Singaporeans might find Halloween less scary than the seventh month, perhaps because Asian ghosts are more relatable than witches and ghouls.

Which is why we have compiled eight paranormal encounters that happened to our colleagues in time for the season, just to get the spook factor up.

Have fun.

1) Baby ghost

My mum could see ghosts up until about seven or eight years ago. My house had one, too -- the ghost of a baby.

The baby ghost would play with my mum by bouncing up and down her lap. Although she couldn't exactly make out its form, she would feel the pressure of the entity on her body.

One day, when I was in a room with her, my mum suddenly instructed somebody/something to "get out" and "go to the altar", so that it could relay its message to the deity residing there.

Later on, my mum told me that the baby had crawled into the room. But it had the face of an adult man.

That was the last time my mum would see such things.

- Angela

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2) Devil's hour

My bed faces the window, which has old curtains hanging over it, supported by velcro straps.

One particular night, I felt a little off but decided to go to sleep anyway.

As I was just about to doze off, I was jolted wide awake by the sound of velcro tearing.

It was loud, made doubly so by the quiet of the night.

Although I was on high alert trying to figure out how and where the sound was coming from (it was way too loud to be my curtains, and they weren't showing signs of dropping), I eventually got tired and went back to sleep.

But just then, the same loud velcro-tearing sound could be heard, ripping through the night.

I opened my eyes and stared at the curtains, but there was nothing but shadows (the curtains were still hanging on).

I thought to myself: If it's 3am now (also known as the devil's hour) I die liao.

I pressed the home button on my iPhone.

It was exactly 3am.

Heart thumping, I switched the lights on and stared at the curtains for a long time.

I don't remember falling asleep.

The next morning, when I was in a clearer, less panicked state of mind, I took my curtains down to see if the velcro would make that much noise.

That when I remembered that the curtains were so old that the velcro no longer worked, and they were instead held up by pegs.

- Mandy

3) Frangipani

[caption id="attachment_277851" width="640" align="aligncenter"] Source: Ruth Hartnup/Flickr[/caption]

I have not had any supernatural experience of my own (thank goodness), but my friends have told me plenty of stories from their time in national service.

One night, a friend of mine was on prowling duty with a fellow NS mate at one of the camps in Rifle Range Road.

In case you didn't know, Rifle Range Road is a very dark area with nothing but vegetation surrounding it.

His friend then started smoking, which was normal since they had to pull an all-nighter.

But he was smoking like a chimney, lighting one cigarette after another, looking perpetually disturbed.

After the two had finished their rounds, my friend asked his buddy about the excessive smoking.

It turns out that the strong scent of frangipanis -- a floral smell associated with the presence of a pontianak -- had been following the pair as they did their rounds.

The buddy said he had even seen the figure a little way behind them.

My friend, however, did not detect any smell.

- Jeanette

4) Paralyzed

There’s nothing quite like the experience of sleep paralysis. The first time it happened, my eyes shot open and I immediately saw a dark figure at the foot of my bed.

It was just a dark silhouette and I couldn’t see any features whatsoever. My first instinct was to scream, but no sound came out from my mouth.

My whole body was locked. I could only move my eyes.

I also felt like there was something pressing down on my body.

I think the whole thing lasted for a few minutes, but throughout that time, I didn’t dare to close my eyes cause I was afraid the figure would come nearer.

I just kept darting my eyeballs and trying to relax my muscles.

When I eventually “broke free”, that figure disappeared and I could finally move my body.

I didn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

- Olivia

(Editor's note: This episode is more scientific than supernatural, but eh.)

5) Another idiot who went to old Changi Hospital

[caption id="attachment_277855" width="722" align="aligncenter"] Screenshot from Google Maps[/caption]

During my early secondary school years, I had a chalet stay in one of the bungalows at Changi.

At the back of the chalet was a flight of stairs that led to Changi Hospital. My friend and I thought it might be exciting to explore the hospital.

After dinner, both of us snuck up the stairs. At the top was a fenced gate which wasn't locked.

