My name is Vy.
It was that night, exactly at midnight, while I was organizing clothes in our walk-in closet here in Quezon City, when I saw something that made my blood boil until I felt numb.
On the clothesline, amidst the freshly washed laundry, hung our maid’s bra—Hani’s.
And rolled up inside it like a gift…
…was my husband’s brief, Tomas’. The brief that I hadn’t been able to find for days. It was as if an electric current shot straight to my head.
I didn’t think twice. I approached Hani and slapped her hard. “You shameless woman! You’ve been sleeping with my husband?!” She collapsed onto the cold floor, her lips trembling and eyes teary: “No… it wasn’t me, Ma’am Vy… please listen to me…” But I refused to hear a single word. In a fit of uncontrollable rage, I threw her belongings out into the yard and screamed: “GET OUT! NOW!”
Outside, the air was cold, seeming to cut against the skin. The wind was strong, like the night was weeping. She stood by the gate, shivering and crying, while I slammed the door shut, burning with fury.
Ten minutes later, headlights hit the yard. My husband—Tomas—arrived earlier than expected. He saw the open gate, the scattered belongings, and me—my face flushed red with anger, my hands trembling. “Vy… what did you do to Hani? Why is she outside in the cold?” I flung the bra and brief into his face: “You still don’t know? Here! The evidence of your affair!” Tomas stared at the two pieces of clothing… And suddenly, his face turned pale. Not the look of someone caught. But the look of… terror.
THE SHOCKING TRUTH
He took a step back, struggling to breathe. “Vy… listen to me first. This is not about Hani.” I sneered, full of mockery. “It’s not? Your brief is rolled up inside her bra, and you’re telling me it’s not? Do you think I’m stupid?”
I stared at Tomas, waiting for him to defend himself. But he just stood there, pale, as if a ghost was lingering between the air and the shadows. “This is not about Hani…” he repeated, his voice faint. “Tomas, don’t try to fool me. I saw the evidence!” I raised my voice. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at the bra and brief on the floor, as if it were a bomb that would explode any second. “Vy… please… listen to me first before you make a decision,” he whispered. “Explain yourself, now.”
Tomas looked outside. He saw Hani shivering in the cold, hugging her small bag. He walked to the gate and lowered his voice. “Hani… come inside first.” “NO!” I screamed. “She is not coming into my house!” Hani stopped, crying. “Ma’am Vy… I really didn’t—” “BE QUIET!” But Tomas looked at her with a strange kind of fear. “Hani… tell her. It has to be now. Before it’s too late.”
I froze where I stood. “What needs to be said? Tomas, what is this?” Hani shook her head, still trembling. “Sir… I can’t… maybe… maybe—” “Tell her!” Tomas shouted, his voice nearly breaking.
And then Hani’s legs gave way. She knelt on the cement, crying like a child. “Ma’am… I didn’t mean to… I truly didn’t mean to…” “What didn’t you mean to do?!” I snapped. She looked up at me, teary-eyed. “Ma’am… your husband’s brief… it didn’t come from your room. I didn’t take it. It was just put inside my clothing…” “WHO PUT IT THERE?!” Hani paused. She couldn’t look at me. She couldn’t look at Tomas. Slowly, her lips parted. “Ma’am… someone is coming into the house even though it’s locked.”
My whole body trembled. “What? Hani, what are you talking about?” But Tomas answered, his voice broken: “Vy… I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time. Something is happening in this house. It’s not normal.” “What is not normal?!” Tomas took a deep breath. “Hani… tell her everything.”
Hani, still shaking, spoke: “Ma’am… someone enters your room whenever you’re not there. Even with the padlock. Even with the deadbolt.” A chill ran down my neck. “That’s not true—” “It is true, Vy,” said Tomas. “And I have CCTV footage.”
My world stopped. “CCTV? What—?” Tomas walked to the study room. I followed, angry but consumed by fear. He opened the computer and showed the folder. CAMERA_BEDROOM CAMERA_CLOSET CAMERA_HALLWAY
“Tomas… when did you put up cameras?!” “Three weeks ago.” “Why didn’t you tell me?!” He looked at me. And only then did I notice: there was a fear in his eyes I had never seen before. “Because… I didn’t know how to tell you that… someone is moving your things. That someone is moving around at night. And I don’t know who.”
It felt like ice formed inside my chest. He opened the video. On the screen, it was night. Dark. I could only hear a dog barking outside. Then… The closet door opened. By itself. “This can’t be real…” I whispered. In the video, there was a shadow. Small. Thin. Like a human silhouette. But it wasn’t clear. It approached the drawer. Opened the drawer. Took out… one of Tomas’ briefs. Then: A hand. A woman’s hand. Thin. Long fingernails. The hand tucked the brief inside the hanging bra. And before leaving, the shadow faced the camera. The face wasn’t clear. But the voice… Faint. Hoarse. “This is his… not hers…”
I staggered back. “Who was that?!” I screamed. Tomas and Hani were silent. Then slowly, Hani spoke: “Ma’am… I’ve been seeing that for a long time. I thought it was a ghost. But one time… I saw it more clearly…” “What did you see?” She swallowed hard. “A woman, Ma’am. I think… you know her.”
