Kweonho Lee/Essay Assignment (p. 50)/Narrative Composition(2) Tuesday & 09:00~11:00

The Ghost Watcher Afterwards, I wasn't able to sleep a wink for several days due to the traumatic event that I had in the night. I wasn't the type of person who easily fell into believing in ghosts, but after watching all those crazy things, I had to admit that something did exist beyond what we could see with our own eyes. It was the most horrifying experience of my life which changed my view of the world. In the early spring of 2015, I was serving in military service. There were about 50 other members in the camp and we were having ordinary days with same routines and schedules until a new guy came in to join our squad. No one in the room was able to expect the terrible things that were about to happen. At first, he looked just the same with other guys. He was a bit small and had pale faces but seemed to get along well with others. Everyone liked him. After about a month, however, he started to act strangely. He looked tired every day and kept on dozing off in the daytime. Also, he became skinny and seemed to have lost his appetite. Some members who used the same room said that they had watched him murmuring something to himself and sometimes smiling for no reason. People started to keep away from him. He was soon sent to the army hospital to receive consultation. When he returned, he confessed that he had been suffering from horrible nightmares. He showed both his arms and a wave of nausea swept over us. The arms were full of festering wounds and scratches that he injured himself while he was asleep. He had been biting off his own arms. Then, he claimed that a few buildings in our camp were haunted and the ghosts were causing him such nightmares. I thought that he was just suffering from some kind of anxiety disorder and the stories about ghosts were just nonsense. One day, I became curious and went out with him to smoke a cigarette while everyone was asleep. He seemed to be very careful and timid so I told him to relax because I was with him. Also, I told him to let me know when he saw anything because I wanted to see for myself. As we were talking, he seemed to be relieved. Nothing happened for a few minutes. While listening to him I thought, 'I knew it. He was not seeing ghosts or anything. He was just playing on us.' Just then, he stopped talking all of a sudden. As soon as I noticed an abrupt change in his face, his hands moved really fast and put his cigarette out right away. I was scared at the moment just by looking at the sheer terror that was spreading through his face. He was stuttering while slowly pointing at my back with his trembling fingers. He seemed to be telling me that the thing was right behind my back. Frozen in fear, I felt a cold sweat in my back and did not dare to look back. We just ran back into the camp screaming. There was definitely nothing I could visually see, but I really felt the chill down on my spine at the moment. When we came back inside, he shivered violently and began to cry like a baby. Everyone woke up and they were soon shocked by seeing his reactions. His whole body was shaking as if he was having a convulsion and his eyes were all white just like the ones I had seen in the horror movies of exorcism. After a few minutes of trembling, he fainted. No one was able to say he was lying or just acting after seeing everything with their own eyes. I was covered in goosebumps. A few days later, he was discharged from the army. It was later found out that the buildings he claimed to have been haunted actually had horrifying histories. The commander of our corps explained that some of the buildings he pointed out were used as a place to cremate dead bodies during the Korean War and the other buildings had incidents of suicides about 10 years ago. What he said was true. Through this experience, my view of the world changed. I learned that what we see with our own eyes may not be everything. Superstitions or other beliefs should not be ignored for the reason that they lack scientific evidence. I came to believe that ghosts or any other spiritual beings exist. I still remember it clearly as if it happened yesterday and he was definitely seeing something supernatural that we wouldn't want to imagine. It was the most horrifying experience of my life.