The Daybed

The following is based on true events that took place between March and April of 1995.

They say not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but doing so might one day save your life. Originally from the United States, Steven had recently moved to Hong Kong with his wife Patricia, who was 9 months pregnant. His mother Rita came to stay with them to help around the house and keep Patricia company. An accountant by trade, Steven jumped at the prospect of working for a major multinational that was headquartered in Hong Kong. The hours were long, but the pay was great, and it included a company apartment in a swanky high rise building. Things were looking good for the young couple, and they were lucky to have Rita around to help out, especially as the baby was due soon.

Rita loved being able to support her son and daughter-in-law and kept herself busy doing household chores and chatting with Patricia. However, there was an odd characteristic about her. During the first week of her living in the apartment, Rita would take a nap everyday on the daybed. The apartment was furnished with modern amenities, but there was an antique Chinese daybed that sat next to the windowsill in the living room. Made out of wood, the sofa-like bed had red cushions that were very comfortable. Despite being old and worn out it did have beautiful carvings and was a great conversation piece. While it definitely looked odd compared to the more contemporary furniture that occupied the rest of the house, the family did not think too much of it, thinking that it was just a odd quirk of living in an Asian country. Rita’s napping habits were innocuous enough, who does not fancy a nap after a nice lunch? It was her behavior afterwards that was most peculiar.

Rita was a warm-hearted, pleasant woman, but her demeanor changed every day after her nap. She would wake up very cranky and snapped at the slightest provocation. While it bothered Patricia, she did her best to not step on her mother-in-law’s toes and tried to be understanding. After all, Rita was a great help, and finding a daycare for the baby would not be cheap! This went on for a few days and her behavior only grew worse. Some much needed relief finally came to Patricia during the weekend as Steven was home and served as a buffer between the two ladies. On Saturday, after a hearty lunch prepared by Patricia, it was Steven who decided to take a nap on the comfy looking daybed. Big mistake. After tossing and turning for hours, he woke up with a shout.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Patricia asked worriedly as she came running from the kitchen

“I…don’t know,” replied Steven, still recovering his breath in short gasps. “It was a horrible nightmare.”

“Steven!” Rita yelled as she entered from her bedroom. “What was that?

“Nothing mom, don’t worry about it.” The young man snapped.

His mother looked at him nervously, glancing at the daybed. “Ok, honey,” she said, dropping the topic. Rita headed back to her room.

“She was just worried about you Steven,” Patricia started, “You were screaming and-”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Steven exclaimed, raising his voice.

Tears started to well in his wife’s eyes, making him draw instant regret. He did not know why he was suddenly filled with so much rage.

“You were asleep for hours.”

“Then why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I don’t know, it’s the same with your mom. I thought you might just have been stressed out about having the baby, or about your new job. I didn’t want to bother you.” Patricia’s eyes started to water. She turned away so her husband would not see the tears rolling down her face.

“Mom falls asleep for hours on that daybed too?” Steven’s curiosity was piqued.

“Yeah, sometimes, and she always wakes up in a foul mood.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“Because, I didn’t want to worry you.” She suddenly turned to look at him. “What were you even dreaming about?”

Steven grew silent. “There was blood.” He began as he turned his eyes to the floor. “A lot of it. There was also a woman. She was wearing a white gown and there was blood from her waist down, dripping heavily onto the floor.”

Patricia covered her mouth; her eyes wide with shock. “Do you mean me?” she asked.

“No, she looked Chinese.” He explained while shaking his head. “But, it happened here in this apartment.”

“Maybe it’s just the stress of the move and the fact that we’re about to have a baby. I know it’s scary since it’s our first child.” She said as she grabbed him in an embrace.

“Maybe,” he sighed.

They stood there, holding each other. Rita stood by the doorway and watched silently. Several nights have passed since that incident, and the daybed lay unused. Nobody wanted to even sit on the daybed after Steven’s episode. Patricia noticed that her mother-in-law returned to her usual cheery self. She had a growing suspicion that it might have something to do with sleeping on that daybed. Having seen the effect it had on both mother and son, the pregnant woman could not help but be curious as to what the correlation was between that ancient sofa and her loved ones. She let her curiosity get the better of her and took a nap herself on it one weekday afternoon while Rita had gone to the store.

She woke up suddenly when she heard the older woman returning home from the store. Rita just stared at her for a second and then went to drop the grocery bags in the kitchen, not having said a word. Patricia remarked to herself that she did not have any bad dreams at all. In fact, she felt rested and at ease! Chalking up her husband and his mother’s experiences to simple stress, she did not think anymore of the daybed.

