"Wake up. It's already 5.10"
I open my eyes slowly as the light from the hall breaches my tired pupils which was derived of sleep. I see something different in the distance, something unfamiliar. A black spot with pieces of wood hanging by a few pieces of wood. Next moment, a bullet train hit me.
The memory of what happened hours ago returned. I lived through the horrifying experience again, from the screams to the part where I was tied. The horrifying screams in my head virtually broke the silence of pre-dawn. I was up awake as if I never slept.
I mustered my way out of bed. A few steps later, I saw the image again-two guys wearing black clothes and blue masks running up the staircase. That feeling of sudden heart stop hit me again. I shrugged it off and took another few steps to the bathroom.
Hot water flowed over my face. The feeling of emotionless was still there. The screams kept playing in my head. Soon, I realized that I was taking too long in the shower. After bathing I went downstairs for breakfast. Gloominess still filled the aura at home and there was constant worry.
I let my eyes pierce the little freckles of light which made it's way through some parts of the wooden front door to check for any movements. Still and sound. I put on my shoes and made my way out of the house to my father's car. A car passed by. I looked at the car till it passed by my house, out of suspicion. Thank God, nothing happened.
I sat there by the chair and saw no train was anywhere to be seen. I had to take the train that day as my father decided to stay home. As my eyes looked at the early streaks of sunlight breaching the dark sky, my thoughts flew to the incident again. The whole event just played in my head like I'd just seen it.
In the train, one of my friends sat beside me. I told him the story as detailed as I could as the event was still fresh in my head. He, who understood my feelings, decided to give me my moment of silence after I regurgitated the event for him.
I reached college in gloomy mood. I had a Further Maths test that day. Even at home, I was thinking about telling my teacher that I didn't want to take the test. My classmates recognized my drastic change in mood. They only received words of denial from me. I wasn't ready to tell them.
Somehow, I didn't have the strength to tell my teacher about the test and I just decided to take it. First half an hour, I barely completed anything, even the simple proving mathematical equations questions. Somehow, in the second half an hour, my brain started working a little. As soon as the test was over, I headed over to the music chamber to meet my friend who was having a jamming session there.
I told him the story, living through the experience again, especially the screams. I got my subway sandwich and settled to watch my friend play with his friends. After I was done, my friend and I got a pair of drumsticks and I simply beat the drums to shrug off the traumatizing feeling. I went to class 20 minutes late but without a single pinch of regret as I my head felt lighter after the jamming session. I revealed the whole story to my classmates later.
After college, I headed straight to the Canadian Pre-U building to play table tennis with my friends( The one's whose SAM final exams had ended). Another great way to feel better. Then, as my other friends joined us, I retold the story. At times, the shrieks during the robbery played in my head again, making me to stop momentarily.
I reached home. HOME isn't a suitable word to use now. Home seemed so different. Everything was all closed up. The gate and door were locked even though everyone else was at home. Waiting in front of the gate, instinct told me to look around to see if there was anything suspicious. Every step had to be followed by a moment of cautiousness.
Once inside, we were disconnected-physically-from the outside world. It had never been like this before. All this while, the cool evening breeze together with the warmth of the setting Sun would fill the hall. Now, it's all gloomy inside. Sometimes, I equate it with staying in jail, all trapped up.
Every single day, I think of what I could have done during the robbery. What would have happened if I was in a different place, what if I had fought back, what if I got out of the room I was tied in to take a look at the number plate of the car that ferried the robbers, what if I had observed the guys a little more, what if I had switched on the recorder in my phone so that I could record their voices, what if, what if...........
Sometimes, when my thoughts fly, I ask myself how come my life has changed so much from last year. It's such a drastic change that living with it everyday can be a burden by itself. Every single day, I pick up the pieces of my sorrow just to tell myself to move on. Sometimes, even that is not enough.........
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Terror On A Wednesday Night
A ride of terror, I would call it. Horrifying, heart-stopping, panic, "fight or flight" decision making, fear of death. How else would you describe it? Describe what, you may ask.
