LITTLE GIRL LOST

I was still in the Marines when I experienced what a common pinoy or pinay would call “HIWAGA” Before we deployed to Iraq in 2003, we conducted a desert fire exercise in 29 Palms, California.

You might have heard of that place, or maybe you haven’t. Anyway, my Halloween story goes something like this. As a junior ranking Marine in 2003, devil dogs such as me, used to get assigned to crappy detail jobs and one of those jobs was to do guard duty in an Ammo Supply Point in the middle of the desert. Of course we had a make shift base camp 10 to 15 kilometers south of the supply point. As you enter the restricted compound, you have to approach the guard house where sentries like me have to challenge anyone who dares to enter. One night while I was on my post, I would hear noises; not just regular noises of people or vehicles approaching, but foot steps outside my guard house. I would check outside to see if there was anybody trying to play tricks on me, but nobody was around. I tried to ignore the noise and kept my composure. However, the footsteps became clearer and clearer until I can actually hear them circling my post.

I tried to call it in and I spoke to my immediate boss, a Corporal at that time. He then decided to hop in on one of the HMMV also known as the Hummer and headed towards my post. My boss and a fellow Marine got off the vehicle looking at me with a crazy look and asked me “What in the hell is the problem here, Virtue?” “I kept hearing these footsteps circling outside the guardhouse, Corporal” I replied. He said that maybe it’s just my mind playing tricks on me and while we were arguing, we started to hear klunking noise as though somebody is tossing some rocks at the empty ammo cans not far from where we were standing. We pulled out our moon beams or flashlights and pointed them at the ammo cans.

We did not see anything or anyone. Now, mind you, there are wild animals that roam the desert but I don’t think one would pick up a rock and start throwing it towards the cans. As we got back to our conversation we heard a loud shrieking voice. “HELP ME! HELP ME! A little girl’s cry was heard not too far away asking for help. The three of us were so freaked out that we didn’t know what to do. How in the world would a little child end up in the middle of the desert? And out of nowhere I heard the girl with a mumbling cry and I could hear her voice so close as though she was walking passed me and then her cry, little by little, would vanish into the cold dark night. We looked at each other and we could not come up with a rational explanation.

The next day we talked about it again and just so happens that one of my Marine buddies overheard us; he said that during the 60’s, the infamous mass murderer, Charles Manson and his crew used to camp out in Amboy Crater, a place not too far from our base camp. He added that they were known to do human sacrifices. I’ve learned from paranormal accounts that when somebody dies a violent death, their spirits tend to stay within that proximity and they reenact their death over and over again. I found out that the little girl still haunts the desert to this day. –END OF ENTRY-