The Skull 1: Hunters (骷髅1：猎人)

The skull started to say: "Hot! Hot! Hot!..."

This is another story told by Albert and it came from his late old man who was also a keen hunter. The time was right after the WWII, somewhere around 1946. That was when the time of chaos and every thing was lacking. While others need to worry about sources of meat, not so for those hunters as they can find plenty of small animals in local tropical jungles.

According to the story, Albert's pa, Senior and a few other hunters went to hunt in a jungle and after roaming in the jungle for deers. After roaming around for hours, they decided to stop by under a tree to have dinner. Since it was around 4pm and the environment in the jungle darkened very fast.

So said, the gentlemen gathered around and took out their respective rations, sat down and start eating. One of the hunters known as Boy found himself a human skull and sat on it as if a stool. He was having some green chili meat with rice. So Boy and the rest of the folks chat while eating their food.

After Boy had finished his food, he suddenly plugged some whole green chili pieces into the mouth of the skull he sat on and jokingly said to the skull: "If you do not complaint, I shall treat you accept and enjoy these green chilies! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Although someone among the hunters cautioned Boy to show some respect to the dead, he just brushed aside the advice given by his seniors.

Since the sky was turning dark, the hunters figured that they must make a move to return home. No one wanted to spend his night in the jungle which was then scattered with landmines leftover by either Japanese Imperial Armies of the Allies.

Just as the group turned their back headed for home, the skull which Boy has sat on suddenly being lifted up by an invisible force and started to scream: "Hot! Hot! Hot!..."

Everyone was shocked but those were seasoned hunters and some had fought in the war, so instead of ran away, one of the hunter aimed his rifle at the skull and fired some shot. The skull was broken into pieces and dropped onto the ground.

Even so, the sound of 'hot' still lingered in the air...

A few days later, Boy again joined another group of hunter to hunt in the jungle again. When he passed through the same place he sat on the skull, he suddenly tripped and lose his balance; and his head subsequently knocked onto a boulder in front of him. This impact has caused serious injuries to Boy's skull and he fell into comma.

Boy was subsequently carried back to his home for treatment. Unfortunately, Boy died a week later. According to his wife, on the night Boy passed away, some eerie laughing sound could be heard echoed in the middle of the air... "Ha! Ha! Ha! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

So people were taught to respect human remains and not to play with those human parts whenever they gone into wilderness. I supposed we should respect the deceased regardless if the above story is true.