CHAPTER 13 - THE STORY OF JEREJAK

Dear fans, 

Here's chapter 13.

For now please stop pestering me to update the story. You may pester me again next month if I fail to update.

Oh yes, I hope someone can help me out with the grammar.

Need to go to sleep now.. Tired as hell. 

Zzzzzz...

CHAPTER 13 - THE STORY OF JEREJAK

Author: AfterDark
Proof Reader: horzepower (http://onoffpisi.blogspot.com/)

So, last night at the hotel I have called Cacamerba to arrange for my first meeting with him. Surprisingly, he texted me this morning before I went to Mr.Lam’s house and told me that Imam Ali has decided to join us for the ‘afternoon tea’.

Because this was my first time ever being in Penang, I have decided to let Cacamerba to pick the venue of the meeting. However, I did made it clear to him that since the the discussion will revolve around the subject which is not suitable for the fainted heart, then privacy was to be the paramount consideration.

So you can imagine to my surprise when the place turned out to be one of the busiest food stalls in all Penang.

“You have got to be kidding..!!”

Cacamerba must have noticed the gruesome expression on my face. I’m not sure exactly if Penangites have different set of vocabulary than the rest of us in this country but when I emphasized on the word ‘privacy’ last night I was expecting at least an exclusive quiet restaurant where we can discussed in private. Instead what I saw before me was an bustling alley filled with diners and several Indian guys raising their voices as if shouting at each other in ordering foods and drinks.

“What the heck is this place?” I turned my head to Cacamerba.

“What? What?”...with a poker face he was pretending not knowing the point I was getting at.

“What do you mean what-what?”I was annoyed

“You’re the one who told me to pick a good place to eat?”Cacamerba make it clear that it was now somehow my fault.

“Noooo.. I said this morning to pick a place to have an afternoon tea… we are going to talk about some serious matters, remember??”. I locked my jaw.

“Afternoon tea? What’s that? Sipping tea in the afternoon like sissies? This is Penang lah. In Penang we discuss world crisis while having ‘nasi kandar’ and when it come to that this is the best place in Penang”. Cacamerba was smiling from ear to ear as he said that with one hand pointing up toward a sign above. 

I looked at the sign. It said “Selamat Datang. Nasi Kandar Line Clear 24 Jam” (Welcome, Line Clear Kandar Rice 24 Hours).

I sighed.. I just ate less then three hours ago with Mr.Lam and now Cacamerba took me to an eating place again?

“Well, what are we waiting for then? Let’s eat!”

You would not believe it if I told you who said that. For a pint size girl, Syafiqah certainly has a big appetite to complement her big mouth. This morning she ate 3 plates of fried mee, then during lunch she refilled her plate twice, and now this little monster was pointing her tiny nose sniffing towards the direction of kitchen. I must say I pity her future husband – whomever that maybe.

Since I was the only one with the objection, then I have no choice but to respect the voices of the majority. So we went in as Cacamerba shows the way to our table.

The ‘Nasi Kandar Line Clear’ (that’s the name of the place) is not the best of place to discuss secret things which were highly guarded by the Watchers Group. By protocol members of the Watchers Group would not even exchange phone numbers with another member let alone discussing classified materials in a public places like this. Instead we use skype credit to call one another if there was ever a need to call others. This place is not even a restaurant by the look of it. It is more of a stall located in an alley with several tables for customers on each side. The temperature was sweating hot even though there were fans here and there mounted on a several poles inside.

Cacamerba shows us to our table located at the far back next to this huge sign on the wall saying ‘Line Clear Heritage Restaurant Since 1930’. Already sitting there were two guys with no sense for good dressing. The first guy was in his 40s wearing a songkok, a blue t-shirt and a black trouser – while the other one was in full leather jacket, denim jeans and still donning his full face helmet.

We all took our seat and then I shook hands with the first guy.

“Imam Ali I presumed?”

Imam Ali smiled broadly as we shook hands for the first time despite the many years knowing each other.

“Finally we met Afterdark.. After so many years concealing our identities in internet, it’s ironic that we eventually met in place like this, don’t you think?” He said as his eyes then flickered at Cacamerba with unfathomable expression. Aaah at last - I have someone siding with me about the impropriety of this place..

