3

Ladda

"Shin, where did all the meat in the fridge go?"

Da peeked out from the kitchen and demanded her boyfriend for an answer.

Shin turned around, his hands brushing the "Angel"s" lovely hair. He found this "Angel"s Corpse" in a Langpacha ceremony. One corner of his living room was already home to that corpse"s large western coffin.

On the lid was a small opening to see the corpse"s face.

But most of the time Shin left the lid open. He sat the coffin upright against the wall and held it with a strong peg so it does not topple over. When someone enters the room, what they saw first would be a woman"s corpse in her elegant coffin.

Sometimes, Shin would prop the corpse on the floor or chairs. He decorated her coffin with colorful flowers that changed daily. Of course, those flowers came from Ladda"s shop.

A corpse and fresh flowers? …Hmph, suits each other enough.

Da eyed Shin"s behavior with jealousy. She wanted to yank that comb out of his hand and smash that corpse"s face into a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp, but she held back her temper.

The current problem was not with that corpse!

"Shin, did you eat all the meat I bought? Aren"t you stuffing yourself too much?"

Lately, all the meat she bought would disappear from the fridge. At first she thought Shin used them to cook, but no matter how much she bought, all of it would be gone. The amount of meat that disappeared was too much to eat in two days.

"Shin didn"t. Shin can"t cook. You think I ate it raw?" Shin thought of a possible culprit. "Maybe it"s your cat, Da."

"Are you kidding? The meat was in the fridge. Can cats open it?"

"Maybe it"s not closed all the way."

"You might be right…"

Da thought. It"s unlikely, but there was no other explanation.

"When are you going to give that corpse to the temple? It"s been a week!"

Da asked, even though she knew a satisfactory answer would not come out of her boyfriend"s mouth. He still wore that gleeful smile and answered the usual.

"Soon."

Expected answer. He combed the corpse"s hair without even looking at his own girlfriend.

"Don"t keep it for too long. I"m scared."

She rubbed her arms.

"During the day, I came in here alone to clean your room. I felt like she stared at me."

"Da, you"re imagining it. Her eye is closed. How could she possibly stare at you? Maybe you"re too superst.i.tious, you know, all those ghosts stuff. And so you"re biased thinking something possessed her. I"m here all night and nothing"s ever bothered me."

Shin tried to convince her, but Da did not believe what he said. Still, because it"s coming from the one she loved, she accepted his viewpoint without another word. Actually, she"s afraid that if she told him about not coming over because she was scared of the corpse, their relationship would deteriorate. That was even more scary than being in a room with a corpse.

So Da let Shin do as he pleased without knowing that her ignorance would lead to a terrifying tragedy.

The next day.

Shin went to present his work to buyers as usual.

So Da was alone in his condominium room. She updated her status on her phone. Da and Shin"s phones were the same brand. He bought it for her birthday last year.

"When I"m not with you, if you talk into this phone, you can feel that I"m right there beside you."

Da smiled at this sweet memory.

But that tender moment blew away when she shuddered from a crawling sensation on her skin.

She felt that someone was staring at her from behind.

…From the direction of that black coffin.

The corpse in a frilly dress clasped her hands together on her chest. She laid still in the coffin, no sign of waking up.

To get away from those invisible eyes, Da went into Shin"s bedroom and collected his laundry that needed washing.

"Why is Shin so untidy these days?"

Da complained as she collected pieces of clothing scattered about.

Shin did not care much for himself, but he never left his room this messy. As of late, the items Da placed in the kitchen or living room was always misplaced. This never happened before.

It started when that corpse…

Da brushed the thought off.

She was scared enough. What was the point of scaring herself even more?

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Light footsteps moved slowly in front of the bedroom door.

"…Shin?"

Thud…Thud….Thud…Thud!

When n.o.body replied, the woman pressed her ear to the door to listen. She heard a noise, like someone dragging their feet slowly across the corridor in front of the bedroom before stopping next to the door where her ear was.

Silence…

"Shin…this…this is not funny…"

The reply caused the woman to shriek away from the door.

Scratch….scratch….scratch….

What? Something is outside?

Or is it…?

Scratch…scratch…scratch…

Scratch…scratch…scratch…scratch…scratch…

That corpse?!?

"No…Shin, help!!!"

When Ladda dashed away from the door and screamed for help, she realized she left her phone on the sofa outside.

"f.u.c.k!"

She cursed under her breath. Her mom would faint from that word.

But this was not the time to think about such nonsense, when…

Scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch

The scratching noise intensified.

It was psychological warfare. Fear flooded her mind. Her instincts screamed.

I need to run! Can"t stay here!

As soon as she thought of that, she lunged for the door. No matter what was outside, if she slammed it while opening the door, she could make it for the exit without that thing catching up.

The second her escape route was planned, Da grabbed the k.n.o.b and slammed the door open with all her strength.

"Meowwww!!!"

A painful cry from her favorite cat made Da pause in her track.

She only saw Nil licking himself. It seemed she hit him with the door.

Da looked to the left.

The Angel"s corpse crossed her hands on her chest.

So…the walking and the scratching was….

When Da realized it, she laughed. Our fear could turn an ant into an elephant.

"Gee, you naughty boy! You got me scared there!"

Da lifted her playful little cat and checked his body for injuries. She glanced at the corpse, but resumed her ch.o.r.es.

She didn"t realize the corpse was "crossing her hands" not "clasping her hands".

