Moonlight Massacre

"Y-you people are back so s-soon..why?!"

The old chieftain stammered out stupidly.

Ahanlem and the others were already upset at the suffering they had to endure ever since they set foot to this accursed village. But to receive such a response from the village chieftain who had deceived them and was responsible for the current turn of events, they wanted to beat him up.

The thin man's face immediately turned red with anger at the chieftain's words. He opened his mouth and was about to argue when the wife of his friend suddenly raised her voice and cried out in a high pitched tone,

"HOW DARE YOU?! YOU WRETCHED PEOPLE! YOU DRUGGED US AND LEFT US FOR DEATH UNDER THE HANDS OF THOSE EVIL CREATURES! AND YOU DARE SAY THAT?! I WILL MURDER YOU MYSELF IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO MY HUSBAND YOU BUNCH OF BASTARDS!!"

Right after that, she burst out wailing in front of everyone. The other wife came to her aid and consoled her silently. At such a scene, everyone stood quiet. The thin man shook his head as he clicked his tongue and began to say,

"So you see what you wretched people have done to us?! We are just simple travellers far from our homes; tired, hungry and homesick but you deceived us and threw us into the tiger's den to be slaughter like this! Help us save our friends or else I swear to the heavens and to our ancestors that you villagers become cursed hundred fold than this!"

The other man who was with them and had been quiet all along the way suddenly burst out in a hateful tone,

"NO! WE WILL STILL CURSE YOU FOR YOUR WICKED DEEDS AND REPORT IT TO HIS MAJESTY! YOU WILL ALL PAY DEARLY FOR YOUR TREACHEROUS ACTION!"

It was as if he had been bottling up his frustrations and anger all the way until now.

"No, no, no, no! It's not like that! We didn't left you for death I promise!" The chieftain hastily said.

"What Do You Mean?! Don't Lie! You Shameful Bastard! " the thin man shouted, eyes red with fury.

"YOU DARE DECEIVE US AGAIN?! I'LL TEACH YOU MANNERS YOU SON OF A BITCH-!!" the other man joined in angrily.

A scuffle eventually broke out and it was mayhem all over.

During the struggle, a person was violently shoved and fell heavily on the ground. Then, someone swung an axe, it flashed swiftly by and almost hit everyone in the vicinity. A high pitched voice threatened,

"I'LL BEAT YOU ALL UP!"

The crowd quieted down at the threat and stared warily at the person. A teenage girl stood before them in an aggressive stance. Ahanlem noticed that she was the girl who they encountered the first night when they were escaping from those ghost skeletons. The person beside her weakly got up and spoke slowly, "Abem, please calm down. I'm fine, see, I'm not hurt at all. Calm down."

Sure enough, it was the old woman who they had also encountered.

"Abok!" the girl put down her axe immediately and helped her grandmother get up gently.

As the old woman was struggling to stand properly with the support from her granddaughter, she turned towards Ahanlem's group and said feebly,

"Dear travellers, you were most unfortunate to pass by this village and suffer like this but I assured you we don't mean to send you fellows to your death. We merely wanted your assistance to help us get rid of those wicked creatures, given that our village are lacking in able, strong men. You see, most of the men here were taken by those ghost skeletons..."

Ahanlem and the others looked around and sure enough, the crowd was mostly made up of women, old and young. There were very few men and even that consist of only old men past their prime. And the rest were mostly children.

"Ehh?"

"What is this..?"

The thin man and the other man forgot their anger. The two women beside them looked just as puzzled at this sudden revelation. They look at each other quite dumbfounded.

Ahanlem couldn't help but asked, "Why is that? How did it happen? What's really going on?"

The old woman stared out in the distance as if looking at a past long gone and sighed heavily. Her lips trembled as she began to say clearly,

"Long ago, about seventy years past.."

Oh god, cue the flashback music.

" ..When I was just a little girl, the former king had announced he was going to be passing by our village on his way back from a battle. He had just successfully defeated the foreign invaders on the eastern border. The whole of the kingdom was celebrating the victory with great pomp. Likewise, our village wanted to celebrate and give thanks as the king comes to rest on his way back to the capital.

Back then, our village was very popular as well as prosperous. Everyone was busy making preparations to accommodate for the king's stay. It was going to be a brilliant full moon on the day the king was supposed to arrive too. And for that reason, the village head then, decided that the young girls of the village should showcase thabal chongba, the beautiful moonlight dance before the king. It was going to be the highlight of the event. Thus, the maidens went from house to house to collect donations.

