Zombie Kiss

Chapter 12

Prologue

2.10 am., a certain radio broadcasting room

"One minute to the final program for tonight!"

The young director shouted from the other side of the mirror to the DJ and staff members on their break. They went on standby at their positions.

"DJ ready."

"Sound ready."

"Countdown, five seconds to broadcast."

"5 4 3 2 1"

"h.e.l.lo, everyone! Welcome to "Scary Shock", a program where you can expect the scariest, spine-chilling stories of all. Me, DJ Thor and my friend DJ Thon are expecting stories from you! Our program"s three hours will not be possible if not for our kind sponsors…"

The two DJs spoke the name of various sponsors and chatted away about random topics. A program that was supposed to be scary wasted half of its time on advertis.e.m.e.nts and nonsense.

"Alright, we"re back to Scary Shock, and this is the final portion of our program for tonight. Let me tell you, this part is getting very interesting."

"Yes, Thor. During the commercial break, someone phoned in. She told us that the story she will tell us really happened to someone close to her. Moreover, it just happened recently!"

The sound department turned on a chilling tune.

"Wow, as expected of our last call for tonight. Let"s hear how scary her story will be!"

The DJ stopped talking as the team transferred the line.

"h.e.l.lo, Miss Ladda."

[h.e.l.lo.]

A sweet voice replied politely.

"Miss Ladda, is your story a first hand experience?"

[Um… yes, it happened to my boyfriend.]

The other end of the line replied softly with a trembling voice, as if whispering a secret. Her tinge of fear made the story even more appealing.

[But Da called not to only tell the story… I wish all of you could help me figure out a solution…]

"Miss Ladda, what would you like to call your story?"

The DJ asked.

[Um, the name is…]

The line went quiet for a second before the woman resumed speaking.

[Angel"s Corpse.]

1

Shinabutr

"Are you not photographing over there, young man?"

An old man in white called out. He seemed to manifest from thin air, old eyes looking at the camera hung on the young man"s neck with curiosity.

Shin clicked his tongue.

"Shinabutr" or "Shin" was a 21st century man who grew up in an urban capitalist society for twenty years. Even though he was not a genius who got his bachelor"s degree from a famous university, he was good enough to change his hobby into an occupation that makes as much money as those with a regular job.

He was a freelance photographer, so he always carried a camera on him to capture the perfect moment, especially when traveling to new places. He would pick up his camera and look for beautiful scenery, then collect them and sold them to companies.

Actually, right now Shin was in a new place, but he had no motivation to turn on his camera.

Not because that place was a "cemetery"…

It"s just an overgrown forest with holes. From here, he could see a group of old people scurrying around with shovels in hand. Some of them dug into the soil without a care for their aging bodies.

"This "Langpacha" (Graveyard emptying) ceremony or whatever… it"s not interesting at all."

The man told the older man with a disgusted face.

"The reason Thailand is still a third world country is because of these nonsensical people doing silly things."

Usually, Shin steered away from these kind of people. He hated this kind of thing. Just looking at those idiots, carrying flower garlands and baby powder to beg for lottery numbers from G.o.ds in a run-down shrine, he was more than annoyed. Sometimes he got so annoyed he fought with the old ladies who sold lotteries.

To Shin, this cemetery was somewhere he would never venture near.

Except because…

"s.h.i.t! I shouldn"t have said yes to Da!"

The man spoke with frustration.

Shin believed in the proverb "you get what you hate" because of his girlfriend.

Da grew up in a Chinese family. She had the same ill habit as those in this country. Credulous. Obsessed with fortune telling. Hates ghost but loves horror movies. Especially that ghost radio program that broadcasted every night… she followed it like a cult.

She was the reason he had to be here.

Actually, Da wanted to come with him, but when the time came, she had a family errand. Even so, she begged Shin to go, saying that it was good to make merit once in a while.

"She graduated from a good college for nothing. Why is she so ignorant as to believe in these sins and merits thing?"

Shin mumbled nonstop. He did not understand what merit clearing up a graveyard could possibly have. And what is this "merit" thing anyway? What does it look like? Can it feed him or give him money? What about the cycle of reincarnation? He doesn"t even know it existed. He knew that when people die, they feel nothing more. So, if he needed to choose between merit and money… he would definitely choose money.

