Tracy clenched her torchlight with trepidation, as yet another bolt of lightning flashed outside the window. The thunderstorm no doubt added to the terse atmosphere in the classroom.
She was seated on the floor in the middle of the classroom with a group of ten girls. They were seated in a circle, illuminated by just the light from their torchlights. It was nearly midnight, and the lights had been turned off.
“Secondary 1 level camp, where you meet people from different classes. You know what’s the best part of our annual school level camps girls?”, their group leader Hannah asked.
Tracy didn’t need to guess. It was obvious what was about to happen.
“We get to tell ghost stories, yay!”, Amber squealed in excitement.
“Correct! And its Halloween tonight! So who is going to start the ball rolling then?”, Hannah asked with a grin as the group started twittering.
“Me! I know one!”, Renee said, waving her hand. She glanced at Tracy for a sign.
Tracy eyed her best friend with indignation. She knew that she hated scary things. Why did they choose to have the school camp during Halloween? And why did they have to tell ghost stories?
“In the eighties, contractors believed that for a building to be safe from the spirit realm, they would have to sacrifice a child and bury its head in the foundation of a completed building. To evade the police, some of them turned to the Kepala Anjing, or dog-headed spirit, to do the kidnapping” said Renee.
Tracy shuddered, the image of a dog-headed man flashing in her mind.
“That’s just a story parents made up to scare kids Renee,” came Amber.
“I mean, hundreds of buildings were built in that period, but not that many kidnappings happened,” she added.
“That’s what people say. But my uncle actually saw one,” Renee said in a low, dangerous tone, her face dead serious.
“He was daydreaming one evening while studying, and he saw it prowling a corridor in the opposite block of flats. It stopped at a house, flexed its sharp metallic talons, reached in and tried to pull a little boy out. Then someone shouted ‘Kepala Anjing’, and the neighbours rushed to beat it down.”
“But they couldn’t find it. Meanwhile, the kid was screaming in pain, because of the claw marks on his body. Till this day, nobody knows who or what tried to snatch the poor kid.”
There were ‘OMGs’ and ‘whatthehells’ being passed around.
Suddenly, there was an extra loud clap of thunder. The room was suddenly filled with blinding white fluorescent light. Tracy jumped.
Panic ensued as the ten girls screamed their lungs out. They dispersed and rushed to their sleeping bags.
“What are you girls doing?”, roared their discipline mistress, Mrs. Haugen. She had switched on the lights in the classroom, which had been converted into a bunk for the camp.
“It’s past midnight, go to sleep NOW!”, she barked.
The girls stood by their sleeping bags, momentarily stunned, before hastily getting under their covers.
“And you, Hannah! As a school senior we expect you to show more discipline, instead of scaring out your Secondary 1 juniors,” she growled.
Hannah muttered an unapologetic ‘sorry’, before waving the girls goodnight and leaving the bunk for her own seniors’ bunk.
“Now I don’t want to hear anymore talking. And I certainly do not want to catch anyone wandering off to explore the school. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Mrs. Haugen,” the girls chorused.
She switched off the lights and left, closing the door behind her. Tracy rolled over to look at Renee, who was lying beside her. She was her only classmate in this group.
“Wish we could have our phones with us. Come on, it’s the year 2000! Safekeeping my foot!” Renee spat, adjusting her orange jacket.
“Good thing we ended halfway, eh? It was my turn next!”, Tracy said.
“Well, everyone knows you’re scared easily, so I was expecting you would say what is it that scares you”, Renee said, her wide grin clearly visible through the light percolating through the windows.
“Hey!”, she exclaimed, turning away in protest.
There were some mutters as the girls bemoaned the unceremonious end to their Halloween night. Tracy however, was relieved. She rolled over in her sleeping bag for several minutes, trying to find a find a comfortable spot on her towel-turned-pillow. But the sole Halloween story she had heard kept bugging her.
“Hey Renee, was the story of the Kepala Anjing true?”, Tracy asked softly.
Silence. Renee had knocked off.
The whispering died down as the girls fell asleep one by one. Tracy however kept wide awake. For one, her sleeping bag were too rough. For another, she was keeping an eye out for Amber.
