Shroud: Jinn

11 - Hunted

As soon as the wave of shock left my body, I braved myself and grabbed a loose stick near a pile of logs not far from where I stood. I swung the stick at the penanggal but it immediately sensed my presence and recoiled its entrails from the window just in time to dodge the flying stick. The stick clattered to the ground and the penanggal hissed at me with a chilling spat that made my blood run cold.

I was determined not to let the penanggal hurt Ning but it disappeared around the corner of the house before I could give chase. I jogged towards the open window to take a peek inside to make sure that Ning was okay but I could only make out a shadow struggling to get up while supporting their body against the wall. A second later, my nose was filled with an overpowering smell of iron. There was no mistaking it - Ning was losing a lot of blood. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, my vision shook in a blur as a fist landed at the side of my face.

"Nǐ! (You!)" Geming had stormed towards me and landed a punch across my face. "Tài guò fèn le! Gàn shén me? (You've gone too far! What the hell are you doing?)"

"Leng jing yì dian! (Calm down!)" I held up my hands attempting to dodge further attacks. "Tīng wo shuō! (Listen to me!)"

"Wo huo dà le! Wo yào shā le nǐ! (I'm mad as hell! I'll kill you!)"

I tried to explain in between dodges about what I saw as Geming continued punching me and accusing me of being a pervert.

"Zhēn de! (It's the truth!)" I screamed in desperation as I blocked his left fist with my right hand.

"Fèi huà! (Bullshit!)" Geming spat on the ground beside me. "Zhēn hao xiào! (That really makes me laugh!)" He said sarcastically as he threw a punch at me with his right hand and I landed on my back.

After trying to explain further while a succession of punches came my way, I finally gave up and cried out in defeat, "Suàn le ba! (Forget it!)"

By then, our fight had woken up the neighbours; a small crowd had gathered around us as we tried to wrestle and outpunch the other.

"Ning!" A woman cried out and the crowd around us rushed towards Ning's aid. Both Geming and I turned our heads around for a second and saw Ning passed out near the doorway. Instead of being concerned for his wife, Geming just scoffed and muttered under his breath that his wife was useless and full of drama. In anger, my face spread into a scowl but before I could curl my fist into a ball, Geming landed a hefty strike across my jaw.

As my head bounced on impact against the ground, I heard the distant voices of one of the neighbours shouting out orders in Malay to call the village midwife, "Atan, panggil Mak Joyah datang sekarang! Si Ning nak beranak! (Atan, call Mak Joyah to come now! Ning is in labour!)"

A trail of dust blew against my face as a pair of feet, which I assumed belonged to Atan, ran past me. In his haste, he had accidentally kicked the stick that I had thrown at the penanggal earlier, closer to me. As I coughed and raised my eyes towards the night sky, I saw the penanggal flew overhead and it mocked me with its silent laugh as it hovered over Geming's roof. No one else seemed to take notice.

Was I imagining it? It can't be. Marissa saw it in the fields too.

"Nǐ kàn! (You look!)" I pointed weakly behind Geming to urge him to look at the penanggal but it disappeared as soon as Geming turned around. Enraged and thinking that I was trying to distract him, Geming increased the intensity of his punches. There was no use talking sense in Geming so I reached for the stick and knocked him out with one mighty blow.

I pushed his listless frame off my body and recollected my breaths as I stood up.

"Duì bu qǐ (I'm sorry)," I whispered in between breaths. Instead of addressing the body that was still breathing, I looked towards Ning's form that was surrounded by concerned neighbours.