Rain poured down during the afternoon. After the shocking event, Da"s nerves overworked themselves. She felt sleepy.

4pm. It would be a long time before Shin comes back.

Da rested on the soft sofa. The radio chimed her favorite tunes as rain poured outside, lulling her to sleep.

Da did not know how long she slept, but when she was half awake, she heard Shin dragging his feet. He stood next to her sleeping body. Da tried to look through her heavy eyelids, but only saw a faint shadow staring at her from behind the sofa.

"Umm…Shin…you"re back?"

She blinked.

The shadow disappeared.

Was I seeing things?

Because her sleepiness had the upper hand, she ignored that question and turned her back to the sofa.

But under her closed eyelids, she felt that someone stared at her face.

"Aw! Shin, cut your pranks."

A joyful smile spread across her face as she thought of her lover"s habit of staring at her sleeping face. She thought he would get his face near so she could feel embara.s.sed.

But when she opened her eyes…

She saw a bulged eye!

Ladda froze. Her eyes stared at the thing a mere inch from her face.

That elegant body in white was contradicted by a bulging, bloodshot eye, like a lump of blood clot on her face. The pretty lips adorned by rose-colored lipstick was smiling.

"An…gel"s…Corpse…"

Words escaped through her dry throat. She shivered, her teeth clattered. Her fear spiraled out of control.

The corpse"s rosy lips tear into a wide grin, revealing a set of fangs like those of wild animals.

That was the last thing she saw.

"Nooooooooo!!!"

Tadphum

This doesn"t look good…

Tadphum sat in the security guard"s booth; his eyes laid upon two figures standing in the rain. One of them, Tadphum was familiar with.

He remembered the girl soaked wet by raindrops.

Her name was "Da." She was the girlfriend of someone who lived in this condominium, so he saw her came by daily when he was on duty. Usually, she greeted him with a smile.

But now, her eyes were red. Tears streamed down along with the pouring rain. The man who stood with her had a disturbed expression.

From just glancing, Tadphum knew it was a lover"s quarrel. An outsider like him should not intervene, but their shouting voice pierced through the drumming of the rain on the booth"s roof. Tadphum, who was the security guard on duty, could hear everything word for word.

"It"s nothing. You"re misunderstanding things."

The boyfriend started with a line right out of a soap opera.

Tadphum saw this man often, but never spoke to him once. No, forget speaking. No matter how he greeted, the man never nodded or even looked at him. Compared to the girlfriend who was friendly and nice, Tadphum thought they were opposites who attracts.

"Da"s going home."

The girlfriend said curtly and stomped away.

"Da, talk to me first!"

"What is there to talk about? You won"t believe me anyway."

"But you might be worried and making things up. Da, you"re the type to worry about everything. When you see something like that, you just make things up and actually believed it."

Her face turned red. Seemed like her bottling anger was going to explode.

"Shin, you"re saying I"m hallucinating?!"

"I"m saying that you should think it through logically."

The man spoke softly and grabbed his girlfriend"s hand.

"Shin doesn"t want us to quarrel because of "her"."

Her…?

So that man cheated and his girlfriend caught him, huh…?

Tadphum guessed.

The woman stared at her boyfriend"s face, searching for hints of truthfulness in his eyes, and finally lets out a long sigh.

"Fine…I"ll give you this one. Can I ask you a favor?"

"What? Tell me."

"Sell "it" off."

Her words made the man"s enthusiastic smile freeze.

"If Shin won"t sell it, Da can"t stay with Shin any longer. Who would want to marry a man with "that kind of thing" in his room?"

The woman said firmly, telling her boyfriend she was not bluffing.

That kind of thing…?

Tadphum guessed that it might be a present the other woman gave her boyfriend.

The boyfriend sulked, before nodding.

"Okay. If someone would buy it, I"ll sell it off."

If someone… then he still needed to find that someone and postpone selling it.

Tadphum was a man, so he understood the excuses a man could come up with. He looked at the girl to see if she would catch up to his trick.

"Da, dry yourself. I"ll take you."

Finally, the girlfriend nodded and smiled, before the two held hands and walked inside the condominium.

Tadphum watched them disappear and sighed.

So that"s that. Love truly makes you blind.

No, wait… she did see through his tricks but pretended not to notice.

Her smile did not conceal her anxiety at all.

She knew her boyfriend would not sell that thing.

She knew, but pretended not to know.

Love does funny things to people.

Tadphum shook his head. Because the girl was always so nice to him, he would like to help her, but it was useless. The only one who could escape the shackles of love was those who were shackled themselves.

The young security guard raised his head and watched rain pour from the sky above.

Suddenly, on the third floor corridor…

He saw a woman in white!

What?! I"ve never seen her before, though?!

Tadphum was confident in his memories. If he saw someone once, he would be familiar with that person"s face.

Moreover, how could he not remember this woman? Her thin body wore a white dress, like that of a bride. She was beautiful. Her light-colored hair swayed softly. Her young face was naturally colored. Even though one side of it was covered by bandages, she was still charming in her own way.

If he saw her once, he would never forget her.

But this woman was nowhere in his memories. What room was she staying in? Who did she come with?

Who is she…?

Splash!

A drop of rain fell into his eyes, and Tadphum had to stop and wipe it away.

When he looked back up…

The woman in white was gone?!?

[Comment: *door scratching intensifies*]

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