Realizing that the stare was meant to criticize him, Cacamerba quickly pointed his finger to the helmet guy.

“Hei hei hei.. It’s not entirely my fault you know.. It’s his fault too! Not many eateries allow a helmet freak like him to enter! He insists on hiding his face that way”

I can hear a cough coming from the helmet guy as all eyes now were now on him.

"I believe you two already know each other. He's not members of the Watchers Group but we all do exchanged blogroll links to each other's blog. This is Mojo from Mojowatcher blogspot".

I look at the guy with a helmet sitting in front of me. It's 30 degrees Celsius in this restaurant and yet he still donning his biker’s suit.

"Hi Mojo Jojo, nice to meet you finally" I was greeting him as I waived.

I could not even see through that helmet of what his reaction might be with me calling him Mojo Jojo. Whenever we communicated through the internet I always added the name ‘Jojo’ because I thought it’s more comedic.

There was a grunt sounded from the helmet but I could not tell whether he was smiling or grimacing (I now believe it's the latter). Then a deep voice came out.

"Please do not call Mojo that. Mojo's name is Mojo without Jojo. Mojo Jojo is a primate cartoon character of which Mojo is not" his firm and sturdy  voice aiming at me as if warning being issued.

(Note: Mojo Jojo in the Powerpuff series is a monkey character wearing a huge turban with a huge brain)

"Uh sorry, my bad.." I swiftly apologized.  Deep inside I still cannot get over the name Jojo though. But I will try not to use it in front of this guy whose selection of wardrobe was intended perhaps to potray a serious aura from him.

Syafiqah on the other hand did not see the need to hide her curiosity about Mojo's wardrobe "Hey mister!, are you insane wearing that thing. Why not lose the helmet? It's hot in here!"

Syafiqah said it loud enough across the restaurant that I heard snickers coming from a group of girls sitting two tables away from us. I was looking at Syafiqah with a stern warning in my eyes. Imam Ali remains calm and composed whereas CacaMerba was trying to hide the grin about to appear on his face.

Mojo breathed heavily and audibly, probably because he was not anticipating an ‘attack’ on his fashion taste from anyone. The black helmet he was wearing and the breathing sound suddenly reminded me to Darth Vader from the Star Wars movie. Suddenly I too felt like wanting to laugh so I immediately dropped a spoon under the table and duck - pretending to pick it up.

While under the table, I heard a deep voice of Mojo.

"Mojo Watcher is a technology specialist. Not many people are in the field. Mojo makes special gadgets and applications for many important parties. Work nature  makes Mojo a dangerous living being  to certain parties either visible or invisible.  Mojo must remain in anonymity until the day. That’s what the helmet for".

O God, this is too much! Now he even sounded like Darth Vader!

Suddenly Imam Ali too was under the table looking for his spoon. He couldn’t hold it no more and was closing his eyes trying to suppress himself from bursting into laughter. From under the table I can only see CacaMerba's legs were violently moving as he snorted between laugh.

Mojo was now crossing his legs in defensive mode right now and who can blame him when there's a loud mouth female around?

Imam and I emerged from under the table still trying to straighten our face. Syafiqah immediately look to me with a finger still pointing to Mojo.

“Afterdark, why is your friend here referring to himself as a third person?” asked Syafiqah to me.

“Actually Mojo, I was about to ask you the same question too..” I said to Mojo.

“Mojo believes that question is a waste of time to answer. Mojo believes we have more urgent matter to discuss..” Answered Mojo sternly.

“Why are you hiding your face.. Off with the helmet I say” Syafiqah still would not let go of Mojo off the hook easily.

“As stated by Mojo.. There are better issues in hands…” Mojo was avoiding the question.

“Are you even a man or a woman?” She attacked again.

“Mojo would like to talk about why we are here today” Mojo was avoiding.. again.

Syafiqah was now staring hard at Mojo’s chest.

“What are you doing?”  Asked Mojo.. his voice trembled in fear.

It took 3 seconds before Syafiqah replied.

“I believe I can see a shape of girl’s tits there….”

“WHAT?”

Laughter broke between me and Cacamerba as Mojo flipped the visor of his helmet and pointed his finger to his flaming angry eyes.

