Coming from The Hill

September 27, 2011 by Alvin

  My brother's room has a window facing the hill behind my house. A peek out the window can give you a partial view of the hill, as most of it are covered by trees. During the 7th month of the lunar calendar, which is the Hungry Ghost Festival, joss sticks and sometimes offerings can be see on the grass side walk of the hill. A road runs up and down the hill to the other side but it is not frequently used by vehicles. Sometimes, at around 3 am, the howling of dogs could be heard resonating from the area behind the hill.

  This happened a long time ago. I couldn't sleep that fateful night. So, I decided to go over to my brother's room to check out his stash of comic books which is located next to the window. My brother wasn't at home that night, and I had the room all to myself. When I entered the room, it was quite breezy as the window was left open. 

  With the cooling night breeze coming in from the window, I proceeded to browse the basket of comics left beside the window. There was the usual Doraemon, Mr Q and... voolahhh...something interesting. A comic about ghosts! Can't imaging why I chose to read that in the middle of the night. Haha. Neither did I know that I wasn't going to be one who was going to have the last laugh, that night.

  After selecting the book of my choice, I sat at the lazy chair in the middle of the room, with my back facing the window. I flipped to the first page and started feasting on the pictures. I thought to myself how lucky I was to be able to read comics without being disturbed by my brother. Right when my eyes settled on a sketch of a lady ghost, the unexpected happened.

  From behind me, from outside the window, a lady let out a long, shrieking laughter. The hair on my neck and arms stood up straight away. I jumped out of wherever I was sitting at and ran straight away to my parents room and spent whole night there, not daring to move an inch until day break. I thought to myself, whatever it was, it might have come from the hill.

  A few years later, when I was reading about the paranormal on the internet, I got to know that long, shrieking laughters like that might have come from a Pontianak. The louder it sounds, the farther away it is from you. And if it sounds soft and muted, it means that the creature is close to you. The one that I heard sounded soft and distant. Could it be that the 'thing' was right next to...... Yikes!