Almost two decades ago, I witnessed one of the country’s licensed exorcists perform a cleansing ritual on an old office building where I used to work. I will not divulge the name of the company, but it was a bank down south of Metro Manila.
The building was old, massive, and looked like it was located in the middle of nowhere. Inside, it was maze-like with a lot of dark corners and vacant rooms. In fact, when a curious colleague and I explored the building, we found a dark, almost pitch-black office wing on the fifth floor. We wondered why nobody used that entire wing until we heard stories that it was once used as a temporary morgue.
The building also had a big auditorium where office events were often held. But behind all the fun and music, I think only a few people realize that at the back of the main stage were dilapidated executive offices and unused elevators, which we didn’t know where they led up to.
Anyway, you have a pretty good picture of how the interiors of the building looked. I guess that was why they needed a licensed exorcist to do the building’s cleansing. Anyway, to do the ritual, the priest went floor to floor, accompanied by some top executives.
The priest would sprinkle holy water underneath desks, on mirrors, paintings, computer monitors, and windows. He said that these objects and locations were portals through which spirits and supernatural beings can find their way out into our world. Knowing that the area underneath my desk could potentially be a portal between our world and the spirit world gave me the creeps because I often worked late in that building.
On the topmost floor of the building, where the executive offices were located, the windows were floor-to-ceiling. According to the priest, he saw many ugly spirits and elementals floating outside the windows and trying to get inside the building.
From time to time, the exorcist would stop and make a sound as if he were throwing up. He said that it was the spirits that were causing him to do that.
When the ritual was over, our boss asked him where the most haunted place in Metro Manila was, and the exorcist said that it was not a place that everyone would expect. It was a modern mall (well, at least at that time) located north of Metro Manila. Again, I was a little uneasy because it was a mall that I frequented during those days.
What was funny though, after office hours, the senior officers set up for the exorcist a makeshift kitchen at the building’s rooftop garden. Apparently, the exorcist was also an expert paella cook.
They had a potluck party at the garden while the priest prepared a big pan of paella. I can attest to how delicious the exorcist cooked. Talk about living a double life, haha.
This story is part of my Halloween & horror stories series:
ADVERTISEMENT
