Chayot, upon hearing the greeting, instinctively sensed that the man before him remembered the tales of times past. The sharp, coal-black eyes that looked at him seemed like a predator eyeing its prey, and the aura of dark magic spread throughout the area like flames from hell capable of scorching even souls.
His eyes remained wide open, fearing he might be obliterated, so he immediately retreated into his own dimension to hide.
Pharan let Chayot go. Despite his lingering suspicions about his former younger brother, leaving the two children standing there like dewdrops was out of the question.
He moved away from the young man who had been asleep since earlier, glancing at his disciple who stood there with a forced smile before turning to walk back to the house.
"Khem, has the spirit escaped yet or what?" Jett asked, lightly patting Khem on the shoulder. Khem turned to look at his friend, his mouth twisting as if about to cry; the master was far more frightening than he had anticipated.
"Jett. I want to go home."
"Oh, you scaredy-cat, let's go!"
Once they reached the second-floor balcony after climbing the stairs, the master took a lantern from another post and handed it to Jett.
"Go wash up, then go to bed quickly, and don't leave your room until morning." Pharan instructed. Jett felt an ominous chill from the master's gaze but quickly nodded in acknowledgment, fearing the master might change his mind.
"Uh...hello." Khem said softly, raising his hand in a respectful gesture when there was a pause. The master glanced back, his dark eyes reflecting the lantern's light, before nodding and walking away, leaving Khem to watch his broad back with a sense of unease and despair.
"Come on, Khem, our room is that way." Jett said, his lips tight, as he followed Jett who carried the lantern through the darkness.
The room Jett led to was on the left wing of this Thai house, a bedroom with a large bed. The bathroom was downstairs. Once they reached the room, they set down their bags, arranged the bedding, and then went downstairs to take a quick shower as instructed by the master to get to bed swiftly.
As for Pharan, after parting with the two boys, he returned to the central part of the house used for ceremonies.
The tall figure sat down on a dark carpet near the altar with the Buddha statue, placed the still-lit lantern beside him, and clasped his hands in meditation. He steadied his mind to meditate, for the first time allowing his spirit to journey back into the past.
In the year 2482 B.E. (1939 C.E.), in a traditional Thai house on stiltswith a hip roof in the center of a town, lived the "Wongpradit" family,consisting of four members: the father, a military officer; the mother, amaster; the eldest son, a doctor named "Phawat." who is Pharan in thislife; and the youngest son, who was about to be inducted into civil serviceas a master, named "Chayot." who now haunts Khemjira.
Pharan wanted to understand the cause of this, because if there waskarma between them and he was somehow involved, he could seek asolution to release Chayot's spirit to where it should go.
The first image he saw was of the four family members having dinnertogether at the dining table, the atmosphere within the family was relaxedand normal.
The scene shifted to a petite woman who looked very similar to Khemjira.
Her name was "Khemika." daughter of the district officer, a close friend ofChayot, and Phawat's lover.
Phawat and Khemika first met at a birthday party for a high-rankingcivil servant. During a dull moment, both escaped the party's chaos to strollin the garden behind the house, where they coincidentally met.
Phawat recognized Khemika as his younger brother's close school friend,having seen her from afar a few times, so he took the opportunity to strikeup a conversation to get to know her better.
They hit it off until it was time to return to the party. On the way back,they heard a cat meowing from a tree.
Phawat discovered that Khemika was quite the spirited and mischievouswoman. This was evident when she took off her high heels and climbed the
tree despite wearing a skirt. Phawat tried to dissuade her, but she didn'tlisten, and he had to turn away in embarrassment.
Ultimately, she safely rescued an orange kitten from the tree by sending itdown to Phawat waiting below, while she herself ended up stuck in the tree,unable to get down.
Phawat laughed, breaking his usual gentlemanly demeanor, then went tofetch a wooden ladder for the young woman to climb down by herselfbecause the young man was too shy to touch her as she was a lady. After the party, Phawat returned home, unable to sleep as thoughts ofKhemika filled his mind. He realized instantly that he had fallen in love withKhemika. Therefore, he decided to earnestly pursue her.