As a couple of girls started their nightly snore broadcast, Tracy kept thinking about the conversation she had overheard earlier that day. Amber had been talking to Hannah.
“Remember, if you really don’t want anyone to hear you pooping, I suggest you wait till everyone is asleep. Then you go to the toilets,” Hannah was saying.
“But what if someone wakes up and comes into the toilet?”, Amber retorted.
“Oh my gosh Amber, everyone poops! Just get over with it,” Hannah exclaimed.
“Or go into the school’s new wing – no one is going to be in there for sure,” she added, winking as she turned and walked away.
“Not everyone poops…” Amber mumbled as she too turned away.
But Tracy didn’t get to hear the rest of Amber’s sentence as the school bell started ringing.
And so, throughout the day, Tracy kept replaying the scene in her head. ‘Not everyone poops… what? There were three syllables after. But what were they?
She kept thinking about it, but there only seemed to be one logical conclusion – Amber poops in diapers.
And the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Amber fit the stereotype. She was the only child of a rich businesswoman, who rarely sees her, is cared for by a domestic helper, and never talks about pooping. She also broke wind a few times that evening, and she definitely did not poop during shower time, Tracy was confident. Though all of that may have been a coincidence, she remarked.
Thus Tracy, despite being tired out, was determined to catch Amber in the act. It was her one and only chance to meet a diaper wearer in real life. And even if she didn’t, she would know for sure.
But as the storm raged on, Amber showed no sign of getting up. Fighting a losing battle, Tracy’s eyes slowly drooped to a close.
There was a bright flash of lightning, but no thunder. Tracy jolted awake. She looked at her watch – it read 1.11am. Time had flown in the blink of an eye.
Groggily, she sat up and looked at Amber’s spot. There was no mistaking – her sleeping bag was empty, and her slippers were gone.
Not bothering to remain discreet, she slipped on her slippers, grabbed a torchlight, and walked towards the door, when she heard footsteps outside. There was no time to run back to her sleeping bag, so she stood her ground, readying herself to face Amber.
However, the footsteps came and went. That was when she realized that they belonged to an older person, who was wearing shoes rather than slippers. Mrs. Haugen must be doing some rounds, to ensure students stayed in bed, Tracy realized.
She walked up to the door and listened, waiting for the footsteps to go away. Once the coast was clear, she crept out of the bunk. Fake cobwebs and tinsel – Halloween décor – were fluttering in the wind. She quietly walked down the dimly-lit corridor towards the girl’s bathrooms, keeping her ears peeled for footsteps. But that was not an easy task given the pouring rain.
She walked in, and the auto lights switched on. It was empty. So Amber was in another toilet then. Tracy shuddered. She couldn’t have possibly made it into the new wing, not on this dark and stormy night, could she?
The second and first floor toilets were similarly empty too. Just then, she heard heavy footsteps. It was another teacher! Tracy hid in a cubicle, taking a moment to think. The possibility of Amber having snuck out of the old wing left her wondering how in the world was she supposed to enter the new wing, which was still fenced up. They were connected by a link-bridge, but it wasn’t complete yet.
Once the footsteps died away, she slowly crept out of the toilet and walked up to the end of the building. She kept an eye out for the security guard Mr. Karim, who was likely dozing off in his post by the front schoolgate. Through the rain, which had reduced to a drizzle, she could barely make out that it was deserted. That meant she now had two people to look out for.
Then she remembered! The rear schoolgate had an access point for construction workers. Worried parents didn’t want male workers to be anywhere near their daughters, so the school had arranged for this option. Silent as a shadow, Tracy made her way to the back of the school.
Amber must have run under the cover of darkness and pouring rain to traverse the fifty meters or so from the old wing to the new wing. And as the rain had reduced to a drizzle, Tracy had a smaller margin for error.
She glanced at the building. The 35-year old school had finally raised enough money to build a second wing. It was still mostly a skeleton, with much of its scaffolding still in place and the fourth floor unfinished. Cordoned off by metal construction fencing, it was completely unlit and loomed over the school field with a spooky aura. Shuddering, Tracy readied her mind for the run.
Then, she heard it.
The sound of a dog howling. It was a loud howl, and whatever made it was nearby. Tracy’s hairs stood on their ends. A dog howling, a new building. What if the story of the dog-headed spirit was true?