I clenched my jaw. “I know her? Hani, don’t play games with me.” Hani shook her head. “I’m not joking, Ma’am. Her hair… long. Slightly curly. And she always wears white clothes… like sleepwear.” I looked at Tomas. “We don’t know anyone like that.” But Tomas’ face hardened. “We do,” he whispered. “Who?!” He took a deep breath, as if there was a rock in his throat. “Vy… remember when we got this house? The previous owner told me something.” “W-what?” “That someone lived here before us. A woman. Who died.”
I shuddered. “But Tomas… why is she taking your briefs? Why the bra? Why does it seem like… she’s jealous?” He looked at me. Softly. “Because… according to the records… before the woman died…” “What?” “Her husband also had my name. TOMAS.”
It was as if ice water was dumped on me. “No. No. That’s not possible. You mean… the woman moving around here before, was also married to you?!” Tomas shook his head, quickly. “I don’t know her! We just share the same last name! I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or what!”
But I wasn’t listening anymore. My heart was pounding. “This is not a coincidence. Tomas… someone is still living here.”
Hani was crying. “Ma’am… I truly didn’t want to get involved in your problems. But there’s one more thing I haven’t told you.” “WHAT NOW?!” She looked at me, trembling: “Ma’am… she’s not just taking briefs.” “What do you mean?” She took a deep breath. “She’s hiding… your photos.”
My eyes widened. “What photos?” “She took them from your phone… from Messenger… even the pictures of you riding in the car… at the mall… at work… even your childhood photos. They’re all in a box under the closet floor.” “How did you know?!” “Ma’am… I saw her once. Sitting on the floor. Surrounded by all your pictures. And she kept repeating…” “Repeating what?” Hani’s voice was barely audible. “‘She doesn’t belong with Tomas. I should be the one. It should be me.’”
My heart stopped. “That’s not true.” But Tomas, his head down. He seemed to know more. “Tomas…” my voice trembled. “What else are you not telling me?” He didn’t answer. “TOMAS!” When he lifted his face… There were tears. “Vy… I don’t know how to tell you. But several times… I’ve been woken up by someone lying next to me.”
My knees felt like they were collapsing. “That was me!” I screamed. He shook his head. “No. Not you. Because when I looked beside me… no one was there. But I could feel it… a hand on my chest… hair on my face… someone breathing on my neck.” I let out a shriek. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!” “Because I didn’t want you to be scared! I thought it was just a hallucination!”
But that wasn’t all. My phone suddenly rang in my pocket. It vibrated. UNKNOWN NUMBER. I answered, shaking. “Hello…?” A woman’s voice on the other line. Faint. Hoarse. Familiar. “You don’t deserve him…” My phone dropped. “TOMAS. HANI. SOMEONE CALLED.” “What did she say?” I pointed at the phone. “She said… I don’t deserve Tomas.”
Silence. The whole house was silent. Until… Knock. knock. knock. The closet door knocked. Slowly. Like a claw hitting the wood. Knock… knock… knock… “This can’t be…” Tomas whispered. I clutched my chest, barely able to breathe. Knock… Knock… Knock… “Ma’am…” Hani whispered. “It’s not—”
BANG! BANG! BANG! Suddenly, loud pounding battered the door. As if it wanted to destroy it. I screamed. “TOMAS, LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” “Wait—”
But before he could stand up… THE CLOSET DOOR OPENED. Slowly. Cold air flowed out from inside. And from the darkness… a woman emerged. Long hair. Dressed in stark white. And in her hand… was my ripped photograph.
She moved slowly, like she was walking in water. “Tomas…” she whispered. I was terrified. “T-Tomas…” I stammered, shaking. “Who is that?!” But Tomas didn’t answer. Hani didn’t move either—kneeling, trembling, crying.
The woman approached Tomas. My heart raced. She touched Tomas’ face. My husband’s shoulders trembled. “Why did you choose her?” the woman whispered. Tomas shook his head, terrified. “I don’t know you…” The woman smiled—cold, bitter. “But I know you. And I didn’t agree. Our story isn’t over.”
She approached me. “And you… you took what wasn’t yours.” I tried to run, but my feet felt glued to the floor. She raised her hand. Blood. I screamed. “TOMAS, HELP!” But the woman looked at me and smiled. “It’s over.”
