To Became An Unexpected Witness

Genre: ghost story/horror Word: 1946 (This takes longer than I expected :P) Original fiction Rating: PG (mention of rotten flesh and glimpse of blood. Killing attempt)

This is actually for the prompt two weeks ago, ghost story. As this is the first time I write ghost story, it took me quite a while to find the idea and bring the atmosphere. Also I accept every advices you can give. Atmosphere building, plotlines, anything! (grammars too) the idea of this story was based on the famous tale of my almamater's building. But I never seen it myself, not even my friends. So the whole thing happened in this story is completely fictional.

Some of you are so excited to read this. I hope I'm not disappointing you XD

Vague growl from the car engine added with cricket’s voices filled the night. Natalie stepped out from the studio room and peeked at her surrounding. The corridor was dim. Only on the corner far to her right the light could be seen. Natalie looked at the security post below and saw nobody.

Unpleasant things creeped inside Natalie’s mind. All tales about her college building swirled back again like a slide show. Natalie never care much about superstitious, ghostly things. But when she was faced the condition itself, she had to admit it was not as laughable as she thought. And that night, Natalie happened to be the last to finish her assignments for the next morning and she got the ‘privilege’ to experience the sensation. Chill air, silence, darkness were her only accompaniment.

“Come on, where are the security guards?”, Natalie growled. Nobody answered her question. “Am I the only living being here?”

metal clank

Natalie almost dropped her bags. For a split second her body paralyzed. Before she could get herself back, another clank echoed. Natalie gathered all her courage and looked back down, where the sound came from. She sighed in relief when she finally saw the security guard, who was playing with the stair’s metal hand-holder.

“At least the sound came from living being”, Natalie said. Natalie continued her step towards the stairs on the corner of the corridor. She walked passing every classrooms with quick pace while tightened her grip over her bags and books.

“Calm down, Nat. Don’t get caught by those stories. Nothing will happen. You just need to walk to the parking lot and you can go home”, Natalie said to herself. The thought of laying her stiff back to the comfy bed made Natalie walked even faster than before. She just wanted to get out of this situation as soon as possible.

chink

Natalie’s eyes grew wider. Her feet stopped at an instant. She already near the edge of corridor when the first tinkle heard. It began with slow pace at the beginning and got more intense until it stopped. Then it repeated again. Two times. Three times. Cold sweats ran across her cheek. She truly recognized the sound.

“No… No way”, Natalie shook her head. “It’s merely a story. Impossible for a meatball seller to bring his cart up to seventh floor. I must be very exhausted that I heard imaginary sound like this”, she reassured herself.

With that thought, Natalie dared herself to looked back at the direction of her studio room. There was nothing behind her.

“Right? There’s nothing!”

But it was too soon for Natalie to said that. Her nose wrinkled at an uncanny smell. A mixed fragrance of chicken broth and jasmine flower emerged around her. Not a pleasuring scent to smell at late night. Especially the jasmine scent. According to local beliefs, when there was jasmine scent emerged out of nowhere (especially if there were no jasmine plants around), it means there’s a ghost or spirit appeared on that place.

chink

This time the sound came from the opposite direction. The scent were stronger than before. Shivered, Natalie moved her head to her front.

“Oh no”, Natalie’s body felt weak right at that moment. She couldn’t believe her own eyes.

From the left corridor, Natalie saw a cart moved hobbly toward her direction. It stopped right in front of her. Under the lamp light, Natalie could saw clearly the meatball seller her friends often talked about. Lots of her friends who stayed late at campus witnessed the wandering meatball seller at seventh floor. Never did she expect she had to see it herself.

A cart made of wood, contained with large aluminium pan which used to boil the meatballs and the soup. Above the pan, there were shelves to display raw meatballs, raw noodles and rice noodles. On the left side of the pan, another shelves were made to arrange bowls, spoons, bottles contained chilli sauces and soy sauces. But all of those shelves were broken and unusable anymore. Two of four wooden pillars that used as the trestle also not to be seen.

The seller who appeared to be a middle aged man was behind the cart. His red t-shirt was dirty and damped by sweats. Some dark red spots were visible on his t-shirt. Small towel was put behind his neck to his shoulder. Natalie could not see his face because he was looking down. Natalie stayed still at her current state, prepared herself for every possibility. She took her cutter, the only sharpest item she had and her thickest book on her hand. Natalie could hear her own heartbeat in the midst of night’s silence. She waited. But nothing happened. All of a sudden, a small growl came from the seller.

“Meatballs… Meatballs…”, he muttered. His face still faced down the floor. Natalie didn’t gave him any response. She would definitely approach him if he was casually selling his meatballs at noon near her campus. Not on the seventh floor, especially at late night.

“Want to buy meatballs?” he asked. His voice sounded normal, like ordinary middle aged man. Natalie’s forehead frowned. She didn’t remember her friends ever said about the seller asking questions. Or perhaps she was just didn’t pay attention to it.

“Pardon me, Sir… But no, thank you.”, Natalie answered politely. She hoped by rejecting his offer he would leave her alone.

“You don’t want to buy my meatballs?”, he asked again. His tune rise a bit.

“No. Sir”, Natalie repeated her answer. The seller let out a sinister laugh. His laughter made Natalie gulped. The air around her pierced her skin deeper.

