REAL GHOST STORY

One young visitor to this blog, Vinita from Singapore, wrote to ask me if I could share stories about the paranormal with her as she was interested in the subject. Well, as a start, I am posting one Ghost story that I wrote. For your information, this is not fiction as it really happened.

Ijugil Nomui Sarang

Love is a many splendoured thing so goes the lyrics to the song. To love and be loved is indeed what humans want. But what happens if ones love is spurned. Let me tell you a tale of a love gone awry. This story happened in the early eighties when I was working as a temporary sales assistant in a shop while waiting to be accepted into an institution of higher learning. Before you jump to any conclusion, I was not the heroine but just a witness to what had happened.
The female protagonist of this tale was a lady named Serena. Now, Serena was a real beauty with lovely features and skin so smooth and fair. Being slim yet curvaceous, she would be a match for any of the film stars from Hong Kong and Taiwan that populated the silver screen in the nineteen eighties. At that time she was in her mid twenties, married to the proprietor of a confectionary shop. She and her husband were parents to a two-year old boy.
The beautiful lady was my supervisor and I had to take orders from her. Even though she was my superior, she was approachable and did not pull rank. But this did not mean that she was an easy pushover. She was very serious in her work and would not hesitate to reprimand those under her supervision should the need arise. This made working with her a good learning experience for a greenhorn like me. As some of the items for sale had to be recorded in Chinese, I had some difficulty as my Chinese was not that good. Nevertheless, she was patient with me and would tell me if I had missed a stroke or two in the characters that I had recorded in the stock books.
The story began when the manager’s car broke down early one Monday morning. He had called the shop to ask if anyone of the staff could pick him up at his place. Serena who had taken the call had volunteered to go and pick him up from his house. That morning I was to check stock with her but she told me to go on without her, as she would be back in less than half an hour. This was the third time that I was doing the stock and knew how to go about it since I had done it twice before with Serena. As I had mentioned earlier, my Chinese was weak and I had to labour through reading some of the items since she was not around to guide me. The other assistants had to man the storefront and could not come and help. I carried on doing my job in the storeroom for sometime until I realised that I was very hungry. Looking at my wristwatch, I saw that it was way past noon. Serena was not back yet. She had been gone for more than four hours.
I ventured out to the storefront and it was only then that I was told Serena had been involved in an accident. The accident happened a few metres from the manager’s house. It appeared that she had crashed her car into a rain tree. The manager, Mr Lim, and his wife had rushed out of the house when they heard the loud sound made by metal crashing into wood. According to Mr Lim’s account, when he got to Serena, she was delirious and kept mumbling about hitting a man in black who had split into two at the time of impact. But both Mr and Mrs Lim did not see anyone or anything else at the crash site. The Lims had called for an ambulance and Serena was sent to the hospital. She was to be warded overnight for observation. A few of my colleagues planned to visit her after work. Unfortunately, I could not do so as I had to attend night classes after work.
When I went for work the next day, my colleagues had a very unusual and scary story to tell me. They said that when they visited Serena, she was babbling away about a man in black standing by the side of her bed. She said that the man was waiting for her and wanted to take her away. She kept screaming and crying. Serena’s husband was very worried. The doctor at the hospital had referred his wife to a psychiatrist as he said that she was hallucinating and the crash might have affected her brain and brought on the delusions. The store supervisor, Edward, who had gone along, suspected that some supernatural being could have possessed Serena. He and the others present said that they felt an eerie presence while they stood next to Serena’s bed in the ward. He suggested that they bring her to a Buddhist temple and seek the help of the abbot. It was agreed that Edward would contact the abbot and Serena’s family would send her to the temple after she was discharged from the hospital.
That day after work, I had gone to Serena’s house with the intention of paying her a visit but was told by her mother-in-law that Serena’s husband, Edward and four of the store hands from my workplace had taken her to a Siamese temple. Since, I had to go for my typewriting class in the evening, I did not wait for them to come back from the temple. I had thought that I would be able to see Serena the next day.
The next day, on entering the shop, the place was abuzz with stories of the happenings at the temple. Words like possessed, séance, exorcism, spirits and revenge were heard. Since I came in later than the store hands, I only got bits and pieces of the story and was trying to make heads and tails of it. As the customers started coming in, the discussion was stopped. It was always customers first. I had to wait for lunchtime to get the full account of the story.
During lunchtime my appetite was not for food but for Serena’s story. And whetted it was by Edward who gave a detailed account. The other store hands that were present also added to the richness of the story by giving extra bits of information that Edward had left out. Edward said that when they reached the temple, Serena had refused to get out from the van that they had travelled in. They had to drag her out. She had refused to enter the temple and tried to resist. She clung to the pylon outside the temple and refused to let go of it. She was screaming and shouting profanities at her companions. This was shocking as she was a well-mannered lady and the words spewing from her mouth would have equalled those uttered by seasoned labourers at the worksites. They finally managed to get her inside the temple by forcibly lifting her into the temple. Mind you, it took four strong, burly store hands to fulfil this task. The men had said that she was remarkably strong and they felt drained and tired after lifting her. Ordinarily, one person could easily lift her as she was lightweight.
