The Horror Story
Same (Part 1)

I saw him up ahead, right in front of my gate. Alone, no one wants to be friends with him just because of something I don't really understand.

I looked at him more closely, I approached the gate until both hands managed to reach him, it was seen he was playing a doll alone with a gloomy and dark face. It was as if there was no other color he knew other than sadness.

“Hai,” my broom, trying to provoke his attention. “Hey, what's your name?”

For a moment he stopped with his only activity. Playing a doll is like dancing, or jumping, perhaps? Ah, I don't really understand girls' games.

Slowly, he turned his head with both of his big eyes, but also described the emptiness of his soul. He didn't even smile at me.

“H-hey, may I know what your name is?” I asked again with my best smile. However, just as when she turned her head, she did not smile back at me.

“I Mei.” answered in a small voice until it was barely audible.

“Can I play with you? I have a lot of toys here, we can play together and more exciting.” Without hesitation I invited her to move to my side, but a second later she refused by shaking her head slowly, then looking back at her doll.

Disappointment soon filled my chest, a little sore and also stifling, without me noticing the emptiness of Mei flowing a little to me, until I understood why her attitude was cold like that.

Tomorrow when I go to school. I saw Mei again on the terrace of her house, with a similar view yesterday, which is playing a shabby doll that is not clear shape. I approached the gate to greet him.

“Hai, May. Aren't you in school today?”

Mei turned a glance, then looked back at the doll and shook her head slowly, a similar answer as when I invited her to play. I had no choice but to walk away from the gate to get in the car that would take me to school.

Along the way, also in school, my mind could not be separated from the figure of Mei who was so mysterious. I haven't seen her since my family's first move, nor do I remember Mei's house to my left. However, the conversation about Mei's family had spread around the area where I lived like a virus when mom first went to the vegetable stall.

He said the house was once inhabited by a simple family, with only a husband, wife and one daughter. One night the house becomes the target of a robbery, the whole family is killed. There are also rumors that the parents of the child went to work, then there was an accident and killed both, since then the child is no longer seen due to depression loss of parents.

If that's the case, then who's Mei? Is he just a homeless kid hitching a ride in an empty house?

I remember the look of Mei. She was small, sweet, but also shabby like she rarely showered. The puppet he was holding was like a puppet picked up in a trash can. Maybe I'll buy her a nice new doll.

The school bell rang without me noticing, I eagerly put all the school equipment into my backpack and rushed outside the classroom. I remember there was a doll and accessories store next to my school. Yeah, a strategic location for the sale to last, I'll pay a visit there before dad comes to pick me up.

My own school is right on the side of the highway, so I have to be careful in stepping because there are only riders who do not know themselves, recklessly like the ruler of the road. As soon as my foot came out the gate to the doll shop, not so far away was the sound of a long horn and also a collision, which then became a hard asphalt friction to deafen my ears. A scene out front shows a tragic accident, a motorcyclist crushed a truck tire to formless.

The characteristic fishy smell of blood was rippling, even with the screams of women and children who were around the incident. I was a little bit stuck in place. It glared at the blood that seeped into the asphalt road, pooling like rainwater.

Slowly my two feet stepped there, towards the biker. His head was right under the tyre, crumpled to the point where his eyes and brain were supposed to be, the blood was right under my feet and I breathed in even deeper. The intoxicating feeling was real as if I was breathing meth, even I crouched down to grab it a bit, then licked the blood that was on my finger.

“Hey, young children cannot be here!” A man pulled my shoulders, and dragged me to the sidewalk, before the other fathers came to the site.

I'm back stunned. Whatwasthat? Why am I sitting there and sipping my bloodied finger?

“Arlan!” A moment later, my father's face was in front of me. His voice was so worried and scared. “You're okay, right? No one got hurt?”

“Eng-nook, Yah.” I'm still a little dazed, but also relieved that there's a father here.

“Let's go home, don't get close to the accident area.”

“But Well, I want to buy a doll first.”

“Buy doll? For whom?”

“Uumm, for May, Well.”

“Ya already, let's buy a doll first.”

Quickly me and my father crossed the street and entered the store, I quickly chose a large pink Teddy Bear doll. After I finished shopping and went home, I immediately changed my clothes and visited Mei's house while carrying a doll in my hand.

Once there, Mei's house seemed deserted, making me hesitate to call Mei a little.

“Mei~ let's play~” said I screamed a little. Up to three times I called, finally the figure I was waiting for came from behind the door.

“Hei May.” I greeted and immediately showed the Teddy Bear doll in my hand. “I bought you this doll, how? Do you like it?”

Instantly Mei's gloomy face instantly brightened, she walked out of her house with a sigh. Without speaking he grabbed the doll I thrust out, and immediately hugged it.

“Thank you,” said May in a soft voice as usual. Or is it true that he always said so softly? I don't know.

I think it was then that I could start familiarizing myself with Mei, looking once she was so fond of my gift doll.

“How about sometime play together?” I asked a little carefully, hoping that my invitation would be accepted this time. Mei herself smiled, then nodded her spirit.

“Arlan!!”

“Eh,” I murmured in surprise at mother's voice. I looked around for a moment and saw the mother who was standing on the porch, turning around her waist and looking at me. I looked back at Mei then said, “I go home first. Tomorrow we play.”

As usual Mei just nodded, I myself already ran back home to fulfill mother's call. When it was near, I found him staring at Mei's house, his gaze implying a great sense of wonder and curiosity. However, there is also another taste, namely dislike.

“Bu?” my question and he's a little surprised by the consequences.

“Heh, who are you playing with anyway?” my mother answered my question with a question, and then she pulled my hand into the house.

“May, Bu.”

“May? Is he a man? I just heard there's a kid named Mei here.”

“No Ma'am, she's a girl and she likes the doll I just bought.”

Mother did not reply and just muttered a little, she continued to pull my hand up to the dining room like a farmer pulling an ox that was about to plow the fields, but before it actually went in there, Mother stopped and knelt before me, aligning her eyes with mine.

The gaze of both mother's eyes was so fixed, no matter what, even from the look I could not guess at all.

“Arlan. I want you to be careful with whoever's in that house, premonition Mom says she's not the good guy she looks like.”

A taste slipped into my heart, forming a hot sensation there. Not that I don't want to listen to what mom says, but do you know what she's doing about Mei? Even for the name, he had to ask me.

Gently mother rubbed the shoots of my head, it felt a little shedding my ego just now. “Already, let's eat.”

Although the feeling of heat was still felt in the chest, but I could not let the stomach rumble, so I followed Mom's steps and had lunch together.

And from then on, every time I went home from school, mom would always come in my car, and then we would go straight into the house, with no chance for me to step out for a second.

It felt sick, no matter what was on my mind to take care of me in such a way, I was now like a bird in a cage, unable to enjoy the children's pleasures as I should be, being confused is also ignorance.

Splice_

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