She was about to strike me with her hand— But suddenly… BAM! There was a loud noise from behind. It was Hani. She hit the woman with a large 1.5L soft drink bottle. “GET AWAY! DON’T HURT THEM!” The woman screamed, like the sound of a broken radio.
Then—everything changed. Tomas shouted: “VY! BEHIND YOU!” When I looked back— THE WOMAN IN WHITE WAS GONE. Disappeared. Like smoke.
But we heard a voice… from the floor. Under the closet. A box. It was rattling. “Vy…” Tomas said, shaking. “The box… let’s open it.” “I don’t want to—” “If we don’t open it, this won’t end.”
We looked at each other. I picked up the box. I opened it. And what was inside… Made me scream from my throat. Not a ghost. Not a spirit. Not a shadow. But… A LIVING WOMAN. Naked from the waist up. Thin. Extremely dirty. And bound inside the box.
She screamed: “Don’t steal Tomas from me! He’s mine! He’s mine!” I backed away in terror. “Tomas… WHO IS THIS?!”
But Tomas… Couldn’t speak. Until the full truth finally collapsed upon us. Tomas, crying, whispered: “Vy… she’s my ex-girlfriend. I thought… she was dead.” “YOU THOUGHT?!” I screamed. “S-she faked her death… years ago. And… she’s been following me wherever I move…”
I couldn’t breathe. “Tomas… you mean… ever since we moved here—?” “Yes. She’s been living under our closet… inside the house… this entire time.”
And that’s when I finally broke down sobbing. Not out of jealousy. Not out of fear. But because… We were living in the same house… with my husband’s crazy ex-girlfriend… who was ready to kill for him.
I paused in the middle of the living room, still holding the damp towel I had used earlier to wipe Hani’s tears before letting her back into the house. Before we could even recover from the confusion over what Thang (Tomas) had just said, he suddenly dropped to his knees—as if a heavy weight he’d long been hiding had finally overwhelmed him.
“Vy… you don’t understand… those clothes aren’t mine.” I could barely breathe. “What?” I walked closer, my voice trembling. “Not yours? Then whose boxers are those?! And why were they inside Hani’s bra?!” He shook his head violently, desperately. “Not mine… not Hani’s either… Vy, please, listen to me first.”
But before he could explain, his phone suddenly vibrated in his pocket. The screen showed: “Bro, where are you? We have a problem.” – Tin My brow furrowed. Tin? Thang’s younger sibling… but why now? And why would she call in the middle of the night? Thang quickly pulled the phone away so I couldn’t read the subsequent messages, but what I saw was enough to make my heart race. “Thang… what is really going on?!”
But instead of answering, he suddenly stood up and grabbed his coat. “I need to go see Tin. I can’t explain here. Both of you are in danger.” “DANGER?!” I shouted as he headed for the door. “Thang, what does your sibling have to do with those underwear?!” He stopped at the doorway, not looking back, but I could feel his voice trembling: “Vy… someone is entering this house. You don’t see them… but my sibling and I do.”
As the door slammed shut, Hani and I were left stunned inside the house. “Ate Vy…” Hani’s tone was soft. “I’m not lying. I truly didn’t touch your clothes. But… some nights… I hear a door opening in the guest room.” It felt like a cold hand touched the back of my neck. “What time?” “Around… 2 AM.” And that’s when I remembered—for several weeks, I had been waking up at 2 AM because it felt like someone was touching our bedroom doorknob. I just ignored it. Until now.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed the garage key and followed Thang. When I reached the garage, Thang’s car was just pulling out. But there was another motorcycle parked on the side, newly arrived—and a woman was leaning against it, shivering, crying. Tin. “Tin?!” I rushed over. “What are you doing here? Why are you crying?” But instead of answering, she suddenly hugged me tightly, nearly suffocating me. “Ate Vy… I’m sorry… I can’t hide it anymore.” She pulled back, wiped her tears, and pulled a small pouch out of her pocket. When she opened it, my eyes widened. Inside were three more of Thang’s missing boxers… and two more of Hani’s bras. “T-Tin… why do you have these?” She sobbed uncontrollably. “Ate… I’m not a thief. Neither is Kuya. But you need to know something… before he reaches my condo.” She paused, looked around, and whispered: “Ate… your clothes aren’t missing. SOMEONE ELSE IS TAKING THEM.” “Who?!” Her answer was slow, clearly terrified: “The person… who shouldn’t be living here.”
