GODDESSBLESSYOUFROMDEATH, Case File 35: The Spirit that Got Away

The body fell, hitting something hard, causing Singha to groan softly. The wooden plank covering wasn’t wide enough for him to land properly; it grazed his skin, leaving a long trail of blood. The pain in his back indicated he didn’t just fall on the ground but onto something else too.

“Phii Singha!!! Phii Singha, are you okay? Where does it hurt? Phii, please answer me!”

The loud shouts from above made Singha open his eyes to see Thup peering into the pit with concern. This pit was probably about three meters deep, wide enough to throw a corpse in, whether human or animal.

“I’m fine! Go get that guy to help!” Singha yelled back, grateful that when he was dragged down, he managed to grab a rope along with him. Now, if anyone was unsafe, it would be Thup still up there, with that damned ghost, “Throw down the flashlight, and watch your back!”

“I’ll get Charn to help, just wait here, Phii.” The young man looked like he was about to cry before he ran off.

“Stuck in this hole, where else could I go?” Singha muttered to himself. He picked up the flashlight Thup threw down and turned it on, lighting up the area, “Damn it.”

Singha’s suspicion was correct; this was the only spot in the house with a carpet, which should have been in the living room. A carpet shouldn’t be placed where it would get the dirtiest unless something needed covering, like the dozens of skeletons now under his feet.

Thup looked left and right, conflicted. If he left, those ghosts would surely attack Singha, but staying wouldn’t help either. Just as he was about to open the door to go outside, the ghost of a mother and her child appeared, blocking his way.

‘You all must die here!!’

   “If I’m not there, the ritual won’t succeed! And if the ritual doesn’t succeed, it means you won’t get any offerings at all!! You’ll have to go back to being a low-class ghost, wandering around as before!” Thup, with both hands still clutching his amulets tightly, tries to keep his courage up. He could feel his whole body trembling like a baby bird, but if he were to show fear and do nothing, not only would he be in danger, but Singha would be too.

The door slowly creaked open, and Thup saw Charn sitting clutching the steering wheel inside the car. But he wasn’t alone; the back seat, the hood, and the roof were all covered with spirits clinging on, looking at Charn with hungry eyes.

“Why is Thup taking so long in there, and why is this damn AC so cold? I thought I turned it off already.” Charn complained before rubbing his arms repeatedly. He had been feeling cold and a shiver down his spine for quite some time now. But when he looked around, there was nothing, so he just stared ahead at the abandoned house. “What’s Thup doing standing there and not coming out?”

Charn noticed Thup standing at the door but not stepping out. He decided to open the car door, get out, wave, and call out to Thup.

“Hey, Thup! Why aren’t you coming out?!” Charn yelled, but what he got in return was Thup waving back and saying something he couldn’t hear. “What the heck, come out quickly, I need to get back to work!”

Charn approached closer to call out to the kid in the abandoned house. Just as he was about to step forward, what should have been solid ground under his foot turned soft, causing him to fall into a pile of mud.

“Ouch!! Damn it, what rotten luck layered upon rotten luck!” Chan groaned from below, as he placed his hand on what he thought was the ground, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was something he was familiar with from his days as a medical student. Under his palm, he glanced, “Eek!!!” His dark eyes shook with fear.

The skeletons piled up, indistinguishable from one another, made Chan’s hair stand on end. He quickly got up and made a respectful gesture. Even though he had studied and encountered cadavers before, those were situations where they had paid respects before proceeding with anything. Now, he was standing on someone’s bones, not knowing how he got there, and importantly, he was sure he had just stepped on and broken part of a bone.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to.” Charn tried to climb up from a hole as deep as his height, but because of the falling dirt, every time he tried to grab something, it made climbing out much harder.

‘Fire, fire, fire, fire’

   The small voice in front made Charn’s heart beat like a drum. No one. Had fallen with him. No one was there before, so behind him now… V!… ne…

!!!

Suddenly, he felt heat on the right side of his chest. When he looked down, he saw something burning there. A few seconds later, flames slowly appeared with scorching heat burning through the fabric onto his skin.

“Ow!! Ouch, hot, hot, hot!!”

‘Aah, aah, aaah, aah’

   Chan tried to take off his shirt; he started to smell burnt flesh, the burning sensation made him furious to the point of losing his mind. The nerve-wracking laughter from a girl whose body was charred black like a burnt log made him feel almost as scared as he was mad.

“Phii Charn, reach out your hand!!” Hearing a voice from above, Charn reached out without thinking, but as he was about to be pulled up, a hand grabbed his leg first.

‘Not going!! Burn, burn, burn, get burned!!’

   “Don’t mess with me, you brat! Get away, get away, get away!!” With the pulling force and fear, Charn kicked at the burnt face until that small hand let go. He propelled himself upwards with the help of Thup’s pulling strength, finally. He got out of that dreadful pit, “I’m not staying here, damn it!”

“Wait, Phii Charn. We need to go help Phii Singha!”

“Shouldn’t we help ourselves first? Do you know what I just encountered, Thup!!”

“There’s only one ghost in that hole, but if you go back to the car without me or Phii Singha, you’ll encounter hundreds of ghosts for sure!!”

“Don’t you dare deceive me, you son of a dog!!” Charn looked seriously at Thup’s face, before turning to look at his car. Even though he couldn’t see anything, he felt that the earlier feeling of cold and heat wasn’t because of the car’s air conditioning, “Hey! Wait, is that really you, Thup? Wait up!”

Charn couldn’t help but follow the young man into the house, where he encountered ghosts inside, and outside too, but at least if he stood here, he’d face the ghost alone, without anyone to help. He wouldn’t stand for that!!

