The Bayonet and the Bell

For whom does the bell toll? Michelle Liew

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Time was of the essence. Wen had to deliver the message...Serangoon's resistance safe house would be a bloodbath if he failed.

Wen's path was a minefield of suspicion and stealth. The matchbox the young Singaporean courier carried not just firestarters--it cradled resistance.

Wen's package was a coded message, with the matchbox as its envelope. He tiptoed through Syonanto's deserted streets, eyes canvassing the darkness---alert, trained, unblinking.

The crumbling bell tower. The dark, imposing abode of a fallen Japanese soldier---one whose comrades couldn't locate after Syonato's initial invasion. Even spirits had borders...Wen knew that he was about to cross one.

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"Banzai! Banzai!" Wen's head snapped around. Up ahead was the Kempeitai--the Japanese secret police, ready to keep Singapore's wayward citizens in check.

Wen's athletic legs carried him behind the church ruins and into a trash can---he didn't mind reeking of half-eaten dinners and stale fish if it meant staying alive.

The sounds of the Kempeitai faded, and Wen slowly drew himself out of his stench-filled hiding spot.

Only to duck behind a pillar--

at the unmistakable click-clack of boots. The cold clang of a bayonet, dragging across the hall. Standing in plain sight was a Japanese soldier--eyes pale and yellow, his uniform soaked in crimson spectral blood.

Wen took tentative steps back, ready to sprint--but the soldier's actions rooted him to his spot. He did not lunge; he held his bayonet and slowly, but steadily traced a map into the dust.

A map--of a hidden tunnel...

The dead do not speak, but sometimes direct. With yellow eyes boring into Wen, he pointed to the bell tower.

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In war, even the enemy becomes a compass. The sharp young boy followed the tunnel to a cache, cleverly concealed under discoloured wooden floorboards. One filled with food, necessities and even radio parts.

He turned to thank the ghost--but he had vanished, leaving no trace.

Wen scrambled out of the tunnel to join his resistance comrades--to find himself in a smoke-filled clearing. Torched by the very same diabolical Kempetai petrol he had escaped.

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Note: Japan, an Axis power during the Second World War, occupied Singapore from 1942 -1945, renaming her 'Syonanto" or Land of the Rising Sun. During this wartime period, they employed various means of controlling the population, including the secret police, or Kempetai.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Original story by Michelle Liew. AI tags are coincidental.