Werewolf

As a kid, I have always loved my December holidays since it will be the longest one in the school's annual calendar. This year end holiday will be a total break from school. No school, no teachers and no holiday assignments. However, something happened when I was fifteen that marred my fond memories of these holidays. It all began when we went to Thailand for a holiday tour. Seeing that I had performed well in my secondary three final examinations, my father wanted to give me a treat. It was my first trip overseas. Things were a lot cheaper in Thailand and everyone in my family shopped to our hearts content. I was no exception. Among the things that I bought was a small statue of a wolf.

I remembered that shortly after I had bought the wolf statue, I ran into a monk. An elderly man with piercing eyes and dark eyebrows, he took a look at my wolf statue, and spoke to me urgently in Thai. I looked at him puzzlement, as I did not understand a word he said. Seeing my confusion, he said in halting English, 'Boy, that wolf statue is evil. Get rid of it, or it will bring disaster upon your family!' Looking at my newly acquired possession, the wolf statue looked innocuous enough. Thinking that he must be mad, I ignored his advice. However, as I was about to walk off, he pressed something into my hand. 'Here, if you want to keep the statue, keep this amulet. It will protect you from harm.' Not wanting to offend the monk, I accepted the amulet, with every intention to throw it away later.

Happily, I went back to the hotel and gave the wolf statue to my sister. Shortly after, we all left for the airport to catch a plane home. By then, I had already forgotten about the amulet in my pant's pocket. Indeed, strange things started to happen to my family when we got back to Singapore. First, my eight year old sister started to have nightmares every night. She would dream that an old lady covered in blood was chasing her. Strangely, we would find stains of blood marking my sister's neck! Shortly after, my mother got fired by her company for no apparent reason, and my father lost a large sum of money in the stock market crash. Under a lot of stress, both my parents fought almost every night. Things would have gotten worse, if not for my mother's vigilance. Used to waking up at night to find my sister's crying, my mother woke up suddenly one night. On her way to the kitchen for some water, she decided to check in on my sister. Opening the door to my sister's room, she saw a wolf over my little sister's sleeping form. The wolf, upon noticing my mother, snared at her once. It then leaped off the bed and disappeared into the cupboard. When my mother opened the cupboard, what greeted her was the wolf statue. She claimed that the statue's eyes were staring at her. Unable to take the shock, she fainted.

The next morning, my grandmother went to the Chinese temple to seek help. She managed to engage the help of a priest there, and brought him home to see the statue. The priest took a look at the statue and told us that an old lady's spirit was trapped inside it. Imprisoned inside the statue, the old lady could not rest in peace, and thus vent her anger it on my family. The blood markings on my sister's neck happened because the wolf was feeding on my sister, the most vulnerable one in the family. Wondering why i was not affected, the priest asked me if I was wearing any amulet. It was then that I remembered the old monk and the amulet he had given to me. I did not throw it away because on second look, I thought the amulet looked quite nice and hung it in my room for decoration. 

Showing the priest the amulet, I told him about my encounter with the monk. Later, we were told that the old lady's spirit could only released in the middle of the sea. As a kind deed, the priest agreed to release the old lady's spirit for us. Before he left, he gave my grandmother a fu (talisman) to stick on the door, saying that it will keep any unclean things out. After the incident, none of my family members ever bought any statues of animals ever again to the house. Up till today, the events of that period still haunts us.