Tracy got a grip of herself, reminding herself that house owners living in the surrounding private estates often kept big dogs. It’s just an urban legend, Tracy reminded herself.
Noting that a full ten minutes had passed, Tracy made a run for it. She splashed across the waterlogged patch of grass, making it to the other side. She ran straight for the gap in the construction hoarding, numbing herself to the wet splashes. But she failed to see a low lying access chain blocking the way, and she tripped and fell over, knocking over the two metal poles that held them up.
“CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK”
Tracy fell to the ground with a loud thud. She had just alerted the entire school that there was someone in the new wing! Mrs. Haugen’s earlier warning flashed through her mind.
Scrambling to get up, she switched on her torchlight and just about made out an unfinished footpath leading to the dark building. Scurrying past stacks of metal pipes and yet-to-be-placed zinc roofing, she made for the nearby staircase. She ran up to the second floor and into an unfinished classroom.
Tracy collapsed onto the floor, panting as she tried to catch her breath. If Amber was indeed around here somewhere, she would most certainly have heard the tremendous noise that she had made. But that was the least of her worries. For if Amber could have heard them, so could have Mrs. Haugen and Mr. Karim.
She had to get out of there. Getting caught most certainly meant facing suspension from school, not to mention having to explain why she was out of bed, alone. She wasn’t sure if there was another way back to the old wing. But what if they made it to the rear entrance before she did? Tracy did not know where the front entrance led to, let alone if it was unlocked.
With no other choice, Tracy slowly stood up. She flipped her torchlight switch. It sputtered out some light. Panicking, she gave it a hard knock and thankfully, it came on. Tiptoeing, she made her way out of the classroom, shuddering at the near complete darkness, before making her way down carefully.
As she walked down, she realized that she had made a big mess, with her muddy footsteps all over the unfinished concrete. However, when she got to the foot of the staircase, she realized something was not right.
There were two pairs of muddy footprints, one running up the stairs, and one continuing on into the dark corridors of the building.
So someone must have come by this way too. But these footprints didn’t look like slipper prints, they looked like shoeprints. So someone else was also in the building. The drizzle had ceased completely, and Tracy stood there, listening, thinking.
She turned to face the darkness. Whoever made those shoeprints was inside there. Then, she heard a high-pitched scream.
Tracy jumped out of her skin. Apprehensively, she spun around to face the corridor. What was going on? Who was that? Then it hit her.
“Amber,” she said aloud and broke into a run, following the footsteps into the darkness.
Tracy ran as fast as she could, not bothered about the terrific noise that she was making. But that was the least of her worries – the trail of muddy footprints was thinning out. It quickly disappeared into the darkness.
Soon, she had reached the end of the corridor. Tentatively, she stepped out of the building and into the overcast night. Something felt out of place. She spotted a broken-off tree branch, a victim of the thunderstorm, partially blocking the way. There were some empty beer cans and a pair of yellow rubber boots lying on the floor. So a construction worker must have snuck into this cozy place to drink a few beers, Tracy thought to herself.
A lone turquoise slipper caught her eye, outstanding from the concrete floor. Its strap was broken.
Tracy felt her gut tighten. It was Amber’s. Picking it up, Tracy conjectured that the booze-filled bozo must have started chasing Amber. And the direction the slipper was pointing made it clear where they were headed.
The dog started to howl again. Tracy dropped the slipper in fright.
Cautiously, Tracy turned around slowly and shone her flashlight through the door. She had to save Amber, and her flashlight would give her away. Reluctantly, she switched it off and kept it in her pocket.
She entered the building and walked along quietly. The new block had two rows of classrooms flanking a central corridor, which she was walking through now. This end of the corridor had its doors fitted in, ensuring near pitch-black darkness.
The silence was deafening. She crept forward slowly, wondering if she should try searching the second floor. But then she heard footsteps behind her in the distance. And they were moving fast.
Tracy guessed it must be the worker. She broke into a run, determined to get away from him. Her heart pounding away at her chest, she tore down the corridor past the central staircase, narrowly crashing into a pile of cement bags. Stopping, she crouched down behind it, trying to stop panting heavily as the footsteps got louder and louder. Suddenly, it stopped.
