The End of the Nightmare

Everyone was in the hall, waiting for Mila and Yana to show up. Hannah and mine knees were shaking. It was either because of the excitement of fright. Both maybe.

Finally, Mila and Yana showed up. Mila stood behind me, Hannah, Abah, and Achu. Yana was bewildered at the situation.

“What’s going on?” Yana asked, her face turning grim.

“Yana,” Abah started. “We heard from Insyirah and Hannah that they’ve seen some black magic done by you, in this house. Is it true?”

Yana looked at my cousin and I who were standing side-by-side. Hannah and I cringed, and shivered. Having the fear that she would use black magic on us.

“Astaghtaghfirullah al azeem.” Hannah and I chanted a lot of times.

“So, they found out.” I heard Yana say. I looked up a bit and almost fainted when I saw the black figure on the ceiling. I nudged Hannah and she too looked up. We went speechless.

“Attack!” Yana said, angrily. The black figure jumped down from the ceiling and went to Abah.

“ABAH!” I shrieked.

“A'uzu billahi minashaitanir rajim!” Hannah shouted. And suddenly, the black figure couldn’t touch any of us. It was like we were in a force-shield.

“What?” Abah said in bewilderment. He looked at Hannah and she winked. Abah hugged me and I hugged him back, holding back the tears.

“Attack, again!” Demanded Yana. And the black figure pounced on Hannah and I. I was near to fainting when Abah and Achu shouted, “A'uzu billahi minashaitanir rajim!”

The black figure stepped back and backed away. “Don’t stop till they die!” Yana shouted. The black figure made many more attempts but failed.

“Yana, your black magic, is no match for Allah’s power!” Achu shouted at her.

Yana looked at us in anger. Her face turning red. “Mark my words! In 10 days, the living family members of Zaleha and Abdul Jalil will die and Aiman will be the only one who’ll live! MARK MY WORDS! ALL OF YOU!” She screamed. And with that, she vanished with the black figure.

Hannah and I felt shaky in the legs but smiled a weak smile. Finally, she was gone. But her final words for us, left me shaking.

“Will we really die in 10 days, Abah?” Asked Ihsan, my brother. Abah looked at Ihsan, and told him, “Only Allah can tell.”

~End~

This Just Has to Stop

My cousin and I were in the living room, fiddling with out gadgets. Suddenly, we both heard shouting and crying. It came from the kitchen. Hannah and I exchanged glances.

We both went, running into the kitchen and found Mila sitting in her room, crying.

“Whatever happened here Mila?” I asked, sitting next to her. Hannah sat on my left.

“It’s that horrid Yana. She broke the tea set that my husband had bought from Japan. I scolded her and told her to never touch my stuff. Suddenly, she began to chant some nonsense and when she was done chanting, she told me, ‘In the next 5 years, when you go back to Indonesia, I will find you in the rivers, as a snake. And suddenly, you’ll turn back into a human and have snakes as your hair!’” Explained Mila.

Hannah and I went pale and stiff. We didn’t know what to say. We looked at each other. Hannah was sweating while I was shivering from head-to-toe.

“We’ve got to tell Abah.” Hannah whispered to me. I nodded.

“Thanks for explaining this to us Mila. We will be going now.” I told her. Mila thanked us for our company and we got out of the room.

We made our way up the stairs and found Abah sitting peacefully in his room, using his iPhone.

“Abah!” I called out. Abah looked at both me and Hannah. And I knew at once that he knew it was a story about Yana. He called us into the room and we immediately poured out the whole story, not a single detail was missed.

Abah had gone pale when we had finished. Honestly, I would’ve laughed at him. I always thought he was a tough cookie but I found out, he rather wasn’t. But I couldn’t laugh. For I too was scared out of my wits.

“You do know that Grandma will be out of the hospital in a week right?” Asked Abah.

“So? What does that have to do with our explanation?” Hannah asked back.

“We can ask Grandma to get Yana out of this house and the nightmare will be over!” I said, reading my father’s mind. He nodded.

“Insyirah’s right. And I think, Grandma won’t want Yana after all this horror stories.” Abah said, half smiling.

Hannah and I looked at each other; satisfied.

💀💀💀

The next day, Abah went with Achu to visit Grandma. Hannah and I had prayed all morning. Praying that Grandma would fire Yana and kick her out; for good.

“Do you think Grandma’s going to say yes?” I asked Hannah after Abah and Achu had left.

“Think? Oh I know Grandma’s going to kick Yana out. I swear it and know it Insyirah my cousin.” Hannah said with a scoff and the end of her sentence.