Everyone was excited but seven days prior, there were news that the prisoners that the king captured from the battlefield escaped from the king's men. Still, the village weren't daunted because the king had already sent out his men to protect the village.

But, on the eve of the auspicious full moon night, an atrocious incident happened.

That night, twenty-six young maidens of the village were all gathered beside the lake adjacent to the village.

Under the light of the moon, they were cleaning up the place as it was going to be the venue for the moonlight dance spectacle before the king. His majesty was arriving on schedule the next day, so all of them along with some elders of the village were making sure everything was alright.

It was still early in the night when the girls finished up and they were chatting and giggling, full of excitement on what exquisite attires they were going to be wearing for the coming event to impress the king.

(Warning: violence, murder scene,etc.)

But out of nowhere, savage looking men dressed in strange clothes appeared on the spot before them.

They were the fugitive prisoners who had escaped. Having heard the tinkling laughter of the girls, they came out of hiding, bearing evil thoughts in minds. None of the people present knew they were the escapees, still they were gravely alarmed.

By then, most of the elders had gone into the village, so it was only the young maidens and a few elders. Before they could shout for help, one of the prisoners with a savage look on his face grabbed hold of one of the girls. The girl shrieked in horror as she was embraced tightly by the man.

One by one, the girls were caught by those barbarians and were being humiliated. The elders screamed for help with all their might as they struggled to free some of the girls. One of the prisoners annoyed at their antics, shoved an old man aggressively. At such a forceful act, the frail man lost his balanced, slipped his footing and hit his head violently on a rock nearby the lake. Blood immediately flowed out his broken head and spilled out unceasingly onto the lake.

At this wilful murder, bloodcurdling screams from the victims pierce loud in the air. The savage prisoners consumed by bloodlust started killing the girls after taking advantage of them in cold blood.

It was a scene of carnage.

By the time the rest of the villagers arrived, their pupils shrank in horror as they witnessed this gruesome massacre.

The young maidens were all lying dead on the ground haphazardly, hairs dishevelled, clothes torn, faces twisted and their blood were flowing out of their bodies like dark red streams and dripping into the lake continuously.

Crimson colour clouded the entire clear water of the lake making for a bloody sight under the moonlit sky.

The village people were enraged and anguished at the scene. Faces distorted in rage, hearts filled with despair, they shouted as they move to avenge their murdered daughters and elders.

But all of a sudden, they heard the sound of loud, steady footsteps coming from the entrance of the village. Confused, they turned around but still on the alert.

Right behind them however, they saw men stepping up towards their direction.

These men were clad in armour, equipped with sharp blades in their hands ready for battle. They numbered about seventy and the villagers watched bewildered as these men stood before their eyes in a protective stance. Then, from a near distance, they heard a deep commanding voice which uttered in a tone as cold as ice,

"Cut off their limbs."

At this order, the armoured men rushed forwards steadily and started dismembering the assailants. Bloodcurdling screams echoed around the lake as the escaped prisoners were all butchered alive by the soldiers.

The king of the land had come in the night and help avenged the villagers. Under His Majesty's decree, the soldiers tied up the criminals to be dragged towards the capital to be publicly executed.

The villagers were content that their murdered daughters and elders were immediately given justice by the king himself. However, the event was far away from the celebration they had planned in their hearts. They couldn't celebrate but could only mourn bitterly.

The king gave his condolences and stayed only half the night until he headed for his capital at dawn. Meanwhile, the entire village was left with an extreme sense of gloom and desolation for days to come.

For weeks, the villagers suffered from terror and nightmares, so much that many of them packed up their belongings and left to settle in other places, aggrieved by the bloodbath and the losses of that night.

The chieftain grew more and more distressed as he watched the inhabitants leaving one by one. But there was nothing he could do to convince them to stay.

Then, one full moon night on a cold winter, the chieftain, drunk heavily of strong bitter wine dragged a small pot filled with silver, gold and copper coins and headed for the lake. They were the coins collected for the moonlight dance event by the dead maidens. They were never used and kept as an object of ill omen since that bloody night.

And in his drunken stupor, the chieftain got into the freezing lake water, swam towards the middle of it, dragging the pot of gold with him under the lonely watch of the bright full moon.

The next day, the villagers found him drown to death and the pot of coins sunken underneath the lake.

After that horrendous incident, the villagers planted a line of sacred trees and barricaded themselves from the ominous lake for good.