Karen, Karen....

Genting Highland, a so-called hill resort, is perhaps the most 'haunted' place in Malaysia. With the amount of 'gambling ghost' around at any time of the year, it is more of a casino resort rather than a hill resort. In order to provide a place for these 'ghosts' to stay, if they were not in the casino all night, many hotels were built around that area. Besides, there are many attractions in the resort serving as a 'side-dish'.

Almost everyone in Malaysia has stepped foot on that famous place. Although most of the hotels are built close together, a small number of them are built some distance away from the centre of the resort -- the casino. One of them is between walking distance from the only casino in the country. Many people can be seen walking along the path from the apartment-style hotel to the casino even if it's 3am in the morning. The path is built by the roadside and hence is brightly lighted at night. The other side of the path is the jungle with steep cliffs on certain sections.

Some years back, Karen, Janet and a few other of their friends went up to the resort for a short break away from work. They decided to go during the off-peak season to avoid the crowd. Since there were six of them, they decided to stay in the apartment-styled hotel. The first night was uneventful. They went on the numerous rides and games available and spend some time in the casino.

On the second night, the guys were busy giving away their hard-earned income in the casino when Karen and Janet decided to go back to their hotel. The guys must be losing money then and as with the usual habit of gamblers, they thought they would win back what they had lost if they continue betting. So, Karen and Janet were left to walk back to the hotel alone.

As they were on their way, they started to hear someone calling Karen's name. The voice kept calling playfully, "Karen, Karen...." They turned back and saw no one. Janet suggested it must be one of their friends playing some kind of joke to scare them. So, they decided to ignore it. Some distance away, they voice stopped. They got back to the hotel safe and sound and were soon fast asleep.

On the next day, nobody mentioned anything about the incident. Neither did it come across Karen or Janet to mention it. At about 1am that night, Karen was not feeling very well and wanted to go back. All her friends were still having a good time and none wanted to go yet. Janet, however, volunteered to walk her back, since she wasn't a very keen gambler herself.

Again, they heard the same voice calling out Karen's name as they were walking back. As of the previous night, the voice only called out for Karen but not Janet. They stopped and turned back to see if there was anyone behind. The path was quiet with not a single person to be seen. The night was cold and they could see a thick mist flowing with the wind.

However, when they turned back, the voice stopped. They decided to ignore it and continued walking again. After a while the voice came back. Karen, partly scared and partly annoyed, turned back and shouted, "Who is it?! Come out now!"

The voice did not stop this time. Feeling rather strange and eerie, they decided to follow the voice to trace where it came from. They turned around and kept walking until they got to a point where they saw a small path that branch off from the path they were walking along. They realised the voice, which was still calling out Karen's name, came from somewhere inside the path. Karen, being the more superstitious lot, was hostile to the idea of walking into that dark path but Janet insisted that they should go in and investigate. Somehow, she was still convinced that it was one of their friends who was playing a trick on them.

Slowly, they walked into that dark and narrow path. Karen clanged on to Janet's arm as she followed behind her. After walking a few metres along that path, the voice stopped. Everything was just quiet then. Karen's heart was pounding very fast but Janet kept walking.

Suddenly they got into some kind of a clearing with a tree in the middle. They looked up the tree and saw heads hanging onto of that tree. Some even with their eyes wide opened and most of them had blood dripping off from the neck part of the head. Karen was petrified and could not say a thing. Janet was scared  and motionless at that moment too. None of them decided to scream. In fact, not a word was uttered. Somehow, Janet managed to gather her senses together and pulled Karen along as she started running away. They then ran as fast they could without looking back until they got to the hotel.

Both of them were all pale and in a state of shock when they got to their room. They decided to go to bed without mentioning a word about it. The next day, Karen woke up with a high fever and her friends had to send her back to the city immediately.

Someone reportedly say that Karen died a few days later but I could not confirm this.

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Updates:

A visitor to Owl's Ghost Stories, Akasaka, told me this:
"...The girl was very irritated and wanted to find out who's playing tricks on her. So she tracked down the voice. Her friend tell her not to...cuz knowing very well that Genting is famous for evil spirits. The girls walked near the trees and heard the voice was coming from the trees...on top!! Then they both looked upwards and saw mutilated HEADS hanging on the tree...looking at them as if they were alive and talking. Scared the hell out of the girls. One of them died of the shock...."

Next Story: Quiet Is Not Always Good

Owl's Ghost Stories © 1997, 1998 by Will Ong