Short Story | Part 3: The Night of An End

"Why isn't Aiden joining?" Lan asks, pointing his question to the two girls sitting opposite him at the dinner table. They didn't answer right away as their eyes directed to glasses and plates that have been emptied since 2 hours ago. Smokes from cigarettes and flavoured 'shisha' permeates the atmosphere at the mamak restaurant. It was getting late that night but around them, there are several circle of people still chit-chatting, laughing and all other forms of life who are enjoying their food or simply being there to get some 'fresh' air.

"She's probably doing her revision." One of the girl replies while shoving some peanuts into her mouth. She chews the contents in her mouth and before she even swallow it, she shove another round of peanuts into her mouth, and chews again.

"Eat slowly, Lina. You're such a fat-ass." The other guy called Riza mocks the girl while throwing a peanut on her face. Lina shrugs, annoyed.

"I'm not feeling well, guys. Let's head back to our hostel now, shall we?" The other girl suddenly voices out, not amused with her friends' jokes. She straight away leaves the table and walks to the cashier to pay for the bill.

"Wait up, Mel!" Lan shouts as the three of them followed along to the cashier to pay for their bills.

Back at the hostel, Lina and Mel tip-toes into the room, not wanting to wake up other housemates in the apartment. They pass by the kitchen and notice a splatter of liquid on the floor. It was really dark as the light has already been turned off so they could not see clearly but the smell was familiar and it was strong. For a while, they look at each other for awhile and try to fathom what is actually happening. As if they are telepathing their thoughts, both their eyes go completely wide as they started panicking. Lina quickly switches on the light beside her and in front of them, they are seeing a a small splatter of blood on the floor and a few footprints of it leading to a room.

"Aiden!!!" Both of them shriek hysterically.

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The moon was bright and the gushing of night breeze rushed on his face, giving him chill and tranquil. With his closed eyes, he inhales deeply and exhales slowly while tugging himself tighter in his white coat. The view of the entire city from the rooftop is vivid and picturesque. While enjoying the view and the breeze, he was sitting on an old sofa that he dragged from the hospital store to the rooftop in which he was surprised that no one caught him doing such business. From that moment, he becomes more assured that no one is going to come and trespass his serenity spot, his favourite place and his little escapade- the hospital rooftop.

'Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On a-Jupiter and Mars'

His favourite song, 'Fly Me to The Moon' by Frank Sinatra starts playing from his Iphone's speaker, filling the night ambience with the classical song. He has another 15 minutes before his night shift making rounds at the patients' wards. He closes his eyes for a moment and tried to doze off for a couple of minutes but before he managed to do it, he feels uneasy. The instinct of being watched suddenly creeping up his back.

He quickly opens his eyes and realize that there is a lady standing at the other side of the rooftop, behind a dark shadow as she fidgets with her shaking fingers, hesitating.

It has been 6 months since he was posted to this hospital and ever since, he never caught someone else on the rooftop with him. At that moment of time, all the stories of unhappy souls who passed away in the hospital, gallivanting around the hospital and haunting people, as told by his senior doctors fill his mind. He never believes it but as the lady behind the shadow starts taking her steps towards him, his eyeballs are at the midst of getting out of their sockets.

He starts shaking.