A couple of years ago, I met a Chinese girl who also happened to be someone I used to work together with. She was 24, wore glasses, and her dark raven hair rested nicely on her shoulders. She had this natural look of beauty on her face without having any make up on and a great sense of fashion. No one would have suspected her to be someone much more than what her background suggests, and that was until I discovered her darkest secrets. This is the story of me and Amy Cheah.

Amy Cheah graduated from a local college and got hired in the same advertising company I worked in. The first few weeks getting to know her was pretty much like the typical get to know your co-worker thing. A month later she would occasionally talk to me about porn, asking things like what positions I liked. It felt unprofessional of her to have asked me these sort of questions -- I felt offended and stopped talking to her. One day, while I was in the office pantry, Amy walked up to me and asked me if I could give her a lift home.

“Don't you have a car? Go drive yourself la”. I responded to her.
“My car broke down and it’s in the repair shop.”
“Okay.” I said, while pouring some black coffee into my cup. ”Just this once, I'll fetch you home."
“Thanks!” Amy cheerfully clapped her hands, and left me alone in the pantry.

I shook my head, what a weird girl.

I've been driving my old, rusty, and worn-out silver coloured sedate car my dad gave me since obtaining my driver's license at the age of seventeen. When we got in the car, I asked Amy where her house was. She then gave me an address which I keyed into my phone's GPS for directions. We were driving down the highway when she said something I wasn't comfortable with.

“So.. have you been into a whore house before?” Amy asked.
“What?” I said, confused.

I took a quick glance at her, seeing if she was gazing at me but she didn’t. It felt like it was normal for her to be asking about such a thing.

“Yea, have you been into one?” Amy repeated herself.
“No. Why do u ask?"
“Are you a virgin?” she turned to me.
“What!” Stunned and shocked by more of her stupid questions, I got more uncomfortable, and had thoughts of stopping the car and have her out.
“You sure look like one though.” She pressed on.
“I am NOT a virgin!” I nervously answered back while taking another quick glance at Amy, hoping she didn’t catch me lying. Instead, I saw her grinning. It felt as if she was playing some mind games on me.

For most of the drive, I kept quiet, ignoring her. Suddenly the female voice coming from the GPS on my phone instructed me to turn left in about three hundred meters.

“Would you do her as well?” she asked.
“ Err... I guess so.” I replied, not playing along with her mind games.

As I was driving down the road, I realized there were a row of bungalow houses in front of me. I knew at that point, Amy was leading me to her luxurious home. Things got really quiet in the car, the only thing audible was coming out of my GPS, instructing me which road to turn into.
“Guess you’re not that type, huh?” Amy said.

I couldn’t stand her mind games any longer. I had to say something to let her think I was just as comfortable.

“Oh.. I see. You think I'm a virgin huh?” I said.
“Yea. I think you are.” she gazed at me and put on a smile.
“Okay, let's do it, in here, there is a corner right around here, we can do it.” I looked at her, giving a smirk.
“No.” she turned away, looking at the side of the window, ignoring me.

I took a couple of glances at Amy. She had her arms crossed. I wondered why, I thought she wanted sex, then I realized she was just joking with me. I felt stupid for taking her seriously. I tried to think of a way to make the awkward situation go away but before I could come up with something, my GPS voiced out “You have reached your destination”.

I stopped the car, pulled on the brakes, and turned to look at the house. A high, black gate was blocking the entire view of the house. Amy unbuckled her seat belt, and was getting ready to get out of my car until she heard my stomach growling.

“Eh? You also hungry ar? Want to go eat dinner with me?” she asked.

I was about refuse her offer as I wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible. But...

“Yea, sure why not.” I replied, and already I regretted my decision.

Amy suggested we go to a hawker store near her place, and recommend me to try some of their duck noodles. I took it up and we both ordered duck noodles. When our food arrived, I caught the sweet aroma of the steam coming out of the bowl.

