"Thank you for not opening the lights."

The Story

They were roommates. The other one was getting ready for a party while the other was getting ready to sleep. So the former closed the lights as he went out of the room. When he reached the parking area, he realized that he forgot his keys so he went back to get it. He didn't bother to open the lights anymore since he knows where it is and he does not want to disturb his sleeping roommate. After the party, while he was driving back to his dorm, he noticed that there was an ambulance following him and some police cars too. As soon as he entered the grounds of Ateneo, the ambulance was still tailing him. When he reached his dorm, there was a crowd surrounding his room. His roommate was murdered, his body dismembered and on the mirror was a note in blood "Thank you for not opening the lights".

About

According to the story, it happened in Ateneo. However, the story has a similar one in USA, and it was documented by Jan Harold Brunvand on his book The Vanishing Hitchhiker. He also gave it a title, The Roommate's Death. The legend actually dated 40 years ago (or probably more). Brunvand said in his book:

.... One consistent theme in these teenage horrors is that as the adolescent moves out from home into the larger world, the world's dangers may close in on him or her. Therefore, although the immediate purpose of these legends is to produce a good scare, they also serve to deliver a warning: Watch out! This could happen to you!

Versions

All versions have similar story line:

... someone is killed right under the nose of an unsuspecting female protagonist, but because the lights are out, or the crime takes place in another room, the victim's body isn't discovered until later, usually the next morning. As the story is sometimes told, the protagonist hears suspicious noises but is afraid to investigate because she thinks it could be an intruder coming after her.[1]

And here is one example of it:

As told by Jon Little:

I heard about a girl who went back to her dorm room late one night to get her books before heading to her boyfriend's room for the night. She entered but did not turn on the light, knowing that her roommate was sleeping. She stumbled around the room in the dark for several minutes, gathering books, clothes, toothbrush, etc. before finally leaving.

The next day, she came back to her room to find it surrounded by police. They asked if she lived there and she said yes. They took her into her room, and there, written in blood on the wall, were the words, "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" Her roommate was being murdered while she was getting her things.

(I've heard this several different times. Each time it was at a different university.)
 

---

[Brunvand, 1965]

These two girls in Corbin had stayed late over Christmas vacation. One of them had to wait for a later train, and the other wanted to go to a fraternity party given that night of vacation. The dorm assistant was in her room—sacked out. They waited and waited for the intercom, and then they heard this knocking and knocking outside in front of the dorm. So the girl thought it was her date and she went down. But she didn’t come back and she didn’t come back. So real late that night this other girl heard a scratching and gasping down the hall. She couldn’t lock the door, so she locked herself in the closet. In the morning she let herself out and her roommate had had her throat cut and if the other girl had opened the door earlier, she [the dead roommate] would have been saved.

Obviously, the story happened in Ateneo is a fake. Perhaps, the person who started to spread it just want something interesting that (s)he can share to his/her friends.

Source:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/turn_on_light.htm
http://spoonlagoon.blogspot.com/2008/09/pinoy-urban-legends-10.html
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/roommate.asp

A Medical Center Mystery

Have you receive this message below?

About

"ICU patients always died in the same bed on Sundays at 11 a.m., regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors. No one could solve the mystery. Mr. Licauco and the Ateneo paranormal folks were called. They arrived armed with special photographic equipment, infrared devices and motion sensitive radar to detect any presence, so on Sunday, a few minutes before 11 a.m., doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to know what the mystery was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses and prayer books to ward off evil spirits. "When the clock struck 11, Mang Jose, a part-time Sunday janitor, entered the room, unplugged the life support system and plugged in the vacuum cleaner."

Me? Yes. That's the reason why I searched some details that can support the text message I received. Actually I got it a long time ago, and it was only now that I read it again.

According to the message, every patient dies in ICU every 11 AM, Sunday, whatever reason death may cause.

It mentioned a doctor named Dr. Licauco, perhaps his full name is Jaime T. Licauco. He is a paranormal expert (a parapsychologist), President of Philippine Paranormal Research Society, Inc., and a columnist in Inquirer Lifestyle. Other than that, I knew nothing about him. It also mentioned together with Mr. Licauco, the Ateneo paranormal folks. I don't know about them.

I found an article in a News website in the Philippines. He also received the same message, and searched everything about it.

