Shroud: Jinn

10 - Hypnosis

As the days went by, I grew more restless.

Kamsaton did not turn up for work for three days. Nor was she in the hospital on the fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh day. I clocked in overtime on my off days just to get a glimpse of her. Not seeing her frustrated me.

Things soured between Melati and I as we argued about moving house. She was against the idea and her sheer stubbornness kept pushing me to the edge. The more I looked at my wife, the more my eyes were filled with disdain. I had even resorted to sleeping on the living room floor. Saleha noticed the change in my behaviour and had coaxed me to sleep in the bedroom a few times. In truth, I was too terrified to spend any more time in any of the bedrooms in that house. I always gave the excuse that the master bedroom was too hot to sleep in, which was true. As soon as I stepped into that bedroom, it felt like I had just stepped into a blazing hot furnace. Oddly, no one else felt the strange heat.

Only me.

The gash from my wound had grown from bad to worse. No matter how much I cleaned and stitched it up, the threads would come loose by the next morning. It was infuriating.

Things had quietened down at the kampung over the past week. I did not see the penanggal anymore nor were there any more news of infanticides in the village except for complaints of an increase in the number of missing black chickens, black goats and black sheep from farmers' livestock. Whoever the thief was, they had a strange obsession with black animals. Even the black rabbit which Saleha was very fond of, did not hop by our backyard for the past few days. Saleha had left a few carrots at the usual spot in case it popped by but it never did.

The returning peace had made me brave enough to open the window shutters at home after dark. However, even with the opened windows, it did not make the nights more cooling.

"Why is so hot in here?!" I removed my doctor's coat and flung it angrily at the other end of the room. I ruffled my hair messily in rage as I stared at the ceiling fan circulating above.

I had hidden in my office the whole morning and cancelled all appointments for the rest of the day. I buried myself in work, concentrating on a backlog of reports. I moved the typewriter's carriage back one space as I typed a new alphabet over the previous letter. I repeated the step but the jarring correction just made the report look sloppy and careless. I rolled the knob at the side, slid the paper out and crumpled it with my fist. I curled the mass of crunched paper over my head and threw it at my office door just as a head popped in. The curled up paper smacked the person's head forcing me to bolt upright and straighten up my hair.

"I should have knocked. Sorry."

Thud thud thud.

I tried to hide the smile from spreading across my face as the person knocked their dainty fist on the door thrice.

"A bit redundant now, isn't it? You're already inside my office."

She blushed, closed the door behind her, sat down on the chair on the other end of the table and set a tumbler together with a small tied cloth on the desk.

"I was about to have my lunch but I thought it's best if I came here first to apologise...about last week." She bent down her head slightly, looked up at me and struggled with her words, "I- I- I...overstepped the boundaries. I thought you wanted...me; the way you stared at me. I thought the feeling was mutual. I must have misunderstood-"

I swallowed back my emotions and stopped her midway, "Let's just put it behind us, shall we?"

She smiled weakly as she looked away dejectedly, "Okay."

Trying to lighten the mood, I sniffed in the sweet aroma around me, "Is that kuih kochi I smell?"

She laughed lightheartedly as she looked at the bundle of tied cloth on the table, "You can smell it? I wrapped them in two layers of cloth."