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brunei.fm – This series continues its journey to depict the tales of two other individuals who claim to have encountered supernatural entities at different locations in the Sultanate. Similar sightings can be traced back to the legends of ancient, centuries ago, but its right existence will forever remain a mystery.

THE WHITE SANDS

Most Bruneians nationwide are familiar with this urban legend. Countless tales of horror have been whispered in the air and some, experienced first-hand, the terrifying occurrences in this place. Peter, a local businessman, was more than pleased to share his tale and it revolved around ‘the white sands’ leading up to . Road users often pass by-this area when heading off to the Belait District or neighbouring Malaysia.

Peter claims that his close encounter happened on the eve of New Year as he traveled home to be with his family in Seria. Festive songs played on the radio as he sang along to the medleys, grateful that he will finally spend New Year with his loved ones for the first time in five years. Not long after he reached the area, did a disturbing sight catch his attention. Glancing at the counter clock, it was a small after I am. “Why is she walking alone at this hour?” Peter questioned himself. He stopped the car by the roadside and approached the seemingly oblivious woman who continued walking even after Peter called out to her. Concerned that the woman might need help or a ride, he attempted to speak to the woman. “Excuse me miss, do you need help?” Peter questioned. She stopped walking and turned slowly towards him. Her long black locks covered her pale face as she gestured towards a junction and pointed to a deserted rest house nearby. Seeing as though something was amiss, Peter stepped back and questioned, “Are you alright? Are you heading that way?” The woman simply nodded.

“Please let me give you a ride,” he said and opened the front passenger door for her. As he turned to face the woman, she suddenly disappeared and was nowhere in sight. Shivers ran down his spine as he stared at the pitch-black darkness, the silence becoming somewhat deafening. Instead of panicking, he drove off and continued his journey without ever looking back. “It frightened me out of my wits,” Peter said before concluding his tale.

THE FISHERMAN’S FRIEND

A common pastime amongst people of all ages — this well-known sport has provided an brilliant opportunity for families and friends to bond and spend quality time together. Such was the intention of a young student who invited his friends for a ‘boys night out’ fishing along one of the well-known rivers in the district.
In this tale, Khairul re-calls the horrifying events, which occurred on that fateful night. As they set out on their journey at quarter past midnight, the group of three were feeling absolutely jubilant, having just completed their public examinations. The humid clouds, which swelled above them, did not look promising and projected an impending thunderstorm. That of course, failed to hinder the group’s journey. After setting up their fishing rods, they chose to hunt for their quarry near the jetty and waited patiently for the ‘rewards’.

“It was a dark, eerie night and although my instincts told me something wasn’t right, I didn’t want to be a party-pooper,” Khairul said.

An hour or so passed when something tugged heavily at the fishing reel. “Guys, I reckon we caught something huge!”

Samad shouted excitedly but as he attempted to pull in his catch, he found – nothing. “Maybe you didn’t place the bait properly,” Shahrol suggested. Confused and bewildered by the weird episode, Samad took out a tackle box to replace his reel and used live prawns instead of worms. “Hope this will work better,” Samad said and cast his bait into the river. Out of nowhere, a gust of cold wind blew gently in his direction. He turned his stare towards Khairul, who was sitting quietly by the riverbank. “Hey Khai, you alright?” but received no response. “What’s incorrect with this fellow?” Samad questioned himself and chose to approach his seemingly silent friend. While he was talking to Khairul, two men emerged from the parking lot. At first, Samad thought they were anglers looking to delight in a fishing expedition but as he looked closely, he noticed that the two men were none other than his buddies. “If Khairul is there, who in the world is beside me?” Samad thought and without thinking, he ran towards his friends without looking back.

