The towering trees compacted across the Aokigahara Forest. The sight of it filled me with an unknown emotion. I couldn't move until I heard my name.
"Suriya!"
I snapped back into reality and saw my assistant, Thawan, calling to me.
"Let's hurry and do the ritual, then leave. This place is creeping me out."
We had come to the infamous Aokigahara Forest in Japan, known as a place for suicide. I had come to perform a rite during the Obon Festival, a time when spirits return to their families. But here, in this forest, the suicide ghosts the yūrei used this period to haunt, to hurt the living. My rite was meant to keep that from happening until the festival ended.
"Hey, Suriya," Thawan asked, uneasy, "are you sure you'll be okay performing without a deity?"
"I'll be fine this is a easy rite so I don't need a deity; one will choose me when the time is right."
The sun set, and the moon glimmered faintly through the trees. The ritual was about to begin.
I knelt on the damp soil and placed the offerings rice and incense sticks carefully before me. My hands clasped together as I lowered my forehead to the dirt and began to chant.
My breath steadied. My mind cleared.
"Nam-khon… nam-khon… phra-chan… gim-ot…"
Each word dripped like water falling into a deep well. The rhythm held steady, powerful, yet fragile as if one wrong note could shatter it.
A chill swept my spine. My voice picked up pace, sharp and urgent.
"Esho marath… pra-chon sim ta-run…"
The air thickened. The candles sputtered, flames pulling and bending as if dragged by invisible hands. A cold, shallow gust slithered across the back of my neck.
Something was there.
The forest fell into silence. Too silent.
"How is that possible?" I whispered. "No yūrei should be out now. Did the rite fail?"
Then dread clawed into me. This wasn't a yūrei. It was something greater.
"Suriya," Thawan whispered, his voice shaking, "there's… something looking at us."
My head snapped up. On the tree branches, half swallowed by the dark, two glowing red eyes burned. They didn't blink. They didn't move. They only watched.
The sight rooted me where I knelt, my body screaming to run.
"The rite is done," I forced out, my voice trembling. "We're leaving."
I grabbed Thawan's hand and pulled him into a sprint. We didn't look back. We didn't breathe until the trees swallowed those red eyes behind us.
Finally, I thought we had escaped. Relief brushed me thin and brittle.
Suddenly heavy footsteps for the tree clusters appeared.
"It's here."
"Thawan...run! This thing is far greater in power."
"Suriya, please...stay alive! I'll go get help!"
"Go!" I shouted, shoving him away.
Alone, I clasped my hands again, tighter than before, and forced the chant through trembling lips.
"Nam-khon… esho marath… re ngrn, ch-rn, phra ru!"
My voice wavered, cracked. The footsteps drew closer. Then stopped right behind me.
I didn't dare turn. My chanting became frantic, spilling syllables like a dam breaking.
Silence.
For one heartbeat, I thought it worked.
Then the air shifted. A hand clamped down on my shoulder, crushing, filled with immense force. I gasped, clawing at it, but it was like iron. My vision blurred. My body weakened.
A whisper right against my ear, it was whispering my name, "Suriya".
The whisper pressed closer, the voice sinking straight into me.
Before the world went black.
I remembered what my master said while I was studying to be a shaman. Only a strong deity can make Whispers and chants that bind.
Did a deity choose me. Why one so powerful, why here in this forest.My sight blurred even more as the Whispers in my ear grew stronger.
Unable to keep up with struggling , the hand on my shoulder and my headache.Darkness swallowed me.