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"Freeze! Don't you dare walk out that door, young lady!" The hard
tone of my mother's voice was enough to make my skin crawl. I was about to visit my friend, Rohana who lived about four kilometers
away. I decided to use a short cut to reach her house. The short cut was
actually a small path cutting across a rubber plantation. It was rumored
that a murder had taken place there a long time ago.
By the time I had finished convincing my mother that the route was
completely safe, night had fallen. The shadows gathered about the
bushes and the ara trees which dotted the way. In spite of all the ominous
warnings that my mother had given me, I was confident that I would
turn up at Rohana's house in one piece. I heard two owls hooting at a
distance from where I was walking. I religiously kept to the path and did
not turn back. My heart was pounding and I fervently wished that I was
back home safe.
The moon was high up the sky, illuminating the path with her soft,
silvery light. My palms were sweating and I quickened my steps. I imagined
'ghosts' lurking behind every rubber tree. I tried to calm myself down by
telling myself that I was paranoid and that ghosts did not exist.
Suddenly, I heard a loud moan coming from behind the rubber trees
to my right. I was in a dilemma whether to help the poor soul or to run
for my life. My conscience got the better of me and I mustered all my
courage to help the unknown person. To my surprise, I pulled out a young
woman.
She was about twenty years old and had long, flowing hair.
"My name is Magdalene," her voice was soft and mellow. Her skin
was very pale almost as if she had bleached herself. Her eyes betrayed
pain and anger. Somehow, her unnerving gaze chilled me to the bones.
Her dress was bloody and her face was full of scratches and cuts.
"Perhaps I should take you to a clinic," I said cautiously.
She declined my offer and decided to follow me to Rohana's house.
She began telling me about a murder which she had witnessed two years
ago. It seemed that a young lady about her age was taking a short cut
across this plantation to visit her aunt when she was murdered by an
escaped convict. The convict dragged the girl to the bushes and left her
there. Her description of the murder was very precise to the smallest detail.
She said that the girl was stabbed five times and the girl died in agony.
I noticed her dress was getting redder and redder by the minute. Her
cold and clammy hands clutched my wrist tighter. I asked her what had
happened to her.
She answered, "Murdered people bleed to death."
I screamed and ran back home. I fainted at the doorstep and was down with
fever for three days. One encounter with a murdered ghost was enough for me.
'From that day onwards, I never went out alone.' |
