Spooked - Pee Afraid

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Dr. Aammton Alias has a work retreat in the jungle. And when he gets there… he’s gotta go. Spooked episodes now drop every week on Friday! Featuring brand new stories -- along with episodes previously available only by subscription. Listen for free on any podcast platform. Be afraid. Thank you, Dr. Aammton, for sharing your story with Spooked! Produced by Anne Ford, original score by Dirk Schwarzhoff, artwork by Teo Ducot Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tisket atask it. I trapped it in the basket. It laughed it. Said it wouldn't answer what I asked it. I nagged it. I nagged it. A nagged it. And nagged it.

Until it screamed out the answers. To everything, I asked it. You're listening to Spooked. Stay tuned about you. But for me, too often, I feel like I'm walking through life. Exhausted. sleep deprived. Of course, I know

exactly why, because my mind likes to play tricks. Waking up at 3 in the morning with visions of the greatest story ever told. Bits, pieces, stanchets, and I know that the simple act of reaching from my phone, to

write this madness down, just a trickle of light in the darkness will mean several hours of staring at the ceiling, not sleeping. The next day will feel half lived. I also know that if I don't write the brilliance down this instant, the idea storm will pass forever from my mind like smoke. Before, I would sacrifice sleep to chase these phantoms, but now, often, I tell them no.

No, I just can't write now, but please, please, please, please, revisit me at a decent island. and you will be welcome. I waved them off, understanding full well of these ideas. They are a fickle bunch, vengeful. And because I refuse to play by their rules, I know I will never hear from them again. Spook starts. Life lessons.

Life lessons. Dr. Ampton lives in Brunei on my island of Borneo. He and some of his colleagues are going to go on a work retreat. Things have gotten stressful in the office and it's time to get on the same page and bond as a team. The road becomes from loose gravel to mud clay and it's at least three hours to drive off-road. We had this government issue Japanese off-roaders. So we were in a convoy of those and we had fun drifting in the mud. It was like we were young again, set loose upon the world.

There was this huge steep hill we had to drive up to. And we needed to pick up speed. I said, come on, on the count of three, we're going to shout Sparta, you know. Just like in that movie, 300. We're together, we're having fun, whatever fights we've had before. That's forgotten. It was like all was forgiven, you know. We go to a place called Sukang.

none of us had ever gone there before and it's interesting because the village is always flooded because it's by the river bank so all the houses also not stilts it's not just rural but it's deep rural as someone who says oh I live in a tropical country I have no idea until then what tropical rainforest is like

the trees as tall as buildings and a lot of butterflies, beautiful butterflies. The air is so much cooler. If I see an eagle, soaring in the air, I just feel as though I've been chosen to have a good day. We were all excited. We even brought a karaoke set, a full proper karaoke set.

In Southeast Asia, Karokey, a must. Doesn't matter if I can sing well or not. I am singing. After about four hours, we got to the dock and took a five-minute boat ride to the clinic. The clinic is basically a wooden house, a large wooden house structure on the river. There are no parts where there's soil or land. There is no dock for the clinic. You basically had to have. You basically had to get as close as you can and jump. We were shown where the hall was. This is where we're going to have our team activities, team building activities.

The ladies were shown where the dorm was, where the sleeping quarters were. The guys were shown where our sleeping quarters was. Then straight ahead was the toilet. It was quite a distance, actually. After we had unpacked, we do our... orientation program. We have team building. One activity was there's some sort of rope that was put on the floor and we had to get across from one side to the other without getting off the road. And you know, these things take quite some time and I needed to pee. It's really bad. I went out of the hallway

and started walking and the toilets at the end. And it's a long walk. I said, man, that's such a long way. and I wanted to get back into where all the fun was, you know, I didn't want to miss out. I had just had fun with my friends and I felt on top of the world. I felt, I felt uninhibited. And I thought, you know, since no one's here, everyone's busy in the hall, I'm just going to pee into the water. So that's what I did. As I was peeing into the water, I heard on my right. the voice of Dr. Zim, my colleague,

who was literally standing by my side, while I was peeing, he comes up right close to me and says, I should want to do that? What if someone is down there? Meaning not a real person, but a spirit of some kind. There's something called Chabal. It's like a set of conduct.

When you enter the jungle, there's certain things you're not meant to see. say the certain things you're not meant to do, because otherwise it gives an excuse for spirits to come after you. He said that you're not supposed to pee into the water because you might be peeing onto a spirit. So I was a bit naughty. I didn't just pee there. I challenged it. Because that's what I do. I do my challenge. That's part of my tribal instinct. I'm a descendant of a Kedayan tribe. When Kedayan people enter the forest, they challenge the spirits. They say, I'm not afraid of you. Come on, come here. Part of their belief system is to keep the spirits in check.

