Chapter 1

“Mom, remember how you once told me about an accident that we were involved in when I was a baby? You never did finish that story.”

How and where exactly did the accident take place, Mom?” Stacy asked as she sipped hot chocolate while seated at the dining table.

Her Mom was busy at the stove, preparing lunch.

Taken aback by the sudden question, she stopped what she was doing, turning around to look at Stacy.

Stacy on the other hand noticed how her Mom had turned a little pale.

It was an accident that had happened nearly twenty-eight years ago.

Stacy had been a two-month-old baby then when together with her parents, they were on their way to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur. Her dad was driving the car.

Another couple, good friends, were also in the car with them.

Stacy’s Mom, still felt a rush of fear and anxiety overcome her every time she thought about the incident.

It was one of those horrific accidents, where everyone in the car would have perished, but by some strange turn of events, all of them survived the near-fatal accident.

Turning back to her task at hand at the stove, Stacy’s Mom began to relate what transpired that day.

“Well, Stacy, it is a miracle that we survived the accident. We were traveling back home to Singapore from your grandma’s house in KL, and in those days, the roads were not as wide and accessible as it is now.”

It was nearly a whole day’s journey to reach Singapore, depending on the speed we traveled.

We left your grandma’s house in the wee hours of the morning hoping to arrive at our place by nightfall.”

Stacy listened with rapt attention.

She had been experiencing weird flashbacks in recent months and had even succumbed to blackouts a couple of times right after that.

It was quite uncanny that the flashbacks were related to an accident that she was involved in as a baby, so Stacy wanted to know the exact circumstances that led to the accident.

Her Mom continued, “It was a winding road that we were on, about 2 hours away from Singapore. It was late in the evening and dark, especially at the corners of the roads we traveled. There weren’t any streetlights, so you can imagine.”

Stacy suddenly felt a shiver run up her spine. She recalled feeling the dark of the evening during the sudden flashbacks.

She also saw dark images in the jungle that lined the roads they were traveling on. It was an eerie feeling that overcame her.

Soon after, what followed was a monstrous headache, which would nearly paralyze her, and sometimes due to the pain, blackouts occurred.

“There was a civil war ongoing during that time. Traveling was restricted and a curfew was imposed on the citizens of Malaya and Singapore. However, it did not pose a problem to us because of your dad’s enlistment with the army. People were wary and suspicious of each other though.”

As her Mom continued, Stacy thought it so odd that she could remember certain images and events from the past, from infancy. It was like reliving those moments again and it petrified her.

These events would sometimes take her into the crevices of her deepest thoughts, a time-warp that she transcended into, and the worst of it was that it was happening at the least expected time and regularly.

With a sudden start, Stacy came out of her thoughtful reverie.