Have you ever been in a place where there's nobody else around but you? Then weird things started happened, like a sudden bang of a door or a TV switching on itself. Spooky, isn't it?

This week's episode for the Spooky Tales, a Month-long Halloween Special, real experiences and stories of some TQ players - The Freaky Lounge TV. Reaux-Hann, a CT player with an in-game name of Reauxhan, one of the recent winners of CT's 2nd anniversary Essay Contest, will share us his first-hand experience of unknown happening that thrilled him. I interviewed him, and let's hear his tale:

AI: Hi. How are you?

Reauxhan: Fine here...

AI: How was your holiday? And I mean about Halloween holiday.

Reauxhan: Cool. We've been to the cemetery last November 1. We visit my parent's grave together with my relatives.

AI: So you have then?

Reauxhan: Yep, absolutely. I'm always happy when I got a break from work, and hang out with my friends and families.

AI: Right... I will get to the point now. Since my purpose on this discussion is about sharing your spooky stories, do you have any?

Reauxhan: Oh, yeah!

AI: Mind re-telling and share to us your story?

Reauxhan: Sure. Ok, here we go...

I was on my cubicle at that time, and it was already 11 o'clock in the night. Okay, call it "overtime". I made a lot of mess of my recent project that was assigned to me. It was a wedding invitation, mass production, and a meticulous project owner. Instead of March 29, 2009 as their wedding date, I mistakenly typed March 26, 2009. And they needed it tomorrow morning since they would be distributing the invitations. I admitted it was my fault. Whoever will be the project owner, I'm sure he/she would be mad, so it left me no choice but to burn my eyebrows fixing all the mess that I've made.

So, I was in my cubicle then, sticking the new dates to the errors. Then I heard people talking in a low voice, and then a few minutes, the voices fades. After 10 minutes approximately, the voices will be heard again. I had a doubt that it was the TV. But I wonder who would actually turn the TV ON and OFF, and after a couple of minutes, turn it ON again? So when I heard the voices again, I went to the lounge area and checked if the TV was ON or not. Ok, it was ON then. So I walked towards the TV and turned it off. I am not a scared person. Much more, I am not easily afraid by ghosts or something. But I just don't know why my heart beats a little faster than usual. Is it just because I'm all alone as of that moment? (in the building. There was a guard on-duty during night, but he was in the gate. He didn't do rounds. Over timers will lock the building.) I don't want to admit that I got a little nervous at that time. So I walked out of the room, switched off the lights and then closed the door.

Back to my work again, I looked my watch at the corner of my desk. I never wear my watch when I'm working. Great! It's already 11: 43 and I'm not even got half of my works done. It's not that I'm working only on the invitations; there's the giveaways that needs to be fixed too. At least, for quite some time, the voices were nowhere to be heard.

At the strike of midnight, I felt a little drowsy, so I decided to make myself a cup of coffee. It forced me to go to the pantry, passing through the lounge area. As I twisted the door knob to open, the door wouldn't budge. Obviously, it wasn't locked since I could twist. So I pushed harder. It seemed like someone had barricaded it from the inside. Until, I finally opened it. As the door swung open, I could not believe what stumbled before my eyes. The TV was on, but I could not hear any voices coming out from it. I later found out that it was in a mute mode. But I was definitely sure that it was not in a mute mode when I shut it off a while ago.

Geez! I felt a little afraid by that time, but I don't want to be conquered by it. So, assuming it was like normal, I switched the lights on, walked towards the TV and turned it off again, then made my way to the pantry. I tried my best to get off in that room immediately, but I have to wait for water to boil. After 2 minutes, I hurriedly poured the hot water to my mug, scoped a teaspoon of coffee and a little sugar, then, with a rapid pace, I stepped out in the room.

I felt a little relief. While I was stirring my coffee, I could feel the aroma. Now, I wonder if this is a cause of tiredness or am I hallucinating? As I was thinking over of what had recently happened in the lounge, it seemed so real. But who else would be here? I took a sip of my coffee, and warm was filling up my stomach. I took another sip, and oh, it felt good that warm was invading my whole body, from my nape down to knees. Then I paused for while. Feeling energetic again and tiredness had flown away; I was back to the work.

It was now 12:29, and I reached for my coffee again. As the liquid went down to my throat, suddenly, a cold something damped into my nape. That was not supposed to be felt when you got a hot coffee flowing in to your body. Then a bang of door startled me. It was the lounge's door. OMG! My knees started shaking and I was confused on what to do. Scared, I put down my mug, pulled my computer's plug immediately, reached for my bag, and hurriedly made way to the main door. I took the keys, switched off the main lights and locked the whole building immediately.

I sighed when I reached into the parking area. I was only few steps away my motorcycle when suddenly I remembered, the key of my motorcycle was on my desk. "Oh, common! I don't want to go back there." But I had no choice, I had to go back.

I was mumbling words as I opened the door of the building. And then I heard a loud thump from afar off. Now I was more afraid, as the thump grows louder and louder. A light blinded me for a while when I turned my head to the right. It was our security guard, and the thumps that I'd heard were his footsteps. "Geez! You scared the hell out of me," I said to him. I told him that I forgot my key inside, and would he mind if he could accompany me inside.

AI: Whooooo... So did he?

Reauxhan: Yeah, of course. And even if he didn't, I'll force him.

AI: I will do it too if I were you. You went home at that night then?

Reauxhan: Yes! A big yes!

AI: How about your work?

Reauxhan: I finished it the following morning. I was almost finished when I left those at night.

AI: Did your boss got mad?

Reauxhan: If it's about the undone work, nope. She was mad actually because ( I hate to admit this... = ( ) my desk was in total chaos - real messy!

AI: Well, what would expect if you got in that kind of situation? Thanks for sharing your spooky tale.

Reauxhan: No problem with that.

-- By AI --