Later that evening while Patricia was taking a shower, Steven was reading a newspaper in the living room. His mother was preparing dinner. All of a sudden he started hearing voices from the bathroom. It sounded like two women chatting with each other, one of whom was Patricia, and the other had a Chinese accent with a slight British tinge to it. Quickly meeting his mother’s eyes, the pair walked up to the bathroom door and began to knock.

“Patricia?” Peter called out. “Who’s in there with you?”

“Sweetie, is everything alright?” asked Rita.

No response. Patricia continued talking to whomever it was that was in there with her. It was hard to make out exactly what was being said over the sound of the shower.

“Patricia!” Steven started raising his voice. Still no response. Suddenly, the shower turned off. Patricia opened the door and was startled to see both Steven and Rita standing there staring at her.

“What’s wrong?” Patricia asked, while standing there wrapped in her towel.

“Who were you talking to?” Demanded Steven.

“What do you mean?”

Rita stepped in, “Patricia, we heard another voice in the bathroom with you just now. Who was that?”

“What are you guys talking about?” Patricia said, starting to become annoyed. Is this some sort of prank? She brushed past them and started heading to her and Steven’s bedroom. As she walked by, Steven noticed three long gashes on her back.

“Babe what the hell is that!” Steven exclaimed.

“What’s what?” Patricia asked. She was starting to lose patience with the mother and son really quickly.

Rita then saw it too. “On your back dear! Oh lord, how did you get those scratches?”

Patricia went into the bathroom to take a look at her back. There they were, three wicked gashes that looked like they were caused by the claws of some terrible beast.

“What the hell is that!” She started screaming. She did not remember getting scratched and in fact, it had not hurt at all. Almost as soon as she saw it, however, she started having a deep burning sensation as if the cuts were on fire. “Ouch!” She cried out loud.

“Oh my god, are you okay babe?” Steven asked, not knowing what to do. Rita was frozen in shock. She then came to and started reciting the Lord’s Prayer, clutching the cross she wore on a chain around her neck. Steven went to go grab some antiseptic cream to dress Patricia’s wounds, but when he came back, the scratches had already begun to fade. The burning sensation was still pretty strong, however, and showed no sign of abating. The trio stood in silence, dumbfounded over what just happened. Patricia had difficulty sleeping that night on account of the burning feeling on her back. She tried applying ointment, and later ice, but nothing seemed to work.

The next morning Rita contacted the local catholic church for help. She wanted a priest to come bless the house, but did not mention the strange occurrences that had been happening. The last thing she wanted was the neighbors to start gossiping and spreading rumors about the family. Father Wu Li was to drop by later in the evening to lead a prayer and bless the house. He advised Rita to light some candles around the house to spread positive energy before he arrived.

The soon-to-be grandmother placed candles in each room and lit them. However, when she went to check on them only a few minutes later, they had somehow all been extinguished despite there being no sign of a draft inside the house. Rita was puzzled, but continued to relight the candles in preparation for the priest’s arrival. At 6 o’clock sharp in the evening, Father Li arrived at the apartment. Steven answered the door, Rita stood next to him and welcomed the priest.

“Thank you so much for coming father,” Rita greeted him cheerfully.

“It’s no problem at all.” Replied the priest in a charming British accent.

“Right this way,” Steven said as he gestured for the pastor to enter.

Before Father Li could even place one foot past the door, he froze. His eyes grew wide and he stood still, right outside the doorway. The priest was staring directly at Patricia.

“You n-n-need to get her out of this place immediately.” The priest said, stammering. She is not safe here. None of you are.”

“What do you mean father?” Rita asked with trepidation in her voice.

“Where are we even supposed to go?” Steven asked angrily.

“Anywhere but here,” responded the priest.

Peter threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “Look, can you help us or not.”

“I was told that I was here to simply bless the house. I had no idea of the darkness that dwells here,” said Father Li.

“Father please, you have to help us,” Patricia said as she started walking towards the entrance.

“No, stay away!” The priest shouted. He turned away and started running quickly down the hallway and into the elevator. One of the neighbors, an elderly gentleman, who had just stepped out of the elevator turned to look at the confused family standing in the doorway, with a puzzled expression on his face. The neighbor headed towards their apartment.

“What was all that about?” the man asked in a thick Cantonese accent.

Knowing that the rumor mill was about to start no matter what she said, Patricia obliged with an explanation, “The priest had come by to bless our house, but he saw something that made him scared.”

