:: Story by Dent Edited by Madam Ainaa ::

The world is cruel. The world is unfair. Those with wealth and power possess the globe. Then, they trample on others’ back and do whatever they want to do. This happens in my world. When I was young, my parents were killed in fire catastrophe in our apartment building. All I could bear in mind was a mysterious man saved me that night when I fainted. He trained me well with his fighting skill and raised me to be an assassin. One day, I was offered to work with a secret agency. What I could say, they paid me more. Highest bidders won. So, I served them. I left the old man to pursue new career. When I was 25, titanium was injected into my body. They took out my soul and I became a cold and merciless killer with no sense of humanity in my heart. Human with a devil soul. That was me. It was proven by all the successful tasks that I had accomplished throughout my career. 

:: Story of Khadijah Edited by Madam Ainaa ::

                “Brian, I’ll be late tonight. Take this money for your lunch and dinner.”

                That was Mum. She was always busy with her job. What kind of job? I never knew. Fortunately Dad was different. He cared about us, me and Johnny, my younger brother. He was such a lovely man. Unluckily, fate was not by my side as Dad died of lung cancer three years ago and the loss really hit me awfully. Luckily, we had Grandpa. Grandpa was the only man that we could depend on. Pity us! Once again, we lost somebody we loved. Grandpa left us because of heart attack and Mum had become the famous heiress of Grandpa’s wealth. I guessed God had planned everything so well as Mum tied the knot with Edward, a not-so-popular actor 3 months after Grandpa’s death. My buddies would think I was lucky because I got everything from Mum but that was meaningless as I was actually craving for love. Love of a mother.

                That midnight, the bright flashes of lightning lit up the dark sky and this was immediately followed by deafening blasts of thunder. As usual, Johnny and I stayed up late to watch a new released movie that we had been waiting for, The Avengers. Mum was upstairs resting and Edward was nowhere to be seen. Out of the blue, while I was glancing at the window wondering about my future, I noticed a shadow when the lightning flashed outside. I was stunned for a while and I hugged my strawberry-like pillow tightly. I did not tell Johnny about it. Perhaps, it was just my illusion. I continued watching the movie and I stuffed a lot of popcorn in my mouth to calm down my nervousness.

                “Prang.” I was shaken by the sound from the kitchen. Johnny looked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders. Johnny held my right hand firmly and urged me to go to the kitchen. I got up dragging my feet to the kitchen carefully. Johnny was right behind me following me closely. We hid behind the wall and observed the kitchen carefully. All I could see was just my lovely Vietnamese vase gifted by Dad broken into pieces. I continued studying the kitchen and I was relieved as no stranger was seen to be there. I entered the kitchen cautiously and slowly, I picked up the pieces of vase scattered on the floor. Johnny got a broom behind the kitchen door and swept the remaining bits of the vase.

                After we had cleaned everything, we went out from the kitchen and headed to the living room to continue watching the movie. My focus was not to the movie. I was marvelling the strange thing happened in the kitchen. How could the vase fall on the floor? Was it the wind? It was ridiculous as the vase was quite heavy. Out of sudden, I could hear Mum’s voice shrieking in fear. Johnny and I dashed upstairs to the master bedroom. We turned the knob but to no avail as the burgundy teak door was locked from inside. We kicked and pushed the door with all our might but still the door did not move a bit.

                “The spare key!” I sprinted to the store to get the key. When I returned to Mum’s room, Johnny was still trying hard to open the door. I placed the key inside the keyhole and voila! The door could be unlocked. I yelled for Mum but I could not see her in the room. I searched for her at every inch of the room and finally, I found her. I found her lifeless body next to the safety box. She was stabbed to death. I could not describe my feeling that time. Should I lament her death? Should I call the ambulance? I was in dilemma. Shockingly, the safety box’s door was wide open and it was totally empty. The documents, Mum’s jewellery and cash were nowhere to be seen.

                “Brian!” Johnny’s scream made me turn to him out of sudden. He was standing at the balcony, stupefied. I approached him and I was extremely shocked when I saw Edward was lying motionlessly on the grass with blood splattered from his mouth. All I could see next to him were the documents, Mum’s jewellery and money. I did not know whether to cry or smile as Edward had received his punishment for stealing our property.

                After the tragedy, Johnny and I were the richest brothers in Arizona as we inherited Mum’s wealth. Mum was safely cremated and I did not know what happened to Edward after the police brought him to the hospital. For us, every cloud has a silver lining.

Khadijah, 505

:: Story by Zafry Edited by Madam Ainaa ::

It was a long drive through the rain but we finally arrived at the house a little past midnight. It was a full moon and the clouds started to thin out, I had never seen the house before until now, it was so strange to me, it looked like it had a face and its two huge windows for the eyes staring back at me. It chilled me out.I had gotten the feeling that it didn’t want me to be there either. Mum was oblivious to the situation,

:: Story by Noraina Nordin Edited by Madam Ainaa ::

   “Wake up my dear, you’re going to be late!” mum’s voice was extraordinarily loud that morning.

   “Hmm…it’s still early mum!” I responded lazily and pulled my red blanket covering my head.