“Come. Eat, eat.” Amy smiled.

I grabbed a pair of chopstick, lifted a string of noodles, and put them into my mouth. At that instant, my tongue experienced an intense mixture of ingredients, and it got me feeling high. I took the spoon to scoop up a taste of the soup, and before I knew it, I drank the whole thing down and felt some form of gratification. Without realizing Amy was with me, her jaws dropped, surprised at how fast I finished them. When I took a look at hers, I realized she was just getting started.

“Would you like to order another?” Amy grinned.
“Um. No.” I said.

Embarrassed, I cleared my throat and ordered a drink to accommodate her, avoiding social awkwardness.

“So, what do you like to do in your free time?” I asked.
“Well…” Amy paused before answering.

She talked about her liking for food and we talked about working in advertising. Whenever I tried asking her personal questions, she avoided them like a plague and redirected the questions right back to me. After we filled our tummies with hot food, I drove us back to her place.

“Well, here you go, guess I will see you tomorrow.” I smiled.
“Do you want to come inside?” Amy asked.

It was really awkward of her to invite me in, but since I didn’t have much going on, I accepted her offer.

As Amy opened the black gate, at first glance the exterior of the house looked nothing out of the ordinary. An iron grill can be seen beside the front door. It looked like a typical, regular middle class house.

When I stepped into the house, it was a whole different story. The decor of the living room looked like a show house for investors to look at when coming to buy the house. The first thing I noticed were the glass table between the long sofa and big plasma television hanging on the wall. Amy excused herself to the toilet while I looked around. Paintings of Chinese words were framed onto the wall. Chinese vases were placed neatly on the shelves, some have fresh flowers in it and some don’t. It sure looked like they hired an interior designer to do the job and a cleaner to help replace the flowers. By looking around, I concluded that Amy was from upper class, and wondered why she would want to work in an advertising agency. Before I assumed anything and embarrassed myself again, I needed to ask her more. I waited in the living room until Amy came out from the toilet, giving me a tour around the house.

“So, um, is this your dad's house?” I asked.
“Mm? Yea, it’s my dad's, he bought it when he started investing in property.”
“So what does your father do exactly?”
“I am not entirely sure, my dad's always working and he’s in Sabah.”

Further, she told me her dad owned a couple of more properties around Malaysia. I asked more question about her family and she gave me short answers. I knew she wasn't quite comfortable of me interrogating her, so I gave it a rest. After we finished touring her house, we proceeded to chill on the living room sofa.
“Your house is really nice. I wonder if I can stay here for the night.” I jokingly said.
“Thanks for the compliment.” Amy's eyelid gazed down.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“It- it’s nothing”

It started to get awkward and I needed to go. I took a look at my watch, and it was already 10.30pm.

“Thanks for the tour, Amy. It’s already late, I really need to go.” I smiled as I stood up, ready to leave her house.
“Cal, you can stay over for the night if you want.” she said.
“Har? I was just joking only.” I replied.
“Can you please, please, please stay for tonight, last week my neighbors got robbed in their home and I'm very worried the robber may come back again.” she begged.
“Um, I don’t know, I have things to do.”
“But, just now you said you wanted to have an overnight here,” she frowned.
“Um, I was just -” I said.
“Please?” She gazed at me with her cute puppy eyes.
“Okay, okay. I can stay for the night.”
Amy smiled, pleased to hear my answer. It did feel like I was treated like her body guard. I didn’t want to get Amy's hopes up though, I wasn't entirely big sized or muscular at all. I hoped no robber would break into the house as I had no idea how to handle it.

As I climbed up the stairs, Amy turned towards me.

“Could you also drive me to the repair car shop tomorrow, so I can get my car?” she asked.
“Er. Sure, why not.” I replied.