Tracy held her breath, waiting for it to move. But a minute passed and it didn’t. Trembling, she inched out from behind the bags, squinting to see in whatever little light was present. But there was nothing in front of her. Then she heard a soft thump, thump sound.
Her hairs standing on end, Tracy realized that she had been spotted. Clutching her cross hanging around her neck, she turned around. It happened quickly.
She felt a hand clap over her mouth and another grab her abdomen, clutching her tightly. Tracy struggled violently, desperate to release herself and trying her hardest to scream. But no sound came out.
“Shh… they will hear us.”
Then, the person let go.
Tracy did not need to see her face to know who’s voice it was. It was Amber.
“Oh my god, it’s you! You’re safe!”, Tracy exclaimed, giving her friend a hug.
“But not for long Tracy. Quick, in here,” Amber said, grabbing Tracy’s elbow and leading her into a classroom.
The girls collapsed onto the floor, catching their breaths. Tracy switched on her torchlight, to get a proper look at Amber. She was dying to know what had happened.
“Why did you scream,” she asked.
Amber looked up at her, with lines of fear written clearly across her face.
“Tracy… Tracy, we’ve gotta get out of here now”.
“We’ve got to go… I saw it!”
“What did you see Amber?”
“I ran out by the front entrance when I saw…”, Amber gulped.
“I saw… the Kepala Anjing! It was sitting at the entrance drinking…”
“You saw the dog-headed spirit?”, Tracy asked, a chill going up her spine.
“Yes, it was him! It was very dark, I only saw it holding a machete…”, she continued, her face turning pale.
Tracy closed her eyes, thinking of the scene. The yellow boots. The beer cans. The machete.
“Amber, it’s not a ghost or a spirit. It’s a construction worker. I saw empty beer cans and some tools,” Tracy said, trying to calm her down.
“But the dog-head… I saw it Tracy…”, Amber insisted, growing more flustered.
“Calm down Amber! It must have been the shadows. Besides, if it is supernatural, it would have killed you by now,” Tracy said, holding her hand.
Amber paused, looking highly unconvinced as tears rolled down her face. The flashlight flickered.
“Let’s just get out of here Tracy,” she said.
“Yes let’s,” Tracy agreed.
The girls got up. Tracy noticed Amber was shivering in the cold, but decided not to ask her about it.
“We’ll go by the back exit, hopefully Mrs. Haugen doesn’t see us”, Tracy added.
“Mrs. Haugen?”
“She might have heard the clanging – it was me. I tripped over some metal poles,” Tracy added coyly.
“Ohh it was you who made that sound! That’s why I ran down in the first place, away from the noise,” Amber said.
“Ah, I see. Well, let’s go” Tracy added.
The girls stepped out of the classroom, clutching each other tightly. They took several steps towards the rear entrance through the pitch black darkness which was enveloping them.
Tracy, her ears accustomed to the silence, detected a new sound. It was sort of resembled the sound a plastic bag makes. And it emanated each time Amber took a step.
“Amber, what’s that plasticky sound? It’s very noisy – they’ll hear us,” Tracy whispered.
Amber came to a stop. Tracy, her heart pounding, anticipated what she had been longing to hear all evening. Her time as the only diaper wearer she knew was about to cease, forever.
But Amber’s answer had to wait. For right then, the girls heard a commotion above them. Someone was on the moving around on the second floor.
“I think the guy is upstairs. Let’s go see who it is,” Tracy whispered, distracted.
Amber, relieved that she didn’t need to answer the question, saw another struggle brewing.
“What if he catches us?”, she protested.
“Well, there are 2 of us. We’ll overpower him.”
“Tracy no! What if… what if…”
“Don’t worry, we’ll run off before he sees us,” Tracy suggested.
Amber reluctantly followed her to the central staircase. Unlike the rear staircase, this one was pitch black. The girls climbed up the stairs slowly, feeling for the steps as they could not see them.
They made it to the second level. Still nearly in total darkness, the girls noticed a light in one of the classrooms. The thunderstorm by this time had returned with a vengeance. That vengeance was about to manifest in the form of a lightning bolt, dazzling the dank, dark corridor for a second.
