Goddess Bless You From Death
Case File 20.
Darkness and cold were the first sensations Darin became aware of. The dampness at her feet made her look down, only to find she was not in her bedroom-or even in a building. She was standing on the wet, muddy ground, her bare feet slowly sinking into the mud. The more she tried to lift her feet, the deeper she fell into the sticky mire.
"What is this?" Darin looked around and found herself amid a dense forest filled with towering trees. It was both familiar and eerie at the same time. "This place is..."
!!!
Darin's eyes widened as she saw a human-like shadow on the ground as the moonlight shone down. She slowly looked up and saw that the shadows were actually the bodies of seven people hanging from the branches. She wanted to scream, but no sound came out. When she tried to raise her hand to her lips, she found them sewn shut with thread, preventing her from speaking or screaming. Tears of fear began to stream down her face as she realised that whatever was crawling toward her was even more terrifying than what loomed above.
A pale-faced woman, with skin blotched with green to blackish-purple hues, her lips sewn shut with red thread, and hollow eyes revealing bruised purple flesh within, was crawling towards Darin.
Despite her agonised expression, she stopped just in front of Darin, and her expression turned cold. She raised a hand to her stitched lips and began to tear the threads apart until blood, which should no longer be present, started to flow. Laughter grew louder as Darin's tears streamed down her cheeks in terror.
'Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday!'
The same words were repeated over and over in a hoarse voice. Darin turned her face away from the long tongue protruding from the wide tear in the woman's mouth, reaching up to her ears. The dampness on her face made Darin's tears flow even more, her heart racing and her body clearly trembling.
Gasp!!!
Darin jolted awake, struggling to breathe. The dense forest, the seven corpses, and the ghost vanished, leaving only her comfortable bed in her medium-sized condo. The alarm clock rang again, startling her. She reached over to turn it off and buried her face in her hands.
The nightmares haunted her, making it almost impossible to sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, the ghost appeared, making it impossible for her to distinguish between dream and reality.
"Hello," Darin answered her phone.
[Why do you sound so tired?]
"Nightmare."
[Are you coming to the station today?]
"I'll come in later. I'm going to the temple first."
[Why the temple?]
"Seriously, Sei, aren't you scared after being haunted like that?"
[A bit, but you can't live in fear forever, Darin. If you find the cause of that fear, it will go away faster.]
"Yeah, yeah, Mr Fearless. Go hang out with Singh." [Just call when you're coming in. I'll ask you to grab coffee.]
"Why are you working so early? It's only.." Darin turned to look at the clock by the bed again. "Only six in the morning!"
[I didn't come in early. I haven't left yet. I've been examining Singh's evidence all night and checking on the kid in custody. Since you've moved to general practice, it'd be good if you double-check him. I moved him to the infirmary.]
"Ugh, fine. So, you two are really taking this case?"
[Would you let Singh deal with the ghosts alone?]
"Singh's not the one being haunted. It's me! I just got haunted!!"
Darin sighed, getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom to wash up. "I'll come after I make merit. Has Singh arrived yet?"
[Not yet.]
"Okay, see you then."
Darin hung up and looked at her weary reflection. She was truly scared of what she had seen, but it would be too selfish to let her friends face such dangers alone.
"At least if I stick with Sei, I won't be haunted alone."
In a simply decorated bedroom, a king-sized bed that usually accommodated one person now felt smaller with two people sleeping beside each other. A morning person like Thup opened his eyes groggily.
What fully woke him up this morning was the tiger tattoo barely an inch away and the broad, tanned chest in front of him. Thup looked up at Singh, his eyes sparkling, and smiled to himself. It was a night of restful sleep, free from strange occurrences or noises, except for Singha's steady breathing.
Thup tried to get out of bed as quietly as possible to avoid waking Singha. When he saw Singha roll over, he froze beside the bed, then moved to the other side to tuck the blanket around him before heading downstairs to prepare breakfast. As he reached the bottom of the stairs before heading to the kitchen, Thup glanced at the door. The curiosity sparked by the voice he had heard the night before lingered. It wasn't mocking or hoarse like before, but soft and strangely familiar. Yet he couldn't recall where he had heard it. He opened the curtains, letting sunlight hit his face. He didn't know what lay ahead today, but he was sure Singha would be searching for the next dolls.
The phone ringing drew Thup's attention away from the sunlight. Few people called him, so it was easy to guess who it was.
"Hello, Uncle Chai."
[How are you, boy? Doing well? Aren't you coming back here?]
The old man's friendly voice made Thup smile.
"I'm fine. I might come back soon. How are you, Uncle?"
[Just old and achy, boy. But what did you call about last time? I took the abbot to perform a funeral at Choi's house.]
"I have something to ask you."
[Go ahead.]
"About twenty years ago, when Luang Pu had to perform a funeral for that family of seven, do you remember that? He didn't let me watch."
[Umm, I remember. Sak and Poom cried so hard that they collapsed to the ground. Sak ended up in the hospital and died shortly after his wife and grandchild.]
"Do you remember what the bodies looked like?"
[I do. Their eyes and mouths were sewn shut. And it was the same for all seven of them. The villagers thought it was black magic or a sacrifice.]
"A sacrifice?"
