My Name Is Siti

Story told by:
Sara de Souza
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I have a grandaunt staying with my family. She's stayed with my family even before I, the first child, was born. She used to be mean to me and my brothers when we were little by scaring us with ghost-stories, but little did I know that she herself has her own experiences with these things.

I only found out recently that she had three female spirits hanging around her. She says she can't see them but she can "feel" them because they like to bug her. She herself has a powerful intuition about these things. Apparently these spirits have been hanging around her even since my mom was young.

Even my grandmother, my mom's mother, who can sense spirits, told my mom that my grandaunt has three spirits hanging around her. She also specifically told her their names, and each of their first name starts with "Siti" (sorry even my mom can't remember their full names)

Of course, my mom did not believe it. Even until about almost two decades ago when a friend of hers visited the house.

Her friend can actually see spirits, and one day he came to the house to discuss business or something or other, and he casually met my grandaunt.

The next time he met with my mom, he told her "I'm going to tell you this but don't panic, okay? When I met with your aunt, I saw three female spirits with her."

At this point, she was a bit spooked because it was too much of a coincidence, but later on she dismissed it. She even told herself that, maybe even out loud, that these spirits do not exist. And that was a turning point for a scary event about to unfold.

This happened when I was between 4 or 5 years old. I'm not sure.

My mom came home from work at about 7pm. At that time it was already starting to get a bit dark, with a hint of light. She saw the front door open and the lights weren't even turned on. She felt panic but she braved it and went inside the house.

She saw my brother, who was about 2 or 3 years old, crying hysterically and crawling in circles. The maid was in the kitchen (you can see part of the kitchen from the front door) and she stood there, awfully quiet. She was carrying my youngest brother, who was maybe barely a year old or a bit less. It was clear on the look on her face that she was scared or spooked about something.

My mom asked her to come to the front but she just shook her head furiously, rooted to the spot. By now my mom was very angry that she couldn't do a simple thing like come to the front, but that anger was mixed with a strong fear as to not knowing what was going on.

Frustrated, my mom took a glance around the room to see that my grandaunt was sitting in this big red armchair that we have in the living room at that time. Her face was facing away from her, and she was eerily quiet.

But my mom noticed that she looked different. She could see, even when it's sundown, that she has much darker skin and that her hair was jet-black. (my grandaunt has gray hair)

So my mom felt creeped out and hastily grabbed my brother who was crawling in circles near her.

But trying to rationalize what was going on, she asked my grandaunt in the most calm voice she could muster, "Mek Dah, ada apa-apa ker?" (Mek Dah, is there anything wrong?)

Suddenly my grandaunt's head turned sharply and looked at my mom.

My mom described her face as long-ish, longer than normally what my grandaunt would look like (she has a round or square-ish face). Her skin colour is so much darker.

And she looked fiercly angry.

She grabbed hold of the armchair's arms, even with her still on it, and she began thumping the armchair up and down. Not even my dad, standing on his two feet, can do something like that! The armchair is way too heavy!

While she was doing this, she screamed "Nama aku Siti lah! Siti!!!" (My name is Siti! Siti!!!)

She quickly stopped and got out of the chair and walked towards my mother in a weird manner. It was more like she was hunched and her body turned in one direction with every step she took. She finally was near my mother and she gave her an ugly, concentrated stare. My mom was so shocked that she couldn't even move.

Then my grandaunt, or Siti, went back to the chair, sat down and passed out.

After about 30 seconds, she awoke and her face was back to normal. She looked at my mom and said "Eh, Sila dah balik?" (Eh? You're back home?)

I guess the reason why this incident happened was because the spirits heard her say that she did not believe in them, so they decided to "show" her.