SUNDAL BOLONG CHAPTER 10

The news of Pawang Pahar's death spread quickly among the residents of Lane Street. Hamzah who was one of the respected person in Lane Street became more worried about it. He intended to ask Pawang Pahar's help to get rid of the ghosts, but now the man had already died. He didn't know from whom else he could seek for assistance.

Still dealing with his disappointment, Hamzah felt it was his responsiblity to get rid of all the ghosts from Lane Street. He didn't have the heart to see all the residents live in fear. Something have to be done quick.

"Before it became worse, I must do something. I can't stand it any longer. Too many spirits are residing here, not to mention about the pocong, hantu raya and the sundal bolong. If I knew who is the culprit behind all these, I swear I would kill him. I am not scared of evil spirits. It is only to Allah that I surrender my soul," whispered Hamzah to himself, trying to calm himself from worrying even more.

Meanwhile, Daud was no where to be found. Nobody knew where Daud had disappeared. Some of the residents said Daud went to visit his son, but some others didn't want to believe. They felt it was impossible for Daud to travel that far, since some of the times he couldn't even afford to buy his own food.

Personally, Hamzah started to feel strange about Daud's disappearance. Due to that, he gathered the residents of Lane Street and divided them into small groups. They were assigned to search for Daud. The search was done for a whole week, and Hamzah's prediction turned out to be true. Daud's body was found lying dead under a banana tree. His face was unrecognized but fortunately people could recognize him by his clothings.

Everybody came for Daud' burial ceremony because they wanted to see in detail how terrible his dead body looked like. Suddenly, just after the prayers ceremony ended, Daud's body was fully awake and he sat up straight. Everybody ran cowardly and left only a few brave individuals at the scene.

It was only two persons left at that time. They were the chief of prayers, Imam Samad and Hamzah. They couldn't leave Daud's corpse just like that because they pitied him. Furthermore, they couldn't run away from their responsibility. Daud must be buried, no matter what.

Hamzah and Imam Samad recited all the surah that they knew by heart. Imam Samad was a very religious man and Daud's corpse seemed afraid to go near him. He went straight towards Hamzah.

Daud's face looked fierce and full of revenge. He pinned Hamzah towards the wall and his rotting hands reached for Hamzah's neck. Hamzah couldn't do anything since Daud's energy was too strong for him to fight back. On the other hand, Imam Samad could do nothing too. He just continued reciting every surah he knew in hope that Daud's corpse would collapse.

Suddenly, Majdi who had run away felt he shouldn't run. He returned and ran into the house as quickly as he could. He grabbed a sword which was hanging on the wall and swung the sword towards' Daud's neck. Daud lost his neck within seconds. Before he fell down he gave out a loud scream. Then everything was silent.

Hamzah blew out a relieved sigh and smiled gratefully at Majdi. He owed him his life. Haji Samad patted Majdi on his back as a sign of appraisal. Majdi smiled back, feeling outrageously proud of himself. Indeed, he had saved Hamzah's life, and he was going to be called a hero.

"Now we better call back all the residents so that we could bury Daud's body as quickly as possible," said Hamzah to Majdi, asking for his favor to call upon all the residents of Lane Street.

That evening, the burial ceremony was done as simple and as quickly as possible. Nobody wanted the scene to happen again. After Daud's body was safely buried, everybody felt a huge relief and assumed everything had returned to normal.

SUNDAL BOLONG CHAPTER 9

Pawang Pahar was getting ready to go to Lane Street that day. It was approaching dusk and suddenly the wind blew fiercely out of nowhere. All the coconut trees in front of Pawang Pahar's house shook tremendously and it gave a cold shiver throughout Pawang Pahars' spine.

Pawang Pahar was indeed a renowned shaman, and he could guess immediately that something dangerous was approaching him. His enemy was just within reach and was already residing inside his home compound.

"This shouldn't be," uttered Pawang Pahar while shaking his head in denial. He knew by the way the wind was blowing, it was the doings from a sundal bolong. The only thing he didn't know was the owner. He tried to guess, but found nothing to grasp as a clue.

