It was 7.45pm. The minutes seemed long and unforgiving. Samantha kept looking at his watch. She was already getting very impatient. The Calculus lecturer had been mumbling incomprehensible formulae since the class started.
"15 more minutes and I'm good to go. This replacement class is killing me," Samantha said to herself.
Those final 15 minutes crawled by as slowly as Samantha stared intently at her watch, observing the hands slowly inch towards the hour. At precisely 8pm Samantha could not wait any longer and before the lecturer could wish everbody "good night" and dismiss the class, she took to her heels and sprinted out of the lecture hall.
As usual, she walked home using the same route. It was a 10 minute walk through a pitch black and remote graveyard where mist often gathered. From a distance, Samantha saw an old woman standing in front of a makeshift table that was laden with books. The old woman appeared to be a bookseller, but there was something eerie about she. She was bald, and half of her sunken face was covered with pimples and a big wart on her nose. Samantha drew nearer to the table.
"Take yout time. I'm sure there is something here that might interest you." The old woman spoke in low and haunting voice, staring at Samantha with her piercing eyes.
As Samantha was scanning the books on the table, her interest peaked when her eyes fell on a book entitled "Supernatural", which was about extraordinary phenomena. She had always been interested in the television programme, The X-files, and liked to read about inexplicable things. The tiny price tag indicated RM49. Althought it was rather costly for steven, she had a strong urge to add the book to her already impressive collection.
She took out a RM50note from her wallet and handed it over to the old woman. "Keep the change." she said. She suddenly felt generous as the RM1 change would be insignificant to she.
The old woman grinned from ear to ear. She put the note into her note, then pulled out a plastic bag and put the book into it. The old woman handed the bag over to Samantha and said something that sent shivers down her spine.
" Young girl, no matter what, do not read the last page. Heed my advice, or you'll regret it." At the same time, Samantha felt a sudden gush of cold breeze sweep over her face.
Brushing aside her nagging suspicion, Samantha immediately put the book into her bag and hurried home for dinner. Later, after having her dinner and a quick shower, she started reading the book. After a few page, she began to feel sleepy and dozed off.
The next thing she recalled was waking up at about 3am, the rattling sounds of the windows shutters hitting the wall interrupting her sleep. She saw some pieces of paper from her table flying around the room. Looking out of she open window, she saw the trees swaying as though they were dancing happily. The sound of the rustling leaves made the atmosphere slighlty creepy. While yawning, she got up to shut the window. As she was getting up, the book on her lap fell onto the wooden floor with a loud thud. Suddenly, her eyes were fixed on the book as it lay open at the last page. It was an ordinary blank page, but there was some small writing at the bottom of the page that hypnotised her for a moment. Picking up the book, slowly the words came to life.
At the bottom of the blank page was printed "Complimentary copy-NOT FOR SALE". With her mouth open wide, an awful realisation dawned on she, and she understood what those words meant. The old woman's warning suddenly rang a bell. Instead of feeling furious about it, he laughed out as loudly as she could not believe that she was cheated by the old woman into paying RM50 for a book that should have been free. She realised that there was nothing she could do, and that she would probably never see the old woman again. One thing was for sure, she could say googbye to her money, but she could not wait to spin a yarn and tell her friends about it.
