Through the years, writers have been able to make chills run down our spines with tales of tell-tale hearts and voices in the dark. But even the hardiest of authors will readily admit that even they have read or heard one particular story that has made them quiver with fear.

With Halloween upon us, the Students and Campuses Bulletin sought out several writers and asked them this: What’s the scariest story that you’ve ever read or heard?

BUDJETTE TAN, writer of the graphic novel ‘Trese.’ – “When I was growing up my dad would tell me stories about aswangs, and our maids would tell of scary creatures from their province. But the scariest story I’ve heard happened to my mother and me.

I was just a five month-old baby and we supposedly moved into a haunted house in Merville. Strange things were seen by my relatives, the maids, and the driver. They talked about lights being switched on and off, about hearing angry voices being in the hallways at three in the morning, and slippers moving on the floor on their own. One time, as the driver was backing the car out of the driveway, he looked in the rearview mirror and saw a young lady seated in the backseat. When he turned around to look, there was nobody there. My mom and dad didn’t believe in all these so-called ghost stories.

One afternoon, after my mom gave me a bath, she noticed that the right side of my face wrinkled up like that of an old man. My right eye stared at her. Angry. Defiant.

She slapped my right cheek and commanded the spirit to leave me. Even though she slapped me hard, I did not cry but just stared back at her. She ended up praying the entire rosary before my face returned to normal.

A séance was held in the house and the medium discovered there were two spirits, a father and a daughter, who died and still believed the house belonged to them. The medium explained that they were already dead and that they needed to move on. The father got angry and didn’t want to leave the house. He took over the body of one of the psychics and tried to make everyone leave. After the struggle, he and his daughter were convinced about their state and were asked to finally depart. Supposedly, after the séance, the weirdness stopped.’’

G. M. CORONEL, author of “Tragic Theater’’ – “It was the movie “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” since exorcism is the subject of my book. What made it scary was the fact that the victim was possessed by not just one but several demons all at the same time.’’

KARL DE MESA, author of “News of the Shaman’’ – “Right now it’s a toss-up between the old Clive Barker short “In The Hills, The Cities” and Joe Hill’s novel “Heart-Shaped Box”.

For “In the Hills. . .” it’s mostly because I know exactly how people in the hinterlands, especially in the mountain boondocks like the Czech location depicted in the story, get up to some very bizarre things that somehow make perfect sense in the context of frontier life, but also since this is the only story I know that has capsulated for me perfectly the horror creature metaphor of what a body politic truly is.

“Heart-Shaped Box” is a crystal clear evocation of a modern haunting that is also a critique of our vicious, media-saturated consumer culture. Somehow it both frees and enslaves us; and yet with all our gadgets and fancy attempts at a global community we still seem to be none the wiser or compassionate for it. Spooky sh*t right there. ’’

YVETTE TAN, author of “Waking the Dead’’ – “The scariest thing I’ve heard is the different stories of people waking in the middle of the night to see a figure by their beds. Those kinds of stories always freak me out.’’

RACHEL KHAN, author of “Internet 101’’ and “Campus Journalism’’ – “The Exorcist” by William Peter Blatty, Harper & Row 1971. The novel is based on a true story of an exorcism, although the characters in the story had been changed. I find it scary precisely because it is based on a real event and therefore, it can happen to anyone, unlike other horror or scary stories that are purely fiction.’’

HERBIE SANCIANGCO, author of “Principles and Practices of Sales Promotion’’ – “The scariest story is not one that I heard or read, but actually experienced. When my PMA classmate died from a road accident many years ago while we were still cadets, he visited me in my dreams. I did not know that he passed away at that moment of his “visit”. I found myself suddenly being nudged from my sleep where I found him in front of me in my bedroom, and where he was inviting me to join him to go outside... go to someplace I couldn’t figure out then. It took me several moments to realize that he was a ghost as I felt a strong chill in the room. I know I was talking to him, but not in a verbal way. Nevertheless, I was telling him to go ahead and that I will follow him later.

As I was fully awake by then, I saw him slowly leave the room thru the bedroom door. I did not bother at all to stand up as I quickly realized what was happening to me.

I then learned the following morning of the news and I just freaked out over the incident. It turned out that the military vehicle he was riding in fell off a ravine. I prayed the entire rosary as a way of asking Divine Providence to help him cross over. I did not see him again that next evening.’’

JUN BALDE, 2009 SEAWRITE Award winner and author of “60ZENS: Tips for Senior Citizenship” – “For me the best story about death was told by the Sufi poet, Rumi, rewritten by Somerset Maugham and used by John O’Hara as the central topic of his bestselling novel “Appointment in Samarra”.

It’s about a rich merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to the market to buy provisions. When the servant came back he was trembling with fear, and said, “Master while I was in the market I saw Death and she jostled me and made me a threatening gesture, so please lend me your fastest horse and I will ride away to far Samarra and spend the night there.” The Master lent him his horse and the servant fled. The merchant went to the marketplace and when he saw Death, he asked her why she gave the threatening gesture to his servant. And Death answered: “It was not a threatening gesture, it was a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him here in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

I read the story when I was in secondary school and whenever I am in a marketplace, even today, I have this irrational fear that Death might jostle me as I am entering a crowded area, specially the bloody meat section.’’