But one second was enough. Tracy and Amber stood rooted to the ground as they glimpsed the full form of what was hiding in the darkness. The bloodshot eyes, the dark brown fur, the hanging tongue from a snout-like mouth and the shining talons did not lie. The hideous form of the dog-headed Kepala Anjing carrying an unconscious girl firmly imprinted itself into the girl’s minds as they scrambled into the darkness of the staircase, screaming their lungs out.
Tracy and Amber clung onto each other as they ran down the stairs without a regard for anything. They needed to get out of there, right now. They pelted down the dark corridor, barreling towards the rear corridor exit. It was open, they just had to reach it.
But at the last second, a figure stepped into the building. The girls, not needing an introduction, ran up to him in relief.
“Good evening girls, may I know what the two of you are up to this dark and stormy night?”, the man asked, his deep voice echoing down the corridor,
Tracy looked up at their principal. Mr. Lee, a middle-aged educator who was known for being rather soft spoken, nonetheless looked very angry at the moment.
“Mr. Lee, we… we…”, Tracy began.
“You what?”, he barked.
“We saw a Kepala Anjing Mr. Lee! Upstairs on the second floor,” Amber said timidly.
Me Lee’ face turned purple, and looked like he would explode any second.
“There are no such things as ghosts Ms. Tan. But there are such things as burglar alarms, which you two have set off with the ruckus you have made.”
The two girls looked down, crestfallen. The thunderstorm was rapidly picking up.
“But Mr. Lee, it’s upstairs and it has caught someone…”, Tracy began.
“Enough of your fairytale!”, Mr. Lee said, raising his voice. He paused, before continuing.
“Now, I want the pair of you to wait right here while I go switch off the alarm. I will personally escort you two back to my office,” he said, gesturing at the first classroom.
“But Mr. Lee, its really true…”
“Ms. Chua, the two of you must have seen a shadow. The spirit – it was real – would have killed you two by now. So I want the two of you to wait here for me,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s alright. I’m here. Nothing of that sort will happen. Now I want you two to sit here and calm down,” he said, before turning and disappearing into the darkness of the corridor.
Tracy tottered over to the classroom entrance, sitting on the step, looking devastated.
“Why aren’t we dead Amber? My mum’s going to kill me,” she said.
Amber however, was thinking hard.
“I mean, both of us couldn’t have been wrong at the same time right…”, Tracy asked.
“Tracy, something is not right,” Amber interrupted.
“What do you mean?”
“Firstly, I don’t hear any burglar alarm. Do you?”, Amber said.
“Nope.”
“And look how he didn’t scold us for being out of bed at 2am. Or even ask where we saw it.”
“Yeah, why didn’t he?”
“I think I know,” Amber said, her face turning pale.
“Mr. Lee hired the Kepala Anjing! He hired it to kidnap a student, so that they can do the sacrifice thing for this new wing!”
Tracy felt the air in her lungs leave her. So the ‘story’ her grandmother told her was true!
“Amber, we’ve… we’ve got to go now! He’s gone to get it! We should go, LET’S GO!”
With that realization, the girls plunged into the pouring rain, a feat compounded by the darkness of the night. The girls thundered down the unfinished footpath, barely dodging the piles of construction materials. Tracy jumped over the pile of poles and chains, and made for the old wing.
But Tracy then heard a loud splash behind her. Turning round, she saw Amber face down, sprawled out onto the ground. She had tripped over the chains.
Horrified, Tracy ran over. She quickly helped Amber onto her feet, but she collapsed onto the concrete step again.
“Tracy, I think I’ve sprained my ankle!” Amber shouted at Tracy over the thunderstorm.
“Oh no! We must get back to the building, and get someone quick!”
“But I can’t walk! Help me!” Amber beseeched.
Tracy did not hesitate. She helped Amber up onto her feet. But she knew she couldn’t carry her far in this pouring rain. The principal would be back any second now and he would see them! They had no choice but to hide.
She then spotted a tools-shed by the side of the building, the size of four telephone booths. Supporting Amber, Tracy made her way towards the shed. Quickly, they got in and closed the door behind them.