News

I RECENTLY got a text message titled ?Mystery at a Medical Center? from a well known ophthalmologist. The message read: ICU patients always died in the same bed on Sundays at 11 a.m., regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors. No one could solve the mystery. Mr. Licauco and the Ateneo paranormal folks were called. They arrived armed with special photographic equipment, infrared devices and motion sensitive radar to detect any presence, so on Sunday, a few minutes before 11 a.m., doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to know what the mystery was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses and prayer books to ward off evil spirits. When the clock struck 11, Mang Jose, a part-time Sunday janitor, entered the room, unplugged the life support system and plugged in the vacuum cleaner. I replied to the female ophthalmologist who had sent me the text, ?I didn?t know that story is still being circulated around.? I explained to her that the joke first appeared on the Internet maybe five years ago in the US. It carried names of well-known American parapsychologists. Somebody had forwarded to me a copy of that Internet joke. Soon it was used by compilers of a bestselling series of pamphlets on ?True Philippine Ghost Stories.? But they changed the name of the American hospital to Makati Medical Center and the names of the parapsychologists to sometimes Jaime Bulatao or Tony Perez and the spirit questors and myself. I thought the story had died a natural death. But many years later, I found out it is still very much alive, this time in text jokes. I am simply amused by such stories and hope people see the obvious jest. Strangers But urban legends apparently die hard. And some have been going on about me without my knowledge. I am usually the last to know. For example, I bumped into a group of strangers coming out of a Greenbelt restaurant years ago. One of them recognized me and greeted. ?Do you remember me?? he asked. I apologized and said, ?No I?m sorry, but I don?t.? He then told me he could not forget meeting me in a restaurant three months before former Sen. Ninoy Aquino came back to the Philippines. He said that I told him and six other people that if Ninoy came back to the Philippines, he would be assassinated. I said that? I asked incredulously. Yes, he emphatically replied. There were six of us who heard you say that. ?I?m sorry.? I told him. ?I don?t remember having said that.? And then I walked away from them. I learned from my son Jolan Alexander, now a businessman, that he had been told the story on two separate occasions that I once hit a baseball so hard it flew high up in the sky and was never recovered. When Jolan told me about that, I merely laughed because I have never played baseball, not even in my dreams! Relieved Here?s another recent example which took place only months ago. I went to a medical doctor who was a practitioner of holistic medicine and Chinese acupuncture. There was a female patient in the treatment room. When we were introduced, she said she knew me; we were neighbors in same office building in Makati. She said she was then scheduled for operation for cancer and I supposedly told her not to undergo the operation because she didn?t need it. Because of my advice. she said she didn?t undergo the operation. ?And what happened?? I nervously asked. ?You were right!? she replied. ?It turned out I didn?t need the operation after all.? I was relieved but at the same time puzzled because I would never tell anyone, specially someone I hardly know, not to undergo a medical surgery. I don?t remember that incident at all. But she was very sure that conversation took place in that building. Maybe that was another urban legend that has developed around my persona or character. I?ve been told that some people say I can read minds, tell the future, heal the sick and talk to the dead. If I could do all those things, I probably would have a long line of people waiting outside my door. I don?t know how many others are being circulated that I am not aware of.

Source:
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/wellness/wellness/view/20101123-304720/Urban-legends-die-hard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaime_Licauco

The Ghost in Ateneo de Manila University

Ateneo de Manila University was one of the oldest, and one of the most popular university in the Philippines. The main campus of ADMU is in Quezon City, just beside the Katipunan Avenue and near Loyola Memorial Park and Barangka Cemetery.

Anyway, we are not going to discuss everything about ADMU, however we will talk about the other side of this known university. I'm talking about the scary ghost stories which turned to urban legends. Actually, it is common to a wide and old university to possess such things that terrorizes students. Even though some of them believes, yet there were others who just ignore the rumors till they experience it, and finally they became one of the believers. Like UP, this university also has many buildings inside the campus. Each one has its own respective use, also, each has its own story.

Stories

[Taken from Internet:]

The Department of Communication Building This building stands at Seminary Drive near the Manila Observatory. It is considered to be the most haunted building of all in the ADMU, but most of the classes here have been moved to the newer Social Sciences building. They said, there was some what a portal inside the its studio where spirits enters our realm. The banyos (comfort room) in the Comm Dept are really spooky. First Version: There is this story that as a janitor was about to close the building, a guard pleaded him to use the banyo. The janitor agreed, and the guard went to the second floor to use the said room. After the guard left, the janitor checked the room, and found it completely magulo (messy). There were handprints of human waste all over the room. He immediately left the building and talked to the guard, who was clueless about the event. When the guard turned around, he was shocked to see that there was also a print on the guard's back. Second Version: The janitor, who had just finished cleaning the bathrooms, was about to lock up the building when a security guard asked if he could go inside to urinate. The janitor agreed and let the guard in. Minutes later, when the guard emerged, the janitor double-checked the second floor bathroom–and was met with the sight of the tile walls and floors covered in streaky handprints of human excrement. He ran back downstairs to confront the security guard, who was absolutely clueless. When the security guard turned to leave, the janitor was shocked to find another handprint, clearly pressed on the back of the guard's white uniform. The two versions show the same story. Both have similar attendees - the janitor and the security guard.

[Taken from Internet:]

Other Haunted Buildings PIPAC Some say that a janitor haunts the building. He died when the air was sucked out of the building tp clear the chemicals. Gonzaga Hall The stairs are similar to the Sacred Heart. No matter how hard you try at night, you always end up at the Second Floor Landing! Bellarmine Hall They say Fr. Eliazo is always there. High School There is also a portal in the middle of the HS Covered Courts. In the middle of Court 4. Also There are reports of a ghost in every odd numbered batch of Days With The Lord. Sacred Heart Novitiate Building In the Sacred Heart Novitiate building, the story of the "stairs" is one that forces retreat-goers to go around in the "safety" of groups. Legend has it that late one night, a group of students went downstairs to go "exploring" after the others had gone to sleep. The frightening thing was that no matter how long they kept going down the flights of stairs from the 3rd floor dorm hall they occupied, they could not seem to find the ground floor landing. Even more sinister was that they kept passing the same eerie painting of Christ at each floor landing, over and over again.

Source:
http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/showthread.php?t=404620
http://www.pinoygizmos.com/index.php?topic=4720.0;wap2
http://www.spot.ph/gallery/1693/10-scary-stories-set-in-manila-schools-65279-/article/49643#pid=27679