"What? Is it a blackout?"
I wondered if other units lost electricity too. So I quickly rushed over to the verandah. Only my unit had lost electricity. I quickly raised the circuit breaker. But I still didn't get electricity. I called the maintenance office for help. But it said my phone didn't have any reception. I couldn't make any calls. And at that moment....
I heard the same strange crying sound that I heard during the hide-and-seek. I decided to go out but the door wouldn't open.
"Help me! I am stuck here!"
It felt like someone was in my room.
"Please help!"
I began to panic more and shouted. At that moment, I fell on my back and fainted. After a while, I finally woke up.
"What's wrong with my body?" My body wouldn't move as if I had sleep paralysis. And I heard something odd around my stomach.
"What's this sound?"
I barely managed to look up and check.
'AHHHHHHHHHHHHH'
I fainted again.
My friend was pounding on my door the next morning. And I was still lying on the floor.
As soon as I woke up, I checked my stomach first. Luckily nothing was ripped and it was fine.
"That's a relief."
"Hey, you all right?" "What's wrong with your face?"
I told him everything I had gone through. He said he knew a gifted shaman and brought the shaman to my house.
The shaman opened the door and looked around the house. And her face suddenly went pale.
"No human can live in this house now. The living room, the bedroom and the bathroom. Bad spirits have taken over this house."
According to the shaman, there were countless evil spirits in my house. It had become a den for ghosts. He asked her if it had anything to do with the hide-and-seek game. Then the shaman said, "Why did you call the spirits in this house of all the houses? Can't you see there is a path for the spirits?"
And the shaman pointed at the emergency staircase right next to my unit. In Malaysia, people always believed that the emergency staircases were paths for the spirits. I begged her to drive away the spirits. Then the shaman performed a ritual to close the door of the spirits. She told me it was only temporary and I had to move out as soon as possible. I sprinkled red beans and salt all over the house.
I tried my best to continue living there but it didn't work. So I had no choice but to move out of that house. It's been five years now. But I'm still curious from time to time.
"The spirits in that house. Do they still live there?"