Tracy got out her torchlight and the girls took a second to look at their surroundings. There were all sorts of things in that shed, from bags of fertilizer to cans of thinner.
Amber squealed in pain.
“Shh… They might hear us! Tracy chided.
“But it hurts!”
“Oh, how are we going to get out of here? We need to go warn someone, we’ve got to save that girl…”
“Tracy, didn’t you recognize who she was?” Amber asked cautiously.
“Who was it.”
“It’s Renee”, she said. Tracy gasped.
“NO! It can’t be!”
“There’s only one person who wears an orange jacket to bed Tracy! You’ve gotta save your friend… Aargh my ankle!”
“Here, let me have a look,” Tracy said weakly, as she struggled to take in the revelation.
Her own best friend was to be sacrificed? In this day and age, as the twentieth century was drawing to a close?
“It’s excruciating Tracy, do something!” Amber cried out
Violently shaking her head, she brought herself back to the current problem. It was definitely a mistake for Amber to have run barefoot in the field. She realized she was lucky not to have stepped on some sharp object.
Looking around, Tracy spotted a first aid kit. In it, she found a crepe bandage, which she promptly set about tying around Amber’s foot. She then tried to massage the region above it, to draw Amber’s attention away from the pain. But Amber did not stop crying.
“Amber, quiet! The rain is dying down, they might hear us!”
“Tracy, I need to poop!”, Amber said, rather unexpectedly.
In the ensuing melee, Tracy had forgotten about the earlier events of that night.
“I’m wearing a diaper, I can’t hold it anymore. Just let me go,”
“So that’s what the crinkling was just now,” Tracy gasped, stunned at how candid Amber was in her moment of agony.
Amber nodded, her face a bright shade of red.
“Umm, alright. Yeah, I won’t look.”
“Thanks Tracy, Amber said, and started to bear down, finally relieving herself of two days’ worth of digestate.
Tracy couldn’t believe it. A fellow thirteen-year-old girl was pooping her diaper right in front of her! She couldn’t wait to tell her own story.
“Eww, it smells really bad Amber!”, Tracy said after a sew seconds.
“Sorry… It’s because my diaper got wet in the rain…”
“Shh… someone’s coming!”, Tracy shushed, and switched off the torchlight.
With the rain beginning to die down, the girls could make out two people approaching. One of them was speaking in harsh tones of frustration. It didn’t take much effort to recognize his deep voice.
“… left those two good-for-nothing girls right there and they slipped away. Just like that! Now if they wake up the whole school they will disturb our…”
“But you should have brought them straight to me boss! Why did you leave them alone?”, came a second voice.
Amber gripped Tracy’s arm tightly. It was Uncle Karim, the security guard. What was he doing here?
“Because they would see our sacrifice preparations you fool! And they would run and at least one would escape. Besides, I didn’t know if you had silenced the spare,” Mr. Lee replied gruffly.
“I’ve gagged her tight boss. But wouldn’t her parents question where their daughter disappeared to?”
“Nah, we just pin the blame on the girl, say she must have wandered out of the school at night, say she was last seen with a 369 gang member. They will assume that she has eloped.
“So what do we do about those two rascals then?”
“We need to get rid of them in case they blabber about seeing a ghost in our new building – it’s bad for the school’s name,” Mr. Lee spat.
“Don’t worry about them. I’ve got my staff prowling the corridors, she will finish them off. It’s almost 3am, we need to get ready for the sacrifice,” he added.
“Now get going!”, Mr. Lee said as they started to walk away.
“You first have to fix the sewers. This place stinks,” said Mr. Karim.
“Blame the foreign workers,” Mr. Lee said with a chuckle.
Tracy and Amber stared at each other, aghast. Whether or not there was a Dog-headed spirit, the sacrifice certainly was real! Tracy looked at her watch. It was 2.35am.
“Oh Tracy, we can’t go back into the school now. They will kill us. What do we do?”
“I don’t know Amber. Oh, if only they didn’t confiscate all our phones at the beginning of the camp! It’s not like we have expensive camera phones…”
“Actually, I have the latest pre-production Samsung SCH-V200,” Amber added coyly.
“So that my mum can see me whenever she’s away,” she added softly.
Tracy raised her eyebrows. That was when she spotted the cans of thinner.
