Hantu Gunung [On Hold]

Chapter - 5

By morning, the village had turned to dust. There were ashes in air, along with a rusty smell. These were the proof of the slaughter that took place the night before. The ground, where the villagers were gathered before the raid, looked like a marsh of blood filled with bodies of men, women and children alike. The bandits checked every nook and corner of the mountain for three days to find any survivors and them give them the same fate.

It was a sight of horror for even those in the foothill villages. They had witnessed the bandits, the torched village and the red river, that flowed for three days. On the fourth days, when the mountain was full of the stench of rotting flesh, the bandits set all the bodies on fire. It was a pyre so big, the flames could be seen from the foothills.

The only place not damaged by the bandits was the shrine. Gaco knew well enough, the importance of that place and needed the shrine to protect them just as it protected the previous inhabitants. On the next full moon, they put the scroll back in the shrine. And prayed to it for protection. Just as they had expected, the fog reformed.

After a long time, the bandits had a place they could call their home. It was the safe haven they needed. They settled a small village with men, women and kids. The men would ride out every now and then to raid nearby villages and then retreat into the fog. It was difficult for local clans to catch them. The invisibility of the village made them invincible. And as time passed by, they become more and more ferocious while their village flourished to no end.

The village kids soon grew up and joined their father's on raids. Gaco was the celebrated hero, who gave the bandits their safe home. He was married to a beautiful woman and had a daughter with her. Slowly, as time passed by, he grew old as well. He stopped accompanying the men on their loots and lived peacefully with his family in the village he had built over the blood of many innocents.

As more time passed, the old got older and the young started following into their footsteps. And then, one day, it was time for Gaco to pass to the other side. He had always led a happy, guiltfree and satisfied life never weighed down by the atrocities he had committed. He was deep in sleep when his time came. His whole family knew he will pass away peacefully without any pain.

But that night, Gaco had a dream. And in his dream, he saw her. Bembyx. She stood on the same spot she had years ago, where she saw his betrayal. Where she lost her life. But this time there was no despair on her face. Infact, there was no emotion at all. He walked towards her and she kept looking at him, blankly. She was quiet. Suddenly he felt something. Something wet under his feet. He was walking on dry land, but it felt like he was in water. He looked down, but it was too dark to see anything.

Then as he took his next step, he felt his feet touched something. He involuntarily moved back. But he stepped on something. Disoriented, he lost his balance and fell. He knew what it was, what he stepped on. It was his child, his daughter.

He looked at Bembyx, with horror in his eyes, and for the first time there was an expression on her face. She smiled, a dry and sad smile. It wasn't a mocking smile. Buy it made him feel uneasy. Scared, he got up and ran back to his house. He kept consoling himself it was all a dream. It was all a dream. But he had to go home.

When he reached home, the horror in his eyes became fully visible on his contorted face. He saw his wife lying on the floor, her throat slit. He couldn't believe his eyes and stepped back in shock.

He ran out of his house and went to the neighboring house where his daughter lived. As soon as he entered the door, he saw his grandson nailed to the wall through his chest. He started screaming. Screaming for help, screaming for someone to hear him. But there was no reply. No sound other than his own. He ran from one house to another across the village but only corpses welcomed him where ever he went.

He still couldn't believe if it was a dream, or reality. Feeling lost, he went to the place he had seen Bembyx. She was still there, standing in the middle of a pool of blood. In the dark of the night, he couldn't even tell the number of corpses he walked on to get across. "What is happening here? You are nothing more than a nightmare. I know this" she didn't reply him.

He screamed and screamed and screamed. He called her an illusion, then he cursed her, he even apologized to her. But she stood there mute. He got nothing neither a look of disgust, nor a look of pity. Then suddenly, she turned and started walking. He asked her where she was going and again his question went unanswered. He started following her and soon they were in front of the shrine.

He followed her inside and she took him to the room where the scroll was kept. She stood in front of the scroll and kept staring at it. And then, she disappeared. He got confused, about what was happening. He moved ahead to get the scroll, but his hand went right through it and he touched the platform on which it was kept.

He was even more confused now. He could touch everything else inside the room but not the scroll. He ran out of the shrine, calling Bembyx. But she was nowhere to be found. Everything finally caught upto him as he knelt on the ground. He had lost everything he held dear. He was sure of it, but he still wasn't sure why. He stayed there like that for hours. Unsure what else to do, he decided to got up and go back to the shrine and it was then he noticed that he could see the light coming from foothill villages. The fog was gone.

But he didn't care about it anymore. He started his walk to the shrine but suddenly he started panting. He felt so tired he couldn't walk. And then he noticed his arms and palms. He was old but his skin suddenly became more wrinkly than it ever was, skin that almost left flesh and smelled like it was rotting.

Scared he sat on the ground again, finally repenting his actions. For the first time he felt the guilt of the lives he had taken and of the people he had betrayed. For the first time, he felt remorse. He screamed into the air, crying loudly and in between his sobs, he apologised to Bembyx.

"What will apologizing to the dead get you now?" a voice asked him. He instantly turned into its direction. It was coming from the shrine. He could see a shadow standing at the gate. A tall shadow of a man. It was too dark to see anything. Gaco tried to get up but his body felt too weak to move. "Who is it?" he asked. "Forgiveness is a privilege you won't have." the shadow continued. "I am tired of having foolish beings on my mountain. But you, I can not let go."

The shadow was gone. And Gaco lied on the ground staring at the dark sky. He would never find peace and be stuck on the mountain with his rotting impoverished body. Neither be dead nor be alive, no would ever see him. He would always be alone. The mountain might change for others, but he would always walk on the corpses of his loved ones.

Slowly, the dead on the mountain perished, and all that was left was his lone self, not haunting but being haunted by the mountain. That day, a gunung became Hantu Gunung.