Once inside the temple, the men had to hold her down until the abbot arrived with no less than eight monks. The monks sat in a circular formation and she was made to sit in the centre. Once the mantras were recited, she calmed down and slumped on to the floor. The four men restraining her could release their hold. They were told to watch the proceedings from the outside and only come in when told to do so. Only Serena’s husband and Edward remained inside the temple with them.
The monks kept reciting the holy mantras or holy verses from the Buddhist scriptures for more than three hours. Suddenly, Serena sat up and started speaking to the abbot in a man’s voice. The other monks kept at their chanting while the abbot spoke authoritatively to the spirit possessing Serena, “Who are you? Why are you possessing this woman’s body?” The spirit replied, “Oh, holy one. It is not I who chose to possess this poor woman. My soul is not at peace and I am trying to be free”.
The abbot further queried, “Please tell me what is burdening your soul”. The spirit continued, “I died tragically three years ago. A robber shot me. At that time I was only thirty years old. My body was cremated but before my ashes could be interned a shaman who practised the black arts stole them. He wanted to use the ashes for a death charm he was preparing for a client. The spurned suitor of this woman here sought the services of this evil man. This young man had wanted revenge on the object of his desire for rejecting him. He said that if he could not have the woman of his dreams then no one could. The shaman had put a charm on my ashes and gave them to the suitor. Somehow, the man managed to give her a drink containing my ashes and my spirit entered her body. I have been residing here for three years. I tried to break free for many years but was unsuccessful as her personal luck was bright until now. Nothing had happened to her all this while as her luck was very strong and was able to resist the potency of the charm. On the day when her personal luck was low, she met with a spirit who had died in an accident and was looking for a substitute in the underworld before he could be reborn. It was that day that she crashed into the tree. Once her luck was low, I was able to take total possession of her body. The spirit that she had bumped into on the day of her accident had wanted to use her as his replacement and it was he who was waiting by her bed in the hospital. It was this spirit along with the charm that the shaman had put on my ashes that had prevented her from wanting to enter the temple but once inside, the chanting and prayers had chased him away and helped to put my soul at ease. Oh! Holy master, I thank you for helping to release me. I am at peace now”. The spirit appeared to have left her body after giving some details to the abbot who had agreed to pray for his soul. This time Serena spoke in her own voice. She had no recollections of what happened. The abbot said that she had to remain in the temple for seven days. The monks would teach her to recite the sutras and do some holy cleansing for her.
A week later, Serena came back to work. She was looking frail and thin. I could see that she was still not over her traumatic experience. Even the bruises on her arms and legs could still be seen. The bluish-black marks made by the four men who tried to restrain her were still visible. I had thought to myself that the supernatural being that possessed her must be really strong for her to resist the strength of four men. However, on the day I saw her, she appeared to be very much in control of herself. I also noticed that whenever she had some free time, she would fervently recite some Buddhist holy words. Om Mani Pah Mi Om comes to mind even until today.
It was only a few weeks after the dreaded episode, that she related the part of her story which led to her being charmed. When Serena was twenty-one years old, she had the affections of two men. There were of course other suitors but they came and went. But only two were tenacious in their pursuit of her. Both men were passionately in love with her and were vying for her attention. They had showered presents on her and pandered to her every wish. She was unsure whom to choose, as she was fond of both of them until she fell ill one day and had to be hospitalised. Only one of her suitors attended to her the whole month she was in hospital. The other who had made himself scarce during that period only came a-calling after she recovered. It was there and then that she knew whom her Mr Right was. When he proposed she immediately said yes. The other man hid his wrath well and gave the appearance that he was a gracious loser. A few days before her wedding, he went and congratulated the couple. He even asked permission from her husband-to-be to take her out for lunch for old times sake. She suspected that it was then that he had put the charmed ashes into her food. The abbot had told her that the charm that the shaman had put on her was a death charm as the spirit had died a violent death and would wreak vengeance on the unfortunate person who happened to consume his ashes. Luckily she was brought to the temple and the chanting of the verses from the Holy Scriptures calmed the vengeful spirit and helped release him. In many cases the victims of such charms would die.
I am sure you would still be wondering about the unusual title for this story, “Ijugil Nomui Sarang”. It is actually the Romanised version of a Korean drama series titled, “A Love to Kill” that I had watched. Wouldn’t you say that it is a very apt title for my story?