Chapter 8 - A group of Monsters

A group of Monsters.

Group (Noun). Humans, animals, or things that are classed together, such as a group of students, a group of merchants, a group of workers.

…. Fortunately, that is not what happens.

It took me a moment to gather myself before I finally opened my eyes and met with the tanned face of the young man next-door who is still in his university uniform, but his belt has gone missing and his shirt untucked. “Geerana”

“You can just call me Ge.” He gives me a sunny smile… Is it really the time to say something like this! Sob. But before I can tell him what happens and urge him to run, Geerana who seems puzzled by my state continues to say.

“I was really worried. I saw that you didn’t go back to your room, so I came back here to check.”

Because you… have a faint scent of our kind.

Suddenly, boss’s sentence echoes in my mind as if a warning alarm. I shiver slightly as I look at the smiling face of the young man in front of me.

I almost give him back a relief smile just now, but now, the corner of my mouth is twitching as I am again reminded of a movie plot… If you accidentally meet someone you know along the way, you should first suspect that they are actually on the same side as people who are chasing you. I slowly step away from all of them.

“You… are you also?” I look at him distrustfully.

“Hm? Also what?” Geerana asks bewilderedly. His expression is so earnest that I start to waver.

“Mr. Phat! Oh, Ge?” Boss’s voice sound, making me jump in my skin. I can feel my Heart palpitating hard.

That’s right… They know each other!

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“Senior Krit,” Geena calls him back. I take that moment to push him away from me as hard as I can and break out into a run. But while I am running away, I sense some strange shadow outside following me. At the moment that I turn to look, I trip on my feet, crashing down in almost a somersault. I hurriedly pushed myself up, the pain that shot through by body couldn’t even compare to the sight I am seeing.

Outside the window, ten, dozen pairs of red eyes are staring straight at me

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

That’s it! I can’t take it anymore!! I have used up all my quota of resistance for ghosts and strange beings already… I stood there, standing still, and could not control my body at all. I hear a strange sound as if wind whizzing passed by, and then the dozen of strange black bodies in front of me bloom and spread in the air as if ink brush dipping into the water.

“P- Phat!” The voice of Geerana sound, and then I, who stood there with my legs frozen, is pulled toward him. In that instant, the scattered black shadows slowly push itself through the gaps of the window and reunited into many figures with arms and legs in front of me.

…. They look exactly the same as the strange thing that jumps down the building in the middle of the day which I saw just before!!

The monsters open their maw wide, revealing the black tentacle-like appendages inside. Then, as their mouths furrow close, those squid-like tentacles with no sucker shot straight at us!

I was going to just close my eyes and pray when Geerana suddenly threw me behind him. With his hand stretching out, I see a ball of black mass that appears in front of his hand, while slowly unfurling and turning into a shield in front of us, colliding with those appendages create a loud collision sound. Bang!

The blow continues to rain down. In his embrace, I can feel the impact through the shooking of Gee’s body. Finally, The appendages recede, but as I thought that they might have given up, those monsters turn their face down and stab those limbs through the floor.

“Woah!!! Ew!!” I couldn’t help but yell out as those tentacles pierce through the floor up nearby me. Geerana deflects the attack with one hand, cursing softly, before picking me up with the other arm.

This took me by surprise because I am by no means small or light. Even though Gee has a bigger body frame than me, I didn’t expect that he could lift me up so effortlessly like this. In shock, I wrap my arms around his neck as Gee dodge away from the attack on the ground while using the black shield in his hand to defend the attack from the front.

This is just like a fantasy movie! I felt strangely compelled to cry tears of joy.

“Ge! Duck!!” A familiar sound shouts. Ge released the black shield in his hand and embraced me with both arms before ducking down, wrapping around me into a ball. A ray of light cut above our heads, slicing through those black monsters.

Heart almost pounding out of my chest, I feel a warm hand stroking my face. “Are you alright, Phat…?”

“U- Um…” I feel disoriented, my hand that is holding on to his uniform like a lifeline tremble.

“Is everyone alright!?” A shout sounds again, now I recognize that this voice belongs to the boss who runs to join us.

Geenara slowly supports me up, which immediately made me wince. “Och!”

“What’s wrong?”

