|
Thing that go Bump in the Night
Stories and movies about the supernatural never cease to scare the shit out of us when we are kids. When I was young, I love horror movies; my mom would rent or buy all the latest horror movies for me to watch. I had the complete collection of “True Singapore Ghost Stories” of which some had been read twice. I was a horror buff, I didn’t dare close my eyes at night, I needed constant companion, and thank God I outgrew that stage.
When we grow older, we begin to realize that movies are fictional and “True Singapore Ghost Stories” are fantasies paraded in easy English. This made us go to sleep easier, we fear the unknown less and less and some of us reach the stage of Nirvana denouncing the existence of Ghosts, Demons and restless spirits. I was glad to have reached this stage, and then came Muhd (Pronounced Mud).
 I met Muhd when I was working part time at Coffee Bean Parkway after my ‘O’ Levels. Muhd was already a senior crew by the time I joined, we hit it off from the start because we both skate and we love Nirvana. Muhd very quickly became part of our group due to his friendly and unassuming nature, he became a regular at our skate sessions and became fast friends with Kurt and John. Muhd was a devout Muslim, during his fasting months he would still skate as hard but refuse to drink any liquids or consume any food. Everything about Muhd was magnetic, from his cheerful personality, to his strict religious views; his out of hand gastric issues, all except that, Muhd had the ‘Third Eye’.
This was something I learnt one night while both of us were performing our ‘Closing Routine’ after work. It was around 12.30am and we had just washed and scrubbed the floors when Muhd asked me to accompany him to the main rubbish bin. The main bin was located in a dark alley behind Parkway, a place so dirty it had to be hidden from public view. The path leading towards the bin was laden with bushes and huge trees on either sides obstructing ambient lighting casting an ominous mood over the pathway.
I was just getting ready to scrub the kitchen counter when Muhd made his request, but I obliged seeing that I myself wouldn’t want to make that journey all alone at a time like that. We were chatting about random stuff on our way to the bin when I heard some rustling of leaves. I thought nothing of it attributing the sounds to the wind but Muhd started to feel uneasy. His face grew pale as he hurried me along. This was a reaction we would later learn to associate with something supernatural in our surrounding.
Not knowing anything, I hurried along beside him and when we reached the bin, he swiftly flung the trash bag into the container before mumbling something under his breath. I thought he was saying something to me so I asked him:
Me: What did you say?
Muhd: Ssshhhhh…..
Me: What’s wrong with you dude?
Muhd: Just shut up and follow me!
Me: Ooookkkk….Muhd: And keep your eyes on the path, Don't look anywhere else.
We hurried back to Coffee Bean in a half jog, the leaves seemed to be rustling louder on our way back and I began to realize it didn’t sound like it was caused by the wind. It was a windless night but the leaves on both sides appear to be shaking from the branches, and it appeared to be following us. We would pass from tree to tree and the rustling would always occur at the specific points above our heads.
We went along our usual closing routine in total silence before grabbing our boards and proceeding to our usual skate spot. I began to question Muhd’s earlier behavior; initially he refused to say anything only attributing his urgency to his bladder. We continued skating into the night before going home at 3am.
The next day Muhd called me and explained his strange behavior. He told me that he was born with the ‘Third Eye’ and was able to sense and see supernatural beings from a very young age. On further questioning he revealed that the night before when he was walking towards the bin, he started to feel uneasy so he decided to ask me along with him. He always knew something was wrong with that path but has never seen anything. When he first heard the rustling leaves he looked around but wasn’t able to see anything out of the ordinary so he ignored it. As we proceeded further he heard a “Pssstt” sound, like someone trying to get our attentions. He looked up from where the sound emanated and saw a lady with long black hair squatting on the tree branches trying to get our attention. When she saw that Muhd could see her she started to follow us with increased vigour, she would jump from tree to tree with her white dress flowing in the wind trying to get both our attentions. Muhd ignored her, which served to fuel her anger more. She tried harder to get our attentions jumping on the tree branches causing the leaves to rustle harder and louder even screaming bloodcurdlingly to get us to look up at her.
I didn’t hear or sense anything but when he told me this, my balls retreated back into my body and my hair stood on its ends. I didn’t know how to react and felt like I was going to choke on my own saliva. Muhd said she didn’t follow us anymore when we reached Coffee Bean and I told him, “Next time don’t tell me anything!”