After several years of courtship, Khemika finally agreed to be hisgirlfriend, and accepted the engagement, amidst the joy of relatives andfriends at Phawat's birthday celebration.
Pharan, in his spiritual form, saw the pained look in Chayot's eyes as hestood at a distance. His red, sorrowful eyes gazed at Khemika and Phawatas if holding back. He began to understand more.
Chayot loved Khemika...perhaps he loved her even before Phawat did.
Phawat and Khemika had been together for six years and planned tomarry after Khemika completed her master's degree. Phawat's father evenfavored his future daughter-in-law, investing in building an eggshell-colored wooden house for their marital home. Phawat and Khemika oftenspent their free time there, with Chayot and another maid accompanyingthem to prevent any gossip from the villagers about impropriety.
Only three months remained before Khemika would graduate, and theirdream of marriage was coming ever closer. However, one day, Dr. Phawat,who was the provincial doctor, was transferred to a military camp on theborder due to ongoing border conflicts, and he couldn't refuse the orders ofhis superiors.
The wedding had to be postponed indefinitely.
"Yot, take care of Khemika for me, I'll come back as soon as I can."
Phawat told his younger brother.
"Phii Wat, don't worry, I will look after Khem forever; this is something Ican do." Chayot replied with a smile, but Phawat didn't suspect theunderlying implications of those words. He simply hugged his brother onelast time.
After that day, Chayot began to approach Khemika, taking on Phawat'srole. He was straightforward about his feelings, confessing that he hadloved her since high school, but Khemika was steadfast in her love forPhawat, unable to return Chayot's feelings, no matter how much he tried towin her over.
Every day, Khemika seemed to live just for the letters from her lover.
Both she and Phawat kept in constant contact through letters for nearly twoyears.
However, Khemika, despite her lively nature, had a frail body, and herlonging and worry for Phawat led to her health deteriorating significantly.
Chayot watched in pain as Khemika coughed up blood.
But after two years, the letters that used to come regularly suddenlystopped. No matter how many letters Khemika sent, there was no reply.
Four years passed before a letter from the Army, addressed to Khemika,arrived at her home:
"Dear Ms Khemika, fiancée of Dr. Phawat, we regret to inform you thatDr. Phawat has perished in a bombing incident..." Before she could finishreading, Khemika coughed up blood, and the maid beside her screamed inshock. Eventually, Khemika was rushed to the hospital.
Chayot drove to the hospital upon hearing the news, his face filled withhorror at Khemika's sudden deterioration upon receiving the Army's letter.
Chayot intended to use this opportunity to change Khemika's mind,hoping that with Phawat gone, she wouldn't have to suffer waiting anymoreand could start anew with him.
However, the outcome was the opposite. Khemika went into shock andsuffered a heart attack, dying that very evening.
Chayot felt as if he had been struck in the head by a hammer, confusedand dizzy, before his heart shattered upon seeing Khemika's lifeless body.
The young man collapsed, crying as if to bring down the heavens, for hehad never anticipated this outcome.
He had never thought that this situation would lead to Khemika's death.
Ironically, no one could have foreseen that Phawat, whom everyonethought was dead, would return, on the very last day of Khemika's funeralrites...
Pharan could feel Phawat's heart-wrenching pain through the spirit'seyes, seeing despair with no way out in those grief-stricken eyes, leading toan uncontrollable surge of emotion within him.
Pharan steadied his meditation, moving past the sorrow of the past tofocus on unfolding the rest of the story.
It turned out that Chayot had forged the letter to deceive the family andKhemika so that he could marry her in place of Phawat. Additionally, allthe letters Phawat sent back were intercepted by Chayot, who had bribedthe postman to destroy them before they reached anyone else.
"How could you do something so despicable, Yot? I'm your brother!