Pawang Pahar's wife had just put on her prayer's dress. She wasn't excluded in noticing the difference of weather. It was absolutely different from the ordinary signals of upcoming rain. The sky was clear and blue, with no traces of dark clouds. The moon which had appeared within a few minutes before had shone clearly and was then hiding bits of its existence behind some of the bright clouds.

"What's wrong, my dear husband?" asked Hawa, Pawang Pahar's wife in a worried tone. She felt it was strangely odd and she must know something soothing to make her doubt go away.

"Someone is trying to test me," replied Pawang Pahar in a lowered tone. He gazed at Hawa and gestured her to start her prayers. He didn't want his wife to worry more.

Hawa obeyed her husband's request and went inside her room to pray. While praying, she could hear a loud stump on the roof. It seemed like falling from upwards, probably the sky. As impossible as it sounded to be, Hawa ignored the sound and continued her prayers. She knew her husband was able to take control of it. She always had faith in that.

Pawang Pahar sat with his legs crossed in the middle of the living room as soon as he completed his own prayers. He had heard the stumping thing but tried to calm down his anxiety and anger. He recited some versus from the holy Quran and after that confidently jumped down from his house, and landed mercifully in style on the land.

"I am the one and only Pawang Pahar. Nobody has ever had the guts to confront me. Don't you ever start a play tonight, or else I would not be doubtful to destroy you and all your associates. As long as I am the descendant of Adam and Eve, I am not afraid of evil spirits such as you!" yelled Pawang Pahar with all his might.

The angry wind suddenly stopped. It was stopped exactly like an electrical fan which had a power failure. Sudden and abrupt. Pawang Pahar immediately felt he was winning one point over his enemy. He quickly ascended his house and sat with crossed leg again in the middle of his living room. But this time he left the door ajar.

Pawang Pahar took out his kemenyan from his bag. He reached for his burning pot and sprinkled the kemenyan over it. Smoke appeared, thick and cloudy. A strong smell came together with the burning. Pawang Pahar then reached for a skull which he had long kept with him. The skull was aging more than a hundred years, and Pawang Pahar recited something while holding on to the skull.

Suddenly, the skull started to move. Slowly, it raised to the air and floated there for a couple of seconds. Then, like a burst of urgency the skull flew out of the door and circled Pawang Pahar's house. Completed a circle, the skull then flew out from the house compound and disappeared from Pawang Pahar's eye sight.

Pawang Pahar sat patiently, waiting for the skull to return. He was confident the skull would come back to report to him.

Unfortunately, his guess was a mistake. Pawang Pahar didn't know what had happened a few minutes before while the skull was hunting for information. Suddenly, the skull flew back and fell off in front of Pawang Pahar. It brought back with him a disgusting smell and a horrifying sight.

The skull was full of blood and it was coated with large, living, green maggots. The faulty smell was terrible and it dizzied Pawang Pahar on his first inhale of breath. The maggots attacked Pawang Pahar with no mercy and they breeded almost instantly. Within seconds, Pawang Pahar's body was covered with disgusting, green maggots. Pawang Pahar screamed in agony and tremendous pain.

Hawa who was cooking in the kitchen at that time heard her husband's cry. She ran to the living room to see what had happened. She saw her husband was no longer in the form of a normal human being, but had turned more into a living skeleton.

The skull had returned into its original condition. There were no maggot nor traces of blood. It looked clean as if nothing had touched it before. It lay peacefully on the floor.

Hawa saw her husband struggled to get free from the maggot attack. He tried to pull out the maggots from biting his flesh, but his flesh came out together with the pull. More blood spilled out from all over his body when he tried to pull more maggots. Pawang Pahar trembled fiercefully for the pain was unbearable and after a long fight he surrended his life to the maggots.

Hawa could do nothing else but to run to his husband and cry her heart out. Even though she was scared she braved herself to lift up her husband's head and put it on her lap. Gradually, the maggots disappeared and within minutes all of them were gone. So did the blood and the faulty smell.