Warning
This novel falls into the horror, occult, and superstition genres.
All the chants in the story are real, with descriptions of ghosts and
spirits.
Contains scenes of danger, blood, haunting, and cruelty.
Readers under the age of 18, please use your discretion when reading.
One late night in a small house located in an overcrowded community, the slender figure of Khem, an eighteen-year-old high school senior, was staring intently at the screen of an old computer. He was downloading university entrance exam results with an expression of tense anticipation.
To his left was a desk clock showing exactly midnight, and to his right, a small cake with candles providing the only light in the dark room.
The sound of 'tick, tick, tick' from the clock's hands moving forward played in his head, adding more stress and pressure on Khem until he clenched his jaw tightly.
Finally, the results were out, indicating he had been accepted into the university and faculty of his choice.
"Yessss!" Khem exclaimed with joy, clasping his hands in prayer for a smooth university life, then leaned down to blow out the candle.
Yes, today was Khem's nineteenth birthday.
In the dimly lit room with only the computer screen for light, the young man ate his cake while simultaneously exploring pictures of different areas of the university he had just been accepted into. Eating, looking, and smiling with happiness, until he glanced at the clock and jumped in surprise.
"Two in the morning already?"
Tomorrow, Khem needs to hurry to the temple to inform the abbot about this good news. With that thought, he quickly finished his meal, shut down his computer, washed the dishes, brushed his teeth, and went to bed.
In his deep sleep, Khem dreamed of something he had never seen before.
In the dream, it seemed like an old film being projected, depicting an oldThai house from the era when slavery still existed.
Khem saw a little girl playing in the house, with several servants chasingafter her, but they could never catch her. The girl laughed joyfully, lookingmischievous and having fun.
Then, the scene shifted to an eggshell-colored wooden house from thetime when cars were common in Thailand, the atmosphere reminiscent ofthe 1980s.
Khem was standing in front of this wooden house, looking inside throughthe window in a rather impolite manner.
He saw a couple, a man and a woman, dining together at the table,smiling at each other with happiness. Khem furrowed his brows at the sight,feeling his heart squeeze gently, prompting him to clutch his shirt over hischest.
"What are you looking at?" a cold, stern voice came from behind him.
Khem's heart pounded heavily with shock, his body stiffened as he felt thebreath of someone who had appeared right behind him.
Khem tried to turn around to look, but his body wouldn't move. The warmatmosphere around him gradually grew cold, making his hair stand on end.
The eggshell-colored house before him transformed into an abandoned,desolate-looking dwelling.
Khem gritted his teeth, trying to wake himself up.
This is crazy, wake up Khem, wake up!
"Do you want to stay here with me?"
Khem jolted when he felt a gentle breath move closer, fear overwhelminghim to the point his body began to tremble.
"Stay together, just the two of us."
"..."
"Do you want it?" For a split second, Khem considered agreeing just toescape this discomfort, but then he heard someone's voice in his ear.
"Khem, it's time to wake up, son."
Gasp!
Khem jolted up into a sitting position on his bed, looking around his bedroom with alarm, checking if anyone else was there. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed something had fallen nearby.
A tiger skin amulet necklace, which Khem had worn since he could remember.
When did it come off...
This amulet necklace was a sacred item, blessed by a monk long ago with powers to protect from unseen dangers. Khem's mother had insisted he wear it at all times.
Even on the last day of her life, his mother had emphasized that he must never take it off.
The thing is, Khem was born into a cursed family, specifically related to giving birth to children.
If the child was a daughter, she would be safe.
But if it was a son, he would die before turning twenty.
So, his mother named him "Khemjira." a name typically for a girl to ward off the curse, meaning "safe forever."
Although Khem wasn't particularly fond of the necklace's design, he never disobeyed his mother. Whatever she said, Khem followed. After she passed away from illness seven years ago, he continued to wear it, seeing it as a keepsake from her.
Over the past eighteen years, Khem had gone through life relatively unharmed, with only minor accidents typical for someone a bit clumsy, but nothing serious. Everything had been going normally until last night.
