Chapter 15: Chapter 14: The Sixth Sense

On Wednesday afternoon, a young detective stood in front of the house of James, the first missing victim. From the front of the house you could hear the heartbreaking scream of his family. This was a not very large semi-detached house, so the neighbors gathered around to watch them, making him have to ask his subordinates to get them out of there.

“Ready boss.”

"Good." King entered the house and looked at everything carefully, but suddenly his shoulder received a strong blow... and the person who dared to do this could not be anyone else but...

“Clumsy,” Say said before passing. “If you're going to stand around pretentiously, you might as well stay outside,” followed by Darin telling him, “Don't let anyone in the house until the forensics team has finished their work.” King shook his head slightly, restraining himself, and gave orders to the others: “If anyone finds a clay doll made in the shape of an animal head, please let me know.”

"Understood."

King followed Darin and Say up the stairs. Upon asking James' parents, they told him that no one had entered their son's room yet, so all the evidence was probably still there. Say opened the door wide, a putrid smell wafting through, and the three of them had to turn their heads to cover their noses. Say looked into the room, and the stench, little by little, faded away.

He entered slowly, with Darin clinging to his arm, no matter how much he asked him to let go, he didn't, and since they have been friends for a long time, he put up with it. “I won't let you go until you're sure there's nothing.”

“So how am I going to work?”

"Come in first and then we'll talk."

“Are you still afraid of ghosts?” King asked.

“Could you mind your own business, Detective?”

“Damn, aren't you being too harsh?” Say pretended to be surprised, before entering the victim's bedroom, while listening to the laughter coming from the throat of the person behind him.

The state of the bedroom is normal for a teenager. There is nothing special. Darin removed his hand from Say's arm before turning to look around, rubbing his arm.

“Don't you get goosebumps or feel cold?” He turned to ask Say, who walked over to open the curtains. Although this room seemed normal, it was devoid of light, plus it felt stuffier and too dark to breathe easily.

“If the deceased disappeared from the house or here, it would have made no difference. What should we look for?” He said before pulling a book off the shelf and looking at it.

“August talked about a doll, a clay doll?”

“He sent one for me to examine.”

“What was the doll like?” Darin turned his head and looked back and forth between King and Say. Each person did their own work without looking at each other.

“A clay doll with a tiger head,” the young detective explained further.

“A clay doll?”

“He said to search each of the victims' houses. If we find them, we must take them to the station.”

“What kind of doll is that?” Darin muttered, before continuing to scan the room for anything unusual. He walked towards the bed. But he immediately had to cover his nose with his hand, because he smelled a nauseating smell, which made him want to find out where it came from. As Darin lifted the pillow and duvet, he suddenly felt like…someone was watching him? He turned to look at the head of the bed, but found nothing. Then he began to collect all the cushions, lifting them one by one.

“Hehehehe!!”

A loud laugh came from the head of the bed, which made Darin stop and lift the pillow slowly and then look again, because he was sure he had heard something, but when he searched, he saw no one. He thought that maybe someone just wanted to play a joke on him.

“My God, did you hear something just now?”

"What did you hear?"

"Oh nothing." Darin pursed his lips tightly before looking back at the bed again, “Amen. I'm not trying to hurt you, I'm just here to help you. Do not be afraid. Don't be afraid,” Darin murmured softly to himself, with his hands raised between his eyebrows, he took a deep breath to boost his morale, before he stopped searching above the bed, and instead just crouched down. He took a flashlight and turned it on, he began to search slowly, from the headboard, through the middle, and to the end of the bed. Suddenly, his eyes met those of a clay doll, which was in front of him. The body was distorted and the head…

“Singhraath.”

Bam!!!

The lights in the room went out and the door slammed shut with a loud noise. The curtains also closed, until the entire room was dark again, leaving only the light of Say and Darin's flashlight, who was startled before turning around to look around, seeing that the situation was becoming increasingly ever more strange. Then he looked under the bed again, and reached out to grab the wrist so he could get out of there as quickly as possible.

But when he looked again, what was under the bed was no longer just a clay doll, but the face of a young woman in front of him. The girl's face was pale, her eyes were sunken, and you could see them all the way down. Slowly, her lips curved to smile at him, lips the size of a normal human. There was a long scar that reached to the back of his ear. His face was barely an inch from Darin's and he was tilting his head, saying, “Take it. If you want it, take it.”

The pale hand pushed the clay doll in front of Darin's face, and he suddenly felt like he was suffocating. She felt like she wanted to cry, but she couldn't even make a sound, the tears were running down her cheeks making them feel wet. But I couldn't raise my hand to clean it.

“He, he, take it, take me with you.”

At the moment when that terrifying face was about to approach, someone pulled on his ankles causing his entire body to be exposed to the light again.

“Why are you crying?” Say asked in shock, who walked away for a moment and opened the curtains again, seeing that Darin had been hiding under the bed for too long without moving. So he decided to take his friend by the ankles to get him out.

Darin felt the heaviness in his body disappear, he quickly stood up and ran. He frantically left the room without hearing any protests from the two men he left behind.

"What happened?" Say looked under the bed before using his flashlight, there he found a doll, so he took it out and put it in an evidence bag, then he left the room, since that was what they had gone looking for, and if already I had it, what was the point of staying there?

…

“It's the dolls that make you want to find them.”

“That means that in the houses of the other victims, we may also find them.”

When they left the house, King went to talk to the deceased's family, while Say went to the car, as he saw that his friend was sitting inside looking panicked.