“Why?”, he asked to herself. Suddenly he turned his face up. Natalie gasped in horror upon seeing his face. She put her hand over her mouth so that she would not scream.

Half part of his face were rotten. No skin covered the right side of his face, so that his rotten flesh were exposed. Maggots were seen came in and out digging the flesh. His left eyes gone and his right eyes were glowing red. His remaining face was dark and filled with wrinkles. Many of his teeth were lost. His feet was crooked inside while trying to walk closer to her. His body was covered in bruises and blood. Natalie wondered what happen to this man that he had to face such ill fate.

“Why nobody wanted to buy my meatballs?”, he growled again. His tone changed. It sounded more eerie in Natalie’s ears.

“You too!”, he shouted. His skinny finger pointed at Natalie. “You were just like the others!”

“I’m sorry Sir, I do.”, Natalie quickly apologized. She clasped her palms in front of her face.

“I… I didn’t mean to be rude. I’d definitely buy your meatballs if it’s noon. But it’s late night and I’m not used to eat heavy meal at this hour!”, she reasoned. Natalie didn’t expect the sudden outrage.

But the seller didn’t seem to care for her answer. He moved from his cart and raised both his arms. His crooked skinny feet crawled slowly towards Natalie. Natalie swiftly pointing her cutter in front of him. Her shivering feet stepped backward.

“Don’t. Get. Any. Closer”, Natalie warned while swinging her cutter. The seller kept crawling, didn’t affected by her warning. Still with the cutter against him, Natalie gathered all her remaining strength to walk backward faster towards the studio room.

“You. Must. Buy. Or PAY WITH YOUR LIFE!!”, the seller screamed. Her right eyes glowed redder. Natalie’s fear reached its peak. She ran and went inside the studio room. She hold the door tight against her body so the seller would not get the chance to get in.

“Of all this time, I’ve tried to sell meatballs for the sake of my wife and children. But because of my crooked feet, people scared and ran away whenever I passed.”, he suddenly started talking. Natalie wondered why would he talking about his previous life.

“But people like you, college students, often mocked me and bullied me.”, he continued.

“One day groups of college students attacked me down. At night like this! They broke down my cart and splashed my face with the boiling soup! After that they pushed me to the street. Suddenly a car came with high speed from the other side and hit my body”.

“So now I wandered around this campus and take revenge on every overtime college students here whom crossed with me and refuse to buy my meatballs! They have to face the same fate as mine!”, he gave the ultimatum.

His story made Natalie stunned. This famous tale about him, no one ever said about the origin of it. She silently cursed those college students who did those heartless things to this man. But even so, to die in a hand of wandering ghost sounded absurd to Natalie.

“Sir, on behalf of those college students, I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. Maybe they were drunk so they unconsciously did nasty things to you. But taking revenge will never change what already happened!”, Natalie shouted back from behind the door, tried to reasoned with him

“I don’t care! I’ll keep doing this until I satisfied!”

“You won’t get anything! You are only going to hurt more innocent people! Please stop this! You are already dead!”, Natalie shouted again. Much to her surprise, he stopped all of a sudden. All went back to silence. Thought the seller might calmed down, Natalie continued.

“If you could let go all your pain and hatred, you don’t have to be a wandering ghost like this. You can go to better place and found peace”

But, no voice came out from the seller.

“Maybe he’s gone already”, Natalie thought. Suddenly, a cold hand grabbed her neck from behind her.

“No! I will be forever alive and avenge!”, the seller said. He pushed Natalie to the floor and centred all his strength into his hand that he used to choke Natalie.

“Let me go!”, Natalie squeaked.

“You’ve witnessed me and yet you didn’t buy my meatball. Now you must face the same fate”, the seller growled. The grab was strong enough to made Natalie almost lost his breath. With her remaining strength Natalie tried to get his hand off her neck. But she felt her body already drained, as if no more single piece of energy remained. Her eyes started to get twinkling as the result of lacking oxygen.

“At least if I ended up here, I don’t have to do the midterm test tomorrow”, Natalie grinned before finally everything around her turned dark

“Natalie, Natalie! Hey!”

A girl’s voice woke her up. Natalie blinked her eyes few times. She raised her head up and observed her surrounding with narrowed eyes. Apparently she was still on the studio room. Only that, now the sunshine light up the room.

“You don’t say that you fell asleep here huh?”, the girl asked again. Natalie looked to her left. A girl wearing white shirt and black skirt stood next to her. Her hair was styled in a bun. She gazed at Natalie with full concern.

“May!”, Natalie shouted. “Ugh… What… it’s morning already?”, her body felt so numb.

“Yeah!”, May answered with confused tone. She observed Natalie who was still wearing the same outfit as yesterday. “Say, you really didn’t go home last night?”

“You think?”, Natalie asked back. She let out a relieved smile.

‘So what happened last night was only a nightmare! Thank goodness, at least I'm still alive’ Natalie thought.

“Wait a second!”, May said with cringed voice. Her fingers hovered over Natalie’s neck.

“Why there are hand-shaped bruise around your neck? What happened last night?", May asked carefully.

Long enough for May to get rid the image of Natalie's frightened face and her hysterical laughter from her head after she asked that question.