“Amber, there’s only one way to alert people, using the one thing that spirits are afraid of,” Tracy said.
“What is it?”
“Fire. A big blazing one. On the roof. But we need matches…”
“There’s bound to be some in the canteen,” said Amber.
“Yes, that’s right. But first thing’s first. We need to get to the fourth floor”, Tracy said.
Fifteen minutes later, Tracy had ferried up two cans of thinner, and was now piggy-backing Amber up. She stepped out of the darkness and onto the unfinished fourth floor. Though the ceiling was done, the external walls weren’t up yet, giving them a bird’s eye view of the nearby housing estate.
She entered a classroom, spotting the pile of unplaced parquet flooring she had seen earlier – perfect fuel for the fire. Gingerly, she set Amber down beside it. Amber suddenly became aware that she had just squashed the contents of her diaper.
“Oi Tracy! Now my diaper is leaking!”, Amber fussed.
“Well, you’re soaking wet anyway,” Tracy said with a smile.
“It’s really uncomfortable Tracy!”
“I’m sorry Amber, you’ll have to bear with it. I better get going.”
“Yeah! We’ve got less than 15 minutes before the witching hour starts,” Amber said.
“Good luck Tracy,” she added.
Tracy gave her a smile, and was on her way. She slowly descended into the pitch darkness again, wary of the second floor where the Mr. Lee and Mr. Karim were most certainly getting ready for their ritual, where an eerie beat-like music was emanating. She knew she was no match for the two armed men, and knew she had to get help soon.
Reckoning it was safe to go by the front, Tracy crept out of the front entrance, praying that she would not see the Dog-headed Spirit. She passed the empty security guard post on her way out, beating away the dangling bats he put up as Halloween decorations.
The coast was clear – no teacher in sight. She slowly made her way out and was soon in the canteen. Fumbling into one of the stalls, she managed to find a lighter. It was now 2.50am.
Clenching the lighter in her hand, she made for the end of the canteen. She rounded a dark pillar, the light from her torchlight flickering. Just as the light died completely, a figure stepped out the darkness.
Tracy did not wait. Her heart pounding at her ribcage, she started to run.
“Tracy stop there!”
She ground to a halt, compelled to obey. There was no place to hide. Slowly turning around, she saw it wasn’t a teacher. It was Hannah. Relieved, Tracy ran towards her, embracing her tightly.
“Oh Hannah, I’m so glad to see you! I thought you were… never mind.”
“Wow wow wait kiddo! I come for a walk because I couldn’t sleep and I bump into you!”
“Hannah, listen! There’s going to be a sacrifice in the new wing soon! Mr. Lee and the security guard, they’ve teamed up and are going to sacrifice Renee. We’ve got to stop them!”, Tracy beseeched.
“Our Principal Mr. Lee? You sure about this Tracy?”, Hannah asked.
“Yes I am! Please use your phone to call the police please!”
“Alright sure, give me a sec,” Hannah said and pulled her phone out.
“Oh thank goodness Hannah! You’re really a lifesaver… Thank…”
“WHAM”
Tracy felt herself fly backwards onto the floor, landing at a table. She lay there stunned. The taste of blood in her mouth manifested as she cowered under the outline of her senior-turned-assailant.
But Hannah was not done yet. Swooping over Tracy, she cracked her knuckles, clenching her fist in front of her hapless junior. Then she started pummeling her with multiple blows to her face.
“… how dare you mess things up… I had snared that Amber nicely… but Renee had gone looking for you so we caught her… I’m reporting to Mr. Lee… so he can sacrifice the two of your heads as well…”
Tracy lay on the floor as her life flashed before her eyes. Why was this happening? The lighter fell from her limp hand, shattering into pieces.
The blows suddenly stopped. Disorientated, Tracy lay in that position for what seemed like an eternity. Hannah’s stone-hard face kept appearing in and out of focus. Why was she doing this?
Soon enough, Mr. Lee arrived. Without hesitating, he plunged down and grabbed Tracy’s shirt, dragging her onto her feet.
“Tell me girl, where is the other one!”, Mr. Lee snarled.
She shook her head. She had to keep Amber out of danger.
