Giggle From The Backstage

The event happened in the year of 2000, I was in my 2nd year of high school in my home town of Malang, East Java. There was an urban legend about my High School Building. It used to be a cemetery during the Dutch Colonial Era. The rich and famous Europeans were buried in that Cemetery back then, during the early 1900s; government officials, influential people and so on. And in mid of 1970s, the Cemetery was moved to other Cemetery in the city, some were taken back to Holland or to Christian Cemetery in the Village of Sentong, around 2KM from this location. The ground turned into Soccer Field, Youth Scouts building and swimming pool, and my high school building. And during that time was when the Ghost story begun.

At first I didn't believe the stories; A ghost of government official riding horse and walking around the school ground; a blond lady sitting on the bench in the school garden; and the little boy in the backstage of the School Hall. I thought it was just an urban legend, like all schools have similar urban legend in my city. Considering that the building of my school is pretty new since it was build in the late 1970s, so it couldn't be haunted, right? The other School building were built during colonial era so they were haunted and my high school building couldn't be because it's new. Well that's what I thought back then.

That day, my Karate club was preparing for an upcoming competition. We were supposed to be practicing from after school hours around 2.30 PM until around 6.30 PM. We used a room in the backstage as a changing room, borrowing key from the Student council's office who used the room as storage.

Before the practice start, a friend from the student council warned us not to use the room after Maghrib (which is around 6 PM, right after sunset). My club mates and I were taken aback and asked him why but he repeat his warning, firmly told us not to enter the room after Maghrib. There was a belief among Javanese that ghost and creatures from 'the other world' come out during sunset, in time when the day turns to night. We didn't think much of the warning, we thought that the warning was because of the urban legend going on in the school that time. But damn we were so wrong.

So we ended the practice around 6PM, and we rushed to the room in the backstage. At first, there were three of us girls getting changed in that room. We heard a giggle, but we didn't think much about it. We heard the sound of Call of Prayer (Athaan) for Maghrib/ evening prayer, then one of us remembered about the warning so she asked me and my friend to get hurry. We joked and laughed, teased her for being such a coward. Somehow, something scared her as she turned and looked in the corner where there were stacks of boxes and white board leaning on the wall. She went out in a rush, and shouted at us to lock the door after we were done. Me and My friend laughed at her as we were almost done changing. And its then we hear another giggle. Immediately, we went quiet. Looked around and asked each other; did you just heard the giggle? And right after that, the white board leaning on the wall in the other side of the room, suddenly falls to the floor, the sound of it jolted both of us that we both shrieked.

We realised that this was the reason for the warning. We ran to the door but it was locked, we got panicky, we bang on the door, screaming, calling out for help. We were literally freaked out when we heard the giggle again. It was a kid giggling but there were no kid around there. We continued banging on the door and the giggle continued as well. Like 5 minutes later, my Sensei came and open the door. My friend and I immediately bolted out from that room, screaming.

The next day, I returned the key to the Student Council's room and that friend of mine asked me about what happened the other day. If it was true, that I got harassed by the kid ghost. I was shocked and then he told me that a kid ghost, blond kid, is in that room. He likes to tease people, especially those who were still in that school hall after maghrib, that's why he warned us to leave before maghrib and we were very ignorant that time that we didn't take his warning seriously.

Few years ago, I went back to my high school for reunion and I asked the juniors there about the Kid ghost in the School hall. And they were surprised, they asked me: did he tease you too? And recently, I asked an admin of a IG account which post pictures and stories about my hometown; if the Kid ghost is still there in so and so high school hall. And he laughed; he told me, that Kid ghost refused to leave even when they renovated the School hall.

I guess he is bound to stay there for good... I don't know until when...