The Others

New place, new routine, new something...

I want it to be totally dark when I sleep so before going to bed, I always make sure all lights are off except for the one at the garage near the gate. I do this everyday since I decided to stay here last week. See, I am renting a room in a new 3-storey building, and I’m alone.

There are only two bedrooms here. The master's bedroom and the one I'm renting, both in the second floor. The living room, kitchen and dining area are all in the first floor. The third floor is just an open room, with a T&B in one corner.The building has a rooftop. Out of curiosity, I went there once 2 days before I moved just to check the view. I didn’t see anything except for G.I sheet roofs and the gigantic EDSA billboards nearby.

The stairway leading to the rooftop is quite dark but since it gets some light from the open door of the third floor, I didn’t bother checking for any lights. The gate that opens to the rooftop is made of cast iron which creates this loud, burglar-alarming noise when you open or close it.

Early Friday morning, I was at the rooftop again to hang my clothes outside to dry. Following my weird sleeping time, I slept after at about 11AM and got awakened around 2 in the afternoon.

It’s raining.

I ran upstairs to check my clothes. I didn’t turn any lights on. I was surprised to see a dim light coming from the stairs leading to the rooftop. I never really noticed before that there’s a light bulb installed at that part. Now it’s on, like as if it knows I need it to be on right that afternoon. But who turned it on?

At that moment I was more concerned with my clothes, already dripping wet before I could get to them. I hung them on a covered area and proceeded back to my room and tried to continue with my sleep. I didn’t turn that light off, actually I don't even know where the switch is. I woke up at 6PM; I went upstairs again to get my clothes. The light is already off.


Not to scare myself, I came up with the following theories:

1. The light has a sensor. Like it turns on and shuts off automatically.

2. Someone visited the house, the owner, the caretaker, electrician, plumber, carpenter, or maybe an intruder who broke in while I was asleep and for some reason needed the light to be on.

3. Who turned it off? The one who visited the house came back and turned it off, sometime between 3 to 6PM, again, while I was asleep.

4. The light has malfunctioned. It's one of those inexpensive light bulbs which casts yellow/orange light. There must be something wrong with the connection, the circuit, whatever they call it, and it turns itself on and off. And no, unless I've got someone with me, I won't dare check it.


I was thinking of taking a photo of the stairs and the light bulb, but I'm afraid something there might take it as a photo opp and scares me more. LOL