“What was it?” the man asked

“It was nothing, he clearly had gotten into the communion wine before he came here,” interrupted Steven sarcastically.

“Steven, please,” Patricia replied, shushing him.

“He kept looking at me all funny,” Patricia explained.

The man’s eyes fell suddenly on the daybed in the corner. “Does that daybed belong to you?” The man asked.

“No, that old relic came with the place,” said Steven.

The neighbor brushed past the three of them, uninvited. “This is a chinese daybed.”

“Oh really? I thought it was from Nebraska,” Steven said while rolling his eyes.

“Chinese daybeds sometimes can be opened,” The old man said, ignoring Steven’s sardonic expression. He lifted up the cushion, which turned out to be the lid of a storage chest. Everyone in the room stood shocked at what they saw. Inside the daybed chest was something wrapped in an old white gown that had dark reddish stains on it.

“That’s…” started Steven.

“That’s what you saw in your dream, right Steven?” Asked Rita.

“How did you know?”

“Because I saw her wearing it too. Everytime I slept on that thing.”

The old neighbor, somehow possessing enough courage to touch the cloth, started unwrapping it. He would regret that. Inside the cloth were the bones from what appeared to be a skeleton. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the hands had been placed near where the abdomen would have been.

“It’s her,” gasped Rita.

Inexplicably, the burning pain that had been lingering on Patricia’s back started to subside.

“Maybe she can finally find peace,” Patricia said.

“Let’s hope so,” Rita replied solemnly.

All seemed quiet for the next few days. The three members of the little family unit had all been through nightmares both figuratively and literally. Patricia was due to have the baby any day now and got a much needed break from the events of the previous week. The local authorities had been contacted to remove the remains of the apartment’s previous occupant, but the daybed remained as it belonged to the landlord. Of course, nobody risked the chance of taking a nap, or even sitting on it.

Later in the evening, Patricia was brushing her teeth in the bathroom as she usually does before bed. She started noticing a faint dripping noise that seemed to be getting louder and louder. She looked down at the sink faucet, but it was closed shut, there was no water leaking from it. The young woman thought to herself how strange that was, but just chalked it up to her nerves still settling from the recent frightening ordeal. However, the sound simply would not go away. After putting her toothbrush away and spitting in the sink, she looked up at the mirror and saw something in the corner of the room. There, standing almost masked in the shadows, was a woman! She was young, maybe about Patricia’s age, Chinese, and was wearing a white gown. And the most peculiar thing about her? Her waist was drenched in blood, which was dripping all over the floor tiles. Patricia turned around slowly, keeping an eye on the ghostly woman’s reflection, and when she finally turned around, the woman had come up close to her face.

Her eyes were dark pits and her mouth was open in a crooked smile revealing stained, yellow teeth. Patricia let out a loud scream and tried opening the bathroom door but the knob would not turn. The pale woman grabbed her by the shoulder with an icy grip that felt like it was burning. Patricia let out a shriek and started shaking the door handle desperately trying to turn the knob. After what felt like an eternity, the door opened, and the specter let go of her and disappeared. Steven had been the one who opened the door, oblivious to the fact that she had been locked inside with a paranormal entity.

“What’s wrong honey?” the man asked.

“What do you mean?” Patricia replied. “You didn’t hear me screaming?”

“No, I didn’t hear anything. Why are you crying?”

“I saw her, Steven.”

“Who?”

“HER,” his wife managed to choke out, pointing to the daybed. “I can’t stay in this house one minute longer.”

“Baby, where are we supposed to go? Every apartment in this area wants at least two months rent, and I don’t even get paid until the end of the week.”

He held his sobbing wife in his hands. Suddenly, the dripping sound started again. Patricia stopped crying and both her husband and she stood frozen in terror. The ghostly lady was now standing by the daybed.

“Get out!” demanded the ghost in her Cantonese British accent.

At that moment Rita came out of her bedroom to see what the commotion was all about. She too saw the pale, bleeding woman and started screaming. Steven, Patricia, and Rita ran out of the apartment as fast as they could. They never looked back.

Using what meager savings they had, they stayed in hotels and at friends’ homes until they could afford to place a deposit on a new apartment. This time, one without any creepy antique furniture. Steven still walks by that apartment building every day, and as the old dwelling was only on the third floor, he was able to identify which one it was by looking at the window. In fact, if you look closely you can still see part of the daybed. As he was walking by the place one day, he looked up to take his customary glance at the daybed, but this time, he could see someone staring back at him from the window. A pregnant woman wearing a white dress, with blood pooling down from her waist.