Goddess Bless You From Death
At the police station past midnight, aside from the duty officers and those waiting to sober up, it was not as bustling as it was during the daytime. The quiet atmosphere ended when a vehicle carrying the suspect arrived at the station. Two policemen escorted the seemingly gentle young man inside. Just then, a once calm wind began to gust without reason.
"Who's that, Lieutenant?"
“A suspect."
"Huh!? How come? He looks pretty decent."
"You can't judge people by their looks these days. Now, go open the interrogation room! The inspector will handle it later."
"The rooms are full, Lieutenant. Two of them are having their cameras and bugs fixed, and an officer is using the other one."
"Then put him in the solitary cell for now, just temporarily."
"C-Can you open it yourself, Lieutenant?"
"Don't be ridiculous! Hurry up and open it! If the inspector comes back and finds this kid still wandering around outside, we'll definitely get scolded!"
The young man glanced at the two policemen arguing. Then, he was led inside, walking past some office desks and the officers' lounge until they reached the cell area. The stuffy atmosphere made the young man turn his face away.
The sound of shoes echoed with each step on the floor. The young man looked around nervously. When they reached the innermost cell, his beautiful eyes spotted a man sitting facing the corner. The atmosphere in this cell was different from that in previous ones: dim, cold, and eerie. The sound of the iron gate creaking was painfully piercing. The officer pushed Thup inside carelessly.
"Wait here. Don't cause any trouble. An officer will come to check on you."
"Ex-Excuse me, b-but do I really have to stay here?"
"Yes, you do. The interrogation rooms are still occupied. Besides, you won't be here for long. I'll call the doctor over."
"But..but will it be alright here?"
"Hey, you sure ask a lot, little brat."
"So.. so, I have to stay in this room alone, right?"
"Huh? Do you expect me to sit and guard you? What a strange question."
The young man slowly sat down on the floor, both hands gripping the bars tightly. His eyes trembled slightly before he started to chant softly.
"Namo Tassa Pakavato Araha-"
I should have killed them all. Shouldn't have left any alive.'
"Arahato Sammasambuddhassa Namo Tassa-" The young man chanted, looking down at his feet.
“I don't want to be locked up, locked up, locked up.*
"Pakavato A-Arahato Sa-sammasambuddhassa."
The chilling sensation down his spine caused the young man to stutter his chant.
The sound of movement, not his own, made his delicate hands grip the bars even tighter, the veins standing out prominently.
'Run, I must run.'
The sound of movement behind him didn't pique the young man's curiosity. The dragging footsteps and the sound of tying something continued, along with the murmurs about escaping. He would not dare to guess what kind of escape that might be.
"Ugh! Argh! Cough, cough! Ugh!'
The agonising cries made the young man quickly cover his ears. The sounds of rustling clothes, flesh hitting flesh, and choking gasps all mingled together. After four minutes, everything went silent again.
The trembling young man slowly removed his hands from his ears. He couldn't see anything in his peripheral vision, so he gradually turned his head to look behind him, revealing only an empty room. He sighed in relief. Just as he began to relax, a drop of water touched his forehead, causing his heart to race again. He breathed heavily and slowly looked up.
!!!!
The image of a young man in tattered clothes hanging from the beam above, noosed with a thick rope around his neck, with bulging eyes and a face dark from suffocation, met his gaze. The source of the drops on his forehead was the man's protruding, thick tongue. The sight terrified the young man, making him shake uncontrollably.
He scrambled backwards until his back was pressed against the wall. His eyes widened as the hanging body began to swell, then dropped to the floor. Instead of disappearing like they had when he had his amulet from Luang Pu, the body before him started to move. The bloated face glared at him with vengeful eyes and began crawling towards him. The phantom's mouth opened and closed, forming words. What the young man could make out was...
'Run. Run with me. Do it.'
"Please stop. Please, don't do this," the young man begged with his hands in a prayer gesture as the ghost crawled closer.
'Come with me. Come with me. Die like me!!'