Singha used his flashlight to shine on all the skeletons in the pit, trying not to move unless necessary because it would disturb the site. Judging from the skeletons, these people were likely part of a ritual here rather than early victims of a sacrifice, or perhaps it was still in the experimental stage since each skull had cracks from being hit from behind. The killer probably chose victims based on their birthdates, then attacked when they were alone and dragged them back here.

!!!

The sound of something being dragged from above made Singha look up.

“Thup!” No response came back. Just from this, he knew that whatever was up there wasn’t the person he called out to, “Well, let it know that a human will fight a ghost.”

Singha brushed back his black hair, stained with dust and dirt, tore off the end of his shirt, tied one end to a rope and the other to the flashlight. The young inspector stretched his shoulder muscles slightly before starting to swing the rope in a circle, and then threw it upwards. He remembered he had moved the table not far away, and if this rope could hook onto the table leg, he might be able to climb up. Even if it couldn’t support his weight all the way, at least if he could get halfway up, he could probably jump the rest of the way.

The first two attempts ended in failure. Singha breathed out slowly, then inhaled deeply again to focus. On the third try, he used more force than the first two, and when he felt the tension in the rope, a smile crept onto his lips. Without hesitation, he started climbing the rope, using his feet against the dirt wall to lessen the weight as much as he could, until halfway up. As he was about to reach for the rope again, light from above was blocked by a shadow. Looking up, Singha saw that the ghost girl Thup once drew was standing, bending down to look at him, holding a needle and red thread in her hand. Her once blank eyes had turned black, indicating her intense anger. Her face twisted into a grotesque smile as she tried to crawl down into the pit on all fours.

“Damn it!” Singha was caught in the middle of a decision. If he let go, he would fall back down. But if he kept holding on, who knew what that ghost could do.

Suddenly, there was the voice of Thup calling out, his tone firm, before the sacred necklace floated from his hand towards the increasingly powerful spirit girl. He didn’t want to think about what ritual the person controlling her was performing.

Scream!!!

Singha saw the ghost in front of him disappear along with the items about to fall into the pit, including the shirt he had tied to the flashlight and the rope, which was about to break. He had to take the risk! As the fabric tore apart, Singha used the force from his feet, still planted on the dirt, to propel himself up, almost reaching the edge of the pit, but not quite.

“Damn it!”

!!!

“Got you!” Phii Charn grabbed Singha’s other arm quickly. Thup caught Singha’s hand, saving him before he could fall.

“What the hell is this! There are skeletons here, whose house is this, Jason from Friday the 13th?” Charn exclaimed loudly when he saw the skeletons below!! Before grabbing Singha’s other arm and pulling him up with force.

Singha was lying on top of Thup, the rapid heartbeat from the young man’s rising and falling chest made him sigh in relief, preferring to be with the living at least.

Thup was panting from both fear and exhaustion, mixed together, but he was relieved to have saved Singha in time.

“Not bad.” said the person lying on his chest, making Thup open his eyes to look, and he realized how close they were, their faces not even an inch apart.

“Ph…Phii, are you okay?”

“Got saved by a puppy just in time.” Singha ruffled Thup’s soft hair into an even messier state before standing up to his full height. “Let’s get out of here; we’ll deal with the rest later.”

“Agreed!” Chan quickly responded and was the first to run outside.

“You’re hurt, Phii.” Thup quickly stood up, noticing blood seeping from Singha’s abdomen onto his shirt.

“You won’t die.” Singha said as he grabbed a picture frame from the kitchen shelf, then led Thup by the hand out of the house.

As soon as their feet stepped outside, the brilliant sunlight filtered through the gaps in the tree branches. The warmth of the sun replaced the darkness and cold that gradually faded away. When they reached the car, Thup turned back to look at the house once more.

“I’ll be back.”

Singha didn’t object when the young man said that, because, after all, he too would have to return here to deal with the various pieces of evidence they found. This case wouldn’t conclude with a report of paranormal hauntings but would involve catching the murderous father and son to face justice in prison.

The picture frame, now thrown into the back of the car, reflected the sunlight. It was a family photo with parents, a daughter, and a son, all smiling happily. No one would imagine that behind those smiles lay madness and bloodshed, all because of the word ‘belief.’

An abandoned mill not far from the city’s graveyard stood unused and ownerless for quite some time. No one would think that it was currently being used for human sacrificial rituals.

The lifeless bodies of two were hanging from the beams, similar to Dear, Jump, Darin, Lieutenant Khem, and King, who were still alive but barely breathing. Darin, fully conscious, was also hung by her wrists. In the wide space in front, there was a yantra drawn in blood, with seven animal head effigies placed at various points around it, connected by sacred threads to the people sitting there. An elderly hand was counting a rosary made from human teeth until it stopped as the sunlight began to pour in.

“Go!” The commanding shout made all the wandering spirits and ghosts disappear in the blink of an eye. Blood from the mouth was spat onto a skull in front, with frustration. Angry eyes glanced up at the many animals whose throats had been slit for the spirits he had summoned. Blood slowly flowed to the ground, pooling at his toes.

“Where’s the effect you promised, father?”

“Prepare the ritual ground; that kid will definitely come back today.” he said with droplets of sweat.

“And if he doesn’t make it in time for the start of the ritual, what then? We could still find another Saturday, right?” Bom, sharpening a knife, glanced at his father who stood up. The orange robe had turned red from the thickness of blood. Gone was the man in the yellow cloth, now there was only a man soaked in the act of taking lives.

“He must come back.”

“What’s so special about that kid? Just because he’s some ghost-seeing brat. Nothing special about him.”

“I don’t just want him. I want something else too.”

“What is it?”

“The spirit that got away, is now haunting me.” Blood was wiped from the palm of a revered figure. Now, the smile and the look of kindness were gone from his face, leaving only a cruelty devoid of humanity.

“His mother’s spirit.”

 

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