"What happened?"

“Get that out of here,” Darin said, looking at the evidence bag in Say's hand. “Get him out of here Say. Take that doll. Otherwise, he will definitely come back.”

"What the hell are you talking about?"

“If I told you I saw a ghost, would you believe me? If I told you that this doll was not normal, what would you say? I ask you please Say. Just take it out of here, or leave it in the forensic vehicle and take me to the temple.” Normally, Say would scold his friend for talking like that, but seeing Darin's condition, he didn't dare say anything to him. He looked more terrified than ever. The expression on his face aroused sympathy in him.

"OK, wait a minute." Say got out of the car to take the doll to the forensic van, and told the team that he would look for it later, since they now had to go to the next victim's house. Say then returned to the car before showing both of her hands to Darin. “Are you satisfied yet? And which temple do you want to go to?”

“Well, here is a temple nearby. Just take me there for a while.”

“Okay, as you wish,” Say left the place where they were, heading towards the temple. He remembered that they had passed one on the way home, and if he remembered correctly, the temple was called Santithamwararam.

…

King was questioning James' parents and older sister, to see if they knew anything about the doll they had found, like where it came from and how it ended up under the bed.

“Did you find anything else, officer?” the mother asked through tears, her eyes swollen and red from her son's departure.

“We didn’t find any abnormalities other than the wrist.”

"A doll? “What kind of doll?” said James' father, who was supporting his wife.

“A clay doll with a lion's head. Can you tell me if you have ever seen that doll? Or do you know where he got it from?

"Don't know. But before it disappeared, it seemed strange. He locked himself in the room. He rarely ate fish, and once he did, he vomited everything up. “We thought he was stressed about the college entrance exam, he and I tried to prepare a light meal and put it in front of the room.”

“And before that, did he have any strange behavior? Or did they meet someone strange?”

Both James' father and mother shook their heads and hugged each other tightly, but the older sister who was standing looked as if she wanted to say something.

“Well… James had talked to me before about his fear of taking the entrance exam. He was afraid of not getting into the desired college, but he said he would still try, he said he would work hard to achieve it. I wasn't sure if I would get it, but I wasn't going to object. One day I came down in the middle of the night and saw James standing in front of the wall, mumbling something I didn't know what it was. When I got closer to hear better, I could hear it was a song.”

"Prayers?" King asked again.

“I can't remember everything. But I remember the first chorus.”

"What did he say?" King grabbed a notebook and opened it, preparing to take notes.

“ Ji Jeruni, Chit Tang, Jetasi Thang, Rupang , I heard that.”

King wrote it on a piece of paper as James' older sister had said. When he finished scoring, the wind howled so much that he had to turn to look at the second-story window. The moment the colored curtains moved, he saw a faint white light pass by and the shadow of a woman appeared, standing and looking down.

When the cloth flew past again, the woman disappeared.

"Thanks for your cooperation. If we make any progress, I will let you know immediately.” King took his leave before ordering his subordinates to prepare to go to the next house. Although in his heart, he still felt strange because of the events that occurred in this case.

….

A luxurious white car stopped in front of the shrine of the Shantithamwara Ram temple. When Say turned off the engine, Darin hurriedly opened the door and got out of the car without hesitation. He entered and sat down to pay his respects to the great golden Buddha image before him, with such trepidation that the person following him could only protest.

“Would you like to continue with those tangled stories? Monks like to hear new things,” Say said and then sat down next to him.

“I don't know, right now I just need a place to anchor my mind.”

“Do you want to make merit or not?” A deep voice from behind made the two turn to look “Reverend Father! I will make merit. I just saw a ghost. What should I do? Someone is following me. Father, can you serve me holy water? ”. Darin said hurriedly, impatiently.

A sixty-year-old monk entered the hall with a smile on his face before sitting on the seat in front of him.

“Calm down, my friend. Ghosts are spirits. A soul of a dead person is a dead soul, and is not a living being. And that's why you can't follow anyone wherever they go. How could I?”

“I really saw a very scary woman.”

"Okay, then I'll pour holy water on you." But it was one more act to raise the young man's morale. "Now, no matter what you have found, put your hands together." Darin immediately clasped his hands between his eyebrows before lowering his head to prepare to receive the holy water. The cold water that poured onto his skin helped gradually cool Darin's hot heart. Then, he let out a sigh. He prostrated himself and worshiped the Buddha again. “Very good, everything is ready. But where do they come from?”

“From a nearby town. Thank you for everything, father.”

“From Nanganri?”

"No sir. “We are forensic scientists who came to investigate a case in a nearby town.”

“Has the Reverend Father been here long?”

"It has been many years. I became abbot here.”

"Oh that's good. I will come often to have holy water poured on me, because I don't know what else I will encounter during this time.”

“Come and make merits. When you have free time, you can just come sit, walk and meditate to calm your mind in this temple.”

“I will, Father,” Darin continued the conversation for a moment before saying he would leave. Meanwhile, he saw an image of Buddha posing in a pavilion not far away, so he asked to walk to make merit and leave all the coins he had in alms in the bowl on the side. He took out all the coins before dropping them into the silver-colored alms bowl in front of the Buddha statue, and raised his hands in a strange greeting: “Amen, I hope I never see anything like that again. May my life pass peacefully without anything bothering me.”

When he finished, he walked towards the car with a calmer mind. Although he was still somewhat afraid, he thought that coming to make merit and pay homage to the Buddha would help make things better. But who knew that not everything would be resolved just by earning merit?