A Ghostly 'Friend' in the Boarding School

(This story was experienced by a boarding school graduate named Fazri Ramdhan)

Mystical stories in the boarding school environment are not uncommon. Whether it's a coincidence or something else, I can't explain it.

As someone who used to attend a pesantren (Islamic boarding school), I also experienced such things. There were several eerie incidents during my time living there.

One event, in particular, still lingers in my memory, even though it happened more than a decade ago.

One night, my friend Amin and I were sitting on the second floor of the dormitory, ironing clothes.

At that time, the boarding school was on break, so we could spend time doing whatever we liked, as the students’ routine activities were paused.

Many of the students had gone home for the long holiday. Those left behind were students whose homes were on different islands, like Amin, or those who chose not to go home, like me, even though my home was nearby.

The dormitory was situated directly behind the school building. As we ironed our clothes, we could see the back of the school, which was completely dark because the classroom lights were off.

There were no streetlights either, so you can imagine—the area in front of the dormitory was pitch black.

Back to Amin and me, still ironing. As I was focused on ironing, I saw a shadow of a person walking away from the dormitory below. We both recognized him. Let's call him Yahya.

Amin called out to him, slightly shouting since we were on different floors. Yahya responded, and they had a brief conversation, though I don't remember exactly what they talked about.

After their conversation, the person walked away, passing through the dark school building.

We continued ironing until suddenly, from inside the room, a friend asked Amin,
"Min, who were you talking to?"
"Yahya," Amin replied briefly.
"Huh? He went home earlier today, to Jakarta."

I suddenly remembered—Yahya had indeed gone home, picked up by his family.
"Wait, what? Then who was I talking to just now?"

Amin’s question marked the end of our ironing session, and we hurriedly went back into the room, leaving the clothes scattered on the ironing table.

We figured we'd clean it up in the morning. That night, we squeezed together on a small bed, too scared to sleep apart.