Lantern Village and Ghost Skeletons

Ahanlem and Tomba went straight eastwards as directed by their saviours. They soon arrived onto a narrow path of a hilly terrain. It was the only path and it led towards the north which was where their town of Chengmei was located.

They had to go through this unfamiliar road first. And it was already dusk.

Ahanlem was getting anxious.

If they don't get there soon, then they will have to camp out in the wilderness. But that was half the problem. If they ended up sleeping outside, then she had to be constantly on guard from stray wild animals. In addition, she has to be careful so as not to be discovered by Tomba on her real identity.

After all, it is the first time they will be in close sleeping quarter of each other, so who knows what might happen? She couldn't help but be filled with dread as she walked with her head down. Thinking about the situation made her extremely stress.

But lady luck finally seemed to pity her as she heard Tomba cried out happily, "Look Ahanlem! Lights!"

She immediately looked up and sure enough, beneath the vast dark evening sky there was an open little village, nestled cosily among the hills right under their steps. There was also a beautiful clear lake and besides it, were the small houses packed tightly together.

The lake and the houses were separated by rows of sparsely growing tall trees in between them. And this far off, Ahanlem could also make out dimmed lighting coming out of many hung up lanterns from the houses.

Tomba and Ahanlem rushed down the steep pathway in joy. They were very hungry as well as tired from the journey. Not to mention they almost got eaten by a vicious tiger. They wanted to eat and rest as soon as possible.

They arrived to the first lane of houses. But then realised that the doors and windows where all tightly shut close.

Well, it was natural to close off one's doors and windows when night descends. But this appeared to be a little too early for an entire village to be sleeping already without a sound.

Tomba climbed up the veranda of the first mud and stick house and knocked three times as he called out,

"Excuse me? Is anyone home? We would like to ask for a place to eat and rest. Can you help us? Please?"

However, no one answered. It was as if nobody lives inside the house at all. Tomba looked back at Ahanlem who suggested, "Let's try the next one."

They knocked the next four or five houses but not a soul open the door and answered them. A sense of trepidation was growing in both their hearts but neither voiced it out.

If Ahanlem, who had watched a lot of ghost theme movies of her time, had to draw a conclusion about this, she would say they had unwittingly arrived at a deserted ghost town. Which was not good at all!

She sighed, so much for lady luck, more like they caught the fancy of lady misfortune since this morning.

Both gave up on knocking on doors to get help. Instead, they decided to look for a shelter to stay for the night. At this point, Ahanlem stopped caring about getting found out as a girl. She just wanted to eat something and get the rest she deserved.

For a long while, they walked amidst these rows of dark houses which were light up by these chains of dimmed yellow, hung up lanterns.

It was a tantalizing but a haunting spectacle.

All of a sudden, they heard sound of people murmuring, almost noisily. Both of them walked to the direction briskly, feeling hopeful, then stopped before a worn down sangoi.

The opened mud hall with thatched straws roof, stood big and sombre under the darkening sky. And a bunch of people crammed together inside.

Hearing their footsteps, these ten of people turned towards them and looked almost happy. They made gestures and invited the new guests in eagerly.

"Eh, what brings you two brothers? Come inside!" A burly man said.

Another man said, "Which way are you going? Chengmei?"

Tomba nodded, "Yes, we are on our way home to Chengmei from the capital. Is anyone here from there?" he asked sounding hopeful. But all of them shook their heads as one of them answered,

"No, no. None of us are from Chengmei. We were on our way home to our own villages from the capital when the other road was blocked because a man eating tiger was on the loose."

A grizzly bearded man shook his head and said, "Yes, very unfortunate. We had to take this road instead. Then we came across this small village when it got dark but none of the houses would open their doors for us. Very strange."

"It has been the same for all of us. So we had no choice but to find rest in this place. Tch. Tch. " Another added clicking his tongue.

Suddenly, somebody shouted, "Strange?! Not only strange but crazy! I bet this village is full of lunatics! Because I definitely heard voices whisperings inside the houses! They clearly were ignoring us on purpose! Curses to them and their children's children for ill treating travellers!!"