I got to the guest room on the second floor which was furnished with a black wooden frame bed with a white mattress, a black wooden closet cupboard placed in front of the bed and flooring which was made out of wool. Small lamps and other decor were arranged around the room; it looked like a four star hotel room. When I took a peek inside the bathroom, the ceramic tiles filled around the wall, a giant circular mirror can be seen below the porcelain sink. Beside it was a shower head with a bath tub fitted in. The lights were fixed onto the ceramic tiles that beamed down into the bathroom creating a sense of luxury.
I was in awe; Amy then handed me a towel and told me to take a bath. A lavender aroma pervaded the guest room. I searched for the source, and found a device beside the bed, which released streams of smoke creating the lavender smell. Amy opened the cupboard, took out a set of clothes and placed it on the bed.

“Whose clothes are these?” I asked.
“Oh, they're my brother's clothes, you look his size,” she said while examining my body size.
“Err.. okay, thanks.”
“No, thank you!” Amy smiled.

Amy left the room with a cheery smile. I've never before seen this side of Amy, not in the office. I had thought she was the type of girl that was very reserved but that didn’t seem to be the case. I gazed at her brother's clothes placed on the bed, a pair of short red pants and white T-shirt. As I entered the bathroom, I wanted to try the bathtub and submerge myself into royalty but didn’t want Amy to get the idea that I was doing something I wasn’t supposed to do. So, I got myself a quick shower using the shower head, and proceeded to wear her brother's clothes. Surprisingly, they fitted perfectly.

I went downstairs to check on Amy and bid her good night but she wasn’t in the living room. I guessed she was in her room already. Since I didn’t feel tired, I sat on the sofa, spreading my legs out as if it was my home. I saw a remote control placed on the glass table. I picked it up and switched on the television, and saw that an American drama show was on. Not being sure how the remote worked, I randomly pressed a fews button hoping to stumble on a channel that suited me, but what I stumbled onto next was more than that. I ended up on the CCTV camera channel that focused right into the position I was. I waved at the television screen and it followed me. It must have been for security purposes. I figured due to the increase in robberies in the area, Amy’s dad installed CCTVs in the house, to make sure her daughter was in safe hands. I stood up, trying to look for the camera. When I tilted up my head, I spotted a small one. From a distance, I couldn't quite see it, being well camouflaged, but it was much more visible as I got nearer. I took the remote control and pressed another button, the screen switched to the feed of another camera. This time, it switched to the guest room where I was supposed to stay for the night. I got confused and felt a chill down my spine. Why was a camera needed in the guest room? Was Amy’s dad that paranoid? How many cameras were there in the house? Why weren’t there any cameras outside? Before I could investigate further, I heard footstep from upstairs. Seconds later, the footsteps could be heard from the staircase. I panicked and quickly tried to find the off button but couldn’t find it. I heard Amy's footsteps getting closer by the second. I pressed all the buttons at once; the TV switched to discovery channel as soon as Amy was visible at the bottom of the staircase. I stared at her as if I've been caught.

“Oh, nice. My brother's clothes fitted you perfectly.” Amy complimented me.

Amy turned her attention to the television, noting it was discovery channel where a documentary was talking about a murder case.

“Oh, I love documentary police shows.” Amy walked towards the sofa, looking at the television with interest. “You know, last week, they showed one about an old woman who poisoned ten victims and buried them in her backyard. The police did not suspect that the old lady did it, thinking she was too nice to do it but they figured out her dark secret later. Interesting, don’t you think?” she turned to look at me.
“Um, er, yea, I guess so. I never was into documentaries anyway.” I said.
“I see, you’re that type huh?” Amy gave me that look again, and turned away to watch the documentary.
Why couldn’t girls give me a straight answer, like telling me I have bad taste in documentaries or something. They always leave me wondering for long periods and it frustrated me.

“Oh! You’re my guest and I forgot to serve you with something to drink.” Amy said, turning to me “What do you want ar?” she asked.
“Er..tea?” I replied.
“So British ar?” Amy smiled and went to the kitchen to prepare one for me.

