The carpet search
Here came the final phase of tonight's investigation which we called
it the carpet search. As the name suggests, it was about
thoroughly searching through every inch of the land. It involved
shinning strong torch light, brightening up every tree that could
be a possible hide-out for Pontianak. The lighting equipment used
are of the strongest available on the market. For example, a professional
floodlight used for filming, a 6-D MagLite, and a super bright
quartz halogen lantern called Search Cop-2 that has an equivalence
of 3,500,000 candle light power! SWAT teams from USA use that too. We could literally turn the dark
cemetery to day-time bright.
In addition to light power, we need sharp eyes from our members.
Another set of night vision video camera was used to continuously recording the
whole environment. It was mounted on a helmet supposed to be worn by a SPI
agent, so everybody could be spared hands-free for climbing and
trekking around the terrain.
Some may argue that flooding the whole cemetery with bright light
effectively would frighten Pontianak away, if one really exist.
Well, the logic is that we weren't interested in arresting one
alive. We only wanted to prove or debunk its existence. Even if we
have frightened one out of the wood and its fleeing appearance was
captured on camera - that is a bingo! Otherwise, after such
a thorough search throughout the whole place that was rumored to
be haunted by Pontianak, and nothing was found, we have
effectively debunked the myth; let the rumor proven to be only a
rumor. The legend of Pontianak was never real. So this is our strategy, and this is what we were going to
do..
 
The cemetery is covered by tall grasses and wild
bush that hides many secrets. It is a nightmare to comb every inch of
it after midnight
 
There are also many tombstones scattering over
the place, and 'something' else.
We are not alone..
"something" seems following us
Here it come!
We formed two teams, each consists of three members. Both teams were
in some formation according to each member's specialty and we followed some specific paths so that we
could have the best coverage of the search. The two teams circled
the Pontianak land one from the left and the other one from the
right. It was not the speed
of completing the mission that we wanted to achieve, but rather the thoroughness.
However the
progression was slow; there was a pause in our paces in every
several steps. We stopped and watched the whole place. Strong
light was illuminating up each tree, leaving no place to hide.
In two hours time, the teams bashed through the end of the
graveyard; crossed over to the hill slope where ancient trees were
grown there for many many years. The tombstones looked more ruined
than those behind us. There was no path. The whole land
was covered by tall grasses and surrounded by old trees. The
teams had to bash the way through tall grasses of waist length.
Suddenly a breeze swept across the hill slope, making the grasses
dance in waves. "Err, you sensed something at 10 o'clock?" KC
hinted. Three heads turn simultaneously towards that direction.
The breeze brought motions to the whole surroundings, everything
was moving in sequence; somewhat like a row of falling domino. But
there was one tree that was in exception. Its movement didn't fit into
the sequence. At the
corner of our eyes, we first saw it moved just about half a second
before the wind came; and it moved again after the breeze had gone
and everything settled. A little strange it was.
Without any hesitation, Gate suggested to go there and check it
out. The other two members would have to stay. From where we were
standing now, we were ready to shine the light in order to lit up the tree
should Gate give us his signal.
Cautiously, Gate walked near to the tree with his eyes keeping wide
open. That was just an ordinary tree. Kenny was murmuring a prayer. Although nobody said it out,
we all know that two hours ago in the evening we just had a ritual to summon the
Pontianak. Did it come two hours ago? We didn't know. Now it came?
May be...
Intuitively we held on our walkie-talkie headset and whispered to
Gate "The camera is rolling. Just give tell us when you need the
light backup". Gate also was carrying a night-vision camera
on his hand,
hoping to capture something by surprise before bombarding the
whole tree with bright halogen light from a distance. He moved closer and closer such that
he could see what was on the tree in more details, and vise versa.
If there was anything in the tree, it can see him in more details
too. He was exposing himself in some unknown danger indeed. But no
risk, no gain.
His headset hissed with a worried voice "Gate, do you need support?"
Gate firmly said "No", while he was probing his ear up on the
tree. A faint rattling noise was heard. He circled gingerly around
the tree, trying to distinguish the source of the sound. "There it
is", he stopped, and looking up. With just about 1 meter
from the tree, Gate aimed his camera slowly to the top branches of
the tree by raising it above its face. His face was almost at a
right angle up.
Sprinkles and sprays of dusts landed on his face as he could feel.
We called them dusts but in fact we were not sure what they are.
They came down in an increasingly heavy amount; some squeezed into
his eyes. Spitting out the dust from his mouth, he shunned away, shook his head and rubbed his eyes;
all the actions were going on at
almost the same time.
"Light!" Kenny shouted out in panic, as we saw Gate's reaction which was
misinterpreted as his signal of firing light when he moved his
hands. Things happened out of a sudden, messing up in a chaos, in
a merely few seconds time. Strong spot light soaked the trees to very
bright. We saw clearly, old branches and new twigs were falling
down. Gate covered his head with his arms. And we moved our camera
towards the tree.
But the chaos had suddenly gone. Silence. Everything returned to normal; nothing was
falling, nobody was injured, and .. no Pontianak was seen. We saw
the wood debris laying on the ground under the tree. Otherwise we
would think what happened a few seconds ago was just an illusion. KC
and Kenny glanced at each other, they were about to walk towards
the tree to check if Gate was alright.
At that very moment, Gate screamed in horror, turned his body and
fell on the ground. Totally shocked we were, that our feet were
glued to ground for some seconds. Once we gained our
consciousness, we ran to pick Gate up and pulled him out to an
open space.
 