There I was in my room upstairs, just after having my bath, wiping water from my wet long hair. As soon as I was done, I reached for the door. Then, I remembered that I wanted to read an interesting article from the newspaper which I had kept on my dressing table. After reading the article, I reached for the door knob to get out. After that, everything was like a dream.
I heard a very loud scream. A scream like no other. It wasn't the scream of fright, not a scream of excitement. A scream, a scream of fear of life. I knew something had to be wrong.
So many things were running in my mind. Maybe someone broke their hands or legs, A deep cut, or maybe something like heart attack or stroke. I quickly opened my room door to run down only to be stopped in my tracks a fraction of a second later.
Two guys wearing blue face masks were running up the staircase with parang (long knife) in their hands. I screamed like I've never done before in my whole life. I knew they were robbers. Fight or flight? Instinct told me that flight was the best solution as they were holding dangerous weapons.
I rushed back into my room and slammed the door, locking it. I pushed my body against the door. A fraction of a second later, I felt a force acting on me form outside. Those guys were kicking the door so hard that by 2 kicks, the lower part of the door was already broken. I knew they were surely going to make it in. SO, I just opened the door slowly and put my hands up in the air.
One of the robbers pointed the long knife at me. I immediately handed over my hand phone to him to show him I had no intention of doing anything stupid. He ordered me to sit beside the trophy shelves. Moments later, I saw my mum walking up, followed by one of the robbers.
The robbers ordered both of us to go into the master bedroom. One of them asked me to sit in a corner. I just followed because the idea of fighting back never crossed my mind due to the fact that they had dangerous weapons. And then, they started to ask my mum to reveal the location of the money and jewelry.
My mum kept on saying that she didn't know and was saying that the jewelry was in my grandfather's house. They didn't believe and then started ransacking the room. When they found the jewelry and money, they started hurtling bad words towards my mum.
As one of the robbers took a small piggy back, my mum pleaded to them to not take it as it was my little brother's savings. The guy just asked my mum to shut up. Then, my mum was saying that the money they were taking was all hard earned money. They replied by saying that they too were working hard, working hard to rob by risking their lives.
Then, they received a call. Their friend reminded them that their 20 minutes time to rob (planned before the robbery) was over and it was time to go. They heard the sound of a car and knew it was their friend's car. They put the valuables in a bag and ordered us to walk downstairs.As I reached the playroom, I saw my dad, sister, brother and the maid sitting in a corner. My dad and the maid were tied up.
They ordered my mum and I to sit in the same place. They tied our hands using a type of tape and made their way out. No one dared to move except for the maid. She was insisting that she go out and get some information about them, like the car number plate. But then, my father stopped her because we didn't know how the situation was outside the room.
I immediately started trying to take out the tape. It wasn't a sticky tape. It was more like the plastic strip which is used to tie plastic bags in shopping, only that this one was way thicker. Luckily for me, mine wasn't tied to the point where it can't be taken out, so mine came of easily.
About 10 minutes later, my dad decided to go out of the room and make sure that no one was there in the house. As he confirmed the absence of the robbers, we made our way out of the room. I got the scissors and tried to cut of the tape form everyone's wrist. Next immediate thing we did was to call the police.While waiting for the police, my family members told me the story that I missed.
My family members were all in the kitchen. My mum was making jam tart with my sister, brother and maid. My dad was also in the kitchen, looking for snacks. The three robbers quietly made their way inside. The first thing they did was they increased the volume of the television.
My sister actually saw that guy holding the remote and thought that one of my friends were playing some stupid trick (for I don't know what reason). When she saw the parang in the guy's hand, she knew it was a robber. At that moment when the robber saw my sister looking at him, he ran towards my father. And that's when she let out a scream that I heard upstairs.
My mum who was shocked threw the egg that she was holding in her palm. It missed the robber and broke as it landed on the floor. According to my dad, the guy that was holding him was a little unstable, maybe drunk. The robber was swinging his parang in the notion of slashing my dad, maybe just to injure him so that he won't fight back. My dad who had some knowledge in martial arts managed to avoid the slashes.
