Someone tapped me on my shoulder. When I woke up, a racoon was looking
straight at me, staring right into my eyes. I jumped in fear and it scrambled
away. A wave of dizziness ran over my read, I squinted my eyes to adjust to the
light while my hands rubbed my head. It was pin-drop silence. Something was
fishy. That was when it hit me, where were my friends?
It all started like this. It was the school semester break after all, my
friends decided on a camping trip to the green virgin forest behind the quaint
little slumbering village near Melaka. When the day of the trip finally came, I
woke up by the birds chirping cheerfully outside my bedroom window. As I opened
my windows, I saw the sun rose majestically over the horizon, heralding a glorious
new day. The sky was ablaze with crimson and gold. I had a feeling, out trip
would go smoothly. At 10 a.m. sharp, I met up with my friends whom had rented a
bus and off we went to our destination.
The journey in the bus was rough and bumpy. All my friends were blasting
loud pop music while some were just talking among themselves. As I had burned
the midnight oil to read my novels, I was very tired. The loud music and conversations
were not helping me to fall asleep. Finally, after several fail attempts, I
managed to slip into slumber.
That was all I had remembered, I fell asleep on the bus with my friends
and suddenly I was alone. After calming myself down, I inspected the bus. For
some weird reason, the bus was covered in dust like it had not been used for
donkey’s years. One step after another, the
creaking sound of the floor had reached my ears. I was able to retrieve my bag from
the bus but there was still no sign of life. I slowly went down the bus to
realised I was in the forest.
Tents had been put up and bags of food had been tied up in trees. The
fire pit had been lit up and it was glowing so dimly. As my shadow grew longer,
I came to realise it was close to night, I teetered anxiously towards one of
the tents but I had stopped id in my tracks. There was a faint sound of
whimpering in it. With my shaking hands, I opened the curtains of the tents and
was surprised to find Windy, my friend in it.
I ran to her and embraced her with my warm hug. I could not believe that
I had finally fund life. She cried into my shoulder, murmuring words I could
barely understand. I could only make out, “danger”, “shadow” and “all gone”.
Afraid that she was in that zone of trauma, I hushed her to sleep.
In the middle of the night, I heard a bloody scream of murder. I looked
beside me right away but was met by an empty space. I ran as fast as I could
with my bag hung loosely. I stopped at an aged tree with a crooked branch to
catch my breath. I felt little droplets of water on my head and an odour smell
reached my nostrils. I looked up and was met by the pale face of my friend with
her eyes missing. I took a step back and saw that every single tree here was
hooked with a body with no eyes to be found.
A voice whispered behind me, “Enjoying the view little one? You’ll be
next.” In a split second, I was rushing through
branches and leaves. It was not long when I had lost sight of the creature. My
luck was short as I tripped over a rock and it scratched my leg, just below my
knee. I fell face on the floor and blood was flowing down my leg. An old
abandon house was I sight and I limped my way towards it. In the matter of
seconds, I was in the house. I chugged my way into a room and shut the door
immediately. The sound of banging of doors reached my ears. I scurried myself
to a faraway corner. Tears streaming down my face freely as there was no way
out now.
“Whoosh”, it
had wiped out the door. I could hear it’s every step
coming towards me. Soon enough I could feel it’s breath
on my neck. It wrapped me around it’s slithering arms
ad shook me. With a sudden wave, I was awoken on the bus. My friends surrounded
me and one had me wrapped around her arms. The curiosity in their eyes explained
everything, that was only a nightmare. I came to learn to never watch horror
movies alone in the dark again. I hugged them all and was relieved that they
were all alive.
Through this nightmare, I saw he death of my friends. It was a horrible
feeling, just thinking about what if it was real. I should appreciate the time
I spend with my family and friends. We would all grow old one day so we should
cherish the moments before it is too late.