As Kurt, Muhd, John and me started to skate more and more at night, we encountered more and more strange things. Strange things just seem to happen more around Muhd, but he explained that they are everywhere; we were just insensitive to their presence. There was another night when Kurt, Muhd and me were skating behind Roxy Square where we had found a discarded steel foundation thingy, which we had converted into a grind-box. We were going at it with gusto because the steel was so smooth we were able to pull off any tricks, Kurt even managed to do a Feeble Grind along the entire length of the rail. We began to perform crazier and crazier tricks trying to experiment with anything that would be tougher on a regular surface.
The sounds of our boards and laughter echoed off the walls of the old shopping complex but we continued doing our thing ignorant to the surroundings. Just when we were all psyched up, Muhd made us stop skating, by this time we have learnt that when Muhd says to leave, we should do so without question. We picked our stuff up and Muhd hurried us along, it was a long journey back to the convenience shop and we were quickening our paces in synchrony with Muhd’s stride. It is really scary when you can’t see or hear what you are running away from and Kurt and me trudged along in silence with boards under our arms. Just then Muhd shouted to us, “RUN!!!” not knowing what to do, Kurt and me started to sprint towards the convenience store.After making sure that we were not being followed, Muhd settled down and we got ourselves something to drink. Muhd started to reveal that our actions had disturbed some of the spirits residing there and they wanted to teach us a lesson. We know that by this, Muhd meant they would push us while we’re skating to cause us to fall after one particular night at Oasis filled with injuries and disappointment. He said he saw a female spirit standing under a small tree right next to where we were skating, staring at us with hatred and anger and that was why he made us leave. On our way back the ‘thing’ started to follow us from a distance but very quickly closed up the gap between and that was also why he made us run.
After getting home I showered and prepared to got to bed when I received an SMS from Muhd which simply said, “It followed me home”. After which I slept with my head under the blanket while blasting my iPod so I wouldn’t be able to hear anything praying that nothing followed me home. I don’t remember sleeping well that night.
Muhd was a very close friend of mine and would regularly visit my home for dinner or just to chill and play games on my PS2. But, Muhd had always warned me there was something wrong with my house. He said he saw a lady in white once standing right beside John staring at him, while we were sitting in the living room playing games but he chose not to mention it as he didn’t think she would harm us.
Once when Muhd came over for dinner, my mum randomly mentioned that she was having a recurring bad dream for the past few nights. She would dream of herself waking up to find her room filled with young children running and playing around accompanied with a lady. She was never able to see the lady’s face, as she would just stand motionless among the children with her back turned away. Muhd decided to investigate the matter, Muhd’s uncle was a medicine man or a ‘Bomoh’ and he learns a lot from his uncle and is able to perform simple rituals for people.
Muhd went into my mom’s room and said he sensed something, he made me accompany him in the room alone much to my whining and protests. With the lights switched off we sat down in the middle of the room. Muhd had his eyes closed in silent prayer, and me, not wanting to see anything strange closed my eyes too. After a few minutes of total silence Muhd said, “It’s in the mirror!” he said while he was chanting his prayers he sensed something rush past behind him heading straight into the mirror. He explained to me those mirrors are often a gateway between our dimension and theirs’ so it’s not uncommon for it to run into the mirror. My mom had a huge freestanding swivel mirror with gold frame in her room, which she kept in a corner facing her when she sleeps.
He got a white bed-sheet from my maid to cover the mirror while he again sat down in front of the mirror chanting some prayer lines. I stood beside him in absolute shock and fear not knowing what to do. After a long line of verses Muhd made a ‘pushing’ move with one hand at the mirror, what scared me more was that I actually saw the mirror shake when he did that move. Muhd was sitted in such a way that even with his hands outstretched he couldn’t have touched the mirror, but I could swear I saw the mirror shaking.
After about 15mins in the darkness I was relieved to hear Muhd say that it was done. I rushed out of the room to get myself something to drink with my hands still shaking. Muhd revealed to my mum that there was a lady living ‘in’ her mirror and she was the one causing all the trouble in our house. Muhd said she wouldn’t bother us anymore because he had ‘burned’ her and advised my mum to cover the mirror with a white cloth at night.Muhd proved my theories about the supernatural to be all wrong, I had outgrown the phase where sounds in the night scare the hell out of me but Muhd gave me enough reason to question again those nocturnal sounds.
posted by Ken The Man at
|
|