“Look at my eyes! Do these eyes belong to a girl! Huh?” Mojo was finally lost his patience at Syafiqah. Even without the benefit of seeing his face in full, I can tell that Mojo had lost his cool but that does not change the fact that Syafiqah’s questions were as funny as hell.

Imam Ali immediately patted Mojo’s back and told him to relax. Then he told me and Cacamerba to stop laughing as our behaviour had attracted too much attention from the other customers in the restaurant.

“So gentleman, so what’s the agenda of our meeting today?” Everyone in the table winced upon hearing Syafiqah unashamedly officiated the Watcher’s Group meeting. Imam Ali then threw a meaningful look at me.

“Let’s begin with how you know about Fatimah’s death in the first place, shall we?” I suggested to let Imam Ali tell his story first. He sighed reluctantly but decided to abide by my request.

It turned out that Imam Ali and I shared the same ‘informer’. The same MGS who had told the me about the Pangs’ coincidently was the same person who informed Imam Ali about the strange death of Fatimah. However,  MGS leaves the details about how Fatimah had became apostate before her death. On the day she died, Miss Pang had texted MGS about what he saw in the hospital emergency room. Upon hearing about the black tongue and the fact that death was related to the Jerejak Island, MGS immediately contacted Imam and stated her inner thought that Fatimah’s death was somehow related to a satanic ritual by the Illuminati. Being a profilers herself, she knew that Imam would be drawn to investigate the matter first hand especially when Kuala Ketil is just an hour drive away from where he stays.

As predicted, Imam Ali being a Kedahan simply could not resists the urge to investigate anything that might relates to Illuminati’s activities in Malaysia and not only did he went, he also brought along the ‘clown’ (Cacamerba) and the freak (Mojo) with him.

“I was tricked to be there. He called me to visit him and a minute later he forced me to drive him to Kuala Ketil!” said Cacamerba explaining his involvement.

“You know I don’t have a car.. I only owned a motorcycle!” Slight embarrassment can be detected on Imam's face.

“And you?” I glared at Mojo but he just shrugged his shoulder.

“Mojo took a taxi all the way from KL at 6 am to Kedah. Mojo was only interested to find out and to document the evidence should a demonic bite mark be found on the corpse” said Mojo nonchalantly.

Syafiqah winced at hearing Mojo addressing her dead sister as a ‘corpse’. But before she lashed at Mojo I pursued for further explanation.

“And?”

Mojo didn’t answer my question. Instead, he pretended to examine the giant poster next to where he sat.

Cacamerba snorted as he explained.

“There were too many people there. So he decided to stand like an idiot on the lawn like 15 meters away from the house because he was afraid people might asked why he was wearing a songkok and surgical mask”

Well, I guess that explanation resemblance to Mojo presence. There were simply no boundaries to his paranoia. Anyway, that explained why Syafiqah did not recognized Mojo now donning his helmet. Mojo did come to her house that day but they never actually met.

I exhaled a little as I turned my head back to Imam Ali.

  

Me:              So you think the Luciferians are planning something big?

Imam Ali:     Yes. I do and MGS seems to think likewise.

Me:              Big enough that it requires the ceremony to be held?

Imam Ali:     That’s my theory.

Me:              Another 13^th May perhaps?

Imam Ali:     To bring another 13^th May several other dominoes must falls first. Seems too early for that for the time being.

Me:    What would be so big that they would have to present the girl as human sacrifice to demons?

Imam Ali:     Well, UMNO is being weakened from within and the 12^th general election is around the corner so..”

(P/S: just to avoid confusion, this story supposedly occurred in 2007)

“WAIT! WAIT! WAIT! HOLD ON!” Syafiah shrieked with a horror strucking voice, her hands waiving and eyes darted back and forth to Imam Ali and me. “Ceremony? Human Sacrifice? What the hell are you both talking about?! Are you still talking about my sister?”

Cacamerba rolled his eyes, Mojo huffed and Imam Ali gasped in shock. Then they all look at me with a surprise look.

“You haven’t told her yet?” Imam Ali asked me.

“Errr.. Not yet” I admitted with a stiff voice. Syafiqah does deserves a bit more information on her sister’s death and yet I’ve been holding that from her.

