Shroud: Jinn

18 - Bloodbound

"No more massages!" I said, trying my best to keep my voice firm and steady. However, it faltered in confidence as I was still unnerved by the two otherworldly presence in the room.

"Excuse me?" Mak Bidan voiced out, her defensive eyes now on me. Her calm demeanour a few seconds before was rattled with my sudden appearance in the room. Nonetheless, she kept her professional stance and continued massaging. Mak Bidan's hands passed through the vaporous shadow that hovered just above Melati, encasing the former's hands in the same black mist. Mak Bidan continued kneading at one part of Melati's skin that glowed an unearthly red. "Young man. I don't know if you're aware but when you start massaging someone, you have to see it through!" Melati made an effort to get up and remove the damp cloth from her eyes but Mak Bidan coaxed her back down on the bed gently and adjusted the cloth back before Melati could see or say anything. "Relax. We've only just started, dear," Mak Bidan said reassuringly to Melati who was biting down on her bottom lip anxiously.

Hostile words rolled at the tip of my tongue as I approached them but what came out was a surprising calm, "I said, enough. Take your things with you." I pointed to the massage oils, but really, I was referring to the shadows. I avoided looking at them. I did not want to anger them. Who knew what they were capable of doing. 

As I reached over for Melati's hand, Mak Bidan held onto my arm, the grip a little too vice-like for my liking, "Let us be."

"Baba, is everything okay?" Saleha trotted into the room, just at the edge of the doorway. She peeked around the room in confusion, unaware of the strange entities in the room. "Why is the room so cold?" Her warm breath expelled in a small cloud as she crisscrossed her arms and rubbed at the side of them, shivering at the drop of temperature in the room.

The diabolical shadow that was behind Mak Bidan lurched towards Saleha in a viperous swirl, moving at such inhuman speed and I growled, "NO!" I loosened my arm from Mak Bidan's grip and reached over desperately to push my daughter out of the room but the shadow was too quick for me, "Saleha! Get back!"

The hellish cloud of smoke descended aggressively on Saleha. The whole of Saleha's body glowed with a blinding light as soon as the vicious shadow landed on her. The large, minacious shadow dispersed into minuscule fumes before the tiny pieces merged again into one savage shadowed beast with monstrous horns as though reborn into something more powerful. Its brute form struck again at Saleha in a furious snarl and Saleha jerked backwards. She clutched her hands at her chest and scanned around the room in fright, "Did you hear that, Baba?"

The same bright aura that shone intensely around her earlier, illuminated her once more. The dangerous shadow flinched as soon as it touched Saleha and it disintegrated again into smaller pieces. The shattered segments fused again but this time, the shadow kept its distance. Somehow, it was not able to touch Saleha.

The shadow advanced towards me like an enormous, turbulent wave. In the process of dodging its attack, I lost my balance and stumbled backwards onto the small dresser in the corner of the room. My right arm flew over my head and the back of my hand swept through the shadow's form for a brief second. The initial feeling was like an icy burn as though I had gripped on a frozen icicle and then my skin started to sear at the sudden intense heat as if I had scalded myself at the side of a thousand boiling kettles. I gripped at my wrist with my left hand in pain yet as I looked down at my right hand, there were no burn marks, only random scattered bruises.

"What's going on?" Melati got up hurriedly at the strange sounds and removed the cloth that was obstructing her sight. "What happened to the dresser?" From the way she was looking at all of us, it was obvious that she did not see the things that I did. Same was true for Saleha. My daughter was looking at me with the same confused expression. The harsh crimson marks on Melati's body disappeared at the same time Mak Bidan released her hold on her and both shadows in the room dispersed into thin air.