Eerie

There's a story told by my ex-boss when we were down eating mee bandung somewhere deep in the heart of Muar. It was Ramadhan 2003, and since the demons were tied-up somewhere in hell, it was the best time of the year to tell each other ghost stories. The Malays believed that if you keep repeating or saying names of the ghost, it will materialized right in front of you. Of course, I'm a Muslim, Iblis can transform to any form that it wanted, and that's the thing that I believed in.

Anyway, as I've said before, it was Ramadhan, there were 8 of us, sitting down for a nice plate of mee bandung for iftar after a whole hard-day work. Doot and Min will be going back to KL that night to assist Aie, who fall sick. As both of them arrived in Muar under the roof of my car, they have to take the express bus, which will departure that night.

"Speaking of bus,"

My ex-boss says, who happened to be Doot's uncle.

"you've heard about your cousin's story?"

Doot shook his head, the only thing that he heard of was that his cousin falls sick for the whole week during his semester break (his cousin is in UTM Skudai).

"This is what happen...." his uncle started the story.

Doot's cousin, I can't remember his name, has booked a ticket for the trip back to KL. He was alone at that time, most of his friends has either going for a semester break trip or stayed at the hostel, it was just a week break. He went there according to the schedule and board the bus.

Unlike Northern and Eastern trip, Southern buses usually have only one driver, as the trips were usually short. As the buses were frequent, to have a full bus was rather hard, and in his cousin's case, there were only 4 passengers, including the cousin himself.

The trip was normal at first, because there were only 4 of them, the seats were all theirs. It was almost 12 at that time. The bus went smoothly until they arrived near the R/R of Pedas/Linggi exit.

Suddenly the bus driver shouted at them.

"Semua orang duduk depan."

They were, obviously, doesn't pay much attention to the "command", "why?" must have come across their mind. However, the decision to pay heed with the driver's shouting was enforced by a smell so foul that even a dead skunk could rise from it's grave. The bus has beginning to pick up speed.

The four of them, still confused, sit cuddled together on the two-seater (no, I don't know how many girls/boys, the boss won't tell me). Anyway, the 4 of them still searching with their eyes the cause of the smell when suddenly

"bammmm....."

They heard something falls at the back of the bus, something big as the noise was so loud. Naturally, as all other people will do, the first thing that you do when you heard a noise behind you was to turn your head behind, right? That was what they did, and for the cousin, that was the most worst decision that he has ever made at that time.

What they saw was a sight that they will never forget. A woman, if that thing could be called a woman, was standing at the back, her black hair was so long that it reached the floor, her nails were uncut and her fangs were horrifying. The 4 of them, sat back and were hugging each other now.

"Baca la apa apa yang patut."

The bus driver said and he pick up speed, looking straight ahead all the time. The Pontianak was laughing hysterically, her voice was shrill and sending shivers to each of their spine. Suddenly, the ghost were out and started to fly alongside the bus, getting head to head with the driver.

Then, it changes it's position as if a swimmer performing backstroke, without the stroke of course, shrieking all along, and left them still clutching each other.

It was quiet soon after. The driver said that those thing happened when there's not so many passengers in a bus. He doesn't know from where the thing came from, so were the other driver.

Until as of today, the cousin never took a night bus ever again.

I heard this story again when I've started working here. I've got an email from a Singaporean, who was on his way back to Singapore with his family after a visit to Malaysia. The place was the same, the pontianak was back, clinging on top of his car (it's a car this time), it was weird at first, he said, he thought there's a speedtrap in front as opposing cars giving him a high beam whenever his car passed by. He then concluded that whenever anyone using the PLUS road, at night and opposing cars started to high beam you, it could mean two things, either there's cop in front or something on top of the car.

That night, Doot and Min packed and I've send them to the station. Guess what? Including them, there's exactly 4 passengers on that bus. Coincidence? But then again, it's Ramadhan.