This is a true story that happened to me when I was in 10th grade.
There’s a tradition in the Philippines that my family still follows. It’s where the birthday celebrant will be anointed with fresh chicken blood by an elder (usually their mom) on their forehead.
This is a way of blessing the person and keeping them off any bad luck. Then the chicken is usually served along with the “handa-an” (what you call all the food you prepare for the birthday).
I woke up on my birthday at 5 am because it was a school day and I took out my phone to check messages and just scroll a bit like what I usually do before I take a shower. The room was very dark except for the bit of light coming from outside my bedroom door, which was slightly open.
As I was scrolling through my phone, for some reason, I didn’t feel comfortable with my position. I thought maybe it was the huge pillow hurting my neck or maybe my legs just needed to stretch, so I changed my position by turning a full 360 so my thighs were now on top of my pillow, my leg up on the wall so I could stretch, and my head rested where my legs used to be.
As soon as that happened, I felt a thick drop of ‘something’ landing on my thigh. I thought it was water leaking, but it wasn’t raining that night. So that couldn’t be it.
So I turned on my flashlight from my phone and looked up at the ceiling — nothing.
I placed a hand on where the drop was and my eyes turned wide in horror when I discovered it was a drop of blood. Out of nowhere.
Right on my thigh. Where my forehead was supposed to be a second ago before I had the urge to turn.
So I turned on the lights, called my mom and aunt and showed them the blood. It was thick, it was red, it smelled bad.
They only saw a little of it because I already wiped my fingers on it and the rest were… gone.
In the end, they assumed I was just half-asleep and must have had a dream with my eyes wide open, but I knew I wasn’t.
I saw the blood. I felt it. I smelled it.
And it wasn’t just a coincidence because for the entire year, I’d get sleep paralysis at least 3 times in one day and see a figure – a woman with long fingers and a green ring hovering above me. Sometimes it would pretend to be my mother by hugging me and singing a lullabye just so I would think I was awake. Sometimes I’d hear kids laughing as they jump on my bed and jump on my chest. It would hurt so bad, I couldn’t breathe. So I know it wasn’t just dream. It wasn’t just my imagination.
It got to the point where my bed would shake even after I wake up that I would wonder whether it really was just sleep paralysis, or something paranormal.
And the strangest part of all: we didn’t even have the money at the time to get me a chicken for the handaan. So why was there suddenly a drop of blood landing on where my forehead should’ve been?
Is it just a strange coincidence? Or is it somehow a birthday blessing from the beyond?
P.S. This was around 7 years ago. I don’t live there anymore and no longer have sleep paralysis. It’s only when I stay at that house that I get sleep paralysis.