Imam Ali sighed shaking his head in disbelief.

“Before we proceed with our discussion today, you need to brief her about the history of Jerejak Island first” said Mojo to me as he folded his arms over his chest.

“I was actually hoping we could spare her from that knowledge. That’s not exactly what most Malaysians had learned in school textbooks” I snapped at Mojo.

“Mojo's right.. “ Cacamerba rolled his eyes. “They killed her sister.. She deserves to know how it all begin..”

Syafiqah stared at me for a long moment with one eyebrows raised incredulously and then with an assertive tone, made her demands.

“You.. The history of Jerejak.. Explain.. Now”

* * * * * * * * *

Like I said, what you are about to read is not exactly the kind of history you could find in any school textbooks. In fact, no evidence has ever been presented to proof that these events really happened. The Watchers Group, being a group of ‘mental’ people who suffers extreme paranoias are not exactly the best people to know how to distinguish between histories and myths.

However, this is what ‘someone’ had told the group about what happened in Jerejak a long time ago and so far we see no discrepancies between the story and the profile of the Luciferians that we have  developed.

Now, I have wrote in the internet about the arrival of the Freemasons in Malaysia. In my article ‘COMMENTING ON TAN SRI SANUSI JUNID'S MENTION ON FREEMASON’ ( http://tinyurl.com/d2rr4uz ) I have written about the British Colonial Period in Tanah Melayu being started by a Freemason by the name of Captain Francis Light whom was be the second generation Freemasons after the the first Grand Lodge of England was formed in 1717.

Every person in Malaysia (except those who doesn’t go to school) have heard about Sir Francis Light whom was the first to hoist the Union Jack on the soil of Tanah Melayu on August 11, 1786. However, assuming that most of my readers probably no longer remember that much what they have learned when they were teenagers. Here is some of the textbook version of Mr.Light’s biography.

(TEXT BOOK VERSION)

Captain Francis Light (1740 – 25 October 1794)[1] was the founder of the British colony of Penang (in modern-day Malaysia) and its capital George Town in 1786.

Born in an Ancient Town Woodbridge at County Suffolk England on 15 Dec 1740. His mother is Mary Light and his is father William whereas his grandfather, Colonel F. Light is respected & reputable man and was once a drinking companion of King George.

After receiving a grammar school education he joined the Navy when he was nineteen and served as a midshipman during the later stages of the Seven Years War.

He later sailed to Madras, India to take control of trade for the British. There, he secure command of a "Country Ship" (owned in India and engaged in trade in Eastern waters) belonging to Madras firm of merchants, Jourdain, Sullivan & Desouza.

Captain Light was later posted to Kedah to overlook the trade at the region. In 1786, Francis Light take possession of Penang after he promise Kedah that he will supply forces to defend them from their enemies. He was the founder of the British colony of Penang  and its capital George Town in that same year

The Siamese were soon threatening to attack Kedah and re-impose their suzerainty over Kedah but the promised help from Britain now became non-existent. Th Sultan tried to take back Penang but were defeated at Prai. A treaty was signed by which the Company agreed to pay him $6,ooo a year for the cession of Penang.

Francis Light died from malaria attack on 21 October 1794 and was cremated at Penang's Protestant Cemetery.

[THE WATCHER’S GROUP VERSION]

So okay, you have read the boring text version. Now here’s the ridiculous version from the most paranoid people in Malaysia – the Watchers Group.

So who told us this story?

Funny as it will sound, the story was a complete hearsay as being told by `someone’ to a a group member. That someone is actually a well known traditional malay healer (a ‘Bomoh’ even though people usually called him ‘Pak Ustaz’). Even if I just tell you the name of his practice you can immediately guess who he is. Yes, he’s that famous.

So who told him this ‘unofficial’ version of the history of Penang?

Can you guess who?

Nope, not a historian. A historian wouldn’t be able to get the documents necessary to proof this event and even if there is one, the documents are perhaps secured somewhere in a vault in Britain, guarded by the Luciferians. Furthermore, all the people who might knew about this events are already dead. The Jerejak Island has a history of its entire population being wiped out by a bubonic plague.
 