“Tell me now!”, Mr. Lee roared, kicking her hard on the abdomen.
Tracy sputtered. Her newfound ABDL friend would never forgive her if she outed her, so she maintained her silence.
But Mr. Lee was not known for his patience. He took out a penknife, and pressed it into Tracy’s neck, until blood started to flow. Tears started to run down Tracy’s cheeks as well.
The sheer agony was unbearable no longer. What did it matter? Her best friend was probably dead by now and her new friend was probably going to be found out anyway. She pointed forwards toward the entrance as she slowly started to pee herself. It didn’t matter. She was already soaked.
“You continue prowling the school grounds. Once tonight is over, you would have covered the last of the payments your family owes,” Mr. Lee said as he motioned her towards the classrooms.
Hannah walked away, relieved to hear that the loan-shark brother of Mr. Lee wouldn’t bother her mother and sister again. Even if it meant sacrificing three innocent girls.
The river of blood had started to pool inside Tracy’s shirt. Dragging his limp student over to the new wing, the principal poked at her again before she pointed towards the staircase.
And so he started to climb. He climbed up and up, all the way to the fourth level. But there was no sign of the other girl. She had fooled him. Now she was going to pay for it,
“Where is your puny friend, you cockroach?” Mr. Lee roared.
Tracy, her vision almost completely obscured, lifted a finger and pointed it behind Mr. Lee. He wheeled around.
Amber lunged at him and smothered his face with her diaper, plastering its foul contents all over his face. The stench of two days was finally put to good use as Mr. Lee gagged, before tottering over into a dead faint.
Amber crawled over to Tracy, who was deliriously rolling her eyes.
“Right shirt pocket… cigarette lighter,” she uttered, before passing out completely.
“Tracy… Tracy please wake up!”, Amber cried, violently shaking her.
But she didn’t respond. Amber knew that Mr. Karim would have heard the noise and be up here any minute now. She had to act. She dragged herself over to Mr. Lee.
She fumbled through his pocket, finding the lighter. She had been throwing thinner over the piles of parquet to act as a solvent, when she had spotted Tracy being dragged into the new wing by the principal. Unarmed, she felt herself peeing in terror, when she had got an idea.
Painfully, she dragged herself the equivalent of two classrooms distance over to the pile, and lit the fire. It quickly caught fire. Amber then knelt down, praying harder than she ever had in her life for the fire bell to ring. It started pealing, a minute later.
She watched the pile go up in flames, dazzling brightly in a fire that would certainly be seen for miles. From her vantage point, she could just about hear the commotion that was erupting as all the students and teachers awoke to the surreal reality of a fire in the middle of a stormy night.
Then she spotted it. The Kepala Anjing was running out of the front entrance. But it stopped for a moment, ripped off its mask and threw it over the school wall. Mr. Karim them bolted out of the school compound.
Suddenly, it all made sense. Mr. Karim was not in his post. Tracy did not see him prowling, so he must have been in here all this while. He suddenly appeared with Mr. Lee, after he had snitched Renee. He wore the mask to ensure none of the girls recognized him, so that he could still keep his job.
Amber started coughing due to the smoke. Was Renee safe?
The fire was spreading quickly. Amber realized that she could not escape in time from the blazing inferno, not without help. She crawled back to her friend, getting ready to die as the noxious fumes started to engulf her.
She never got to ask Tracy why she had come looking for her that night. She wondered why she kept smiling as she was pooping her diaper in the tools shed. Alas, she would never know.
She would never see her mother again. Of all days, she had to die on Halloween! If only she had her phone with her! Then, she realized that the principal must have his mobile phone with him. Gingerly, she crawled over to him, getting it out of his pocket. Coughing as the fumes started to get to her, she went through the contact list, dialing the first name she recognized.
“Hello Sir, where are you?”, a flustered voice answered, as girls screamed in the background.
“Hello, Mrs. Amrita Haugen? I’m Amber here. I just wanted to say that I was the one who started the fire. Please rescue us from the fourth floor of the new wing,” she pleaded before ending with a bout of coughing.
Amber slumped beside Tracy, knowing that there now was a chance. She was going to find out why Tracy had saved her, after all. Holding her hand, she closed her eyes in wait.
-the end-