Haig
It is my first time seeing many cars, vehicles, motorbikes, and many other forms of transportation that are going back and forth on the highway. Though it was already night, there were still many vehicles that were taking the highway. The lampposts and lights that came from the transportation seemed like stars in the sky that were lit and twinkling. There is a big difference between the stars and these cars because, unlike the cars, the stars cannot be out of light even though eons have elapsed. I seemed to be walking against the wind, and I did not know where my feet would take me. What I only know is that it is searching for another victim again.
There are many huge houses on each side of the streets. Some have two floors, others have many floors, and seem to be buildings. The other thing that I noticed in each house is that their doors and windows are all closed. Maybe it was because it is already night and nothing other than that. Nothing will happen if I just walk all night on this highway. It needs to stop so that everything will come back to normal.
Eventually, my feet stopped walking. Maybe it was tired of walking, but I was wrong. There is a big house near where I was standing. It has two floors and its windows are open. I know what the plan of this curse is. It walks towards the gate of a big house that can be seen because of the moonlight. The gate of the black-painted house was not open and also not locked. It was so quiet here, not even a small noise. I can see the silhouette of the gate with many black-painted and pointed spears. This house does not have many neighbors around it. There are just a few, and they are quiet and dark.
When I was young, I was afraid of the dark, I was thinking that there are ghosts dancing in it. But I know that it was just normal because everyone had experienced being afraid in the dark, and until now, some are still afraid of it. They do not believe they can sleep in the absence of darkness. However, they avoid the dark, but they cannot avoid closing their eyes and enduring the darkness to fall asleep. That’s what makes me brave. The darkness will not appear if we are not thinking about it, if we are not using our eyes but our minds.
Others argue that we are afraid of what might appear in the dark rather than of the dark itself. They are such idiots. They had not thought that every time they closed their eyes to sleep, nothing had shown up. The darkness itself is the only thing we can see in the dark and nothing other than that.
My hand slowly opened the gate and I walked on the grassy lawn towards the door of the black-painted house when someone suddenly showed up. The man is wearing a white shirt, black trousers, and a denim jacket that does not have fastenings in the center. His face is just a little diaphanous because he was not in the moonlight and I know for sure that he saw my whole face because it was struck by the moonlight. I only saw a diaphanous shadow of the man that was walking towards me.
“Hey, boy, what are you doing here? Don’t you know that it is the personal property of Mr. and Mrs. Haggard?” He asked.
I screamed in my brain, ‘Mr. Haggard?’ How can I know if I don’t even know where I am? I won’t do or say anything because it was not me who wanted to do something here. This curse is just using my body to do its own thing, and I don’t know what it really wants.
“Are you deft? What are you—” My body would not let him finish his words. It suddenly kicked him. I had no idea this curse had a special ability like martial arts; the man caught all punches and kicks. This man was not just an easy drop because he also seemed good at martial arts. Though he had caught all my punches and kicks, he seemed un-affected. It seemed that he was just considering my punches and kicks as a play.
“Do you really want to play boxing with me? Do you want me to teach you to be a good boxer?” He tried to punch me in the face several times, but my body deflected all of his blows.
“Oh! it seemed you don’t need me to teach you, it is already night, why don’t you just go back to your house? Your parents may be searching for you now.”
Maybe my parents are searching for me now, because it was already afternoon there when the bluish cloud brought me here. Maybe now it is night there, or maybe the time is not changing there. I really need to think about an alibi so that my father won’t scold me again if he finds out that I did not go home early. Perhaps they were already aware that I had abruptly vanished and will also abruptly re-appeared.
“Don’t you want to go home?” He asked. “You have a home?”
I don’t know what this body wants to do. It won’t do anything, it’s just punching the man. This man could do nothing against me. He seemed to be playing boxing with me. Until I recognized his face, he had a high nose, black round eyes, short hair, a clean face, and brown skin.
It seemed that I could not go back to my house until daybreak, because we were just punching each other. What an idiot is this that he won’t stop and give up? He is so uneducated that he will fight with me all night. Every time I punch him, he defends himself, and punches me back. Definitely, if it lasts longer, my whole body will be full of bruises because of this nonsense thing.
It is I who will be suffering from the pain that the curse has caused. These kinds of things will always happen in this world. I cannot live longer in this world if these kinds of things always happen. There are many things that I need to do, and I don’t want to waste my time, but what my body is doing is really wasting time.
Minutes elapsed, and I felt the drops of liquid from my face were falling down. I don’t know why there are too many drops of liquid dripping from my face and whole body, though I had not drunk much water. I also noticed that even though I won’t drink water, I never become thirsty.
The man is now panting. Soon he will not be able to endure it anymore and will give up. I could see the liquid that was diffusing on his face, and his arms become wet with sweat. His whole body had surely felt the warmth because he was wearing thick clothes.
Eventually, the man stopped punching me. Maybe he was tired. He tried to remove his denim jacket. Maybe he felt warm because of the nonsense thing that he was doing with me, my body which also stopped for a while and seemed to be panting.