We pushed it open and headed for the foyer.

It was very dark outside, but it felt quite exhilarating to be exploring Changi General Hospital, supposedly a very haunted hospital. Who knew what kinds of ghosts we would see?

[caption id="attachment_277856" width="726" align="aligncenter"] Screenshot from Google Maps[/caption]

So we entered the foyer on the first floor and found ourselves in the middle of a long hallway.

It was really dilapidated, like something off the set of Silent Hill.

At that moment, I felt a sudden chill.

Did I make a mistake coming here? As I passed one of the opened rooms, I popped my head inside for a glance but quickly retreated cause I felt bit uneasy.

We went down the hallway and came to a junction where we needed to choose to go left or right. I was on the right, so I said, let's just head right.

As we headed right, the air started to get colder, and I swear I heard a window slamming shut somewhere in one of the rooms on the left.

I wanted to turn back, but my friend insisted we continue. So we did -- like the foolish kids that we were.

We continued walking but just at that moment, I felt something brushing against my shoulder.

I spun around but there was nothing beside me. I was in an empty hallway.

So I turned to my friend (who was looking as pale as foolscap paper) and told him that I wanted to go back. He agreed and we both ran out and down the stairs back to our chalet.

We got scolded by our camp facilitator cause we were screaming as we ran back.

- Josh

6) 6am

I have a friend who goes on frequent business trips overseas, so she's used to staying by herself at hotels.

During a business trip to Yogyakarta, however, she noticed something was amiss the moment she stepped into the hotel room, as if she was being watched.

This had never happened before, but she brushed the feeling aside.

One of her colleagues, a Taiwanese, later left the city early without telling them why (she didn't want to spook the rest since they were still gonna be staying at the hotel).

After they were all back in Singapore, the colleague revealed that she left early because she felt something was wrong.

Even though she never listens to English songs, her phone suddenly started to play an English song for no reason.

She then left the hotel at 6am.

That was the time that my friend said she heard her room's doorbell rang. She was woken up by the ring and saw on her phone that it was exactly 6am.

Subsequently, her father also noticed a large, oval-shaped bruise on her thigh.

She had never seen the bruise before and had no idea how she got it. Apparently, it did not hurt.

To this day, she still has no idea who rang the doorbell.

- Kayla

7) The Big Johns

If you were an SCDF recruit, you would probably remember Big John.

For the uninitiated, Big John is a 90kg man-sized dummy used in training during rescue scenarios -- if you could carry Big John, you could carry a casualty.

[caption id="attachment_277611" width="703"] What Big John looks like.[/caption]

Sometimes during training, we would get tired of carrying them around and end up dropping them harder than usual.

Some would even take their frustrations out by kicking and punching the dummies

However, our officers would always warn us not to do that, probably because of all the things they have heard.

Rumour has it that some recruits had been trapped in a storeroom and found out that Big John had blocked the door, with its hand on the door handle.

But the creepiest story I have ever heard was the rumour that at night, the Guard HQ saw a live CCTV footage of three Big Johns getting up and walking near the prowlers on duty one night.

The Guard HQ immediately informed the prowlers to cut their patrol short and return at once, but not before seeing the dummies turn around and swaying back and forth to the front of the camera instead.

Today, some of the dummies don't have legs. Maybe it's to stop them from walking around.

- Sulaiman

8) Horror story-loving ghosts

During my first year as an international student in Japan, I used to gather with my dorm friends a lot for drinking parties.

For some reason, alcohol goes really well with horror stories and dim lights.

One time, someone was in the midst of telling a story when a girl from our group went completely quiet and broke out in a cold sweat.

It was only after our gathering ended that I found out what happened.

That fateful night, she had saw an apparition of a young girl at the wash basin area of the room.

The "young girl" was apparently listening intently to the ghost stories that were being told.

According to her, these apparitions enjoyed listening to horror stories as well. Perhaps even reading them.

- Kayla

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Top image by Google Maps

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