An Incident 5

Siti slammed the Taxi door extremely hard to show the bloody Taxi Uncle her perturbness.

Already fed-up with the extra work which made her stay-back to do the month-end closing till so late and then kena a lousy Taxi uncle trying to be funny with her.

The uncle’s uncorth statements still lingered in her agitated mind:

“Wah, why pretty girl like you still got to work so late huh?...How your abang allows such a pretty girl like you to work so late?... Your eyes so big and beautiful and your hands so very smooth and tender, sure good to hold and … You have very good head-lights hor, so if you go Africa, the babies there sure won’t starve one lah since so much susu for them, he he he... Your lips so nice just like “Shu-qi”, so sexy and sure tempting all the guys to want to kiss you…”

In Siti’s mind, she was cursing hard at the Taxi driver, “@#$%&@, what has my beauty and assets got to do with you and who the hell is “Shu-qi”, you dirty old man.”

Finally, after a long 35 minutes ride in the hyper strong air-conditioned Taxi, she reached the main road of her flat at Hougang.

Siti required to walk a short distance of about 5 minutes from the main road to the block which was situated 6 blocks from the main road. She stayed with her mother in the flat as all her siblings were married and had already moved out.

The watch on her left wrist showed that it was already 11:58 pm. She usually reached home at 7.00 pm, at most 7.30 pm if there’s traffic jam but tonight…She had informed her mother about working late and she knew that her mother would not be sleeping until she saw her daughter reaching home safely.

Siti took out her pack of Marlboro and lighted a stick while she headed home. The wind tonight was really strong and she had to stand still and covered her lighter with her hands in order to successfully light her cigarette.

While she was tilting her head a little towards the lighter, through the corner of her eyes, she noticed a white shadow at the end of Block.

Siti felt her heart skipped a few beats as the white shadow was gliding slowly along the void deck towards her in total silence…

Ghost, Spirit, Hantu, were words that kept flooding her mind as the white shadow came nearer and nearer towards her.

5 meters away, 4 meters away, 3 meters away and still coming nearer and nearer...

She felt both her legs were rooted on the ground and she almost let out a scream had she not recognized the white shadow was none other than the lonely Indian old lady who had been feeding the stray cats every night routinely.

She laughed at her own wild imagination and continued to walk home.

She walked past the 1st Block and while walking towards the 2nd Block, she started to hear the sound of a woman’s crying, very softly, almost inaudible but due to the perfect quietness of the night, Siti could hear the sobbing rather clearly.

“woo…hoo…woo…woo…hoo…woo…” The cry sounded so pathetic as if the woman was trying to tell the world her sorrow.

Siti’s pretty face turned completely pale once again but she just kept walking towards her Block.

“woo…woO…hoo…WOO…” The cries turned louder and louder...

As Siti walked past the lift and behind the wall of the 2nd Block, stood 2 figures.

“OMG!!!” Siti almost screamed when she suddenly saw 2 figures standing behind the wall.

A young couple, standing motionlessly against the wall, was also startled by Siti’s sudden appearance.

The young girl was crying and the young man was trying to console her…

As Siti walked away from the troubled couple, she couldn’t stop thinking to herself, “Stupid girl lah, now kena already then cry, for what? You shouldn’t have agreed to him in the first place…”

Siti walked past the 3rd, 4th and 5th block without meeting any strange things, just that the temperature around her seemed to have dropped further and further...

“@#$%&@, it is freezing tonight. Can’t wait to get a good hot shower and sleep.”

As Siti walked towards the lift below her block, she looked up to her kitchen on the 5th storey (a habit she had over the years) and she saw her mother standing there looking down at her smiling, as usual.

Seeing that her mother was waiting for her made her smile too and a sense of warmness past through her body in the cold surrounding, knowing that your loved one was waiting for you to come home.

Just as she was walking into the void deck towards the lift, she sensed something strange around her. She couldn’t tell what was not right except the extremely unusual cold tempeartute and there seemed to be a sudden feeling of FEAR which was building up in her.

She looked around but saw no one, not a single soul at all but her intuition and sixth sense told her/ warned her that something was just not right...

“Fxck!!! I am almost home, don’t let me encounter anything strange. All I need is to get into the lift, press the number 5 button and get home safe and sound.”

Just as she was waiting for the lift, alone of course, she heard someone calling her name, “Siti, you are back at last.”

Siti almost screamed and when she turned around to the direction of the source of the sound, she saw her mother standing near the letter box waiting for her.

“Mother?!?! When did you come down and how can you come down so fast?”

“I have been waiting here for you for half an hour already.”

THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!!!

Siti had just seen her mother standing in their kitchen looking down at her just 5 seconds ago… so who was that in their house...

Siti was reluctant to go up to her own house...

Would you dare to go up if it is your house...?