I sat back down on the sofa until I saw the documentary narrate a scene where the killer poisoned the victim with tea. The same scene acted out just like in the documentary. I started becoming really nervous because Amy took a huge interest in the documentary. Maybe, just maybe she lured me in to poison me. I was a little worried, and walked in circles, biting my fingers. Panic and fear sunk in quick in my mind -- the documentary was showing a scene where the woman was preparing tea while the victim was waiting in the living room. The same act I was in, the narrator talked about how the old woman killed the victims, by paralysing them and torturing them until they bled. I quickly tip toed my way to the front door, checking whether it was locked. My hand turned on the door knob... and it was locked. Trapped, my heart started racing. I tried to calm myself down, by breathing slowly.

“Calm down, Cal. There's got to be an explanation, I might be overreacting.” I thought to myself.

Suddenly I heard the sound of spoon stirring on a glass cup.

“Cal, do you want sugar?” Amy yelled from the kitchen.
“Um, a spoon of sugar, please. Thanks” I said, trying to sound calm.

Amy responded back with a “K.” Moment later, I heard the kitchen cupboard slide open and close. Amy walked out the kitchen to the living room with two cups of hot tea on a tray. She stopped half way, wondering why I was standing at the front door.

“Eh, why are you standing near the door?” she asked.
“Er.. I just wanted to know what type of concrete your house was built with.” I gently hit the wall with my hand. “Hmm, it’s look solid.” I nervously laughed.
“Okay, weird.” Amy stared and dismissed it immediately. “Come! I made tea.”

Amy put the tray on the glass table and cheerfully patted on the sofa seat, signalling me to sit beside her. I awkwardly walked to her and sat next to her. I could smell the lingering scent of shampoo from her hair -- it smelt really nice and alluring. I stared at her in her pink short pants and red singlet which felt seducing to me, tempting me to make a move.

Amy picked up her cup, sipping her tea.

“Wei, I already made tea for you, now you want me to pick up the tea for you?” Amy said.

I gazed at the tea cup, suspecting it might be poison. My fear took over rational thinking and I couldn’t stay calm anymore.

“Sorry, Amy, I think I need to go, I just remembered something back at my house.” I stood up and walked towards the front door. “Amy, can you please open the door, so I can leave?”

She gave me a confused look, wondering what just happened.

“Well? What are you waiting for?” I said.
“Oh. Okay, let me get the keys -” Before she could finish her sentence, I rushed to the guest room, picked up my clothes and dashed down the stairs. Amy had already opened the front door for me, still confused of what just happened.

“I'll give back your brother's clothes tomorrow in the office, I really need to go. Really sorry.”

I dashed to my car, started the engines and took a glance back to see Amy; she had a sad look on her face, almost to the brink of crying. I drove off without saying good bye.

As I drove down the highway, I approached a u-turn, hesitating whether I should go back to Amy's house. I felt guilty for suddenly leaving her behind, not to mention being ungentlemanlike. Assessing the whole situation again, the CCTV might have been installed in the guest room because her dad was overly concerned. The documentary show she was interested in might be because she liked the sort of thing. The tea she offered me may be a gesture of her friendliness. Realizing I might have exaggerated the whole situation, I pulled the signal to make the U-turn, and drove back to Amy's house.

When I arrived, I got out of the car and was about ring the doorbell before realizing that it was too late to ring her door bell. I gazed around, and the night seemed much eerier than before. I pulled out my cell phone and called her up. Surprisingly, she picked up without greeting me.

“Hey, Amy. Sorry about just now, my uncle told me to buy medicine for his wife when I got back home,” I laughed sillily. “Funny story, I gave it to my uncle in the afternoon already, so yea.” I continued to laugh on the phone.

A click, she hung up on me.

“Damn, she must have got really angry at me.” I thought.

As I walked back towards my car, I heard the black gate opening behind me. As I turned back, I saw her walking towards me, pulling her hand out, expecting something.