So they said, well, here's my golden shower. And I sped and I did a big lugy. I felt gung-ho. I felt tough. I thought, I'm in distraught. I'm in distrable. So none of your spirits if you exist here can do anything about it because I am who I am. So he left and I, you know, I went back into the hall and did my team building thing. After we had the orientation program, we decided to sing. You got to sing American Pie, right? I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. And I knew if I had...

my chance then I could make those people dance. It's such an easy song to sing and everyone joins in the chorus. We were screaming to the top of our voices, you know. Bye bye, Miss American Pie, drove my Chevy to the livy, but the levy was dry. There was no drinking. Alcohol is prohibited in Brunei, but we had a lot of fun. After we finished singing, it was still. time for bed. Most of them were bunk beds. I grabbed one that was near a window and near the door.

Usually I sleep well, but that night I was woken up around 2 a.m. What woke me up was this loud thumping sound underneath me. Boom, boom. I thought, what is that? It was very eerie. I thought, maybe it's the boat. The boat was tied to the stilted building, so wooden stills and there's water everywhere below. I thought, I'm just going to ignore it. I noticed, you know, the window was frosted, but I could see a black shadow

moving to and fro from one end to the other. It was passing by the window, and then back again. And then something was moving past, the gap between the door and the floor. and when I looked under, I saw tiny feet. No, no, no, no, that's just your mind playing games. You're in the jungle, you're tired. But I'm sure I saw feet.

One pair of feet. Moving fast by the door and passing again, just like the window. I was really scared. I said, hey, anyone awake? Hello? Hello? I have a pretty loud voice and... loud voice and no one woke up. And I thought, what am I going to do? So I thought I'm going to get out of the room and walk towards the hall, the main hall. I thought it just made sense that I should

be with people who was awake. It's like a long balustrade to get to the hallway. When I got out, I felt there was someone behind me and not just someone behind me, but I felt someone was clinging to my back. like piggybacking, like a backpack, but with hands. Usually, I would say, I'm going to turn around and look at you. And, you know, if I see something, I'm going to punch you. But here I thought, if I saw it, whatever it was, I'm going to die on the spot. Because I was so scared.

My heart was pounding. I was sweating. I was trembling. I wondered if I was having a stroke. I didn't dare turn around. I tried saying some holy verses from the Quran, but I was just gibberish. So I just said, okay, I'm going to look down on my feet

and just keep walking towards the hall. When I got into the hall, I'm trying to find someone else who's awake. If I'm with someone else, we can confront anything. But if I'm alone, you know, and something happens to me, no one's going to avenge my death, no one's going to be able to tell what actually happened.

When I went into the hall, I saw the team leader. He was asleep, and I tried to wake him up. He was just sleeping, they were fast asleep. I got so upset, and I said, you're supposed to be psychiatric. You're supposed to be able to wake up when there's an emergency. And he didn't wake up. So I thought, gosh, what am I going to do? I thought, there's no way I'm going to say.

sleep here because the doors open and it's huge, it's less people. I thought I'd be safer in numbers. So I made the option of going back towards the bedroom. And the moment I got back out there, you know, I felt the same thing. I felt something was there. At that moment, I saw the water disappeared. It vanished. The water vanished and I saw all the vegetation underneath. I saw the boat. I saw the boat on the actual mud, on the actual soil, when it was just supposed to be floating. All the houses are still there on the stilts. The trees are still there, but the water is all gone. It's like something, someone drained it all away instantly. I thought, no, no, they can't be. So what I did is close my eyes, and I said holy mantras at my heart. I opened a

my eyes and the water was still gone. It's completely gone. Whatever can make water disappear must be more powerful than you can imagine. I had only one thing to do, which was to run back into the bedroom. Sliding in to the door and just slamming the door and then I jumped into the bunk bed.

I thought, what was that? What hell was that? I wanted to switch on the lights. But I was so scared that the moment I put my feet around on the floor, something from underneath my bed would drag me into, somehow, into the water down below. So at that time, I had this brand-new Japanese flashlight, indestructible. I switched it on, pointed it at the wall, and I just focused on that. After five minutes, I said, all I have to do is wait till dawn. And it was at that moment, the brand new flashlight

died and that's when I went into further panic. I was sweating buckets. I got to do something. Or I'm going to die here. I thought if something appeared in front of me suddenly, I would just collapse. And the worst thing was that

if I died there, people would say, oh, he just had a heart attack, he was smoking, You know, had too much fun there. No one would say he died there because spirit killed him or he died of shock. I was so scared. Eventually, I must have courage. I jumped out of the bed and just punched the lights. I started shouting at everyone.

