My best friend and I used to walk around our neighbourhood in Yishun during the wee hours of the morning. while walking, we would talk abt our respective problems etc. It was around 12.30am when we were walking past the Mosque alongside Ave 2. I casually brushed and felt the perimeter concrete wall of the Mosque as we walked past. I am not sure why but i made a stupid comment by saying aloud, ” Mosque insude got grow Banana Tree one ah?”. It was something that would prove to be very stupid on hindsight.

If you stay in Yishun, you would know that if you walk along Ave 2 and pass the Mosque, you will end up at the foot of a little hill. The path was really dark cos the trees at the foot of the hill was really big and completely blocked out the street lighting from the path. It was this time when i suddenly felt very cold and the hair behind my neck started to tingle. I tried to observe my friend for any awkwardness to see whether it was simply my sensitivity. Indeed, my friend was now looking wary and his eyes were now darting here and there. It was not a good sign especially when i knew that my friend have a very high affinity for the supernatural kind.

We heard some croaking noise emanating below us out of a sudden. It sounded like it came from the drain below the pedestrian path but somehow the noise was too deep and hollow to be a toad. And it sounded like it came from an enormous toad. We decided to walk faster now and to our horror, we realised that the croaking noise did not stop and sound faint which means it was travelling along with us except that it was beneath us.

It was too much. We broke into a run and made for the garden pavillion in front of the Yishun Library. Naively, we thought that we should be safe cos there weren’t any drains underneath the garden. We should have called it a day and went home but we didn’t. We were soon absorbed in our conversation again. The night was so quiet and serene that you would have heard a pin drop.

And we heard the faint ring of a bell. It seems to be coming from a bicycle. The ring was deliberately soft and slow not the impatient and shrill one you will get from a cyclist trying to overtake you. This one sounded like he was trying to beckon us. We ignored the ring and then it came again. The ring of the bell was really strange. The ring seems to linger in the air for a while as if there was resonance. And there was nobody as far as we tried to scan the surroundings. Nevertheless, our fears confronted us again and this time we decided to head for home.

And at the traffic junction in front of the library, we saw it/him. He seemed like a normal frail elderly malay man riding a bike. He smiled and creased lines showed up on his face. Then we noticed that neither he nor his bike had shadows. He cycled past us on the road while we were waiting to cross and rang his bell again, creating that hynoptic jingle.

We ran like hell this time. I dreamt of my deceased paternal grandfather that night. He scolded me in hokkien saying that i had spoke stupid things. Also my act of brushing against the perimeter wall had resulted in an”rubbing the oil lamp” effect. The toad and the old man were manifestations of the Mosque guardians spirit and i had stupidly drew it out.