The Gloaming - Part 2

... Continuation

The Gloaming - II

First thing we heard was this strange howling. We thought it was the wind or maybe the coming rain but I realized the unearthliness of the sound. It was nothing made by nature. After much begging I urged my sister to accompany me to the beach. At first I noticed nothing except the growing foul stench in the air and slowly as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw ‘them’. A group of people, by the hundreds it seemed, were making their way along the beach from the north side. As they got nearer it chilled me to the bone to know that they weren’t at all human.

There were beings; dark, mysterious beings. Some short, some tall, some crawling, some seemingly not touching the ground. And they were coming at us from the far off side of the beach. They were the ones making the hideous noise. The stench was coming from them.

We screamed and ran into our village, screaming that ‘they’ were coming. My sister wanted to go home but I knew we won’t be safe from ‘them’ as long as we stayed on this island. Hearing our voices people came out of their house with puzzled expressions on their faces. Some pointed and some called out to us what’s going on. But we didn’t stop. We didn’t dare stop.

A scream suddenly filled the air. Not ours. Someone had seen them. Without thinking I turned around. They were indeed inside the village. I grabbed my sister’s hand and dragged her behind a tree. And from there we stood watching the horror unfold.

The people who had come out to investigate stood there staring at them. And ‘they’ stood staring at the people. But this was only for what seemed a minute, maybe less. They stood within the shadows and almost blended within the blackness of the night but everyone knew they were there. It was almost as if they were giving off this pulsating vibe. Like a rotten heart pumping dirty blood through the nerves.

Suddenly they moved. It was the smaller, the crawling ones that struck first. They had ugly sneering faces with mouths full of sharp teeth. And these creatures ran towards the people closest to them. They tried to run but it was a useless attempt as the crawling creatures were on them within seconds. The whole island erupted in screams. People ran in all directions. And it was the screams that ignited an action from the other beings. The taller ones who didn’t seem to touch the ground flew off towards the sounds. Like shadows that sprung up when the candle was diminished. These beings were fast as they flew but they were also blind and only knew where their victims were from the sound of their screams. It seemed the whole thing was orchestrated. First the smaller beings entered the village followed by the taller, flying ones. Their stage was our island. Their music was our screams. Their act was bloodshed.

Seeing this I slid my hand across my sister’s mouth and beckoned her to follow me silently. We slowly slid out of our hiding place and quietly made our way towards the woods trembling with fear from head to toe. And as soon as we saw the trees we ran for our lives.

We ran and ran. We ran blindly through the forest until the trees gave away to a beach. I was confused at first and didn’t know where we were. Then I saw the little island beyond us, across the sea. My sister screamed that they are coming and sure enough the howling was getting nearer and the stench was getting stronger.

I didn’t know what lay beneath the ocean. Maybe they will grab at our ankles if we were to wade into the sea. Maybe they will drown us. But I didn’t want to muse on this for too long. I grabbed my sister’s hand and made for the water. She let out a strangled scream, panicked and tried to hold back.

I told her in a feverish whisper we should head for the small island and we could walk through the low tide. I promised her we would be safe even if I had no way of knowing that because for all I knew we could very well drown. But I did know we wouldn’t survive on this island. Not tonight.

...Continued

The Gloaming

With nothing better to write about these days I decided brush away the cobwebs in here by publishing one of my old stories.

The Gloaming

‘They’ came for us around dusk. No one knew ‘they’ were coming. Not my family, not my friends, not my neighbors. No one.

But still there were signs. The first of the signs came a week before. A strange flu struck our small island. People became sick. Some died. Some, through medical means, got better. The people who died were better off. They were the lucky ones, I think.

For some reason, my sister and I were safe from the disease. But our mother was one of the first to get infected. The flu took three days to kill her. It was a slow and painful death. She continuously vomited and when there was nothing left inside her she vomited blood. She constantly moaned out in pain when she was awake and sometimes hallucinated. But she wasn’t the only one.

The flu struck here and there. And some did die bleeding to death, while others curiously got better. It was the strangest thing. Neither the medicine men nor the men of ‘fanditha’ could explain it. It was a week of funerals, a week of anxiety, a week of fear, a week of unknown; a week that reeked of death.

Amongst all this my sister and I noticed the most peculiar thing. On the last day before ‘they’ came we realized that there weren’t any animals on the island. No birds, no cats, not even rats. Even if we had gone deep within the woods there weren’t any sign of them. Where had they gone? The foreboding feeling continued throughout the day. We wanted to leave, quickly. But we had no one to turn to. We were orphans and everyone else was too busy caring for their loved ones who had the mysterious plague.

