"Guys, do you want to go cycling at night?"

"Cycling? What do you mean, in the night?" Leong Hai asked.

"Yeah, cycling through the whole night. It's been sometime now since we did. It should be okay since the villagers had not said anything for a while. We'll go back home in the morning," Sambeth said enthusiastically.

"That's a good idea. I have not gone cycling for a long time," Devaraj said.

"Yeah, man, I missed cycling." Leong Hai agreed.

"Are you guys, on or not?" Sambeth asked the rest of the group.

Everyone agreed to the idea. They discussed the plans and they decided that the weekend would be the best time.

The group used to go cycling often and had stopped early. The villagers had warned them that it was quite dangerous to go night cycling. In fact, the whole village was quiet when night fell because no one dared to go out after dark.

A few months had passed since then. The group had not heard anything from the villagers and naturally assumed that things would be fine. Sitting down, they all made plans on where to go, and what to do.

The big night came, and at 10 p.m, all were set to go. They were eight of them, all came prepared with sleeping bags and food. Their bicycles had been thoroughly checked, making sure that everything was working fine.

After much discussion, they had decided on their favourite route. However one part of that road was not well lit, and it travelled close to a cemetary. Despite their parents' warning against cycling on dark roads, they decided to go for it would be more fun.

"Okay guys, we have reached the place." Sambeth told the other guys when they finally reached the darkest part of their route.

"This place somehow seemed to have changed a little, don't you think?" Leong Hai said to his cycling buddy.

"Yes, it has."

"It feels spooky isn't it? I don't feel so good about this place." Devaraj added his comments.

"Come on guys, just relax okay? Why don't we sing some of our old songs?" Leong Hai tried his best to brush of the strange feelings.

Nevertheless, they pushed on but each could not brush off the uncomfortable feeling. They sang songs, and told stories along the way. Unconsciously, everyone cycled closer to each other.

Sambeth had become quiet all of a sudden. The rest had seen that he stopped singing. He looked nervous and his eyes were darting all around. Something was amiss.

"Are you alright, Sambeth?" Devaraj asked.

Sambeth just shook his head and then cycled ahead of them.

"Cycle faster," he said curtly.

"Hey, what's wrong with him?" The resk asked one another, bewildered.

Just then, dogs appeared out of nowhere and started chasing them. The boys could see that some of the dogs were baring their teeth. Others were barking and howling at them.

Frightened, everyone sped up as fast as possible. Sambeth, who was ahead of them, was shocked to see the group catching up on him so fast.

As sudden as they appear, the dogs behind them disappeared.

"Why were you guys cycling so fast?" Sambeth asked them.

"There were dogs chasing us."

"Yeah, it was as if there were a hundred dogs. Thay was why we cycled so fast."

"The dogs sounded very fierce, barking and howling." They said panting.

Sambeth was relieved that he was much ahead of them. They continued to cycle fast, but all stayed close together slowly.

A little while later all of them heard a shrill laughter. They looked around but there was no one.

"Rakesh, why don't you go ahead and see what's up there," Devaraj told him.

"No way! I'm not going alone. Do you think I'm crazy?"

"Ok, why don't we go together?"

All of them went towards the direction of the scream. When they reached the spot, they saw no one in sight. They gave each other uneasy looks, unsure as to what to do.

Just then, laughter broke out all around them. The boys flashed their torchlights around but they could see no one. The laughter grew. It was scary. Without waiting, all the boys sped off. The laughter trailed off behind them.

"Should we continue?" Devaraj asked.

Everyone was terrified by now.

"Turn back." Sambeth said tersely, his eyes fixed on something ahead.

"No way, Sambeth. We are not going through that path again. Remember the dogs? And all those spooky laugher?"

The others agreed with Rakesh.

"Yes, but now there are something ahead of us."

Sure enough, the boys could hear the eerie laughter they heard earlier coming up. As they approached the sound, grey-white figures materialised in front of them, blocking their path to the end of the road. With bloodshot eyes, the figures reached out their hands and beckoned the boys to come forward.

"These are just illusions. We are going to cycle through them. Remember, don't look into their eyes, just cycle straight and don't look back. Ok guys?" Sambeth told the guys.

Too terified to speak, everyone could only nod.

"On the count of three. One, two, three. GO!"

All of them sped on. Mustering all their courage, the boys pedalled as hard as they could, making for the figures. They rode right through the figures. The laughter swelled around them, as the figures reached out to grab at the riders. The boys were totally terrified but they kept on.

After passing through the figures, the boys made immediately for home. When they got back, the boys told their parents what happened. According to the village folks, that was the spirit of a woman who had died during childbirth. They were lucky that she possessed none of them.

That was the last time of them ever went night-cycling.