“Do you still want to play boxing with me?” He glimpsed at his watch. “It is already eight o’clock… don’t you have a plan to stop, to go home, and take a rest?”
If I can only say a word, I already shouted everything that I want to say, but I can’t. I know that he was a kind man, because he did not seriously hurt me and he did not even seem irritated at me, though my body wanted to kick and punch him. He was kind because even though I did not reply to his words and questions, he still did not go anywhere. But I also know that man is not patient as paper. Soon, I don’t know what this man could do to me if he was out of patience. Maybe he was a guard who was watching this house and he was assigned in the evening.
After a while, my feet brought me towards the man, and I continued to kick and punch him. As it were, it was like playing boxing, and I don’t know what it really wants to do. I don’t know if it was just playing with the man or if he really wanted to hurt him. Maybe it was just a warm-up before the real fight.
The trial or play round was over, everything is getting more dangerous. This round, my hands and legs used their real strength, the strength of dark magic. It punched the man in his face, making him tumble down on the ground. It kicked him and made him roll himself on the grassy ground, but he was not out of consciousness. This man is so hard that even though he can receive thousands of punches and kicks, he cannot be affected. Though my hands had made him tumble and drop down on the ground many times, he still had the strength to stand up and fight against me. He was so powerful that he made me bounce and fall on the grassy lawn with a single kick to the neck. I felt some pain on my neck, but not too painful.
Maybe this man is now out of patience, and he does not want to play boxing with me anymore because my body seemed to hurt him. He was also angry because he had wasted his time. As I estimated, he was five times heavier than I was and five times stronger than me. I had been underestimating this man. I don’t think that he is so strong that I am just a small stone to him. But even though I was just a small stone in his eyes, just like the stone, he could not kill me easily because I was so hard that however he threw me against the wall, I would rise and fight still.
The man’s face became very dark. His eyes seemed like a lashing stormy sea because of his outrage. He was just looking at me with an angry manner. He never left here; he just sat down on the black bench below the lamppost.
My body stopped for a while and seemed to be thinking of a way to defeat this man. As seconds elapsed, I felt something that was creeping everywhere but in my veins. Until an incredible thing showed up. My eyes turned big, as it has own brain too when it saw that my muscles were slowly changing their size into a bigger one. My shirt had been torn because of the muscles in my arms that wanted to get rid of the congested feeling. The muscles on my body also became bigger. They are the steel-hard muscles that I wanted to have, and now I have them in just a few seconds. Before, I could only see it in cartoons (Toriko), but now I see it by myself.
There is also something bad happening now. One of them is that I cannot feel even a little bit of pain anymore. The word “uninteresting” seemed uninteresting because it might favor me if I cannot feel pain. I mistook it for something more important, for it has a great effect on me if I can feel pain. I’d rather hurt than feel nothing at all, because it only means one thing if I cannot feel pain, that the curse is now controlling even my feelings and sense of touch. It seemed that the curse had totally controlled my whole body and that is the bad effect. It was so scary. I do not know what would happen to me if the curse entered my brain. For sure, my whole life will be destroyed because of it.
The man was also appalled when he saw me that my appearance was changing into a strong man. Who would not be surprised if your body or muscles suddenly loomed bigger? I am now bigger, stronger and weighty than him. He will no longer be able to carry me; instead, my body will be the one to carry and throw him.
After a few seconds, the man tried to elude from me. Maybe he was scared that I might break his bones. He had not escaped from my hands that held his legs very firmly that might leave a hand-like mark. My hands slung him across the air and threw him towards the hard corners of the house. Maybe I was still lucky that nobody saw what I was doing to the man. I also noticed that there was not even a little noise that came from the house. Maybe there was nobody inside.
I was still lucky that I could still hear and that the curse had not yet controlled my sense of hearing. It would be very uncomfortable if even my ear were affected by the curse, because it was very important to me.
The man had been crying because of pain that he got from my hands. It carried him again and threw him on the hard ground. His gurgles became louder; it showed that he was really feeling pain. Though it was very noisy here, still nobody was coming, and it was preferred for me, because if nobody could see me, I would be safer.
After many times that my hand threw the man on the hard floors of the house, there was no way to say that he could not die, and he was dead. Maybe the bones on his body had been detached. Though he looked so pitiable, there is nothing I can do about it, but to hope that he may forgive me. It was just my body that was a serial killer, and it never came to my mind to kill someone without any reason.
My feet went towards the porch and I continued walking towards the door of this black-painted house. I don’t know what kind of people are living here, because I noticed that everything around is painted black. My right hand knocked on the door many times, but there was nobody there to open it. There is no one inside this house, or if there is, they are probably already asleep because the moon is close to the center of the sky. Everyone that was inside their houses seemed to be asleep now, because all of the houses were dark and there was not even a lamp or a lamppost that was lit. I can only hear the chattering of the crickets, crickets that cannot be predicted where they are. The traffic on the street was also lightened, and the light from the cars had disappeared and changed into a wide, dark highway.
The dead body of a man was lying there on the lawn. He got many bruises from me. I am always reminding myself that everything that happened and would happen was not my mistake, but of my body, and that’s what gives me hope.