[Yeah. At first, the villagers didn't want them cremated because it was an unnatural death, but Luang Pu advised it. He chanted all night, sprinkled holy water, and placed sacred thread around the pavilion. He said keeping them was dangerous because they hadn't died peacefully.]
Thup listened while taking out breakfast ingredients from the fridge.
[The villagers suspected that it might be the work of the policeman living in the house behind the forest. They said he practised black magic.]
"A policeman?" Thup froze.
[Yeah, the father is a cop, the mother is a nurse. Seemed fine on the surface, but their two kids were seriously ill. Villagers who went foraging nearby reported hearing chanting from the house around 2 or 3 in the morning. A few months later, the kids were running around, completely healthy. So, people started believing they used black magic to save them.]
Thup only listened intently, as Luang Pu never told him about this, deeming it inauspicious.
"But maybe they were just doing regular Buddhist chants and took the kids to a doctor. If the mother were a nurse, she'd probably have taken good care of them, right?"
[I don't know. It's just what the villagers said. But about ten years later, they found the house abandoned. No one knew where the family went.]
"Ten years... Did any similar incident happen after that? Or did Luang Pu perform funerals for people with sewn eyes and mouths again?"
[Not sure. Luang Pu was often hospitalised then. You remember, right?]
"Yes, I do," Thup recalled his high school days, shuttling between school, the temple, and the hospital, encountering wandering spirits at every place. "Uncle, could you ask the villagers if anyone remembers a funeral with sewn eyes and mouths from twenty to twenty-five years ago?"
[Sure, but people from back then might already be dead, hahaha.]
Uncle Chai laughed, followed by a cough typical of the elderly.
[Why are you asking about this? Luang Pu warned against meddling with such things. The red thread was to keep the spirits from seeing or speaking, indicating the person who did it feared the spirits' vengeance. It doesn't seem like a white magic practitioner, Thup.]
"I have a reason, Uncle. I'll explain when I go back."
[Up to you then. If you come back, just call me. You can stay at my place. Aunt Noi misses you.]
"I miss her too."
[Okay, I'm off to pray now.]
"Goodbye, Uncle. Take care."
After a lengthy chat, Thup hung up, finished making breakfast, and went to the shower. He stood at the bedroom door quite a while, unsure whether to wake Singha or let him sleep. As he was about to turn back downstairs, the door opened, startling him.
"What the heck? Why are you standing in front of the room?"
Singha walked out, his upper body still bare, hair tousled yet not diminishing his appeal in the slightest.
"Uh, I was about to wake you up."
"Yeah, yeah, move aside." Singha walked towards the bathroom, preparing to brush his teeth. As he brushed, he stood in the doorway. Looking at Thup.
"Au-e-ie-o-er?" (Already showered?)
"Yes, I have."
"At-ot-ou-up-o-er-ie?" (What got you up so early?)
"I'm always up early. Shouldn't you brush your teeth properly?" Singha frowned, took the toothbrush out of his mouth, and pointed it at Thup.
"Got a problem?"
"Who would dare have a problem with you?"
"Good. This morning, we'll head to the station first. Need to let Sei examine the dolls, then we'll go to Miss Orn's house."
"Make sure you bring the Lord Wessuwan statue with you. Place it in the autopsy room so that Mr Sei can work safely."
"You go fetch it yourself. Handle it carefully. My mom treasures it." Singha said, returning to the bathroom to rinse his mouth.
"Alright, alright."
Thup entered the room and paid respects to both the Buddha and the Lord Wessuwan statues. He began reciting the homage to the Buddha before carefully taking down the Lord Wessuwan from the shelf.
Just as he was about to leave, his eye caught a glimpse of a glass cabinet in the corner. It was filled with certificates, medals, and various Singha emblems. The most striking item, however, was a framed photo of a smiling boy and girl with their arms around each other. Thup was certain the boy was Singha, but he didn't know who the girl was. He stopped by the bathroom door again. "Brother, I got it."
"Okay."
"Can I ask you something?"
"You always have questions, don't you? What is it?" Singha shouted from the bathroom.
"Who's the girl in the photo with you?" The shower stopped immediately after Thup's question. When the silence dragged on, Thup's concern grew. "P'Singh, are you okay?"
"Don't..."
"What did you say? I couldn't hear you."
"Don't meddle!" The harsh, shouted response startled Thup.
"P'Singh, I'm sorry." The sigh from inside the bathroom made Thup feel even worse, unsure if he had angered Singha.
The bathroom door opened, and Singha stepped out, clad only in a towel wrapped around his waist. Thup felt uneasy as Singha's body was dripping wet from head to toe. Singha looked up, meeting Thup's gaze. Seeing Thup's trembling eyes, Singha could only sigh.
"Go wait downstairs."
Thup had never seen this side of Singha since they met. He quietly entered the bedroom, picked up a towel, and gently draped it over the wet, jet-black hair.
"Dry your hair, or you'll catch a cold."
Thup walked down to the living room, placing the Lord Wessuwan statue on the table in front of the TV, then sat on the sofa. His beautiful eyes, framed by long lashes, glanced back at the stairs, filled with concern. He had never seen Singha like this.
Never seen such a pained expression on his face before.