Before I could ask, the laundry room door inside the house suddenly opened. Extremely slowly… as if deliberately. KRRRRRRK. Hani ran out, utterly pale. “Ate Vy! Something is moving behind the washing machine!” We all froze simultaneously. “Tin…” I whispered. “What do you mean ‘shouldn’t be living here’?” She sobbed even harder. “Ate… we have a cousin who ran away from the province. He’s an addict, and he’s broken into other people’s houses several times. Last we heard… he was in Manila.” “AND?!” “Ate… I saw the CCTV of my condo yesterday.” She took a deep breath before showing me her phone. And there I saw the video. A thin man, his hands bloody, crawling toward the door of Tin’s condo… wearing THANG’S T-SHIRT. But that wasn’t the terrifying part. Because after that, the man messaged his sibling: “TIN, I FOUND A BETTER HOUSE. BIGGER. MORE CLOTHES. I’M GOING TO SLEEP THERE. DON’T WORRY.” And the address he sent… was our house address.
Before we could react, Thang suddenly called. My phone shook. But the first thing he said was something I never expected in my life: “Vy… YOU NEED TO RUN OUT OF THE HOUSE.” “Why?!” His voice was strained, as if he was fighting someone. “The person we saw in the video isn’t my cousin.” My world stopped. “What do you mean?” A brief silence. “Vy… that’s not a person.” “Huh?!” He spoke slowly: “…That’s the man who broke into our house a year ago. The one who tried our bedroom door.” My knees felt like they would give way. “I thought he left. But… Vy… he came back because he left something here before.” “LEFT SOMETHING?!” Thang swallowed. “Vy… please check under our bed.” I couldn’t stop myself from screaming: “THANG, WHAT IS UNDER THE BED?!” His answer felt like a knife piercing my gut: “Vy… that’s where the clothes are.” “… AND SOMEONE IS TAKING THEM EVERY TIME WE SLEEP.”
I don’t know how I was still standing. My hands trembled as I slowly turned toward the hallway. Hani clung to my arm and Tin huddled beside me, pale, barely breathing. On the other line, I heard Thang’s voice, broken, desperate. “Vy… please. Don’t go near it alone. Wait for me—”
But it was too late. Something thumped from our bedroom upstairs. THUD. THUD. THUD. It sounded like something crawling. Or walking. Or neither.
I stopped at the foot of the stairs. “Tin…” I whispered, “…are you sure the person in the video is your cousin?” She shook her head, the tears drying on her cheeks. “I don’t recognize his face anymore… he looks like…” She swallowed. “…like he’s high… like he’s no longer human.”
And then I heard it. A faint voice. Coming from our room. “…Vy…” Not Thang’s voice. Not Hani’s voice. Not a woman’s voice. A man’s low tone, as if his throat was wounded. “Vy… that’s mine…”
Thang was screaming on the phone: “Don’t go upstairs! VY! DON’T—” But it was as if the door of my own room was pulling me in. Hani clung to me. “Ate… don’t…” But I had to end this. I had to know. Slowly, I pushed the door open. And there I saw him. A thin man, dirty, with bloody fingernails—kneeling under the bed… like an animal. In front of him… …were the underwear that had gone missing in recent weeks. He held one of Thang’s boxers. And when he saw me, he smiled—a crazy, ripped smile, one cheek barely moving. “Finally…” he whispered. “I found you, Vy.”
Before he could reach me, something crashed from behind. Thang burst in, breathless, carrying a metal-like piece of wood from the garage. “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!” The man lunged. Fast. Vicious. Like he wasn’t human. They struggled in the room, the lampshade shattered, we screamed outside the door. Until a strike to the man’s head made him collapse. He fell—but was still breathing, whimpering faintly.
Thang yelled: “I CALLED THE POLICE! GET OUT OF THE HOUSE, NOW!” We rushed Hani and Tin out to the living room. I was the last one out of the room. My final look at the man… his face was almost unrecognizable. He looked at me, a torn smile: “I won’t hurt you…” he whispered. “…I’m just sleeping over.”
When the police arrived, he was immediately bound. He struggled, screaming incoherently, but the rage was visible in every roll of his eyes. A police officer approached us. “Do you know that he has broken in here before?” I shook my head. Thang answered: “A year ago… a man broke in here early in the morning. I thought he was gone for good.” And he took a deep breath, almost in disbelief. “But he came back… and he’s been hiding here in the house.”
The next morning, the police searched the entire house. Behind the washing machine? Candy wrappers, an old cellphone battery, and a small pillow. Under the stairs? A hole just big enough for a thin person. In the attic? An old jacket that wasn’t ours.
He had been living in our house for over two weeks. And taking our things while we slept.
After everything, silence returned to the house. Hani was back to work. Tin temporarily stayed with us while she dealt with the trauma. Me? Every night, I check under the bed before sleeping. Not because someone is still there… …but because only now do I realize how easily a stranger can peer into our lives.
Thang approached, hugging me tightly. “It’s over, Vy.” I took a deep breath. “Yes… it’s over.” And for the first time after many nights, I slept soundly—no rustling, no doorknob pulling, no eyes staring from the dark. Finally… the nightmare is over.