And as testified by the witness who told Pak Ustaz about the history of Penang - one of the dead is none other than Sir Francis Light himself.

So who is this witness? And considering that the event itself occurred more than two hundred years ago then what gave him credential worth considering?

Well, this ‘witness’ has that credential because he claimed to be 600 years of age. In 2004 a young girl who has just return from Jerejak Spa & Resort in a group vacation was possessed and has to be taken to a Ruqyah Centre run by the said Pak Ustaz. 

The witness – A Djinn in case you haven't figured it out yet – conversed with Pak Ustaz through the girl. It was the Pak Ustaz who later told his apprentice what the Djin had revealed and it was a couple of years later the apprentice decided to share the story with the rest of us in the Watchers group.

According sto the Djin who by the way called himself Ambo Unru - he was once a a resident of Mount Lompobattang in Sulawesi Indonesia. Then around circa 1660’s a bugis pirate by the name Lamadukelleng meditated in the mountain and summoned him to be his servant. From there on Ambo Uru serves his new master as a 'saka' (fostered spirits) and made him 'kebal' (invincible) to all weapons made from iron.

However, the Dutch at that time was hunting Lamadukelleng and his brothers due to their piracy activities. So the brothers together with their band of pirates migrated to ‘Tanah Melayu’ around circa 1700 and follow the footsteps of other Bugis who intends of establishing a new bugis powerhouse in the Malay land.

After the death of Lamadukelleng, his progeny who inherited Ambo Unru was involved in supporting the dissident forces in Kedah that was out to depose the Sultan of Kedah at that time, Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah. With the bugis help they were able to capture Kota Kuala Kedah for a short time in 1771. This is how Sir Francis Light came into picture. He came with a promise to help the Sultan to fend off the Bugis growing influence and did re-capture the fort in that same year. However, he did not met strong opposition because by the time Mr.Light arrived the Bugis had already retreated and the Bugis was now focusing instead on Johore and Selangor instead of Kedah. Only about 140 Bugis descendants remain in Kedah that year.

Most Malaysians were made to assume that the Union Jack flag was first hoisted in Penang. Our history books were kind of misleading on that. The truth is the Union Jack was flying high for the first time not in Penang but in Jerejak Island because Mr.Light had first arrived in Pulau Jerejak in early 1786 before heading on to Penang.

When the Bugis heard that Mr.Light had arrived in Jerejak Island some of them were curious to investigate the white people who had assisted the Sultan 15 years ago. The pirates amongst them wanted to know how strong the British navy was. Furthermore they were actually entertaining an idea of raiding the British themselves after hearing that the British had fired a gun loaded with silver dollar into the forest. They figured the British must have carried with them a shipload of silver worth robbing.

So two elderly Bugis - pretended to be middle aged village fishermans - landed on the shore of Jerejak Island in what supposed to be a reconnaissance mission. One of them happened to be the great grandson of Lamadukelleng and the fourth master of Ambo Uru.

It was fate that these two old men crossed their path with the two East Indiamen who had arrived a week before to hold a formal ceremony to take possession of the island. Being polite, the Bugis elders held out their hands as a gesture for a friendly hand shake with the foreigners and the foreigners were courteous enough to extend theirs.

What happened next took them completely by surprised.

The Bugis elders gasped while the two indiamen started hyperventilating. For the British Luciferians it felt like a mountain of solid rocks were pinning their hands down. The elders on the other hand were withstanding the heat of hellish fire that seems to emanate from the Luciferians palms.

Both parties then cringed away from the contact and then glared at each other in a state of bemused. No words were spoken and yet each of them perfectly understood what had just happened.

All four of them were practitioners of ancient black magic.

I don’t know the customs in other countries but in Asia a handshake is the most common method by one practitioner to detect and gauge another. If an ordinary person shakes the hand of the dukun, the dukun most certainly will feel nothing. But if that person turned out to be someone ‘knowledgeable’, then the most common sign is to feel its tremendous weight or the heat emanated from it.