Thursday morning came. It has approximately been one week since the plague claimed its first victim. Everyone went about doing what they did as any normal day. The sick had lessened somewhat. People began to think the disease has passed. But they were wrong. It was only the calm before the storm.

My sister and I were still uneasy. That morning we had already set off towards the thundi of the island. We left the village area and walked along the beach avoiding the woods that had grown quiet, dark and eerie. When we reached the end of the island, the area the locals called the thundi, we saw the tiny island near ours where we sometimes went to swim and play. With all the horror going around and my mother’s death I had forgotten about this place.

The distance between the two islands is somewhat short and if it is low tide we could easily have walked the distance through the sea. I thought again of leaving this place. Of swimming over during high tide to the tiny island that somehow seemed strangely… safe. But the thought fled as fast it crossed my mind and my sister and I walked back to our village not knowing what horrors await us at the time of dusk.

That evening when the sun set there was a reddish tinge across the sky. The reddish glow was everywhere. As if the whole island was bathed in blood. But nothing unusual happened. People were scared, yes, but still it was an hour after sunset that ‘they’ finally came. It was as if they were waiting for total darkness.

First thing we heard was this strange howling. We thought it was the wind or maybe the coming rain but I realized the unearthliness of the sound. It was nothing made by nature. After much begging I urged my sister to accompany me to the beach. At first I noticed nothing except the growing foul stench in the air and slowly as my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw ‘them’. A group of people, by the hundreds it seemed, were making their way along the beach from the north side. As they got nearer it chilled me to the bone to know that they weren’t at all human.

.......To be continued

Maldivian Next Top Model… or is it?

After Pro Models had advertised that they were looking for wannabe models for what might be Maldives’ very first reality show, “Evince Model 2009” or something like that, I had rubbed my hands in glee and thought to myself, “Ooooh this is gonna be good!”

Needless to say all my sisters and female friends all thought the same. So after waiting weeks for the show to start, DhiTV finally aired it last Wednesday night at 12:00am.

After much shoving and pushing for space on the couch we finally settled down for the show right on the dot. And what a show it was! Of coz it was no American Next Top Model. The drama seemed to be missing and the ‘ooomph’ factor from the models as well. I know, I know, height cannot be a factor in a ‘short’ society like our and I’m the last person to harp on about height. :P. But there has to be self confidence and a drive in order to be on a show like this. Otherwise it’s just flat. On your nose flat.

The girls all shuffled in front of the judges; Xee, Suzan, Kiram and another guy (which I’m much too lazy to find out about) and introduced themselves. The girls looked nervous and some looked terrified out of their minds. There were much blushing, much stammering, more blushing, giggling, shuffling to and fro, embarrassingly stiff commercial poses and some more blushing. And the judges didn’t help matters by asking some dumbfoundedly stupid questions which caught the girls off-guard and made them even more nervous than before (if that’s possible).
One of the most highlighted issues the judges posed as questions were: What if your boyfriend was against this? Would you drop out?

At first it was fine and dandy and some of the smart-ass answers from the contestants were actually funny. But later the question just became an irritation. I fail to see it as such a big issue. In fact I think it shouldn’t be an issue at all. Perhaps shouldn’t even be asked. After all it is the girls who are competing. Not the boyfriend. Now if it were a matter of parent’s permission that’s a whole different issue all together.

Although nearly all the contestants were cringe-worthy and embarrassingly shy there was one who stood out – least for me. She came all decked out in a new dress, dolled up and ready to beat out the (non-existent) competition. She looked straight into the eyes of the judges and told them she’ll win this. Plus she also had a good walk. I decided that the show was already over. Give the girl the gifts. She won. Done. Puff. Rifinito.

But then no. Where is the fun in that! The girls had to be driven through muck and mud. In this case the said muck and mud are excessive amount of peroxide, hair bleach, face packs, makeup, lots of blow-drying, hairspray, colour etc etc.

Later the girls were all shown in their before and after state after this makeover session. And ta-daa they all look like CLONES! Same hairdo, same highlighting work. Perhaps a shorter do here, a curly do there would’ve done the trick.

Overall the whole show could’ve been better with just a tad of good editing and a little bit of more drama. And better questions. Hopefully ones that’ll put the girls at ease instead of frightening the daylights out of them. But still you can count on me to catch the next episode. I won’t miss it for the world! :D

Death Making Rounds

The Continuous Series of Unfortunate Events

This is actually supposed to be my last post of 2008 but due to circumstances like laziness, I was prevented from writing this last year. So fueled by guilt and caffeine here goes nothing.

