The Kid with Curly Hair

This happened almost five years ago, when I was still struggling to complete my Master's Degree at a local university. I would love to tell you where, but I don't want to be in any sort of trouble. I was living in the hostels at the time, provided by the university. 'Provided', does not mean it is free. For a Postgraduate student like myself, I had to pay around RM 1,800 for a semester, which is double the amount of what undergraduate students paid for to live in the hostel.

Although the fees were doubled, it comes with its own perks. That is, for postgraduate students, the room would only be shared with two people. Undergraduate students had to live with four people, in the same sized room, throughout the semester, which to me seems way too crowded. Plus, postgraduates students showered in hot warm water, which is a kind of a big deal in a country like Malaysia (it's rare to have hot water supplies in public showers, because the heaters are expensive, and also it's a damp and hot country).

The hostel that I rented had four levels and my room was on the fourth floor. The building did not have any elevator, only flights and flights of stairs. At the time, I was somehow of a fit gal, and I never minded the stairs. Our building was the first one in the front of rows and rows of hostel bulidings, and my room faces the entire university compound. I really loved the room and quite enjoy spending two years of my life there. Because my room was at the highest level, the air felt fresher and the scenery was beautiful too, especially during sunset and sunrise.

I shared the room with a friend of mine that I had met during our undergraduate studies together. We planned to pursue our Master's Degree together, under the same Supervisor, and why not become roommates? She was the greatest choice of a roommate I had ever made, and until now, we were still in contact with each other, although we had went our separate ways as soon as we had completed our course. Both of us were doing researches, meaning most of our time were spent on lab work.

In the early semesters, I had finished almost 80% of my trials and experiments. After that, I just spend my time mostly inside my room, drafting my thesis. My roommate however still has a lot of work to do, which made her spending hours inside the lab, often leaving me alone in our room. I would not go as far as making a judgement that the room we were living in was haunted, although I do sometimes felt a little weirded out. I discussed it numerous times with my roommate, but she never felt anything.

Of course there were some weird occurrences, like knocking sounds, or hearing people calling our names, but other than that, nothing. I would say that both of us were being optimistic, never wondering that the things that happened never strange, but just a trick of the mind, because we were science people. Surely, everything can be explained.

What happened to me, however, I was not too sure. Maybe it was a trick of the mind, or maybe it was not. I could never explain it. It was a Thursday and I had just returned from the library. I was sitting on my study table like always, watching free movies on my laptop. The internet was free and it was loading quickly with no interruption, which I love the best about living in the hostel at the university. After watching some movies, I felt sleepy and my back hurts for slouching on the chair for too long.

I decided to lay on my bed and take a short evening nap. I looked at the time on my phone and it showed 3.30 PM, the weather was cloudy and nice too. I had planned to go for a jog after the nap, so I set my alarm in my phone for two hours, which meant I will be waking up around 5.30 PM. I lie on my bed, pulling the blanket, making myself comfortable, and not soon after that, I fell into a deep sleep.

I think I slept peacefully, though I couldn't remember what I dreamt about. I don't know how long I had slept but I somehow woke up, feeling something wrap up around my waist. My eyes was still closed at the time. Sleepily, half conscious, I seem to forget where I was. I don't know why, but at that moment, I thought I was at home with my little nephew, lying in bed with him, wrapping his little arms around my waist. At that time, my nephew was around four years old.

Still half asleep, I smiled, turned around to hug him. And at that moment, I froze when I realized the thing hugging me was not my nephew. I repeat, it was NOT my nephew. Because when I touched the head, the hair feels different. My nephew had straight soft hair. But the thing I was touching had a full thick curly hair, and it felt gauzy. Shiver ran through me, and I braved myself to open my eyes a little bit, having a peek at the thing hugging me.

The room was very dark. I must have overslept. But oversleeping was not my first problem. The main concern is who or what was hugging me at the moment. I slowly looked down and I saw that the thing resembles a small child, a toddler. The thing had its head burrowed on my stomach, though I could not feel the heat of it breathing against the fabric of the clothes I am wearing (because living things breath, am I right?). Having it burrowed against me, meaning that I could not see its face, which was somehow a relief. But I noticed that what I saw was all black. Like charcoal black. All of it, the hair, the skin on its neck, its ears, all black, darker than soot.

I tried to scream, but nothing came out of me. I felt paralyzed, still holding the thing's head with my hands, and it still has its arms wrapped around me. Me being a Muslim, I started reciting any prayers I could remember. It was very hard to focus as I can only recite the prayers with my thoughts as I could not even move my mouth. I tried screaming the words, but my throat was dry and my tongue could not function. Closing my eyes again, I tried my best to push the thing away from me. Suddenly I was able to move and upon reflex, eyes still closing, I slapped the thing on its head, and then I couldn't move again.

The funny thing is, after the slap, it releases its arms around my waist and slapped me back across the face. I was absolutely petrified, of the thing getting even and slapping me back, the sting from the slap, and also the surprised low growl that came out of it. All this while I still had my eyes closed. I stayed still for a moment, not moving a bit. Not even flinching from a mosquito bite.

A few moments passed - I don't know how long it was- I heard the jingling of keys, attempting to unlock the door to my room. Seconds later, the knob was turned and the door was opened. Still not moving, I heard the clicking of the switch and not long after that the room was lit. I opened my eyes and saw my roommate's face, all sweaty and tired, just returned from the lab. She closed the door and went straight to her bed opposite mine.

She threw her keys on the table and scowled towards me for acting weird. "What is wrong with you? "She asked, scowling, while looking concern at the same time. "Why didn't you turn on the lights? And why is your face so pale?"

"I overslept." I replied, as casually as possible, masking my fears.

I looked at my phone and saw that the time showed 8PM. FOR SURE I had overslept. I went to the alarm that I had set, wondering why it didn't woke me up. I am usually a light sleeper, and any sounds could wake me up. I wondered if I had forgotten to set it or I really did not hear it ringing. To my horror I saw that my alarm was turned off. I never turned off my alarm in my whole life. I would just change the time setting, but NEVER in my life had I ever turned it off. Shivers and goosebumps suddenly swept over me.

As I was sitting writing this, I wonder if what I had experience was a dream, that I was in a state of sleep paralysis or there really was something hugging me. I had read somewhere that being is a state of sleep paralysis puts you into situation between dreams and reality. So whatever you were dreaming can seems very real to you. I never told anyone of my experience, not even my roommate. However, since that day, whenever I am alone in the room, I would never turn off the lights.

-The End-