The girl’s grandmother dies in a fire that
leaves no trace of her body. The police call it
an accident. The neighbours say she was seen
walking into the old kampong at midnight,
muttering in a language no one understands. The
girl, 17, finds a journal under her bed—pages
filled with sketches of spirits and warnings in
Malay and Chinese.
The British army arrives in the estate,
demanding evacuation. The girl’s father refuses,
citing ancestral land rights. A bomb explodes
near the hawker centre. The girl’s brother
vanishes. She hears voices in the walls,
whispers in Singlish and Hokkien.
She flees to a relative’s flat in Geylang, but
the ghosts follow. A spirit in a red dress
appears in the mirror, pointing to a scar on her
wrist. The girl’s mother warns her not to speak
of what she saw in the old house. The girl
sneaks back at night, finding a hidden room
beneath the floorboards. Inside, a shrine with
offerings of rice and incense. A photo of her
grandmother, alive, standing beside a Japanese
soldier.
The girl is arrested for trespassing. The police
say she’s mad. She’s released after a man in a
suit offers her money to stay quiet. She refuses.
The next day, the old kampong is bulldozed. The
girl’s father is found dead in the rubble.
She joins a group of youths hiding from the
authorities, using the hawker centres as safe
houses. They share stories of spirits that walk
the streets at night, of children who never came
home. The girl learns to read the signs: a red
ribbon tied to a tree means danger; a broken
mirror means death.
During a raid, the girl is captured. A man in a
black shirt asks her about the journal. She lies.
He burns it. She escapes, but the spirits grow
louder. One night, she sees her grandmother’s
face in the smoke. The woman points to the river.
The girl walks to the Marina, where the old
colonial buildings stand empty. She jumps in.
The water is cold. She drowns. The spirits stop
screaming. The city moves on. The girl’s name is
erased from the records.
No one remembers her. No one speaks of the
ghosts. But in the HDB corridors, some say they
still hear her voice, whispering in the dark.
