Restless night. Summer is upon us here in Manila. And I kept hearing someone crying, on and off through the night, and it woke me up more than once. But I went around the house to see if anyone here needed anything - and no one else was up...

I live in a relatively large house with my parents and younger brother - we’ve lived here for some decades now, ever since us kids were little. We spend most of our time in our own set of rooms and meet in the common areas to eat or just hang out.

Our house was one of the first to be built in our subdivision. We’re its first owners and as far as we know the land on which it was built wasn’t used for anything else before the house was constructed.

So, a quiet house in a quiet neighborhood. And nothing out of the ordinary happening here at home.

A couple years back, though, we started experiencing some strange things.

My mom and I have begun to feel like there’s another presence, or other presences, in the house at times - and once or twice we might even have seen it, or them.

You may not believe in such things, but please hear me out.

Several times now, I’ve been in my room with the door open, either seated at my desk or reading or watching something in bed, and then out of the corner of my eye I think I’ll see my brother or dad walking towards my room. But when I look up - no one’s there.

Early this year. Late night at the dining table. Everyone else asleep. A couple of our cats snoozing.

I felt something stir the air to my left and turned - nothing there.

And both cats woke and stared - tracked something invisible moving - both heads moving at the same pace.

And just the other morning, very early.

My mom sometimes needs help getting around now and that morning she needed to use the toilet. Was struggling to get up.

I was fast asleep but abruptly woke when I heard three loud claps outside my bedroom window.

I almost jumped out of my bed. And then I heard my mom call me and ran to her aid.

“Were you already up?”, she asked. “I only called you once.”

“Oh, I was reading”, I said.

(The next house is 300m away from my room. And the claps came from right outside my window.)

I didn’t tell my mom because I didn’t want to scare her. She’s rather old now and she has a health condition.

At any rate, she’s had some odd experiences of her own.

February this year. I woke up early to use the toilet and something told me to check on my mom afterwards.

She was in bed but awake, facing the window, which itself faces another house just 10m away.

“Someone on the roof,” she whispered. “Looking at me. But he’s gone now.”

I called the subdivision guards immediately. And we talked to the neighbors, who assured us that they hadn’t heard anything.

That house is impossible to climb quietly. The side facing us is a sheer tall wall, and lower walls have rusting fences that make a racket when pushed.

“I just woke up all of a sudden and felt like someone was looking at me. I turned my head and there he was, standing at the edge of the roof. Couldn’t see his face. I just felt the stare.

“And then - after a few moments - he just disappeared.”

That one is probably the most intense of my mom’s strange experiences to date.

Maybe I’ll add to this thread if we experience anything new.