“Prove it.” she said.
“Oh, um, okay.” I have to think of something quick, then I remember keeping a receipt in the compartment of my car.

I went into my car, opened the compartment, and took out a receipt and handed it to Amy. She glanced at me, judging me whether the receipt was genuine. She looked at the receipt, as I stood there, and I hoped she wouldn't figure out that the receipt belonged to my boss -- I had helped him earlier to buy cough syrup. She had a look of suspicion -- I knew she found out because the receipt had my boss' name. I got caught red-handed. Feeling like a fool, I tilted my head down, looking down the floor. Amy handed the receipt back to me and I took it off her hand. She turned away, walking to the front door and then she stopped and turned her head.

“Well? Aren’t you coming in?” Amy asked.
“Um, yea. Coming.” I replied, walking faster than usual.

She locked the front door with the keys, putting it inside a the key bowl near the front door.

“Um, good night.” I said.
“Night.” Amy walked past without looking at me. A brief moment later, I heard a loud thump from her room.

I guess it’s understandable she was still angry at me but at least she invited me back in. I redeemed myself as a good guy. I took a glance at the remote control that laid on the glass table. I picked it up and switched on the CCTV camera as if I already knew what channel it was. There it was, the living room camera right in front of the TV screen. I took a cautioned glance at the stairs, hoping Amy didn’t catch me with what I was doing. I tried to find the playback channel as all CCTVs have this feature, I assumed it must have been recording me the whole time. Few minutes passed, finally I found the playback channel. There was a menu icon like play, rewind, forward and stop. Below the left hand screen was the time code, and date which referenced what day and time the CCTVs have been recording. I pressed the rewind button, and found myself waving at the camera a couple of hour ago. As I rewinded further, switching cameras to the guest room, I found myself with a towel around my waist. I felt relieved knowing no hidden camera was in the bathroom.

I thought of something, what if I rewinded even further? Curious, I clicked on the rewind button again, with five times the speed. Two days passed, nothing new. Three day to a week, nothing new. After two weeks, I finally found something, and clicked the stop button. I forwarded it with two times the speed, until saw a guy sleeping in the bed in the guest room. I pressed the normal speed button as I leaned closer towards the screen, wondering who it was. He looked Chinese and the camera was mounted on top of the bedroom, pointing right in front of the bedroom, like someone built this camera for a purpose, but what? I turned back the rewind button again but due to the quality of the camera, I couldn’t see properly who he was. I continued to rewind again and saw Amy talking to the Chinese guy, while he was arriving in the guest room. Is it Amy’s boyfriend? Their body language didn’t seem like they were together. I clicked the rewind button again, hoping to find more clues, it’s went on rewinding and rewinding until almost a month back. This time I saw someone sleeping in the bedroom, and the lights were turned off. I couldn’t see clearly as the room was dark and the night vision CCTV feature's quality wasn’t that great. I saw a guy under the blanket that seems to be humping onto something, then I realized he was masturbating in the guest room. Disgusted with the sight, I rewinded even further and started to wonder whether the bed sheets in the guest room were clean. I stared at the television screen intensely, hoping the guy would switch the lights on. It rewinded until the screen turned pitch black. I pressed the rewind button again, but it didn’t do anything, and then I realized I rewinded to the furthest it could go. It seemed that the CCTV program was set to reset every month so it could format a new fresh drive to record over it. I was disappointed with the result as I didn’t find anything satisfying. A couple of question were raised, who were these people living in Amy's guest room? Her friends? Her relatives? I didn’t know what to think of it. I sat on the sofa, wondering, pondering: who is Amy? And then a horrible thought hit me, thinking Amy might be a prostitute, but that didn’t make any sense as she was quite well off unless she had some sort of emotional issues which I didn’t know about.

