The Mysterious Passenger - @jerrybanfield's Supernatural Writing Contest - SWC

Behind the festive mood that Boracay has on summer nights is a mystery waiting to be discovered by an unfortunate few.

I was one of those few whose memories of wholesome frolic in the pristine sands have been tainted by a dark and horrific experience.

It happened to summer ago, when the company I worked for mounted a huge event in the island paradise. As expected, the Boracay nights that summer were lit up by string of parties because we were not the only ones scheduled to hold an event there.

These parties would last throughout the night and almost always end in the wee hours of the morning. Some of the revelers would party on even as the morning sun peeked out of the horizon.

On our last night on the island, when the last of our parties was held, my roommate and I decided, for once, to turn in right after midnight. After a week of festivities, we were both partied out. Besides, we were exhausted from the work we'd been doing for the past five days. We decided on an early morning swim before departing for Manila in the afternoon.

As we weaved in and out of the crowd on our way to our rooms, the noise became steadily fainter. As we stumbled onto the main road, an eerie silence greeted us.

Since it was only a little past midnight, we thought we could still catch a tricycle to ferry us back to our resort, which was on the southern end of the island. For hald an hour, we waited. Finally I proposed that if after 10 minutes no tricycle passed by to pick us up, we might as well walk the one-kilometer trek back to our resort.

My companion wasn't too happy with the idea since we didn't know what we would encounter on the way. He had heard about the island's urban legends. Being a non-believer of such horror tales, I insisted that if we wanted to make it back to the resort and get enough sleep, we had to hoof it.

Realizing he was left with no choice, my friend finally agreed. So after 10 minutes and no tricycle passed, we began our hike back to our lodgings.

By the time we'd reached a hundred meters, we were so exhausted from trying to trudge through the badly lit road, which, to top it off, was under repair at that time. We had to be careful about which side of the road to walk on.

Minutes later, we heard the welcome sound of a motorcycle engine somewhere behind us. I looked back and saw a tricycle coming towards us. Relieved, we flagged down the vehicle and stumbled into the vestibule, stammering our thanks to the driver.

The driver merely grunted and sped down the highway.

After another hundred meters or so, we neared a bank. To our surprise, the driver told us that he could no longer take as any further and insisted we get off at that point.

We asked him why but he would not give us a straight answer, answering cryptically:

"Basta, madilim na masyado paglampas dyan."

We became furious upon hearing this, not because we were frightened by what lay ahead, but because we were already exhausted and walking the rest of the way to our rooms was a big inconvenience. We hurled invectives at the driver, but he seemed oblivious to anything we did.

Left with no choice, we got off and began trudging back home.

A few minutes later, we heard another motorcycle engine coming from behind us. Another tricycle was coming. It was rinnung at low speed and so we thought it would stop to pick us up. We flagged him down.

To our surprise, he did not stop, though it was impossible for him not to see us. Instead, he sped up.

He probably has too many passengers already, we thought.

Peering into the tricycle cab as it passed by, tried to peek in. We saw nothing but the driver and a lady seated at the back. A few meters away from us, the tricycle stopped and we saw the lady alight.

This is our chance, we said. We shouted at the driver, telling him to wait for us, and ran to the vehicle. As we made ourselves comfortable inside the tricycle, we attempted to make small talk with the driver.

We asked him if the lady who went down from his vehicle earlier was his girlfriend. The driver did not seem to hear, nor bother to answer us. Instead, he increased his speed and careened dangerously from side to side. We had to hold on to the railings to maintain our seats on the vehicle.

By the time we reached the end of the road and were about to alight, we began to worry that the driver had gone berserk. We asked him what the matter was. As we handed him our money, he finally replied, "Sinong babae?" Obviously refering to our earlier question.

We replied, "Eh di yung binaba ninyo doon sa may puno."

"Wala akong sinakay na babae, kaya ako huminto sa unahan niyo kasi yung pwesto niyo kanina may lumalabas na babae 'pag hatinggabi."

SWC