The universal thing about practitioners of black magic around the world is that one warlock always felt this urge to test his power against another warlock. Some of the elders were curious to put a spell on the entire British navy but fortunately for the British they had built their fort on an island. This is the general weakness to all black magic because a spell would be significantly weakened once it crosses water be it a river, a lake or a sea. That is why for example it is impossible for a Malay dukun to put a spell on George W. Bush in America. No black magic is powerful enough to cross an ocean which is not only made of H20 but also full of salt. This is probably the reason why of all places in Malaya, the British chose to build their first two forts in an Island. First in Jerejak and then in Penang and later in Singapore.

Some of Island locals did launched supernatural attack on the British (There was no school back then, so learning ancient magic was quite a norm back then). These attack were fended off by the Luciferians who then advised Francis Light to wipe the Island clean of any Malays population. By that time there were only 10-15 locals staying in Jerejak island and no one knew what had happened to them.

Knowing what they were up against, the elders advised the Bugis pirates to throw their naval support behind the Sultan of Kedah. In 1791 the Sultan built forts in Prai and gathered an estimated 10,000 men assisted by the entire fleets of Lanun pirates in his attempt to expel the British from Penang. Francis Light then reinforced his garrison with two companies of British India infantry from Calcutta before attacking Prai. The Malays were relying on their bomoh to eye the British but the Luciferians were able to summon more powerful entities to trick the bomoh’s vision (this is still happening today). In the end the British victory was contributed by the fact that the Malays were caught completely by surprise during the attack. Anyone that failed or refused to flee was killed and everything else was burnt to ashes. The British gunboats also attacked the pirate ships and the Bugis suffered a considerable loss.

Syafiqah:     Wait a minute! Are you all saying that the British had used black magic against the Malays?

Me:    That’s not my idea to begin with. The djinn said that so if it's a lie then so am I.

Cacamerba: (grinning at Syafiqah) Hard to believe, isn’t?

Mojo:  It’s hard to believe because most people only associate black magic with the Asian and the African despite the fact that wizards and witches also exists since eon ago in Europe.

Syafiqah:     But.. if that’s true then does that means that the white people had defeated the ancient Malays too? How could that be?

Imam:          So many people have asked the same question. Our continent was feared by foreigners because the media has portrayed our race as the most powerful when it comes to dark arts. Yet the Malays were colonized by a handful of British. Our Malay warriors were well known for their supernatural invincibility. Some of them even gave the British a run for their money but in the end they all lost.

Syafiqah:     (Frowning) Did the pirates gave Francis Light a run for his money, too?

Imam:          (Smiling) In the end, yes.

                  

The Bugis – being a vengeful race as they were – plotted with several Kedahans elders to launch a final assault against the British. Magic relics from abroad were brought and ancient ‘saka’ were summoned in preparation for the attack that will be carried out in utmost secrecy. Both the Kedahans and the Bugis wanted to revenge the deaths of their people during the 1791’s war.

This time however the weapon of choice were the local’s ‘santau’ and the Bugis ‘doti’. The santau and doti are almost an identical black magic by which poisons were carried using wind as the medium towards the victim. In the old days a santau bomoh would mix venom extracted from snake, centipedes, jellyfish or other poisonous animal with a powder made from bamboo. It is not known what the bugis recipe for doti is but it was said that whereas a victim of santau would cough blood or suffered a bloated stomach and diaherea, the bugis doti on the other hand can cause the victim to feel extremely hot or cold before falling ill and simply died. In some stories it is mentioned the corpse turned black because of the poisonous effect.

In October 1794 the final attack began. Since Francis Light and most the British spent most their time in Penang, it became easier for the plotting Bugis and Kedahan to land on shore before blowing the poison into the wind that will carry it to its intended victim. As hundreds of such poison being mystically hurled towards the British that night, some locals reported that the very the next day of seeing small meteorites like object flying through the night sky at great speed.

As a result, in 1794 there had been an outbreak of what was later claimed to be ‘malaria’ in both islands. Hundreds of British officers and sepoys died after coughing blood and suffered extreme destabilisation of body temperature. Francis Light himself suffered the worst and died a few days later.

At that time Colonel Arthur Wellesly of Wellington, England, had proposed that the island act as an alternative naval base to Fort Cornwallis in 1797. The military post in Jerejak was suppose to provide protection for the new town opposite Jerejak, which was to be called Jamestown, now known as Bayan Lepas. However the so-called ‘Malaria outbreak’ has freaked the British so much that the plans has to be aborted.