Eerie trees hiding in darkness got illuminated
up
 
Do you see anything weird there in the
trees?
What happened?
Our first thought was that Gate has got attacked. Who attacked
him? How did it happen?
All was done in a split of a second. We only heard him scream, he
twisted his body and then fell. We saw nothing else, nor any other
movement. Fresh blood was flowing from his arm. There were clearly three
streaks, bleeding in blood. "Go, get out of here!" the whole team
retreated back to the car. All of us were curious about this attack
and couldn't help to butt in questions hysterically.
A loud order outstood all the other questions, "Let him speak". Firm
and concise, from Abductboy. We wrapped his wound with a first-aid cloth.
Slowly Gate said, trying to recall every detail, "After the
branches fell down I turned around to see what happened. Something
suddenly 'scratched' me, then I lost my balance and fell." Abductboy
asked "What is that something scratched you? What did you see to
make you scream?"
Gate's eyes were wide open "I screamed? Not at all. I head the
scream in the wood but it wasn't me! I didn't see what scratched me. It came
from behind. When I turned around to check what scratched me, I
didn't see anything but tripped on a rock then fell down."
"What the hell ..." we couldn't help but only utter these words.
1. Bloody wounds on Gate's arm; 2. the
tree; 3 & 4. Very powerful light beam penetrates into the sky
Every family has a dark secret
Days later, we still kept thinking on what had caused such a wound
on Gate's arm. Three long scratch lines that are almost parallel
to each other at about the same depth. Monkeys, fallen tree
branches, pranksters, hiding illegal workers.. or Pontianak? What
could that be?
We have taken a significant number of photos on that tree, both at
before and after the attack. But we found no special about it.
While we were planning another more intensive investigation
focusing on the area near that tree, something ensued.
A surprise letter that is sent by Lina (our informant in the last
investigation) addressing to SPI arrived. Here we listed the
letter out after abstracting and editing certain contents.
|
The Letter
Hi SPI,
This is Lina here. Remember me? I contacted you guys last month,
and volunteered to participate into your Pontianak hunt. I
taught you the charms used in the ritual, and the method of summoning
Pontianak.
However, I am feeling guilty in not being honest with you in
some thing. Hereby I want to apologize and confess to you the
truth. I can only tell you by writing because I don't have the
courage to tell you my family secret face to face, and I am
afraid of your questioning. [some personal feelings were omitted
from the letter.]
My true intention, was to setup a show, for proving the existence of
Pontianak. But it was a show of a show. I am sorry that I made
use of you.
My mother died after giving birth to me, that is what my bomoh
father said. I and my father lived miserably in my childhood. I seldom heard
about my mother. I only know that my father loved her very
much. One night I vaguely remember there was a ceremony
held secretly by my father and his colleagues. I was ordered to
cleanse myself for 7 days with eating only rice cakes and
drinking plain water.
I think I told you before about that. I saw a woman, arose, in
white long robe, passed me softly with streaks of fragrance
tailing behind. I was only 9 years old, but I wasn't afraid.
However, a mysterious sadness showered suddenly on me. A tear
dropped from the corner of my eye. After that I saw the
woman (Pontianak) no more. Neither did anyone, including my father.
Please don't condemn my mother as a Pontianak monster. She is
not a demon or vampire like what you all think, she never was. I
actually heard from my aunty that my mother was only an ordinary
woman but with a family-inherited heart disease. Her family
always objected
her marrying my father. But she insisted, because she loved my
father and wanted to give him a child. But at the end she
couldn't make it after delivering me. My dad didn't know about
her disease initially; it was only later my aunty told him so.
My aunty said he almost gone mad; fisted on the tree, knocked
his head on the wall. The regret had greatly tormented him.
Before my mother was buried, my father made a drastic decision.
But to me it is the most stupid and selfish thing he ever do! My
father tried to resurrect my mum. He loved her very much, and
wanted to bring her back to life.
My father practiced the magic for many years. And it has been
applying on my mother's preserved body for 9 years consistently.
He chanted and prayed day and night; and the supply of herbs
that he used to put on my mother's body never stopped.
But I think it failed. The undead woman although had
become well-preserved and finally resurrected, seemed to have not
recognized anyone. Not her husband and not even her daughter. On
that night when my dad tried to bring life back to her, he lost
a large amount of blood in this very crucial ritual. The ritual
started from midnight and lasted till evening of the same day. Eventually, the
corpse moved as the dusk fell. It was such a horrible scene. She got up, and walked. But she
seemed to be searching for something. Both my father and me were
calling her, but she ignored. The spell that supposed to hold
her under control was not working. She madly rambled around,
looking for something desperately though in vain. At the end,
the red thread soaked with my father's blood that was tying on
her feet set loose when she turned herself into a flying owl.
Since then, nobody had ever seen her anymore.
Last year, my father fell very sick. He had not been happy since
his wife whom he loved very much died in child-birth, for 18
long years! At his last breath, he brokenly voiced out his last
words to me in a sick-bed "it was the baby, she was looking for
the baby. Must set her free". Then he passed away.
SPI, now you understand. I have this thought of making use of
SPI, using a baby, and all the other baits and chants. I only
wanted to set free of her mother's unfinished business as it was
my father's final wish. I lurked SPI to perform an investigation
and a ritual. But behind, I was actually plotting something
else. I got you invited the crowd such as reporter team because
I thought of reenacting the scene - just like how it was in 18 years ago,
when she was having
a difficult child-birth. The people who were helping in the
delivery became very panic. The noise alerted the neighbours;
many came out to take a look. My mother, died in the middle of
the crowd, with baby Lina crying and crying in the centre, just after the
child-birth.
I knew that after the investigation, nobody would want to take
the baby doll home. So I kept it. I placed in a secluded corner
on the same night, in the total darkness of the cemetery.
Waiting for my mother's spirit to appear... and be appeased. I
am sorry that I can't reveal what is the secret portion to you
as you asked me many times. It is too embarrassing for a girl to
tell you what this is. But I can only tell you that it is
something very personal to me.
Anyway
I feel that I owe you guys for this plot. Therefore I am
revealing my family secret to you in this letter, and hope that
my story will help in
your Pontianak research. But as said earlier, I don't have the
courage to tell you this secret face to face. I know you won't
let me go, and you will do everything to find my mum. But I can
tell you. She has left this place since that night. She is at peace now, and
please don't think of disturbing her anymore.
Yours sincerely,
Lina
|
The end?
This long letter was sent out one week before it arrived our mail box.
There is no return address. The stamp only reveals that is from Kuching, Malaysia.
It addressed at the end in an apology again.. sorry for cheating us into
this conspiracy. But she hoped that we can understand her life won't be
happy as an orphan whose parents died without getting this sorted
out. This is something that she must do, no matter how mean
and ridiculous it is.
After reading the letter, we thought of whether we shall continue
the investigation. The answer is a firm 'yes'. It isn't now so
much of the topic of Pontianak or Malay vampire. If what Lina said
is true, the mystery is on the ritual power. Over the world,
mysterious forces that keep human bodies as living dead have been
reported. We want to find the truth behind it.
On the other hand, we empathize how bitter the life is for Lina.
She is an orphan whose mother was turned to an undead by her
father. Worse, it was labeled with a mythical beast name of
Pontianak that associates with violent killing and blood sucking.
Who wants to be known by the public with such a disgraceful family
background?
Recalling on the night of Pontianak hunt, we finally understood
why Lina behaved so low-profile and somewhat mysteriously. "What
else did she say? How was she last seen?" asked Abductboy.
Mathwizard quickly raised his head, chokingly he said "before she
left I passed her the ..."
 
