Horrorfest

12: Taxi Driver

"Trust your car to break down just beside the cemetery!" Zani grumbled as she rubbed her arm nervously, eyeing the land behind her.

"Key word - 'beside'. Not in," I retorted, annoyed that she had to repeat the same sentence for the third time.

"Whatever. Still creepy," Zani spoke softly as she came closer to me.

"Whose bright idea was it to add another 2 extra hours of singing back at the karaoke place?" my other friend, Maisarah complained before nudging her head at the bus-stop in front us. "At least we could have hopped onto the last bus or something. Now it's almost 3 in the morning!"

My fingers dialed the number of another local cab company after unsuccessful attempts from other companies.

No one was willing to pick us up. I did not blame them. We were standing beside the notorious Old Choa Chu Kang Cemetery, the largest and most active Singaporean cemetery to date where it houses Chinese and Muslim graves respectively. Some taxi drivers do not even dare to ferry passengers into the cemetery in the daytime.

To make matters worse, we were stuck here in the wee hours of Thursday 'night' where some cultures believe was the "most unclean" night when these "things" love to come out and play.

I forgot to mention that one of the army bases was just opposite the cemetery and soon, a third of the graves would be exhumed to make way for the army base's expansion plans in the future.

Four taxis had already sped up and whizzed past us when they saw us hailing.

"I'm tired of standing around. It's been half an hour! I'm going to sit at the bus-stop," Maisarah dragged her feet towards the bus-stop. My eyes followed her as Maisarah plonked her body onto one of the seats and began fiddling with her phone.

"Eh, eh, eh. There's a taxi," Zani tapped my shoulder furiously. I turned my head towards the road and true enough, there was a taxi waiting about 10 metres away from us.

I found it strange that it did not stop directly in front of us.

"Zani. Did you hail it?" I asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

"No. It just stopped," Zani replied, confused.

"Eh. What are you guys waiting for? Get in!" Maisarah shouted from the direction of the bus-stop.

Turning our heads to face her, I froze. There, sitting on the bus stop shelter, directly above Maisarah was a figure dressed in red with hair that stretched out onto the seats of the bus stop below it. Its long hair was flowing like waves.

Here's the thing. It was NOT a windy night.

I quickly ran towards Maisarah, grabbed her hand, turned back and started running. I screamed at Zani to get into the taxi. From Zani's shocked expression, I knew she had also seen what I saw.

"Why are your faces so pale?" Maisarah questioned me between ragged breathing.

"Don't ask many questions. Just get in the taxi!"

*****

Something about the taxi was creepy. It was driving at a very slow pace.

I scrutinized the speedometer.

30 km/h.

But it beats being stuck outside near a cemetery with that figure dressed in red. I shivered.

Zani was literally rocking herself back and forth as she huddled closer to me. It was obvious that she was terrified.

"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?" Maisarah, who was sitting at the front passenger seat, stared at the both of us. Zani and I were seated at the back.

"I saw the 'thing' at the bus stop too. That's why I don't usually drive to the cemetery. I always try to avoid passing by the cemetery at night," the taxi driver suddenly spoke.

"But I was dropping off this army boy earlier. Poor boy. I look at him so pitiful waiting by the side of the road so I gave him a ride. He didn't want to stop in front of the entrance. Said he wanted to walk. Maybe you'd seen him alighting earlier."

Zani's face started to pale and she slowly shook her head at me. I was starting to feel uneasy. I definitely did not see any army personnel walking near the taxi earlier.

"You ladies are lucky that I was around the corner," he added, his eyes focused on the road in front of him.

*****

I was the last to alight among my friends as we all had different destinations.

Just as I paid my fare, the taxi driver turned around and asked, "Where to next?"

"Erm...who are you talking to?" I stammered, my left hand nervously rattling the door handle on my left while I eyed the empty space on my right.

"Miss, please don't joke around. I'm talking to your friend. The one sitting beside you. The four of you took my taxi together."