Suddenly, I heard loud footsteps in the second floor. I jumped and accidentally pressed the remote control switch but it didn’t switch off the television. I looked up the ceiling, heart pounding and not moving an inch, and seconds later, the footsteps stopped. I guess Amy went to her private bathroom to brush her teeth. I felt relieved and continued with investigating the CCTV. But when I looked at the television, it was pitch black. I must have pressed something on the remote control. I fiddled with it, trying to get back to the CCTV channel, but I found out that I accidentally deleted the whole video.

“Shit.” I thought to myself.

I switched the television off and went to the guest room. As I got inside, I stared at the side of the bed. Thinking that the previous guy masturbated on that spot, I laid on the far side of bed, avoiding the other side.

As I stared up the ceiling fan, my mind started making a lot of assumptions without knowing if they were real. I yawned and started feeling very tired thinking about Amy's personal life. I looked at the door knob, to double check whether it was locked. Being sure it was locked, I felt a sense of security as my eyes started getting heavy by the seconds. The bed felt really comfortable, and in no time I dozed off to sleep.

Birds were chirping outside the window, the shade of the bright sun beamed down the bedroom. There was a blurry motion as I opened my eyes, and as time passed by the blurriness faded away. I turned around to the side of the bed, still not wanting to get out from it, then I found someone sleeping next to me. Shocked, I jumped out of the bed like a frog and fell down the concrete floor. Amy woke to my sudden screams.

“Amy! Why are you in my room!” I yelled.
“Oh. I’ve been sleepwalking again.” Amy rubbed her eyes, as if she didn’t know she was in my room all the time.
“How - How long have you been sleeping here?” I asked, still in shock.
“I - I don’t know, I forgot?” She got up from bed, walking towards the door “By the way, your work clothes have been washed, it’s in the closet.” She pointed towards the cupboard closet as she left the room.

She’s was obviously a bad liar. Cleaning my work clothes, drying it and putting it back neatly in the closet and then sleeping next to me. It was really creeping me out when I thought about it. Obviously part of it was mine to blame, I knew Amy had the keys to open the guest room door but I didn’t bother taking further actions to prevent it.
I changed into my work clothes and went downstairs and saw her coming out from the kitchen, holding a cup of coffee.

“Sorry about just now, for freaking you out. I made French coffee on the table if you want to get your day going.” she said, walking past me.

A coffee cup was placed on the table. I gazed at Amy as she walked up the stairs to her room. I walked to the table, picked the coffee cup up, and sniffed at it a couple of times, still paranoid whether the coffee was poisoned. I decided not to drink it and wait for Amy at the sofa. An hour later, Amy came back down stairs, she wore a white laced floral blouse, a black skirt and a small diamond necklace around her neck. Amy smiled at me and picked up her branded handbag on the table, walking past me, leaving a trail of rosy perfume in the air.

“Let’s go.” Amy said.
“Um, Okay.”

When we were in the car, the rosy perfume started making it's way inside the car, making my car smell rosy. She gave me the address of the repair car shop and I drove her there, taking me fifteen minutes. I then parked in front of the repair shop.

“Eh, thank you for being such a gentleman. Although you acted really weird last night. Anyways, um, I will return the favour someday.” Amy said.
“It’s okay la, that’s what being a colleague is all about. Helping each other.” I smiled.
“No, I insist on returning the favour!”
“No need la, it’s okay.”
“But I insist.”
“Okay, okay, return the favour to me someday. Okay?”
“Okay.” Amy smiled, feeling satisfied with my answer.

I really didn’t want to compete with her in being the nicer person.

“Anyways, um, where is your car?” I asked.

Amy pointed at her car, a grey coloured, sedated luxury car parked right outside the car repair shop. Suddenly, she went all quiet. I wanted to tell her to get out of my car, but it felt abit impolite to tell that to her directly. I gazed on her, hoping she would get the hint until she said something unexpected.

“Cal, there were two cameras in the guest room.” Amy confessed.

Inside the box contain ______ ?