Under the Gaze of the Haunting Moon

"Decades passed without incidence after that unfortunate year and we continued our livelihood peacefully. My life was good as well, I was blessed with a diligent son and a good daughter-in-law who gave birth to my lovely granddaughter.

But then, thirteen years ago, out of nowhere, on a full moon night, there were strange knockings on the doors of our houses followed by those bone creaking noise and right after that, men of our village kept disappearing after which we found them all drown to their death in the lake.

Our small family was just as frightened as the rest of the people and took precaution. But one full night, my son had to go see off a friend who we invited for a meal. It was still early in the night but my son never returned home. The next morning, both he and his friend were found dead floating on that accursed lake. My daughter-in-law, heartbroken and aggrieved, died a few months later leaving behind her child."

"It was the same for everyone here, all of us had lost so much from this age old curse, tormented for so long that we can't...we can't even live normal lives anymore... hic..hic.."

The old lady who narrated everything broke down in tears bitterly.

It was truly pitiful.

Ahanlem and the others stood in silence as they watched the old woman being comforted by her grandchild for a long while.

Then, the chieftain spoke solemnly,

"It is as the elder sister says. We are the most the ill-fated village in the land plagued by these nightmares, unable to get help. So, this time, please give us some sympathy and your understanding! We are begging you! We implored you to help us get rid of these evils once and for all! Please!"

By the last sentence, the chieftain was full of emotions and already on his knees begging at the feet of the thin man and the others.

The rest of his people followed the same action, as they all got on their knees and started begging pitifully.

The thin man was overwhelmed at their actions. Likewise, Ahanlem and the others share the same feeling as they stared among each other confused as to how to respond.

It was quite a while until Ahanlem decided to speak up awkwardly,

"Ah, please get up everyone." She put her hands down to the chieftain's shoulders and gestured for the man to get up as she continued to say,

"Get up please, we have to save our friends and then see what we should do together. Just a few of us men can't do anything on our own. So, we need your help to get the rest of the travellers first of all. And also give us some things that we can use as weapons to defend ourselves from those ghost skeletons."

-

And just like that, Ahanlem and her group and a handful of middle aged village men, armed with sticks, spades, axes and torches left for the direction of the ominous lake.

On the way, Ahanlem was filled with a sense of apprehension.

Once again, she had acted brave. Or insane.

Everyone had listened to her idea and they were now on the way to save those captured travellers first. But now that she thought deeper about it, how in the world are they going to confront those evil supernatural things?!

What can they do? They were only mere humans! What can these weak people do when faced with those wretched things? It took these villagers years until this village was forsaken to this pitiful state by these evil ghosts, so what can just a dozen men do against them on just a single night?!

Just thinking about it now, Ahanlem knew it was downright impossible! This was a foolish endeavour right from the beginning but she had to open her big mouth and give people false hope! And for what? All because she was afraid to feel guilty or be unable to sleep!

This foolishness! She should have just dragged Tomba and ran away, right from the start!

Still she wondered why nobody here told them it was a bloody bad idea?

Why did no one opposed to her madness?

As she was regretting her decision, the man in the lead stopped in his track suddenly.

He seemed startled. The rest of them halted their steps at once too.

Everyone present could hear the strange creaking sound made by those ghost skeletons.

Ahanlem grimaced as she recognized that all too familiar, creepy sound. However, this time the strange creaking sound almost seem to have a weird rhythm to it.

Creack, Creack, creek.

Creack, Creack, creek.

Creack, Creack, creek.

All of them held their breaths as they sneaked in stealthily towards some tall bushes without making noise. Their arms reached out slowly, as they parted the thick undergrowth like some bulky curtains.

The prevailing sight that greeted their eyes was a like a scene which was out of the world.

Right before their eyes, the peerless full moon amidst the vast sky imitated itself onto the lake, making it appear as if the lake surface was a clear wide mirror that reflected the picture above beautifully.

And surrounding this calm water body, on the soft grassy shores were the ghost skeletons.

Their white forms seemed to be illuminated under the light of the moon and they were joined in line in a wide semi circle around the lake, between each of them were the humans, hand in hand. Each ghost skeletons and humans held each other and they were moving about in a steady rhythm to an imaginary tune as they diligently made round the silent lake.