This angry man appears to be middle aged with a bushy moustache and a huge body. Beside him, was a very thin man with a long face telling repeatedly, "Don't get angry, calm down, calm down."

"How can I calm down? I'm tired and hungry and our wives need a proper place to rest! Not this shabby place with men everywhere!" he roared.

Ahanlem saw that behind these two men where two young women huddled close together in the corner, silent and anxious. She also wanted to huddle along with them but if she did they would cried out in shame and she would be beaten by their husbands surely.

Anyway, Tomba led her to a free space and both sat down with their backs leaning against the mud wall.

Ahanlem exhaled as she started to relax a bit. But she was starving and exhausted at this point. Tomba's stomach growled loudly at that moment. He uttered, "I'm so hungry..." They both shared the same sentiment.

The man before them turned around and complained as he said, "We are hungry too. But these heartless people won't even half open their doors. This is just as bad a situation like encountering a tiger."

Everyone present had travelled for a quite a while. But still it was not supposed to be journey long enough that they would need extra food. And so they didn't bring any with them.

All of them had no choice but to starve for the night. They went to sleep hungry and tired inside the open hall. Their bodies caressed by cold winds of the spring night.

--

Ahanlem didn't know how long it had passed but she was suddenly awoken by a strange noise.

Creek creck. Creek creck.

Knock knock. Knock knock.

She opened her bleary eyes; a beautiful round moon peeping out of one of the holes of the straws roof greeted her blurry vision.

Creek creck. Knock knock.

She continued hearing the odd sound. She rubbed her eyes and looked to her side. Tomba was still sleeping, with his mouth open and even snoring lightly.

Ahanlem was thinking whether to wake him up or not when she heard a shriek right beside her ear. She swiftly turned her head to see one of the women staring straight ahead. Her eyes were bulging out of her socket, mouth hung open in horror like she seen a ghost.

Ahanlem confused, followed the woman's gaze and looked ahead.

But the moment she did, chills ran down her spine and she instantly broke out in goosebumps all over.

Right before her eyes, in ten, no, in more than dozens, were bony, dirt white, human size skeletons. They loomed over the deserted village in a large group. There were no eyes in the hollow sockets of their skulls but each of them was gleaming with a ghostly light. And clothed in grimy and tattered rags these things were knocking on the doors of every house present in the village.

What a terrifying unbelievable sight!

None of the doors opened but these anomaly creatures kept going from house to house in groups of two or three like it was their mission or something.

Ahanlem kept staring, feeling fearful and incredulous at the same time. What in the hell as this?

Out of the blue, a high pitched scream broke her free from the reverie. She whipped her head around to see that the other woman had woken up too. And seeing the dreadful ghostly skeletons, she screamed out loud waking the whole crowd.

"What happened?!"

"What's the matter?!"

"Who scream like their mother died? Tch!"

"Who dare shock me like that?!"

All the men complained as they grumbled angrily for being startled awake. But it wasn't for long because one of them saw the same frightening sight and another loud scream erupted in the dead of the night.

The rest of the crowd looked towards where the screaming man's finger was pointing shakily and then-

Horrendous screams after screams followed one after another and chaos ensued in a matter of seconds. Some prepared to make runs, some backed themselves against the wall while some grabbed whatever objects they can used as weapons. But one thing was common between them. They were all screaming like mad.

Ahanlem feared all this noise was going to catch those ghost skeletons' attention and wanted to tell them to shut up at once.

But then she noticed something. No matter how high-pitched or ear-splitting the screams were, it appears those skeletons didn't hear a thing and continued knocking doors making that weird sound as they walked.

Creek creck. Knock knock.

It's like they were really on some mission. A mission too important to notice any amount of crazing shrieking going on out there. Oh, thank god!

Again, Ahanlem thought too soon.

All those ghost skeletons suddenly halted in their tasks.

They turned their skull heads and skeleton forms and started to walk right towards the direction of the crowd steadily!