Since his birth, this was the first time Khem had dreamed, and it was a strange, frightening dream he couldn't quite describe.
Khem tried to calm himself down. Although still unnerved by the vivid feeling from before, once he regained his composure, he picked up the amulet and put it back around his neck. Then he got up to shower and get dressed to visit the temple and see the abbot.
Khem took a bus taxi to the temple in the district where Abbot Pinto, his real father, was a monk. After his mother's death about three years prior, his father decided to ordain for life. At that time, Khem was exactly fifteen years old.
Everything had been set even before Khem understood much about life; the master who had blessed him with sacred items instructed that his father should find an auspicious time to ordain for life to transfer merit to the family's karmic debt, hoping it would extend Khem's life. This was the reason his father gave him, and Khem remembered crying in refusal back then.
Khem only thought that losing one parent was enough. He didn't want to lose his father too, whether by separation or death.
But ultimately, he couldn't defy his father's and relatives' intentions. He stood there crying, watching his father shave his head and don the saffron robes, reluctantly walking into the temple's ordination hall.
After that day, Khem went to live with his paternal relatives, as his mother's side of the family refused to take him in, fearing he might carry the family curse.
Outsiders might think it was superstition, but everyone in the family and the village firmly believed because no male from his mother's lineage had ever lived past twenty.
The relatives who volunteered to look after Khem were his uncle and aunt. They took the money provided by Khem's father for his upbringing and his mother's health insurance, using it to live comfortably abroad from the very first day they took him in, leaving him with just a few thousand baht in cash and an old house.
Khem didn't want to worry his father just days after his ordination, so he kept quiet. Even though his father found out later, there was nothing to be done.
He lived alone in that house. Fortunately, the neighbors were kind, regularly bringing him food, and whenever he visited the abbot at the temple, he'd return with plenty to eat.
Moreover, Khem's academic performance was quite good, so he received scholarships from the fourth year of secondary school through to the sixth year. Thus, life during his high school years wasn't particularly hard.
Oh, and for university, Khem also got in by competing for a scholarship.
"Paying respects, father abbot." Khem said after entering the abbot's quarters. He bowed three times to the ground before looking up with a faint smile, which the abbot returned with a gentle gaze.
"Hmm, the exam results are out, aren't they?" Khem scratched his cheek awkwardly with one hand, while the other remained in a praying position.
"How did you know, father abbot? I was planning to surprise you." Khem said. The abbot gave a small, fond smile.
"Yesterday, two novice monks left for their studies. They told me that the university term has begun."
"Ahaha, well, I got into the Faculty of Fine Arts at a university in Bangkok..." Khem's voice trailed off to barely a whisper, his hands still clasped in prayer, eyes sneaking a peek at the abbot.
"You have to go all the way to Bangkok, do you?" The abbot asked, his demeanor composed but his eyes showing concern.
Khem shrank a little, knowing how worried the abbot was about his safety, not just because of the lingering curse, but also because he would be alone without adult supervision.
But Khem dreamed of becoming an artist. He had been earning extra money by drawing all this time and had saved enough to afford his school supplies and rent a modest dorm room.
Khem wanted to excel in this profession; if he were to die tomorrow, he wanted to have lived his life as he desired at least once.
"The program I want to study isn't offered here." Khem stated truthfully, also wanting to affirm his stance.
Seeing his son's determination, Phra Pinto, who had been a monk for many years, understood the truth about life, aging, sickness, and death -
these were all natural to humans. He had done everything a father could do; the rest was up to fate.
"Hmm. Well then, study hard. Whatever you do, do it with mindfulness and caution, don't be careless." Khem's smile grew when his father gave his blessing, and he quickly nodded in response.
"Yes, father abbot."
They spoke a little more, then Khem paid his respects and left to finishsome pending work.
At that moment, Phra Phinto sat in meditation, watching his son'sreceding back, along with the fading shadows of more than one mysteriousspirit...