Our lives are better because of "money"… not "merit"…

He came not because he loved his girlfriend, but he heard about an owner of a newspaper company coming here. If he could befriend that man, he could get jobs from newspapers. If the man would help him, whatever he photographed would sell.

This kind of opportunity would never escape his hands.

Even though that was his plan, it was useless. No newspaper guy was here. Just a bunch of old people who had nothing to do other than worship ghosts blindly and waste their children"s money.

The more he watched them, the more frustrated he got.

Should I go home…?

"That shaman"s the real deal. No matter where he pointed, there"s a body buried there. Do you think so, young man?"

The same old man spoke with admiration. Shin watched the silhouette of people scurrying far away. He could see a figure of an old man in white clothes acting as a shaman, using a V-shaped stick wrapped in red cloth to point at spots. People followed him and poke sticks on the ground as indicators.

"Are you crazy? This is a graveyard. It"s strange if you dig and don"t find a body."

"There are times when we don"t find a body when we dig. Anyway, if you find a hole without a body, tell a staff."

"Why?"

The man went on and on without minding Shin"s worsening manners. The younger man became so frustrated his brows knotted into a bow.

He walked away to get as far as possible from those people. Why is this old man bothering him here?

The old man pointed to number tags on the ground.

"Because if the number of corpses and the number tags don"t match, the villagers will think we stole a corpse to do black magic."

The man lets out his steam.

"It"ll be like that time when a foreigner took a picture of us when we"re cleaning the corpse in this ceremony and posted on the internet. He wrote that we eat humans! That farang (westerner) do not know our ceremonies, I understand that so I do not mind. But young man, what hurt me was that our fellow countrymen agreed with that farang. They spoke bad of us even though we all are Thais like them. People are full of prejudice. Whatever we do, we need to think about whether it will offend someone. When I was young…"

"Yeah, yeah. If I find one, I"ll tell them. You go help the others."

Shin cut the old man short when he started rambling as old people usually do. At least being with corpses was more easy on the ear than the old man.

"It"s alright, let me help you. It is your first time, so you don"t know what to do after you dug something up, right?"

Well, that"s true…

"Let"s do it this way. You sit around here. When I ask, you answer. I"ll do all the labor."

"Come on, I may be old but I"m still strong."

"No. Sit. And don"t talk."

Shin grabbed the old man"s shoulder and pushed him under a large tree, then stomped to a spot where there was a tag. He pushed the shovel into the ground and dug. The hold got deeper and deeper.

"Young man, don"t stab the corpse!"

"I know! I know!"

He shouted a reply, then used his hands to brush away the dirt when a bunch of fabric came into view.

The more he dug, the more that cloth bag got visible. At the opening, he saw a skull with dried flesh stuck to it. Shin was surprised. Even though this was his first time seeing a dead body, he did not feel scared. He felt disgusted, like seeing worms in a trash can.

"Old man! Found the corpse! What next?!?"

Shin asked the man under the tree.

"Get the bag up!"

The young man got into the pit and lifted the cloth bag up. He opened the bag.

So this is what we"re so scared of?

Just a skeleton.

"Here! You need this."

The old man gave Shin a white cloth bag with printed Chinese letters. Inside was a brush, a clean cloth, and many other tools.

"What"s this for?"

"To clean the bones."

Shin twitched his face. Other than photographing, every other task was boring.

"Just a dirty skeleton. Why do we have to clean it?"

"Don"t talk like that. You"ll get what you deserve."

"What? If I get something I deserve, that means I get something good."

"If you don"t believe it, don"t disrespect it, young man."

Tch, this again… no matter when I talk to these people, I always hear that proverb.

"You don"t know anything. Many people dug the graveyard and complained that it stank. In the end, they have rotten smell on them for three, four days. No matter how much they bathed, they still reek. So, people say that you should say corpses smell good when you see them."

Shin rolled his eyes. You dug the ground with dead people for a whole day. Stinking is normal. It"s not the doing of some supernatural force.

The so-called "supernatural" events, if you think about it, those events could be explained easily.

"Well, I leave the cleaning to you. I"ll dig the next one up."