He then started asking what the robbers wanted. His main fear was that those guys were hired to kill us. Then, he guy who was holding my dad asked him to sit down and told my dad that they just want money and valuables. And that's when they took my mum upstairs.
After my mum went up, one of the robbers came down again to ask my dad if there was any other jewelry. My dad, who was worried about my mum and I upstairs immediately revealed the location to them. After that, they were pretty satisfied and their planned time was up anyway.
What an experience. It was totally unexpected. It was horrifying, terrifying and scary. It just happened like that in a flash. I was still trying to grasp the reality that robbers actually came into our house. I lost all emotions. I tried to switch on the TV and watch Mr.Bean but even that didn't help. The only thing I thought of was the robbery. Traumatized, that's exactly how I'd describe myself.
The whole scene just replayed countless number of times in my head. I just could not stop looking at it in my mind. The arrival of the police barely changed anything at home. They surveyed the place and took pictures.
About 12.30, my family went to bed. I asked my brother to sleep next to me because I knew he would be scared. I tried to sleep but the broken door in front of my eyes just brought me back to the robbery. I forced myself to sleep but then ended up dreaming about robbers. After just 4 hours of sleep, I woke up fresh, because the image of the 2 guys running up the staircase hit me like a bullet train as soon as I woke up.
I felt pity for my brother the most because he is only 8. Can you imagine an eight year old kid watching his dad defending himself from a guy who was swinging long scary weapons to slash him? It's difficult and sad to realize that my very own little brother was put into such a situation.
Everyone at home is gripped with fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the unexpected, fear for life of family members. What has been done has been done. We can't do anything to change our history. I feel so angry towards them, I feel like just hitting them with all my might if I were to see them. But, I think the right thing to do as a human being is to pray so that someone, or God himself will show them the right path.....
P.S. The blogger apologizes for any spelling or grammatical errors (if there are any) because he didn't want to read the blog post again. He wrote this blog post to store his memory of the incident and to try and forget it after this. The blogger sincerely hopes that you will take this incident as an example of why we should be more careful these days. He also hopes that such things will never happen to you. Please be safe
There I was in my room upstairs, just after having my bath, wiping water from my wet long hair. As soon as I was done, I reached for the door. Then, I remembered that I wanted to read an interesting article from the newspaper which I had kept on my dressing table. After reading the article, I reached for the door knob to get out. After that, everything was like a dream.
I heard a very loud scream. A scream like no other. It wasn't the scream of fright, not a scream of excitement. A scream, a scream of fear of life. I knew something had to be wrong.
So many things were running in my mind. Maybe someone broke their hands or legs, A deep cut, or maybe something like heart attack or stroke. I quickly opened my room door to run down only to be stopped in my tracks a fraction of a second later.
Two guys wearing blue face masks were running up the staircase with parang (long knife) in their hands. I screamed like I've never done before in my whole life. I knew they were robbers. Fight or flight? Instinct told me that flight was the best solution as they were holding dangerous weapons.
I rushed back into my room and slammed the door, locking it. I pushed my body against the door. A fraction of a second later, I felt a force acting on me form outside. Those guys were kicking the door so hard that by 2 kicks, the lower part of the door was already broken. I knew they were surely going to make it in. SO, I just opened the door slowly and put my hands up in the air.
One of the robbers pointed the long knife at me. I immediately handed over my hand phone to him to show him I had no intention of doing anything stupid. He ordered me to sit beside the trophy shelves. Moments later, I saw my mum walking up, followed by one of the robbers.
The robbers ordered both of us to go into the master bedroom. One of them asked me to sit in a corner. I just followed because the idea of fighting back never crossed my mind due to the fact that they had dangerous weapons. And then, they started to ask my mum to reveal the location of the money and jewelry.
My mum kept on saying that she didn't know and was saying that the jewelry was in my grandfather's house. They didn't believe and then started ransacking the room. When they found the jewelry and money, they started hurtling bad words towards my mum.
As one of the robbers took a small piggy back, my mum pleaded to them to not take it as it was my little brother's savings. The guy just asked my mum to shut up. Then, my mum was saying that the money they were taking was all hard earned money. They replied by saying that they too were working hard, working hard to rob by risking their lives.
