The cursed living in North Borneo.
Balan-balan is a nocturnal vampiric entity of North Borneo ghost myths. It is in a form of a disembodied woman’s head with its trailing organs attached. At night, it twinkles like a flaming ball, searching for its victim. The name are differ in every country in South East Asia. In peninsular Malaysia, it is called ‘penanggal’, ‘penanggalan’ in Indonesia, ‘manananggal’ in the Philipines and ‘krasue’ in Thailand. Some say that the ‘balan-balan’ was a beautiful woman who practices witchcraft so that she will never get old and ugly. Turns out it was a cursed and the curse was pass down from generation to generation. The cursed individual will never know when or where she will turn into the ‘balan-balan’.
It is ‘UNDEAD’.. yes. Undead creature. Living among us. At nigh, it leaves the body to search the fetus in pregnant woman or children. So the story begins..
Lampas and his wife lives in far from the town. They were poor. Lampas have to walk 10 minutes to the nearest bus stop and there’s only one bus that goes there. It arrives and 6am and return again at 6pm. One day, he left home early in the morning. It was still dark outside and very quiet. As he walk pass the river, he saw a light flickering. He ignored and keep walking. His eyes wander, searching for the light. The suddenly, he heard something on the trees. Sounds like breaking branches. He ran. As fast as he could. As he reached the bus stop, the sound stop.
He arrived at the town and told his friend about the incident. ‘That must be “it”, he says. The name was taboo. People fear that whenever they say its name, it’ll come closer and closer. ‘Come to my house’ he said again. They walk to his house and Lampas’s friend gave him chili, lime and the branches of the lime tree. ‘Hang this branches on every window and when you sleep, put the chili and the lime near your bed. I think ‘it’ smells the blood of your pregnant wife. The juice from the lime and the spicy-ness of the chili will hurt ‘it’. The thorn from the lime branches will hurt the hanging organ.
Lampas do as he says. At night, he told the story to his wife. They close and lock every window and doors. The hang the branches and went to bed. Lampas couldn’t sleep that night. He was to scared to fall asleep. He needs to protect his wife. Then suddenly, he heard the sound just like in the morning. He froze and look at the ceiling. There’s an opening on the ceiling and he saw the same flickering light. As he focuses, the ‘balan-balan’ looks at him. Straight to his eyes, watching him and his wife.
Lampas froze and could not move an inch. He was to scared to scream. He saw the tongue slowly fell from the ceiling. As it getting closer, Lampas grab the lime that was cut into half and the chilies. He hold it tight and close his eyes. He pray and keep on praying. As he opened his eyes, there was no one there, on the ceiling. His heart was beating so fast but still, he couldn’t move an inch.
The next morning, he told his wife what happened and they decided to move in his brother house for awhile. Until the birth of his child.