Syafiqah:     I still don’t get what the story has to do with my sister being dead.

Imam:          You have asked Afterdark how the white people’s magic was able to defeat the ancient Malays?

Syafiqah:     Yes, I still  couldn’t get over with your suggestion that their ‘hantu’ (evil spirit) was more powerful than our ‘hantu’.

Imam:          It’s not about the race of the ‘hantu’ or from which continent it came from. All ‘hantu’ assisting practitioners of the dark arts are basically a ‘Djin’ or a ‘Syaitan’ and they get their power from the type of sustenance their master are willing to provide.

Syafiqah:     (Frowning) Meaning?

Imam:          (Smiling) Well, we also have our own evil spirits which can be fostered to do their master’s bidding. There are Polong, Palesit, Toyol, Hantu Raya, Bajang, Penanggalan etcetera. But consider this for a minute. The worst kind of sustenance that local spirits would demand is blood dripping from their master’s fingers. The European black magic is different from us.

Syafiqah:     How so?

Me:    The European magic as practiced by a Warlocks or Witches always seems to demand human sacrifice. Even during the days of Paganisme and during the Roman Empire, human sacrifice was an essential part of witchcraft and druidism. In Britain human remains have been found at the foundations of structures from the Neolithic time to the Roman era, indicating that human sacrifice may have been practiced in Britain long pre-dating any contact with Rome.

Syafiqah:     Okay.. and that would mean what?

Me:    (Sighing) It’s a basic common sense. Now, between a Malay hantu who occasionally feed on droplets of blood and the European hantu feasting on human sacrifice eight times a year, which hantu do you think is more evil?

Syafiqah:     On the scale of evilness, the European hantu of course.

Me:    And would it be wrong to assume that one more evil is probably more powerful?

Syafiqah:     But.. but.. All white men seem to fear our black magic..

Imam:          Aaaahh.. yes.. There’s a saying that the devil’s greatest accomplishment is making people believe it doesn’t exist.. Similarly making the Malays believe the European black magic is inferior gives them the element of surprise.

Syafiqah:     (sighing) If what you said is true, then it means that the European are better than us in every way!

Imam:          (Frowning) I only said that our black magic is inferior to them. I never said our race is less superior. All men created equally by God and in a way that really matter we are actually superior then them. 

Syafiqah:     You lost me again.

Imam:          Listen Syafiqah. If our race relies only on black magic then we will lose because the biggest baddest demons are siding with them. But as Muslims the Malays have Allah on our side. Rely only on the Almighty and we will not lose.

Cacamerba: That’s true. This is what our group is all about. We try to spread the message to the masses through all means of media and mass-communication. Stick to the right path and eventually we will kick their arse.. Ha ha ha.

Syafiqah:     And what about my sister? How she fitted into all these?

Mojo:  Unfortunately, we do think she was the main menu during the sacrificial ceremony took place in Jerejak Island. It would explain her death a lot.

Syafiqah:     But except for the bruises on her body, there were no other signs of injures!

Imam:          Yes, that’s the only thing missing from picture. There’s no indication that she has been cut for her blood.

Cacamerba: And she wasn’t exactly the best gift to be slaughtered on the altar either.

The whole group went silent for almost a minute – until I decided to share my thought with them.

“Ummm.. I think it’s not her being sacrificed..”

They were now looking at me. Syafiqah in particular pushed her eyebrows together as she glowered at me.

“Explain..” she demanded impatiently.

I thought oh man this is going to hit her hard! But she needs to know it. So I exhaled a little and then speak.

“At the time when she went to Jerejak Island, Fatimah was entering her third trimester conceiving Robert’s child..”

With the exception of Syafiqah, the rest of the group’s face were immediately clouded with understanding.

“She was no longer pregnant at the time of her death..” Said Mojo in a hollow tone.

“An abortion.. A killing of an innocent child by his own parent.. of course.. that would please a demon a lot” Imam muttered almost silently.

Cacamerba turned his head to Syafiqah.

“Hey Syafiqah, did the hospital pathologist performed autopsy on your...”

But Syafiqah’s face had turned so white that Cacamerba decided not to finish his sentence.

Then she wept in despair.