Then, they received a call. Their friend reminded them that their 20 minutes time to rob (planned before the robbery) was over and it was time to go. They heard the sound of a car and knew it was their friend's car. They put the valuables in a bag and ordered us to walk downstairs.As I reached the playroom, I saw my dad, sister, brother and the maid sitting in a corner. My dad and the maid were tied up.
They ordered my mum and I to sit in the same place. They tied our hands using a type of tape and made their way out. No one dared to move except for the maid. She was insisting that she go out and get some information about them, like the car number plate. But then, my father stopped her because we didn't know how the situation was outside the room.
I immediately started trying to take out the tape. It wasn't a sticky tape. It was more like the plastic strip which is used to tie plastic bags in shopping, only that this one was way thicker. Luckily for me, mine wasn't tied to the point where it can't be taken out, so mine came of easily.
About 10 minutes later, my dad decided to go out of the room and make sure that no one was there in the house. As he confirmed the absence of the robbers, we made our way out of the room. I got the scissors and tried to cut of the tape form everyone's wrist. Next immediate thing we did was to call the police.While waiting for the police, my family members told me the story that I missed.
My family members were all in the kitchen. My mum was making jam tart with my sister, brother and maid. My dad was also in the kitchen, looking for snacks. The three robbers quietly made their way inside. The first thing they did was they increased the volume of the television.
My sister actually saw that guy holding the remote and thought that one of my friends were playing some stupid trick (for I don't know what reason). When she saw the parang in the guy's hand, she knew it was a robber. At that moment when the robber saw my sister looking at him, he ran towards my father. And that's when she let out a scream that I heard upstairs.
My mum who was shocked threw the egg that she was holding in her palm. It missed the robber and broke as it landed on the floor. According to my dad, the guy that was holding him was a little unstable, maybe drunk. The robber was swinging his parang in the notion of slashing my dad, maybe just to injure him so that he won't fight back. My dad who had some knowledge in martial arts managed to avoid the slashes.
He then started asking what the robbers wanted. His main fear was that those guys were hired to kill us. Then, he guy who was holding my dad asked him to sit down and told my dad that they just want money and valuables. And that's when they took my mum upstairs.
After my mum went up, one of the robbers came down again to ask my dad if there was any other jewelry. My dad, who was worried about my mum and I upstairs immediately revealed the location to them. After that, they were pretty satisfied and their planned time was up anyway.
What an experience. It was totally unexpected. It was horrifying, terrifying and scary. It just happened like that in a flash. I was still trying to grasp the reality that robbers actually came into our house. I lost all emotions. I tried to switch on the TV and watch Mr.Bean but even that didn't help. The only thing I thought of was the robbery. Traumatized, that's exactly how I'd describe myself.
The whole scene just replayed countless number of times in my head. I just could not stop looking at it in my mind. The arrival of the police barely changed anything at home. They surveyed the place and took pictures.
About 12.30, my family went to bed. I asked my brother to sleep next to me because I knew he would be scared. I tried to sleep but the broken door in front of my eyes just brought me back to the robbery. I forced myself to sleep but then ended up dreaming about robbers. After just 4 hours of sleep, I woke up fresh, because the image of the 2 guys running up the staircase hit me like a bullet train as soon as I woke up.
I felt pity for my brother the most because he is only 8. Can you imagine an eight year old kid watching his dad defending himself from a guy who was swinging long scary weapons to slash him? It's difficult and sad to realize that my very own little brother was put into such a situation.
Everyone at home is gripped with fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the unexpected, fear for life of family members. What has been done has been done. We can't do anything to change our history. I feel so angry towards them, I feel like just hitting them with all my might if I were to see them. But, I think the right thing to do as a human being is to pray so that someone, or God himself will show them the right path.....
P.S. The blogger apologizes for any spelling or grammatical errors (if there are any) because he didn't want to read the blog post again. He wrote this blog post to store his memory of the incident and to try and forget it after this. The blogger sincerely hopes that you will take this incident as an example of why we should be more careful these days. He also hopes that such things will never happen to you. Please be safe
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