Chapter 8: Chapter 7: Temple

The atmosphere inside the car was so quiet that the only sound was that of people breathing, just two people. Thup looked ahead before quickly looking down at the ground. The entrance door of the temple was decorated with beautiful painted designs along with letters saying the name “Wat Shantithamwararam”. But what Thup's eyes saw was not only the beautiful Sambhavesi, but the ghosts that are in the same condition as death, crawling and some floating in front of the car. When the car entered, some spirits slowly fled, until the car stopped in front of the chapel. The golden roof shone brighter in the light, the temple was very beautiful, and the area was large.

“Are you going to wait in the car?” Singha asked, as he unbuckled his seat belt. The seated young man slowly raised his head, and extended his hand to grab the inspector's shirt. Although the car's air conditioning was cold, both his forehead and the young man's temples were dotted with sweat.

“Inspector, can I ask you something?” Thup's shaking hands and scared expression made things suspicious.

"That?"

“Can you please not leave me alone?” The young man raised his head and looked at Singha with pleading eyes.

“If you don't hurry up and follow me, I will really leave you,” Singha finished speaking, got out of the car and left. The young man took a deep breath, and ran after him, until he caught up with him.

The young man walked holding the other's shirt the entire way.

In the afternoon there are not many people around the temple. Silence and religious places go hand in hand. The wind blows through the leaves.

Some branches swayed, others rubbed against each other until they screamed. It is considered a place of tranquility. For people who need shelter it is also the final place for the dead. All the way through the temple, Thop could only look at the monkeys' feet. Because just by looking up, he could see the spirits that refused to disappear, reappearing around the temple area, some crawling on the ground, some floating endlessly. Grandpa once said that the soul that is still alive is the soul that has not yet found peace. There may be things that are still of concern or impurities that cannot be removed. These souls can still find a way to break their wishes, but some of them still live because of revenge, others do not wish to be reborn, and want to be avoided.

Singha suddenly stopped walking, causing the distracted figure to crash into his back.

The young man walked with his chin almost touching his chest, and did not notice when the other stopped.

"Oh I'm sorry."

“If you walk like that, everyone will think you're attracted to me.”

“Inspector, don't say things like that! If someone hears it, they may misunderstand.” Thup quickly looked up, turning left and right with a panicked expression.

"That's silly. You are stuck to me, you are almost like an extension of my body. Besides, if this world has a soul like you say, then I have one too, right? A soul would not attack this body, if there are others, don't worry. Has no sense."

Thup could only blink. Because I've never seen anyone say anything like that before. Is that why the ghosts didn't come near him? He really admired the inspector, because he saw how the surrounding spirits sought refuge when they saw him pass.

“Khaoyom, what are you doing here?” A monk of about forty or fifty years old passed by and came out of a cubicle to greet them.

“Blessings, Father. I have something to ask."

"A query? What is the problem?"

“During this time, new monks entered the temple. Or did they accept new children here?”

“Monks? Um, no, sir. It is not yet the summer ordination period for new novices, and during this time no one has come to be ordained.” The monk walked in front of the two. “You'll probably have to ask the Vaiya Vackar at the temple.” He said as they walked leaving the temple area, and heading towards the chapel. “As for the new temple children, I don't know.”

“So where do I find it?”

"Right now? If he’s not talking to the abbot, he’s probably in the asylum, Yom.” The monk finished giving directions to the asylum before entering the chapel. to carry out monastic duties.

“Thank you,” Singha raised his hand in polite respect before walking away.

“Is there an asylum here too? How nice." He barely heard the voice of the young man behind him. But he didn't pay much attention to it, when suddenly the hand holding the hem of his shirt jerked, it was so strong that August had to stop walking immediately.

“What's wrong, Thup?”

“W…wait a minute.” Singha turned to look and frowned. But when he saw that Thup was sweating profusely, he lowered his eyes and felt a slight tremor, his expression seemed scared as if he was seeing something. This made Singha let out a sigh.

