Shroud: Jinn

13 - Mystified

"You look pale," Kamsaton observed. 

I stayed quiet and stared towards the lake. The more I tried to process everything that happened last night leading up to the moment in the cave this morning, the more I felt that I was slowly turning neurotic.

Both Kamsaton and I were seated on a grass patch by the edge of the lake where my bicycle was. I had overturned the bicycle and was mindlessly rotating the spokes of a wheel. Rotating things helped me focus.

"Have you eaten anything?" Kamsaton pressed on.

My body gave an involuntary shudder at the memory of the black chicken. "Mak Bidan offered something back at the house but I couldn't eat it."

"Herbal black chicken soup?" she asked, to which, I nodded uneasily. Kamsaton giggled, "She learnt the recipe from a Cantonese family. Tastes much more fragrant and pleasant than it looks. It boosts your immune system. Don't be put off by the colour. There's not much difference in the taste and texture of the meat." She tilted her head thoughtfully, "Maybe slightly leaner and softer." She gestured towards a bunch of roots that laid among the leafy herbs and a pile of red berry fruits on her rattan tray. "I was out hunting for ginseng, huai shan (Chinese yam) and cordyceps. Mak Bidan used the last ones when she made that last bowl of herbal soup." Kamsaton popped a few of the red berry fruits in her mouth. "I like to add wolfberries in mine but I usually dry them out in the sun first. Want some?" 

I studied the plumpness of a red wolfberry. The oval red fruit was like a cross between a cherry tomato, a fat red bird's eye chilli and a small juicy strawberry. Maybe I had overanalysed Mak Bidan's kind gesture. But something was just off about that woman. I shook my head in response and Kamsaton dusted off her hands. My eyes wandered towards the shrubs of Ixora plants near us. I was disappointed to see the flowers in their dark brown, brittle, withered form - a stark contrast to their usual blood orange brightness. It was almost black. 

"Where does Mak Bidan get the black chickens?" I stopped spinning the wheel and asked her curiously.

"She rears some."

"I don't think I've seen them the last time I was there. Before today, I mean."

"Maybe you were too busy looking at something else." My eyes fell on Kamsaton's face the moment she said that and I promptly shifted my gaze away and towards the direction of the cave. "You keep looking at the cave. Why?"

I wanted to fill her in on everything that happened last night but I stopped myself, not wanting to risk sounding more like a madman. "I thought I saw a gold pen in there. Guess I was wrong." I made no mention that it was mine or the shadowy hand that grabbed it away.

"I'm sure I would see something as striking as gold," Kamsaton giggled. Her eyes flicked to my chest for a brief second before she made eye contact with me again. "But I didn't see anything in the cave." 

"Back at the hospital..." I darted my eyes away from the house before fixing my gaze on Kamsaton's face, "When you said that you can sense 'bad energy', can you see them?"

"Why do you ask?"

"There was something at that house. I don't know what it is-"

"Ahh...you've seen it."

"So, I'm not crazy?" I ran my hands through my hair, curved them around my neck before bringing them back up again to my face. I expelled a heavy breath through the gaps of my fingers, relieved that I was not hallucinating. "What is it?"

Kamsaton fiddled with her thumbs and her eyes steered clear from my questioning gaze, "You should be careful around Mak Bidan." She looked to her side and blinked uneasily. She finally croaked out agitatedly, "That thing takes care of her." 

"Like a guardian?"

"Not a very nice one." She looked behind me and the back of my neck felt chilly all of a sudden, "Best that you don't speak about it. It could be watching."

Perturbed by her response, I looked around me nervously. The air pressure that hung heavily at my back swirled ruthlessly around me and the cold air vanished the moment I looked behind my shoulder. To say I was terrified was an understatement.

Kamsaton placed a hand on my thigh reassuringly to calm me down which sent a tingle of warmth through my body. She retrieved her hand immediately as soon as she realised what she had done and I cleared my throat.

"Erm, thanks for showing me where my bicycle is. I-I better get home now." 

"Do you want me to walk with you?"

I slowly shook my head as I stood up, "You should head back. It's getting late." 

We walked together for a while, careful to keep a safe distance between us. As soon as we said our goodbyes and parted ways, I mindlessly pulled a bunch of juicy red-orange Ixora flowers by the stem and sucked on the sweet nectar at the base. It was a habit of mine to snack on them during my childhood. I stopped sucking, took a deep breath and braced myself as I retraced my steps to where Kamsaton and I sat earlier. With each nervous step, I prayed that I would not feel the creepy cold wind again. Much to my relief, the warm wind was consistent with the sweltering heat from the sun. I studied the bunch of shrubs of Ixora plants to my right where Kamsaton and I had started walking from. The bright reddish-orange flowers were blooming bright. I compared them to the flowers on the shrubs of Ixora plants on my left that led towards the cave. They were dried up, shrivelled and almost black.

I did not know what to make of it.

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CREDITS:

Background Music: Myuu - Down The Rabbit Hole

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/Foe8VGzHGyA

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