Shin threw the job away, then walked over to where the next tag was. Shin didn"t want to dig them. He just wanted to get away from this boring ceremony.

He remembered that if he cut through this portion of the forest, he could get to the parking lot. Most people were on the other side. n.o.body would catch him.

Shin calculated his plan out, but something stold his attention.

"Number 666"

"Wow! The Devil"s number. Cool!"

He looked at the tag and smiled.

"Last one before I run home."

Shin dug calmly. The old man was busy cleaning the bones, so no one bothered him

As he dug, he felt that the soil at this spot was a lot softer than the last. It sparked his interest. Not long after, the hole was waist-deep.

Thud!

Suddenly, the shovel hit something hard. Shin applied a lot of force, so the recoil caused his arms to feel numb.

What the f.u.c.k?

Why is this corpse so hard?!

But as he dug, Shin realized what was buried here is not a corpse but a large wooden coffin that one could see in western horror movies.

"Huh? A western coffin in a Chinese graveyard? Nice."

Shin smirked at the contradiction in this place filled with blind faith. It sparked his curiosity, and he reached out to open the lid.

"I need to see this guy"s face!"

As the lid came off, the first thing he noticed was a light, sweet smell, like that of a flower.

When half the lid was lifted, the sun illuminated a beautiful, serene face that appeared to be sleeping.

"Ah?!"

Shin"s eyes widened as he saw the woman that appeared like a living person, aside from the right side of her face that was covered in bandages. Her skin was pale, and she wore a clean, white dress that contrasted with the fine, black velvet inside the coffin.

"What…what is this!?"

His trembling hands reached out for the corpse"s arm. Her skin was soft and firm, as if she just went to sleep.

But the body did not breathe. No heartbeat either.

"Angel"s Corpse!"

The same old man appeared with a loud shrill. Shin flinched. Lucky that he did not hid the man with his shovel.

"d.a.m.nit! You made me surprised! Don"t just appear out of thin air like that!

"This… this is… the… the Angel"s Corpse. The Angel"s Corpse!!!"

"What do you mean, Angel"s Corpse? That"s stupid."

Shin scolded the old man, but when he looked back at the woman in the coffin… her pure body, her serene face… he started to agree with the term "Angel"s Corpse".

"Angel"s Corpse is a woman that never rots. If it"s a boy, we call it "k.u.man Thong", if a girl we call "k.u.maree"."

"So? Maybe this girl used an expensive formalin. The kind they use on the cadavers for med students."

The old man shook his head and watched the woman with fear.

"No. Impossible. No matter what kind of preservative you use, the skin and the hair will never be in such perfect condition. Look carefully. No imperfections. No rotting. She looked like she"s just asleep. This…this is…"

The man tried to get his words out, but something stopped him. At last, he regained his voice.

"Black magic…!!!"

"Wha?"

"This corpse is way to unnatural! This must be black magic! Young man, don"t let anyone touch her. I"ll call the shaman!"

The old man ran with all his might to get the shaman, nevermind his bony legs that could break any moment. Shin sighed and thought to himself.

"That old man said this is a special corpse…"

That means…

Shin looked at the old man. His back got further away until he disappeared into the groves. The young man let out a huge grun.

"Here! The Angel"s Corpse is here!!!"

The old man yelled and led others to tag number 666.

He pointed to the coffin with panic.

"Hurry! Open it! Something like this should not be left here!"

Two men lifted the lid, but after it came off all the way, they looked at each other.

"Are you kidding, old man? You"re just too tired."

The old man did not understand what was said, so he looked into the coffin.

All he saw was emptiness.

"Im—Impossible!!! But… but I saw a woman in this coffin! She"s… beautiful…like… a living human…. Really…"

The old man explained, but everyone else made a face like they were listening to a drunk ramble.

"Something like that doesn"t exist! You imagined it."

The shaman spoke without batting an eye.

"But… I didn"t lie… I really saw her…"

The old man mumbled and stared into the black coffin. All he could see was emptiness. Those around scorned him. The only possible reason for her disappearance was…

"That"s right! The corpse disappeared because of black magic! It must be black magic!"

The old man hollered and created a minor chaos. Everyone forgot about the young man who left this ceremony.

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