At the end of the Pontianak Hunt ritual.. that
poor baby doll is unwanted by everybody except Lina
Observe its face, its vivid expression, as though life is raised from
a dead object. Click to enlarge it. Look into its eyes, and you will
see it
 
1 - 3. It certainly look spooky; as if
it has life of it own. Life force raised from the mere plastic
material..
4. The doll was left behind by SPI at the cemetery
"Oh, the doll!" we shouted almost spontaneously.
SPI drove the car quickly to the cemetery. And found that the doll
is gone. Not sight of it anywhere. We wondered what happened after we
finished the investigation and left on that night. What happened
to Lina? Where is she now? Did she really use the doll to appease
her mother? So to settle her unfinished business? For satisfying
her mother's small lint of past memory at the time she died?
However, SPI never gave up. We went into the cemetery to check on
almost every week. One day, out of a big surprise, we saw the doll, as we
couldn't
believe our eyes! The doll was lying on a pile of rubbish bags at
the entrance of the cemetery. But beside the doll, there was an
extra doll companion, dressed in Malay costume. Nobody knows who
put them there and why.....
 
1. The baby doll used in the ritual was
found on top of a rubbish pile at the entrance of Mt Pleasant cemetery
one week later
2. At a closer look, it has a little girl doll in Malay costume
accompanying him. See the close ups here (1)
and (2)
They look very contended. Same for Lina's lost parents too?
3. Mysterious girl at the back of a truck; nobody knows where she is
going to..
4. At the end of the investigation, SPI team indulged into a sumptuous
makan at
Newton Circle; is it really the end of the investigation?
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