2 hours later…

“Assalamualaikum…!” Said a voice while the door opened and unlocked. Hannah and I rushed downstairs, seeing Abah and Achu. Achu didn’t understand why we both were so punked up when they got back. But Abah was grinning from ear-to-ear.

“I’ll take it from here Didi.” Said Abah to Achu. Achu, still clueless, nodded and left us with Abah.

“So…?” Hannah asked. Hannah and I were holding hands firmly, praying that it was good news.

“Of course Grandma said… yes.” Abah said, happily with a grin. Hannah breathed a breath and I heard her say, Alhamdulillah under her breath. We looked at each other and high-fived.

“When’re we going to break the news to the witch?” I asked Abah. Hannah snickered when I called Yana a witch.

“Now.” Abah said, grimly. “Let’s call everyone in house, including Mila. And before you call Mila, ask her to call the witch.”

Hannah laughed and I snickered. “Haha… Witch.” Hannah said, holding her sides.

“Okay are you two going to help your old man out, or not?” Abah said, seeing the both of us not moving or either going anywhere.

“Yes, yes, we will.” Hannah said as she dragged the laughing me up the stairs. 

To be continued in: The End of the Nightmare 

Two Down-One Has a Story

Achu and Abah came back from visiting Grandma and Mamachu at the hospital.

“How’re they doing?” Hannah and I asked, Hannah almost bit her finger nails and I stopped her. She grinned.

“Oh Mamachu’s doing fine, praise be to Allah.” Said Achu. “But I’m afraid your father, Insyirah, has something he wants to ask you and Hannah. It seems… serious.”

I looked at my Abah and he said, “Into my room, please.”

Hannah and I looked at each other, wondering what was going to happen. We both walked into the room, still wondering.

“Grandma told me to help her solve this really peculiar case.” Abah said, rather seriously. “It’s about Yana.”

Upon hearing this, a cold shiver went down my spine. My cousin and I exchanged horrified glances.

“What happened to Grandma?” I asked curiously.

Abah took a deep breath and told us what happened. “Grandma mentioned that when the doctors were trying to find her a life support machine, all of them failed to help even though they were doing fine. She said to have seen black figures behind the machines, breaking ‘em.”

There was a short pause and Hannah said, “Then…? Did they manage to find a functional machine?”

“Praise be to Allah yes, they found the right machine. And that was after Grandma mumbled some verses of the Qura’n.” Abah said. “Not only that happened but Grandma dreamt, that night, that she was at a funeral, and on the tombstone, was her own name, ‘Zaleha’.”

I shivered while Hannah broke into a sweat. “Looks like you girls know something.” Said Father, looking at our response to the story.

“Oh you won’t imagine what we know, Abah.” Said Hannah. Without a moment to lose, we both poured out everything. From Grandma’s broken vase to when Mamachu fainted.

“Wow.” Said Abah when we finished. “Sounds like a nightmare.”

“Oh that’s because it is a nightmare.” Hannah said with a laugh.

“What’re we going to do about it, Abah?” I asked him.

Abah put on his thinking face and then said, “Firstly, we have to tell everyone in the house, including Mila, not to get near Yana until we find out what knowledge she’s using on our family.”

💀💀💀

That night, Abah, Hannah and I called everyone into the bottom hall for a meet up. Hannah and I were the stars of the meeting, telling everyone what we saw and there were gasps and shivers. No one interrupted. Once we had finished our story, Abah said, “So, I think, for the time being, no one, and I mean no one, ask Yana for help or make her angry, you hear?”

“But what about me Master Izwan?” Asked Mila, who too was a part of the meeting. “Does this mean that I have to do every work you all give me?”

“No, no Mila.” Said Abah. “This also means that we would also have to help out with the maids’ chores. Will everyone agree?”

Everyone nodded and that was just it. No one was to intimidate Yana or anything. After the meeting was adjourned, Abah asked Hannah and me to join him in exposing Yana’s knowledge in black magic. Hannah and I were half delighted and half scared to do this. But it was to be interesting.

“This must be the most fun I’ll have in my entire life.” Hannah said, when we both were alone in the living room. “Not only are the ‘stars’ of this entire ‘movie’ but we’re the ones who’re going to solve this mystery. The Mystery Cousins!”

“I think Grandma was right when she said that we watch movies too much.” I said, grinning.

“You, tell me.” Hannah replied. We both grinned. 

To be continued in: This Just Has to Stop