The young man squeezed his eyes shut, his body trembling. If he believed the other's words even a little, his fate would be no different. While he sat, hugging his knees, his eyes shut tight, hoping for the nightmare to end, a cool breeze blew in, reminiscent of that time in the forest.
"Wasn't the plan to take this kid to Darin, Lieutenant?" A deep voice sounded in front of him.
"Um... Miss Darin said to bring the suspect to the room, but no one dared to come."
"How can you work if you're scared of such nonsense? Ridiculous!"
The irritated voice made the tearful young man slowly lift his head, his eyes moving from the sneakers, up the long legs clad in dark jeans, past a well-fitting black t-shirt that emphasised his toned abs, and finally settling on the muscular arms in a black leather jacket that pushed back his hair in frustration. "Get up and follow me. If you try to run, you'll suffer."
Gone... The ghost was gone.
Singha observed the young man, who was looking around in a state of panic. It was the same reaction as their first encounter. He had just returned from commanding the officers at the crime scene. When he asked about the new suspect, everyone pointed towards the solitary cell. On his way in, he heard sobbing mixed with chanting from within, correctly guessing it was this kid.
The young man was handcuffed, with Singha leading the way and Lieutenant Khem following behind. They were heading to the medical department to get the boy examined before starting the interrogation process. Carelessly, he pushed open the clean white door with a thick hand, indifferent to the affair the person inside is obligated to.
"Holy sh*t! You scared the hell out of me, Singh!" exclaimed a young, earnest woman. A hairclip, heedlessly put up her black hair, and her thick-framed glasses were pushed up before she tossed the half-eaten apple at the newcomer.
"Knock before you enter! Do you have any manners?"
"I'm the inspector."
"So what?"
"I bring the suspect here for a medical examination," said Singha, grabbing the young man's arm and pushing him forward.
"The suspect?"
"Yeah, a murder case."
"The seven bodies in the forest, huh?"
"How did you know?"
"Your friend has a big mouth, like a loudspeaker. How can he keep anything confidential?" Darin, the former forensic doctor who had turned into an attending physician in the infirmary because she couldn't stand ghosts, replied before putting down the file in her hand and walking into the examination room. The young man, now a suspect, and her close friend, the inspector, followed behind.
Sei was called to prepare the autopsy room, and he even described it vividly. It still gives me the chills."
"Nonsense."
"Yeah, that's right. People like you aren't afraid of anything."
Darin handed the consent form for the physical examination to the kid who was standing, staring at the ground. "Read it carefully. Once you're done, sign here. Then we can start the physical examination."
"I.."The young boy stopped mid-sentence, then began to read the document in his hand
"Are you sure you brought in the right one?" Darin walked over to Singha's side, whispering cautiously
"He was at the crime scene," Singha replied with the same tone, his eyes still fixed on the constantly startled demeanour of the boy in front of him.
"His physique is about the same as yours, but it looks like he could easily crumple with a slight kick. Killing seven people and hanging them from a tree?-that doesn't seem possible."
"Infuriation, intentional murder, staged murder-it could be anything until we thoroughly investigate."
"It-It's done," the young boy handed the file back to both of them.
"Because I'm a woman, I need Inspector Singha, who is a man, to be present. Is that okay with you?"
"Yes," the young boy glanced at the man standing, hugging his chest against the wall with a glimmer in his eyes.
"Okay, then let's begin," Darin picked up the file from the side and placed it on the bed before starting to examine the young boy's body, including taking blood samples for testing. Even the bloodstains on his body were collected. "There's a wound here."
The boy's rolled-up pants revealed an open wound. Although not deep, it was a suspicious injury that could not be overlooked. The physical examination proceeded with basic steps. Occasionally, the boy glanced at the person standing by the wall, but whenever their eyes met, he quickly looked away.
"Name."
"W-what?"
"What's your name?"
"Thup. My name is Thup."
"Age."
"T-twenty-five."
"Oh! You're at the Benjapes," Darin chimed in. "Singha, aren't you thirty-five this year, too? That's also a year of Benjapes."
"Just do your job."
"Fine!" Darin continued the examination, documenting both photographs and information in the file. Once done, she began to treat the boy's wound.
