Stay and Die

Chapter 2

There was a loud scream as I walked into the heart of the village. There was a middle-aged woman wearing a robe crying. I walked up to see a girl on the floor who was vomiting blood profusely. Her legs had been severed.

"Ma! Ma!" She whimpered.

The middle-aged woman hugged her, and said a few words to her. There was a loud screech, and everyone fled away from the scene. I was wondering what was going on, when somebody knocked into me. I fell onto the dry stone.

Somebody dragged me. I could not see as I was dazed by the impact. I was going at a really fast speed. The person dragged me into some small house and slammed the door.

It was a young man. He looked pretty rugged. He had a family of four, and pushed all of us into a small room which I had not noticed before.

I was gestured to keep quiet. Since this was an unfamiliar place, I had to follow whatever they said. After 5 minutes of silence, they went outside. The whole village was gathered around a trail of blood. The girl... was gone. A short, elderly man wearing a makeshift hat made out of cotton said some silent words, presumably prayers. Everyone bowed, so I followed suit.

"Sir? You must be a tourist. This place is pretty dangerous." The man who brought me into his house tapped my shoulder. He had a timid voice.

I had a million questions. What is going on? What was that screech? Why was everyone scared? What lingered more in my head was...what happened to the girl?

"I am Hakim. Sorry for just now. It has been happening for a long time." The man interjected my thoughts.

"What was that? What was with the girl? Where is she? I need to get out of here and tell the authorities! This must be investigated-- someone has to know!"

The man was flustered. "Urm you can't--"

I punched numbers into my smartphone. No reception. If that did not work, my cellular data would have to work. I opened my Whatsapp. New chat. Linda. "Something paranormal is going on in this place. Need u to tell Frank I need ppl to send me back." Click. It was clearly not delivering.

"Hey Hakim! I need an Internet connection!" I yelled when he was about to take his leave.

"What's It-ter-net?" He shouted back.

Were these people that backwards? Not even heard of the term Internet? Hakim ran towards me. He oohed and aahed at my phone.

"What's this?" He took my phone away from me.

"Hey-- I need it back! Hakim!" I was angry, but I was not plain stupid to pick up a fight with someone a head taller than me .

"What is this?" Hakim mimicked the way I typed the numbers, but with twice as much strength.

He was walking beside a lake. I could already foresee what was going to happen. Not on my watch! I dashed towards him.

"Oops!" He dropped my phone into the water.

"NO! NO-NO-no-no..." I scooped the phone up from the water.

The screen was black. Just as I had feared. Switching on the power button did nothing. I was stuck on the island. I just realised everyone was looking at me.

I was even more worried about the phone than the girl. Witnessing an abduction...yet being able to do nothing about it was just depressing. But losing communication was the last straw.

"What is wrong with you?" I pushed Hakim, who stumbled slightly. "I had the chance to save us all, and you ruined it!"

"Sorry!" Hakim actually broke down into tears. Was probably too mean back there. He did not mean it after all.

I apologised too. "Sorry Hakim, please forgive me."

"Hakim, you clumsy boy!" an old lady walked over towards us.