Right up until December 2008 I seemed to have had a pretty much lukewarm year of good days and bad days but never really excellent days nor really, really bad days...that is up until December 2008.

December Phenomenon
As far as I can recall December has always been a bad month for me. Call it bad luck. Jinx. Cursed. Anything.

I remember days of having terribly bad colds every December during third term tests in school and having to sit right in front of the chalk board with right along that cold. (The teacher thought we were good friends you see)

I also remember after finishing school and joining the rat race, days of disappointment in December when my annual increment is nothing more than just a mare Rf200.00 bucks or worse not being paid at all.

2008 however seemed to have packed quite a punch…
December 2008
1- My cashcard got expired mid-month without warning. This happened even after I called up a friend at the bank and he reassured me that, 'no it won't expire till the month ends'

2- When my card expired I had only Rf30/- as cash on me. That's it. Nada

3- After the card fiasco I come to work next week on Saturday and right on the dot the power goes off. I was later told that we won't have electricity till after 14:30. Apparently some people at work already knew of this and had completed all their work on Friday. You guys are probably thinking that this is good news and that I can goof off and chalk up Saturday as an off day. Wrong!! I still gotta complete my work.

3- So I go home that morning and come back in the afternoon all relaxed and ready to finish my work. That is when my PC won't start. I tried to start it again. Nothing. I begged, screamed, kicked, begged some more; to start, damn you, start. Still Nothing.

4- The IT kid tells me that hard disk may be corrupted or whatever lingo it is and he'll have to format it. He didn't make any promises of saving any of my files.

5- So being broke and having to use someone else's computer at work, I decided to become a hermit and just stay home, so as to distance myself from any further bad luck that might befall upon me.

But then not everything was so bad and although all my plans for New Year's Eve were a bust, I still managed to make the best of everything and actually have some fun with a couple of my friends. So I guess it wasn't all too bad ;)

Happy New Year Everyone!

Happiness!

Goldfrapp - Happiness
Uploaded by MuteRecords

Nostalgia, Electioneering with a splash of Iced Toddy

The very world surrounding us is a changing. For worse or for better, who knows? 8th October maybe the day the world shifts for some of us. Or it may simply just carry on the way it did for the past 30 years.

I've tried to blog about politics. Gave it a few tries, deleted, tried some more, delete, delete some more. To tell the truth I was just one (or two, three) step behind the fast changing phase of Maldivian political scenarios, so I just made do with discussing them with my friends and family.

So instead of discussing politics I have a spanking great idea of making a nostalgia list. A Nostalgia List, you say?

Nostalgia: a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends -- Dictionary.com

So with the meaning aside. The list is a compilation of anything, anyone, anywhere that reminds of me the good old days. Others are most welcome to contribute.

* Remember those eyeliners we had that comes in a small tin. You rub a piece of rock (I don't know what it exactly is) on the solid eyeliner to turn bits into dust. Then you rub your fingers on the dust and line your eyes.

* The color pencil box that comes with a picture of a robot on the front. The robot had a 'TV' as a face.

* The plastic book bag with pictures of smiling fruits we carried for tuition.

* Majeedhuge. Majeedhu. (he can still invoke fear in me)

* Pencil Cases. Ones with Buttons!!!

* Bicycles. Riding them early in the morning.

* The sound of gun attacks on that eventful November day.

* Kao Shampoo!

* Phones at home. Real phones. Not mobile ones.

* Watching TVM. Only TVM

* Listening to Boduberu on radio early every morning.

* Waking up at 8:00am is considered sleeping in.

* Sleeping at 9:00pm is considered sleeping late.

* Iced Toddy

* Haunted school toilets

* Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper

* UB40, Duran Duran, Aha, MJ, Madonna, Rob Stewart, Dire Straits, The Bangles, Bob Marley etc

* Hindi Movies

* Bad copy English Movies

* Itty bitty shorts for boys, Huge, scratchy princess style dresses for girls with alice bands.

Ok I'm gonna stop for now... If I remember more, I'll include them.


To top it off I'll just add these lines as a sign off and dedication to Maldivian Politics:

I will stop, I will stop at nothing.
Say the right things when electioneering
I trust I can rely on your vote.

When I go forwards you go backwards
and somewhere we will meet.
When I go forwards you go backwards
and somewhere we will meet.
Ha ha ha

Riot shields, voodoo economics,
it's just business, cattle prods and the I.M.F.
I trust I can rely on your vote.

"Electioneering" by Radiohead