Wake up! Wake up, everyone. And everyone was fast asleep. So there was this guy in front of me. He's actually a urologist. He was somewhere in la la land and dreaming happily in a blissful sleep I thought no matter what happens I'm gonna wake him up It could be one of these things that he'll never forgive me for

But this is do or die So I slapped him hard His face kind of shook and he woke And I had to say to him look look I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry and I know this sounds like crazy. But I think there's something here. Surprising, he didn't fight with me. That's the thing that surprised me how calm he was. He believed me. He said, okay, let's go to the hall and we'll sleep there. He actually brought me to the hall, read some holy verses for me and waited for me

to sleep. The next day, I woke up, this heavily and everyone saw me. It was so embarrassing. You know, It's not nice for everyone to see you in the middle of the hall to find you sleeping and snoring. For the rest of the day, I did my best to participate in the exercises, the team-building activities. But in the back of my mind, I was thinking, oh my God, what had just happened? How could this happen? At the same time, I don't want people to know I peed into the world. and I didn't want people to know that I broke a code of conduct with the spirits but I came up to Dr. Zim

I said you know I should have listened to you and he said what he's talking about you know about your warning not to pee into the water below he said what are you talking about you peed in the water why would you do that at the time I just, I didn't say anything else because I wasn't sure if he's pulling a long one. But at the same time, I was thinking, I think he's telling me the truth. I don't think he was the one who told me not to pin the water.

And then I realized that I didn't actually see his face. I did not see Dr. Zim's face. All I just saw was that he was beside me. me. I never saw his face. I thought that must have been something else that was telling me not to pee into the water. I think it was, the spirit itself was warning me. It must have been the spirit that I pissed off, literally. I know now, in the jungle, a proper jungle, deep jungle, you respect.

You respect the unseen. I shared this story with a friend of mine who's actually a spiritual master. He said that the spirits wanted to send me a warning. I was in a state of, it's like a dream state, but it's a dream state that's been conjured by the spirits. So that's why I couldn't wait anyone up until I decided to slap my urologist friend. That was the only thing that broke the spell. And now when I, you know, before I do a challenge, I said, do I really want to do this? A few months ago, in my clinic upstairs, there's a particular room that's got no windows.

And my staff have seen something there. Every time I go to that room, I know there's something there. I get goosebumps. And I basically shouted, don't you dare. Don't you dare. Don't you dare show up to me. I'll beat the F out of you And it's just saying that

I was just thinking Oh man don't Don't do this Don't challenge it But you gotta show That you're stronger will Than you actually are Like how a cat puffs up its fur

You know We're humans We never learn Thank you Dr Ampton For sharing your story On Spooked That original score was by Dirk Swartzoff,

it was produced by Anne Ford. A woman dropped her engagement ring in the ocean. Not a lot of water, surely lost forever, but a man found it for her, returned it to her.

Another fellow, he knew that a letter existed from his beloved departed grandfather. But he had no idea where it might be until a random guy brought it to him. Said he felt like someone was looking forward. Now, while I tend to be an amazing loser of things, some people are finders.

Are you a finder? If you are, let me know because there is nothing better than a spook story from a spooked listener. spooked, snapjudgment.org and the very best way to signal, not just the dark side, but the spook community in the know is by sporting the spook t-shirt of your very own. up and sexier in all the land. Available right now

at snapjudgment.org. And if you like your storytelling, under the bright light of day, get the amazing stupendious sister podcast. It's called Snap Judgment and it is storytelling with the beat. This book was created by the team looking to

get the cheapest price. Except, of course, from Mark Ristich, who always pays top dollar because he has enough trouble as it is. There's Davey Kim, Chris Hamburg, Leon Morimoto, Teo Decott, Marcia Dodge, Zoe Fregno, Ann Ford, Ergyanyaz, Cody Harjo, Lola Abrera, Doug Stewart, Miles Lassie, and Yari Bundy.

The spook theme song is by Pat Massini Miller. My name is from Washington, and evil. Evil is something we think we want to fight. It's something that's always over there. but shadow shadow is something very different shadow is the secret shadow is the hidden

the unknown but the unknown does not mean the evil you can fight evil you can slay the dragon you can defeat the angry horror but one one does not fight

shadow the shadow you can dodge you can fence you can peat but the shadow will be it can be your friend to your enemy but it will be best

tool I know for coaxing shadow to do your bidding. It's simple. Never.