For a while, the people in hiding were wholly surprised and confused.

What in the seven lands was this?

But a little while later, everyone watching began to understand a bit.

These ghost skeletons, moving in tempo along with the humans were performing thabal chongba, the moonlight dance underneath the full moon.

The captured travellers wedged between the ghost skeletons had their faces distorted in horror and fright and they looked utterly distraught being grasped tightly by those sharp, cold bony fingers.

It appears these undead creatures were performing the very act they failed to do in their past lifetime!

The people hiding watched with their mouths agape, eyes bulging, their bodies rigid in terror and disbelief as they witnessed their fellow brethrens who were made to suffer the act.

Still, the entire scene looked almost comical to Ahanlem's eyes. Yes, it was scary and terrifying, a bizarre phenomenon yet it also appeared quite hilarious.

Just staring at those ghosts skeletons clad in dirty rags, dancing about in rhythm as they dragged along those trembling bodies of the travellers who were all plastered with frightened, twisted faces as they made round the lake was enough to make Ahanlem want to laugh. Really, by god! What the heck is this?

But she held in her laughter because if she really did, the others will assume that she had gone mad. Which she feared was turning out to be true given that she had been under a hell lot of stress lately.

She gulped.

Never mind, she thought as she shook her head and kept her opinions to herself and decided to concentrate on the real task at hand, which was to find where Tomba was.

She scanned around the entire place but Tomba was nowhere to be seen. He was not amongst the bizarre dancers, lake or anywhere near for the matter. Where has the boy gone?

Then, somebody besides her shouted, "Ah! Look at there!"

Everyone simultaneously did and sure enough Tomba and the rest of the group who went before them were perched on top of a fallen, thick trunk of an old tree that laid parallel onto the lake surface.

The place was situated under the shadows of the dark woods, so they failed to see them until now. Anyway, all five of them seem to be gazing somewhere onto the middle of the lake intensely.

Ahanlem puzzled, was wondering what could it be when a man in her group stealthily climbed up a tree nearby and cried out, "They are looking at that accursed pot of coins!"

Ahanlem stood up straight on her toes and she caught a glimmer of shinning objects in the middle of the lake. Sure enough, it was the small pot of coins sunken in the lake for decades.

The pot of shimmering coins gleamed in the light of the moon and looked tempting, almost as if the pot had a life on its own calling them to come.

Before they could call them the others or even blink their eyes, the burly man who had gone to lead his group, reached out his arms and dived into the lake suddenly. Splash!

Right after, he was immediately followed by the four other men including Tomba.

Splash! Splash! Splash! Splash!

All of them were diving towards the pot of coins like their life depended on it, their eyes looking bright and crazed.

They arrived at once and soon each grabbed hold of the shining coins and filled up the hem of their wet shirts with the coins greedily. It was like they were possessed.

Then, looking satisfied once they emptied the pot, they all turned around to swim back ashore. But the weight of the coins bundled onto their shirts kept them sinking under the cold water relentlessly. Still, they tried.

Tomba being the agile one was almost out the lake first with difficulty. But as he was getting out, his face changed immediately.

Bony hands reached out from nowhere and began to drag him down, back into the water. Many other dirty skeleton hands all emerged out from within the dark lake and started dragging down the men aggressively into the lake.

It was a chilling sight under the haunting moon.

Ahanlem and the rest of them watched in horror as the others were being drowned to death by those ghost skeletons in the lake.

Tomba, at the moment was caught by three pairs of vicious bony hands. He was struggling desperately to breathe as they tried to drown him. He couldn't even cry for help.

Seeing this helpless sight, Ahanlem immediately came out of her trance state and rushed forward to save him. She hastily brought out the long spade she had with her and pushed the wooden end towards Tomba as she yelled,

"Grabbed hold of this and pull yourself up!"

Following her advice, Tomba did as told and managed to pull himself towards her slowly, steadily.

Finally, he was able to reach out his hand towards Ahanlem's stretched one. They grabbed hold of each other's hands at last.

Ahanlem exhaled a breath of relief but it was too soon as the bony hands grabbed hold of her instead and started to drag her down!