by Twaddler Boy
During lunch break Geno, one of my friends from another class asked if he could borrow my Video Cam for their video project. He said it was for Filipino class and they were assigned the same title Klase sa Pisika. So I said yes why not, but I knew my dad would only allow it if I was there too. I thought about how we would be able to finish 2 projects the same night so I told them that we can start shooting right after we shot ours.
The next day, right after class my group mates and I starting shooting and finished at around 7PM. My friends from the other class were already outside waiting for me before we even finished. They said they will be shooting it in their own class room which is the room next to ours. Our classrooms are on the second floor. There were 4 rooms there; two on the left side where our rooms are, two on the right and in the middle is the staircase. The floor is wooden so is the stair case. I remember that I used to play games with my friends. Whenever someone goes up the stairs and footsteps are really loud we would try to guess who he/she is and waited till we see who comes up. We would usually give the names of our fat classmate’s and say the fatter they are the louder their footsteps lol.
It was first day of school year 2000-2001 in Maryhill College, Lucena City. As I approached the room assignment board, one of my friends approached me and told me we were in the same class and said our classroom was in the new Annex building . I didn't really care about a lot of things back then but when he told me where the new Annex building was, I got intrigued. It was actually the old library building which has been closed for several years because it’s too old. According to the school administrators there was a big number students who enrolled that year and they had no other choice but to reopen the old building.
The annex building is one of the oldest buildings in the City and they said that it has been there since before the World War II. It had 2 floors and a basement back then and as I remember it had at least 6 classrooms but they are only on the 1st and 2nd floors. The Basement was left unused; the doors going there were all locked. I heard it’s full of water because of flooding brought by a recent typhoon. It always felt creepy walking in that building not knowing what lies beneath. The structure was made of wood, so when you walk inside you can hear your own footsteps. The exterior was kept as it is and was not repainted so it still looked really old and creepy.
A year later, everyone was already comfortable with the annex building. Our Filipino class teacher asked us to make a video enactment of certain Chapters in El Filibusterismo. It’s a book first published in 1891 by the Philippine National Hero Jose Rizal which depicts the life of Filipinos during the Spanish Occupancy. She assigned my group the Chapter titled “Ang Klase sa Pisika” or the “The Class in Physics” and I thought it was easy. We didn’t need to go anywhere else but shoot the video inside our own classroom. So it was perfect because the room looks old and looks exactly like the Spanish time classrooms I’ve seen on movies.
The next day, right after class my group mates and I starting shooting and finished at around 7PM. My friends from the other class were already outside waiting for me before we even finished. They said they will be shooting it in their own class room which is the room next to ours. Our classrooms are on the second floor. There were 4 rooms there; two on the left side where our rooms are, two on the right and in the middle is the staircase. The floor is wooden so is the stair case. I remember that I used to play games with my friends. Whenever someone goes up the stairs and footsteps are really loud we would try to guess who he/she is and waited till we see who comes up. We would usually give the names of our fat classmate’s and say the fatter they are the louder their footsteps lol.
We started to set up right after we finished but according to their group, they couldn’t start because they were waiting for Geno and Lourjoy. I guess Geno was their director and that the two of them were getting the script copied for everyone. It has already been 30 minutes and we were all just getting frustrated and were very quiet, perhaps everyone wants to get it over with so they can go home. I was sitting on the teacher’s table in front of the room when suddenly I heard loud footsteps running, going up stairs. So I stood up with excitement and leaned forward to look outside the door. The door was wide open and right outside it you would clearly see who is going up stairs. I saw everyone looked outside the door while we were still hearing the steps. It was probably about 10 steps, loud and seemed to be in a hurry, boom boom boom bag bag bag.. I was relieved hearing it because that means Geno and Lourjoy just arrived and we can finally start. Unfortunately no one was there. No one appeared on the steps. I looked at everybody and they also looked confused. Then at that moment we heard a guy shouting outside the building. So I ran to the window and it was Geno and Lourjoy they said they couldn’t go inside because the door to the building was already locked. They talked to the security guard but he didn’t have the keys for the door. So I started to realize that we were actually alone in the building. It was already closed and no one aside from us could have gotten inside. I saw everybody was looking afraid and were also thinking. What were the footsteps we just heard? So I then asked everybody. I know they heard it too because they all looked at the stairs but before anyone agreed to what I was saying, Lobelle their group leader said “heard what? I didn’t hear anything. Stop scaring yourselves. It was nothing”. After several minutes Geno and Lourjoy found the key holder and was able to open the building. We finished shooting and went home. We all knew what happened including Lobelle, but I guess she needed to play her part as the group leader to keep everyone there.