Khem is your friend!" Phawat yelled through tears, clutching the forgedletter tightly in his hand, his tall frame trembling with anger.
If it hadn't been his own flesh and blood before him, Phawat swore hewould have killed him with his own hands. Chayot was kneeling on the floor, crying like a madman, hands claspedin prayer, repeating apologies that were now utterly pointless.
Phawat looked at his brother with bloodshot eyes, his voice quivering ashe spoke, "All the inheritance, everything that was mine, I bequeath to you.
From now on, you and I, we're no longer brothers. I'm going back to themilitary camp. If I die, let me die as a ghost without a brother. Don't botherbringing my body back for ceremonies. This family can have you, but itwon't have me."
From that day forward, Phawat could not bear to look at his brother'sface, but he also couldn't bring himself to throw him out to fend for himself.
So, he decided to leave instead.
The spirit of Pharan observed his past self, bowing to apologize to hisparents for the last time before his physical body called back his spirit, andhe slowly opened his eyes.
In the darkness, only the light from the lantern illuminated the room. In the distance, there was the figure of a young woman in a white blouse and traditional skirt, sitting serenely, waiting for him to wake.
"Hello, master, my name is Kae, I am Khem's mother. Thank you for
letting me come up." T he female spirit said. A child ghost had been the one to invite her, saying it was the master's order.
Pharan's expression softened slightly, as he could guess who she was. He nodded in acknowledgment. This spirit was one that lingered to protect her son with a pure heart, possessing only minor powers, not considered a threat.
"Do you know the ghost of the man in the khaki uniform who's been following Khem?" He asked politely. This was why he had instructed
Thong to bring her up.
Kae nodded in response.
"I know, that man has been protecting Khem from the ghost of Madam Ramphueng all this time." Pharan didn't respond, his sharp eyes fixed on the female spirit, signaling her to continue.
"Madam Ramphueng's ghost comes from four hundred years ago, from the time before the abolition of slavery. I don't know the other details, but I know she harbors intense resentment towards the family. She curses and pursues the lives of all male descendants born into the family, turning them into her spirit slaves."
"..."
"The reason Jett sees so many spirits following Khem is partly because of these deceased descendants." Pharan furrowed his brows slightly. Since Khemjira arrived here, apart from Chayot's ghost and Khemjira's mother, he hadn't sensed any other spirits.
Chayot's ghost isn't one that follows Khemjira's life. It doesn't possess the power to rally all the spirits of the forest or cause the bus Khemjira was on to nearly have an accident. But there's another ghost not present here.
And where could it be?
Pharan closed his eyes to meditate once more, focusing his spirit to search for the malevolent ghost. His spirit extended out from the Thai house in all eight directions, rushing into the dense forest, before he had to open his eyes abruptly when he saw something.
Pharan took a pot that had been blessed and placed it in front of Khemjira's mother's spirit, saying:
"Hide inside for now, it's dangerous outside." The spirit of Khae Khai looked into the eyes of the young man before her as if under a spell. She felt no fear or suspicion at his words, willingly stepping into the pot.
Pharan closed the lid and held it in one hand, the other gripping the lantern as he walked to a room where ancestral portraits and bone urns were kept. He placed the pot in an empty spot, raised his hands in a respectful gesture above his head, asking his ancestors to look after this spirit, before turning to leave.
Pharan then took a large bundle of sacred thread downstairs, tying it around the trunks of the tamarind trees, one after another, that encircled the house, then returned to the altar with the Buddha statue to light a large candle that stood in front of it.
Suddenly, a fierce wind began to blow without cause, a large flock of owls circled in the sky, some perched on the house's roof, screeching in unison as if to disrupt the concentration.
Eyes the color of midnight stared at the candle flame, using the fire element concentration technique to keep the flame steady, unaffected by the wind. Once he had focused his mind, he clasped his hands together, moving his lips in a chant.
"Saratchang, Sasenang, Saphantung, Narinthang..."