ASIM_issue_54 Read Online Free PDF

I didn’t listen to them. That was a mistake. When I woke up that night, alone in the strange earth, I knew.
    There was no sound. That was where I went wrong the night before. There is no hissing, no chittering, no warning when they come. You cannot see or smell anything. But you know they are there. It’s the same thing as when your nose smells food and knows you can eat it. I hope you never know the feeling that comes when the dark is near.
    This time I didn’t try to get closer to the earth. Nothing with a soul can protect you when the dark comes. You realise that deep in your stomach when it actually happens. It was strange earth anyway. It didn’t know me, and it was silent in its own fear.
    At times like that there is nothing to think. There is just you and the dark, and in a little while you know there will only be the dark left. Want to think also cannot. You can only roll yourself up small and hide far inside your mind.
    The things of the dark circled, and I was very alone.
    When the hissing started, it was like waking up from a nightmare. I smelled vomit, and suddenly I could see: little baby shapes tumbled into the hole, things with rotting teeth and glowing green eyes. Then I closed my eyes, because it was like waking up from a nightmare into another nightmare. This one was not so scary as the first one, but smellier.
    Toyol have no souls. Their souls have passed on to wherever the souls of babies go. Maybe they remember what it was like to be a baby—maybe that’s why they like to cry and say, ‘Mama’, because they feel like that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. But to be honest I think they do it to be kiampa, to make people want to slap them.
    You cannot be scared of the dark if you have no soul, but you can be very hungry. I heard them laugh, and then there was a sound like when you put down an offering of rice and fruit and incense in a holy place and step back. Gods have no table manners. Toyol are like them in that respect.
    I opened my eyes again when one of them touched my knee, whining. I kicked out. I wasn’t scared anymore. I knew the dark was gone. Not to say I wasn’t happy lah, but I wasn’t so grateful until let a toyol stroke my leg.
    “Aiyah, boss, why you spoil my product?” said a voice. “Toyol not so easy to make, you know. They don’t grow on trees. Not like me.”
    Of course it was my former landlord. There was that chibai, standing at the entrance of the hole like nothing special happen like that. I looked back at the toyol at their feast, and then I looked away again very quickly.
    “You got so many toyol,” I said. “One less won’t make any difference. How the hell you get so many?”
    “Hard work,” said the forest spirit modestly. “I am setting up a business. I hire out toyol.”
    I stared at it.
    “You are setting up a toyol business,” I said. “And it’s called what? Toyol Sendirian Berhad?”
    “I was thinking of a partnership, actually, not limited company,” said the forest spirit. “But you got the idea. Pay fee, get a toyol to come to your house and work for you part-time. No need to find the dead babies yourself, no need to do jampi. All maintenance taken care of.”
    “And what exactly do your customers do with their toyol?” I said. As you know, when magicians summon up toyol, it is usually because they are too lazy to earn their own money. Toyol have very small hands: good with locks.
    “Ah, that one they keep to themselves,” said the forest spirit. “No need for us to ask. The business has nothing to do with all that. But don’t think it’s all just gangster who order. I train my toyol to do all kind of thing. Housewife is our number two target market. The toyol are very clever to do housework—the customer just have to buy more air freshener lah. The service still very worth it, compared to the local cleaning fairies.”
    “So what,” I said, “the toyol in my hole last night is free promo, is it? Your marketing