Samad struggled to contain himself and was practically hysterical. He told them about his ordeal and instead of comforting him, they laughed. “There’s no one here besides us. I reckon you watch too many horror films, my friend,” Khairul said. Furious and agitated, Samad marched into the parking lot and chose to wait for his ‘ignorant’ friends in the car. The two continued fishing and was not at all bothered by the incident. As they laughed away to the jokes and tales of their youths, they were distracted by what seemed to be a thousand flickering sounds. To their amazement, a shoal of fish splashed furiously against the water as if it were sending a signal. At that instant, something tugged at their fishing reel but instead of catching a huge fish as they had anticipated, an amputated head hung on their hook, covered in dark, murky slime. Shahrol instantly tossed the rod into the river and watched as the head floated towards the jetty.

The two stood frozen in their tracks as they caught sight of a ’supernatural’ being dressed in black sitting by the jetty without a head. It then leaped into the water and crawled to shore before vanishing into the woods. Without hesitating, the two ran towards their car leaving all the equipment behind. Samad was sleeping contently in the back seat as they drove off. The return home turned out to be a bizarre odyssey as they started hearing disembodied voices coming from the back. As the two boys turned around, they saw the paranormal entity clinging onto the back of the vehicle. Shahrol turned on the radio and recited prayers to ward off the spirit. None of the three coveted to sleep alone that night.

“This episode has triggered months of restless nights for us and sometimes, we sense a weird presence especially when either three of us are alone. We have certainly learned a lot from this and will probably go fishing only in the afternoons,” Khairul said before concluding the group’s terrifying tale.

NOTE: This is the second part of a series of ghostly tales from the Nation of Brunei…Lon

Brunei: Legends of Horror

Shadowed Figures

by Victoria Rife

Since I was about four years ancient I saw shadows at night that terrified me. This was highly unusual because I was relatively fearless when it came to most aspects of life. At the time I reckon my parents just believed it was the workings of an overactive imagination but I knew what I saw was real. I would often sleep on the floor of my brother’s room, at the foot of his bed, or at the end of our hallway just so I wouldn’t have to be stuck in my room alone with whatever was harassing me.

The shadows were always pitch black and opaque while normal shadows are transparent and light penetrates them. That’s very obvious information but I feel the need to point it out because a lot of people tend to come up with the same reasoning for the shadows I saw – “maybe it was a passing car that cast light into the room?” “Was it a moving tree outside of your bedroom window?” If a passing car or a moving tree can cast impenetrable black shadows in the shape of a figure then that’s one hell of a car or tree!

The shadows always felt mean or mad to me – for some reason I felt like they were not there to be gentle and friendly, they were there to harm me. Although, as a child, they never ever touched me. I would simply wake up at night and see one of them standing at the foot of my bed or standing across from my room and I felt more frightened than I have ever felt in my life. Ever.

Gradually the occurrences stopped and I was able to sleep okay again.

It wasn’t until years later did I see one again and it terrified me more than any of my other experiences. I was trying to fall asleep as my husband (my fiancé at that time) lay sound asleep next to me. It was standing about four feet away from our bed until it slowly came over and leaned over my husband. It had no distinctive features – no face, no hands, no feet, no clothing, no hair, nothing. It was simply a black shadowed figure with impenetrable darkness. I started screaming to wake up my husband to turn on the light and the shadow disappeared. I clarified what happened to him but I don’t reckon he believed me. My husband had never seen or experienced anything he could not clarify and although the paranormal interests him, he had never felt, seen, or heard anything unexplainable. He tried to silent me down and we slowly fell back to sleep. I felt safe – I had always felt safe sleeping in the same room as others.

But later on in the night I awoke on my stomach unable to breathe.

Someone or something was holding me down, pushing me down onto the bed with all of their might. I was gasping for breath and managed to yell out to my husband who turned on the light once again. At this point I was simply sobbing. We went our bed against the wall so nothing could approach me and I demanded that the light be left on for the rest of the night.

A few months later I was switching through the channels on the tv when I happened to stop on a paranormal investigation show. I have no thought which one it was but my ears perked up when they talked about “shadow people”. Sure enough, they played a video of a ‘shadow person’ appearing out of nowhere and it was exactly the same thing I’ve been seeing for years.