka infamous haunted hotel.

The ballroom was great, luxurious, beautiful! The workshop went really well for the 3 days, 2 nights. My Boss, Mark and Carl (the Manager) shared a room, while Ray shared with one of the local professors.

The first night, Mark and Carl retired to their room early. Carl was watching TV for a while before deciding to go to sleep. Just as he turned off the TV, the phone rang. He went to answer it and as his hand reaches the receiver, it stopped ringing. Being a religious person, Carl suspected foul play of the supernatural, so he turned a blind eye and proceeded to sleep.

As Mark and Carl were sound asleep, they were awoken and startled by a loud SLAM of a door. The sound was so close proximity, they SWEAR someone came to open their door and slam it shut just to frighten them!

They looked at each other, both knowingly what had transpired and decided to sleep with the lights on.

Morning came and the workshop commenced as per itinerary. During the first break, Mark and Carl met with Ray and related what had happened last night.

Being a skeptic, Ray laughed it off and called them small boys to have actually believe in such nonsense. How regrettable his remarks were.

Dusk arrived and the night quickly greeted my superiors. It was the second night of the workshop, which means tomorrow is the last day and they’d be heading home right after the presentations finishes.

The professor whom Ray was sharing a room with decided that he should head home right after the workshop instead of staying another night as the evening’s presentation was his last.

So Ray had no choice but to cancel the room and crash with his brother and Carl. What they did was ordered another mattress and with so little space left, the mattress was placed in such a manner where it faced the door of the room. Bad idea.

As Ray slept, he awoke approximately 2.30am, unable to move a single limb or muscle. His eyes were the only part that was movable at the time given. He looked around suspiciously and frightened as he scrutinised his surroundings, seemingly suffering from sleep paralysis.

What he saw next sent him on a blood curling scream which no one heard.

As he lay facing the room entrance, the door slowly creaked open and an apparition of a woman dressed in white, with long straight black hair and black sockets for eyes and pale complexion appeared. It seemed to be floating as its feet were not touching the ground.

Slowly, it floated nearer to Ray and all he could do was scream in his head and in a matter of seconds, it was an inch or two away from his face.

Miraculously, it stopped just there and Ray could see that it was slowly retracting backwards, as if an unseen force was pulling it away. Soon, the thing was pulled out of the room and the door closed.

Thought everything was over, Ray was in for another bout of fright.

Just as the door closed, it creaked open again to reveal a young boy. Pale in complexion and like the previous entity, it floated towards Ray. This time, Ray recited a prayer profusely in his head and the boy retracted out of the door. Once the door closed, Ray could feel his limbs came back and he quickly jumped out of the mattress and headed to a sleeping Carl.

“Carl! Carl!” he whispered harshly, nudging Carl by the arm.

Carl groggily looked at him but wasn’t surprised when he saw the perplexed frightened expression on Ray’s face.

“Shut up! Don’t tell me anything! Don’t say a word! Hop into bed and shut up!” Carl replied, waving his hand profusely, not wanting to hear what Ray had just encountered.

As gay as it may sound, the two men slept next to each other through the night.

The next day went on as planned. The workshop finishes early afternoon and my superiors checked out of the hotel.

On the way back to KL, Carl finally asked Ray what happened last night. Ray related the story, stuttering and shivering at the same time. Mark, oblivious to anything that has happened last night, commented.

“You guys can’t be sleeping on the same bed the whole night. Last night about 4am I went to the toilet. When I came out, I saw Ray, with only his hair visible, snugged up nicely under the comforter on the mattress. So don’t lie.”

Ray and Carl looked at each other, and then at Mark with shock.

Why, you ask?

Because first of all, Ray was really sleeping next to Carl the whole night. He did not went back to the mattress.

Secondly, Ray has the habit of sleeping without any blanket or comforter.

So, go figure.