“This is really annoying.”

He pulled the young man's hand away from his own shirt, causing the boy to startle so much he almost screamed. Because if August left him behind, this would definitely not be a good thing. The image in front of him was not a ghost like in dramas where it was just a pale and thin body with long hair covering the face and eyes, but it was a young man with a portly build, on the side of his skull there was sunken almost to the middle of his face, causing his eyes to protrude from the other side, his lip was torn, also his ear, the teeth that should have been there had disappeared, exposing the entire oral cavity, and the Adam's apple. Adam was soaked in scarlet blood. The body is not distorted. The original design is maintained. His blue shirt and navy pants looked like a torn uniform, making it almost impossible to tell. It could be assumed that some kind of accident had happened to this man, and his remaining eye was staring at Thup.

'You saw me... you see me, right?'

The cold voice gave Thup goosebumps, his legs could barely move and August slapped his hand away. So what would I do? What should you do?

As he stood there, stunned, Singha's hand grabbed his wrist, before walking steadily forward. The image in front of him, he just looked at his hand, watched as August held his wrist. Until they reached a small shop where alms were left, and Thup realized that no one was following him anymore.

“Oh, young man. You came a little late, but there was some green curry left that I can offer you, do you want it?” Said a middle-aged woman who came in and greeted them.

"Thank you. Thup, eat some.” Singha said to the person behind him.

“It's okay, I don't want anything, thank you.” Although he was very hungry, it was late, and he still had nothing in his stomach, Thup had to refuse for fear of wasting the young inspector's time.

"Well. I am looking for the Vaiya Vackar of the temple. Do you know where it is?”

“Oh, have you come to see him? He’s sitting there eating bananas.” Khun Pa pointed to a person wearing a white shirt and sitting at a table on the other side of the door.

"Thank you. And can you get this child to eat something?”

"Hey?" Thup bowed to the person who spoke immediately.

“If you're hungry, eat something, I won't walk away.” Singha finished speaking, then let go of Thup's wrist and walked towards the target immediately.

“Come on, young man, sit down. I'll go get you some green curry noodles. “Sit down first.”

"Thank you Aunt."

Singha came and sat opposite the uncle who was eating bananas from a container. When he sat down, the person in front of him immediately smiled and greeted him friendly.

“Are you coming to eat, young man? “It’s probably all over by now.”

“No, thanks uncle,” Singha showed the man his police badge, and then introduced himself: “I'm a police officer and I'd like to ask some questions about the case I'm working on. Uncle, isn't it a bother?”

"Of course not. “Ask son.”

“I wanted to know if they have received new children or employees at the temple this last month. Or... was there some strange event?

”

“Hmmm… We haven't welcomed any new children into the official temple. Nor employees. All the deacons who are there are not new. As for the rest of the people, there has been no change for a long time.” Singha nodded. “As for the strange things. Let me think first, young man. Hmmmm, yes, there was something. On Wednesday, someone came to the temple and suddenly started making a big fuss, saying that a ghost was lying, ended up overturning the pot of green curry, made a big mess. There weren't many people there that day, and luckily we had a garrison to replace it, otherwise we were going to look bad.”

“So, man, do you know any of these people?” Singha showed him the photos of the seven victims, which he placed on the table.

“Oh, this person's name is Tee, he always came to the temple regularly after his wife died. As for this girl, she is Kaew, she likes to come to play at the temple regularly because her house is opposite. This person, it is Chao Chom, used to come to play with the other children of the temple during school holidays and often brought food.”

“Oh, and this is the person who threw the pot of green curry.” Singha looked up when the uncle pointed to the photo of the nineteen-year-old boy. “But what kind of case is this?”

“It's still in the investigation stage, I can't say much yet. If I have more questions, I will come back.” Singha stood up and bowed his head to the person before him. But when he turned to look around, he couldn't find the boy who had been following him. Where had he gone?

….

