Ghost stories have always been synonymous with Malaysian culture, and even the abundant local horror movies stemming from true real-life ghost stories.
The first story is about the infamous Karak highway from a nonbeliever, until she experienced it herself.
Everyone has encountered something they couldn’t explain, whether they believe it to be of supernatural origin or not. For Halloween, we decided to ask our readers to send in their hair-raising stories, so if you dare, read on...
Horror Highway
If you live in Peninsular Malaysia, you’ve definitely heard of the Karak Highway, and many ghost stories have come from it. However, being a sceptic, I felt that those were just old wives’ tales to scare the kids, but one incident changed my mind.
“This story happened a few months ago when I drove to Kuantan with my husband. Everything was fine until it started pouring. The rain was heavy and the fog was misting up the road ahead. Suddenly, I felt hypnotised and light-headed, like I was about to fall asleep. I knew I was driving, so I had to push on and tried really hard to stay awake.
“From the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a hand-like shadow grabbing onto the rearview mirror, and from the mirror, I thought I saw a figure behind the passenger seat. Then I saw a red figure running across the road quickly and another blue car-like shadow that drove into the ravine. I was shocked, but I tried my best to not panic and think logically, that maybe my tired mind was just playing tricks on me.
“After what felt like forever, the rain stopped and the sun was shining. It felt like night and day. I asked my husband if he felt funny just now and he expressed that indeed, he felt really sleepy just now, like he was hypnotised. I told him what I ‘saw’, and now I would never doubt anyone who tells a Karak highway ghost story.”
Follow me home ...
The next story is from a young doctor who prefers to stay anonymous.
“My Indian mother always urges me to shower after coming back home from the hospital, but if you’ve worked long night shifts, you’d know that you barely have any energy to do anything, so most of the time, I end up just sleeping right after coming back home. Sometimes if my mum catches me doing so, she’ll come into my room and yell at me.
“One night, I did the same thing again and I heard my mum coming into my room, but she didn’t say anything. I was too tired to care, so I just kept my eyes closed. I felt her stroking my head, which I thought was weird, because she’s never done it, so I opened my eyes and saw her staring right at me. I was half-asleep, and dozed back off.
“When I woke up the next morning, I felt sick, but when I got to the kitchen, she asked my why I had the doors locked. I asked her if she had gone into my room last night, but she said no. When I told her what happened, she brought me to see a medium to clean off what I ‘brought’ back.”
Stepmother’s curse?
And for our final story, it’s a long but sad one, and we can only pray that things get better for her.
“After my mother passed away, my father remarried and everything was fine with my new family. But one day, everything started to change when my stepsister ate a nasi lemak from a shop with pelaris. Pelaris is a form of black magic that entices customers to keep on coming back, despite the quality of the food.
“It was such a bizarre experience. I was seated right in front of her and saw her taking a bite of the nasi lemak when she started vomiting non-stop. Usually, food poisoning comes at least hours or a day after consumption, and she never had any problems eating day-old leftovers in the fridge. When that happened, my stepmother was furious and sent my younger brother and me into our room.
“As usual, I was on my phone when I suddenly got a call from my father around midnight. When I picked it up, he screamed at me and told me to bring my brother outside to dispose of the nasi lemak in a far-off place. It was raining that night, and I had no choice but to bring the rubbish out with one arm carrying my little brother and tossed it in a nearby waste disposal bin.
“When I told my dad that I had done what he told me, he screamed at me again and told me to take it and bring it to a place that was further away. I was soaking wet, had no choice, and did what I was told. When I walked back, I saw my dad’s car parked in front and they had just come back from someplace.
“Because my dad had screamed at me, my brother and I hid behind a lorry and when we saw our stepsister coming out of the car, she was screaming bloody murder, and even our neighbours asked what happened the next day.
“An ustad visited our house and I found out that my stepmother has been rearing a pelesit, which is a hereditary familiar spirit in Malay folklore.
“It turns out that my stepsister started puking non-stop because the two different spirits must’ve clashed.
“After that incident, I started noticing weird things happening around me whenever my stepmother was angry at me. I couldn’t sleep well and would always see a bloody ghastly face in my head. After some time, I noticed that my dad’s behaviour started changing too. He started being ruder to me and mistreated me, just like my stepmother did.
“When my aunts brought me to Islamic faith healers, they always say the same thing, that I was cursed. One time, I even brought a guy that I had a serious relationship with to meet my family, but after two days, he broke up with me and ghosted me. I felt hopeless because anyone who surrounded me would end up hating me.
“It seems that there is nothing I can do about it, and all I could do is stay strong and pray. Now, I’ve moved to another state, estranged from my family, and hope that one day I’ll be free from my stepmother’s curse.”