"The next step is interrogation. So don't make things difficult. Don't think about lying or running away."
"-I honestly didn't do it."
"Everyone caught in cases like this says so."
"May I... May I ask for something?"
"The only right you have is to a lawyer."
"C-Can I stay somewhere else? Anywhere but that cell. I can stay in this room, just not that cell," the boy pleaded, tears welling up.
"That cell? The last single cell?"
"Yes."
"I knew it. That's why both the sergeant and the lieutenant were reluctant to bring you here. It's because of that haunted cell."
"When will you all stop believing in this nonsense? There are no ghosts. Your mind makes it all up and messes with you in the end."
"Singha, you may not believe it, but how do you explain the suspects who end up committing suicide in that cell? Not just one or two.”
[Benjapes, or the age of danger, refers to a traditionally significant age in Thai culture, particularly the age 25 and those ending in "-5." It is believed to be the critical or unlucky age when individuals face significant challenges or misfortunes.]
"H-hanging... They hanged themselves, right?" Both Singha and Darin looked up at the boy simultaneously.
"That's right. How did you know?" Darin asked, surprised. "The first suspect held in that cell committed a family homicide. He wrote his last words on the floor with his blood before using a rope hidden in his pants pocket to hang himself. Since then, everyone held in that cell had attempted suicide. Some were successful, some not. Mentioning this gives me chills. It's been five years, but still, no one actually uses that cell anymore. “Alright, done."
"Get up," Singha ordered the boy again. "When the test results come in, bring them to me. And if Sei comes back, let me know."
"Yeah, yeah."
Singha escorted the boy to the interrogation room, which had just been repaired. Standing side by side, he realised that the boy was only slightly taller than he was.
"Thup, Dhammawat Weerakitthada, twenty-five years old. Currently works as a freelance artist. No record of parents. No criminal record," Singha read Thup's profile item by item. Thup sat quietly, nodding in acknowledgement. "Your current address is twenty kilometres from the crime scene. Care to explain why and how you got there since there's no record of you having a driver's license?"
"I can't drive."
"So?"
"So, I took a taxi."
"Do I need to drag every detail out of you? Won't you tell me everything at once?"
"S-sorry. I-I had a dream. | dreamt something terrible was going to happen there, so I went out. I asked the taxi driver to wait, but he didn't." Thup looked up at the stern-faced inspector across from him.
"Will you tell the truth or spend another night in the cell?"
"I swear I'm telling the truth. You may not believe me, but I'm telling you everything I know. I can remember the taxi's license plate. I can recall the whole event."
"Then tell me."
The young man wrote the taxi's license plate number on a piece of paper and slid it over to Singha.
"After I got out of the taxi, I saw an old lady walking into the forest. I followed her. The deeper I went, the more it felt like I was going somewhere I shouldn't. Before I knew it, I was standing there, terrified. I tried to run away, but no matter how I ran, I ended up back in the same place. Just before the police found me, I tripped over a branch and fell. Then you seized me."
"If you say you saw the old lady, then where and who is she? How come you ran after a stranger into the forest?"
"I couldn't see her face clearly, but she wore a blue traditional tank top, a green floral-patterned sarong, and she carried an ancient lantern. I heard a noise behind me and looked back for just a moment. When I turned around again, she was gone." After listening to Thup's story, Singha sighed and pressed his tongue against his cheek in frustration.
"Did you even hear what you just said? Anyone who believes you is a fool!" Singha stood up and slammed the file onto the table, causing Thup to flinch. "You think you can avoid jail with such a ridiculous story?"
"-I'm telling the truth! I really didn't do it!"
"Dammit!!" Singha stormed out of the room in anger. It wasn't just Thup's story that enraged him; the boy's demeanour and body language showed no signs of lying. If Thup wasn't telling the truth, he was an incredibly skilled liar. "Lieutenant, go in and question him. Bring the case report as well."
"Yes, Inspector."
"Sergeant, find information on this taxi and have the driver come in for questioning."
"Understood, sir."
What a troublesome kid!
** In the TV series, Darwin is a male played by Top Ten Supakorn Saokhor.