Return From Death

Return From Death

Story, Horror, Death, Car Accident

My encounter with the supernatural occurred about thirty years ago. I was then a 19 year old Engineering trainee working on a construction site on the outskirts of Johor Bahru. Although this particular area is very developed now, in those days, it was quite isolated and surrounded by thick undergrowth.

On that particular day, we had to stay late, as we had to complete the casting of the ground beams for some shop houses. By the time the concreting was done it was pass 11.00pm.

The supervisor in-charge of the project was a guy called Chong. Chong was in his forties then, and is typical of a construction man. Tough and permanently tanned as a result of over twenty years in the construction line who has seen and experience everything.

Every day after work, Chong will give me a lift on the old company pick-up truck to Johor Bahru. I would then catch a bus to my house. On then particular night, Chong said that he’ll take a seldom used shortcut which passes through a virtually isolated palm oil estate in a bid to get home earlier. Even after all these years, I can still vividly remember that narrow and winding partly tarred road. On both sides of this narrow trek there were thick undergrowth. As there were no street lamps it was pitch dark except for the light from the head lamps of the pickup truck.

Hungry and tired, I was jolted from my state of misery, when Chong suddenly stamped on the brakes bringing the pickup to a screeching halt. I quickly looked up and just to glimpse an image of a woman at the side of the road as the pickup pass by her. Chong then reversed the pickup until the woman was in front of us.

With the lights from the vehicle, we could see a young woman, covered with blood and struggling to stay upright. The next thing I remember was Chong rushing out of the pickup and him shouting “Accident, let’s go…”.

Trying desperately to digest the unexpected events, I eventually managed to get out and walked towards Chong and the woman. When I got there, Chong was kneeling down partly supporting the women who was lying on the road. The light from the head lamps confirmed my earlier impression of a young woman. Her white blouse was covered with blood and also had a deep gash on her forehead.

She was trying to get up, while Chong was coaxing her to lie down. She feebly pointed to the side of the road towards the undergrowth and I barely heard her words “help….my husband”. Even in my confused state of mind, I had somehow without thinking brought a torchlight with me when I got off the truck.

The next thing I remembered was Chong pointing the torch at the direction indicated by the woman. True enough, we could just barely make out the back portion of a red car. I realized then that the car must have ran off the road and into the undergrowth and eventually crashing into a tree.

After struggling with the car door, Chong managed to pull the young man from the mangled car. The unconscious young seems badly hurt with blood everywhere. I wasn’t sure whether he was alive.

While I was struggling to comprehend the unfolding events, Chong managed to carry and place the man onto the back of the pickup truck. He then assisted the woman onto the back of the truck. My trance like observation was broken when Chong shouted at me to get a blanket from the pickup.

Chong started the vehicle, when I handed the blanket to the woman. She was sitting with her back leaning on the panel which separates the front portion of the pickup from the back. The man’s head was resting on her lap and as I draped the blanket over the man’s body, she looked straight into my eyes. I still remember to today her look, a look of sheer desperation and concern for her husband. I stupidly muttered something like, “Its O.K.” before rushing back to my seat.

I hardly recall the journey back, with a million swirling images around inside my head. However, I do recall Chong shouting at the nurse to come and help at the Emergency Entrance of the hospital. Everything seemed like a dream like state and I could see Chong furiously beckoning to me to go to the back of the pickup truck.

When I got there, the unconscious man was lying there with the blanket draped over him but…..then it struck me, the woman was gone!!

The first thing I felt was a terrible sense of guilt. She must have fell off, I should have constantly looked through the glass window on the trip back to make sure they were alright. Instead I was caught up with my fear and now she has fallen off!

Through all the confusion and guilt, I managed together with Chong and explained to the police. The policemen then suggested that we followed them in their car along the very same route we took earlier.

Ridden with guilt, I desperately prayed during the journey back, that we will find the woman and that she is fine. To my utter dismay, we reached the scene of the accident without any sign of the woman on the journey there.

I was sitting on the side of the road feeling miserable as the heavy flashlights swept over the ground casting eerie shadows and a late night wind seem to make the bush to sway and dance as if to a rhythm of some demonic beat. A strange perfume smell of flowers permeated in the air and I shudder involuntarily.

“There it is”, a scream pierced the silence of the night. My heart leapt into my throat as I caught sight of the badly mangled car wedged in and almost entirely hidden by the heavy under growth.

Chong showed the policemen the wrecked car and I noticed the front car door that we pried opened earlier. I recall Chong bending slightly down and looking into the car with the policemen around him.

Even in my surreal and dream-like state, I saw Chong suddenly stumbled back so fast that he lost his balance and landed heavily on his back. He then turned swiftly, got on his knees, and tried to get up but his knees seemed to buckle and he fell face first into the hard packed earth. Instead of trying to get up again, he curled his body in a fetal position, his whole body trembling. This is totally unlike the Chong I know and had worked together for over a year, a tough and ever calm man that never gets flustered.

Reeling at the surreal and unexpected scene, I was drawn towards the car, like a moth is drawn to a light. Driven partly by a sense of curiosity, I was wondering what could he have seen to make him react the way he did.

When I looked in through the opened car door I saw the young woman! Yanked out of my dream-like state and thrown into total confusion, the inner voice in my head yelled “How can it be!!!” It was unmistakably the same young woman we helped that night. Her head was resting on the dash board and her head was facing looking outwards towards the open door. Her eyes were opened, that same desperate looked I saw earlier than night!

My heart hammered in my throat ……I must have passed out. I woke up the next day in the hospital. It took a couple of months before I could recall what happened that night.

As time pass, when I think back over the events that took place that particular day, it begins to make sense. A young woman, so much in love with her husband, that even in death, came back to save her husband.