Thup was holding the bowl of green curry in his hand, which was handed to him by the woman, who was looking at him with a pair of beautiful eyes. He ate everything soon, and when he finished, he noticed that Singha was still talking, and he did not want to disturb him because he did not want to be scolded, so he got up and decided to go alone to wash the dishes, as he looked around and found nothing, he felt somewhat relieved.

Thup dumped the chicken bones into the trash can before reaching out and turning on the water to wash the dishes. As the water ran clear, and hit the white cup, he watched as it changed color, beginning to gurgle red. The young man felt the cup being taken from his hand, and the water dripped all over his face. The moment he turned around, he found the spirit of the man with the crushed skull he had seen earlier, standing less than an inch away. He was so close, he could feel human breathing. He could only stand firm, and suddenly his body began to tremble. He tried to turn his face away so as not to see it and look as normal as possible.

you see me

The small figure bit his lip trying to hold his breath. He started to walk away, but from the corner of his eye, he could still see the ghost who started to go behind him slowly, following him with distorted legs.

The sound was like a flood filling his mouth and he tried to repeat the words the same way. After walking a few steps, Thup felt as if many pairs of eyes were staring at him. He tried to run away, but suddenly his foot tripped on something and he fell to the ground. His palm scraped the rock until he felt a stinging sensation. When he turned around, he found that what followed were all monks with different death conditions. And what he tripped over was not a branch or rock, but the upper part of the human body without a lower part. The upper half's face slowly faded away. Turning until he saw sunken eyes, Thup walked away. The ghost with only the upper part of his body approached.

You saw me

Look at me

aid

look

look

Look at me

Look at me

look

"I do not see them!!"

A pair of palms violently pulled on Thup's ankles, and suddenly, the spirits and relatives in front of him disappeared. The young man was shocked. Tears ran down her cheeks.

“Hey kid.”

"Inspector!!" Thup hurriedly hugged the waist of the person in front of him, forgetting what he had seen. Right now I just wanted a warm hug. The hug of the person who was sure was someone alive, and not a frozen body like the dead.

"What happened to you? “Why are you all wet?”

“Please, just stay like this for a moment.” He could feel his heart beating to the rhythm of a drum, as he rested his head on Singha's body. This is everything I wanted.

After several minutes, the creature that grabbed the boy let go. Then he felt how they lifted him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him towards the car. His downcast attitude and red eyes made it difficult for August not to roll his eyes.

"Hey you hear me? Are you crying so much that your ears are covered? “I told you to extend your hand.” Thup obeyed easily and spread both hands in front of the young inspector, and he grabbed a portable first aid kit from the back seat. Then August began to clean the wound on her beautiful palm. He did it gently.

“It hurts,” the young man murmured.

“You said you were afraid of ghosts, but you still walked alone. Were you not afraid that the ghost would not find you?”

“I just went to wash the dishes.”

“Couldn't you have waited for me?”

“I'm sorry, Inspector.”

“Stop calling me that, or do you want everyone to know who you are with?”

“So what should I call you?”

"You know what my name is?"

“Inspector Singha.”

"Inspector? That is my name?" Sharp eyebrows furrowed together at the boy in front of him. That completely irritated him. “My name is August.”

“Do you want me to just call you by your name?” Singha did not respond. He simply looked at him with a soft look in his eyes. “Oh, can I call you Phi Singha?”

The phone rang, cutting him off before Singha could answer. He put a small bandage on the young man's hand and answered the phone.

[I wanted to let you know that the commander already knows about your case. Because someone informed him that the file had been opened. Then he came to ask me and I had to tell him.]

“Oh, well, okay.”

[I'm letting you know because the Commander sent an investigation team.]

"Shit."

[There is more. The Commander will send King.]

"Fucking idiot!"

[Commander?]

"Also! Damn! That's all!" Singha hung up the phone before leaving the temple, at a speed that exceeds the standard, causing the young man sitting next to him to hurry to collect all the first aid equipment to put on his seat belt.

Really, right now, August scared him as much as ghosts.