“My leg…” I grimace. It seems that those moves from before were too strenuous for me, and the leg which I twisted when I fell back then started to protest.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech! An ear-piercing shrill scream ring, startled me into digging my finger on Gee’s arm. The sound of those monsters really reminds me of the Preta ghost (even though I have never seen them for real) [1] . Meanwhile, black smoke gathers on the floor which once stood the body of those black monsters with squid tentacle tongues.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech! There’s the sound once again before those black smoke starts to roll and twist together like a Tornado winds, before combining into a figure. I can hear the sound, Crunch! Snap! Hiss… one after another. My hand that is grabbing onto Ge won’t stop shaking, and by this point, I think nothing can compete with how hard I am trembling anymore.

“Don’t worry, Phat. Everything is alright.” A deep voice whisper in my ear, before a warm hand laid covers my trembling hand, followed by a gentle squeeze. I lift my head up to look at his face. Geerana give me a smile with his eyes crinkle, before tightening the hand which was placed on my waist since some time ago when I didn’t notice.

My hand stops shaking, but my heart is trembling instead.

Wait a minute! What is this kind of heart-throbbing reaction as if I am in a josei manga! Get a grip, Rattiphat! I take a deep breath while imagining a pink, tender, delectable boy. That is my type, not muscular man! No muscular man! Never a muscular man! I repeat this mantra to myself.

While I am chanting the no-muscle mantra, the black smoke has combined into a complete figure… of a bald, middle-age office worker… Wha!?

“T-That, that, that is…” Rattiphat stammered as if a broken record. “Isn’t that… human?” …the kind that I used to set as the background of my old antique laptop to remind myself that I should take care of what I eat and exercise more, or else I might end up like this when I get old too!

“You are mistaken.” Boss turned to give me a reply. “He has sold his soul… There is no humanity left in him anymore. The only thing that is still driving him is just pure instinct…”

I look at the body that is moving closer to us… He seems no different from me, with 2 hands, 2 arms, 2 feets, and two normal eyes. Boss looks at me and smiles, before placing his index finger on my forehead. Boss’s deep voice reverberates in my head. “Take a better look.”

I feel as if a light lit up in my eyes, and then, I can see a ball of fire blazing in my chest. There is also a huge black fire burning fiery in the boss’s chest. But in the chest of the person that is walking toward me… is empty.

“Ah….”

Boss give me another smile, and in the split second that he was pulling his finger away from my forehead, I saw Geerana in my peripheral vision… The sight that appeared shortly before my eyes is something that I couldn’t forget.

An image of a torn, incomplete flame. As if there is only half of it.

“If Mr.Phat understands now, then I would like to clear this away first.” Boss life his hand up, before closing his fingers into a fist. There is a strange sound before the body that is moving suddenly stops, and then explodes into a splash of blood like those in a sadistic killer movie. The rest of the body fell down with a Thud .

“…” I stare at it. Will it get up again? Will it?

But after staring purposefully at it for a long while, there is no Return of the Zombie scene, and the horror-action movie comes to an end… Thank you… Is that it!?

“It’s, It’s over already?” The me who prepared to see an explosive, magnificent fighting scene like the battle of Harry Potter VS. Voldermort is extremely disappointed. Now I understand why in the movie, the fighting scene must be long and dramatic, because if it’s too short, it would be so bleak and dumbfounding like this!

….Stand up! Uncle! Where is your fighting spirit? A middle-aged office worker can’t just be slain easily like this! Don’t you still have a mortgage to pay? What about your wife and children? What about your little mistress waiting for you to buy a condominium for her? I try to telepathically communicate with the uncle, but he still keeps laying there motionlessly… Rest in peace, uncle.

Boss chuckle. “Yes, it’s over. These creatures are just low-class semi-monster… Actually, It couldn’t even be called a creature. They are driven by the order of their master…” I follow the line of sight of my new boss, who is looking at the ground outside which is covered in darkness.

“What are they planning to do… Those underground monsters…” Boss speaks softly in a whisper.

For a moment, all the hairs on my body stand up. I fill the chill running up from my feet through my body.

“Boss, do you want me to clear those too?” The voice of a young boy sounded. I immediately pull my eyes back from gazing outside in surprise.

…Huh. A boy’s voice? … Wait a minute.

“Ahhhh!!” I jump to hind behind Geerana as the boy in primary school uniform that is covered in blood walks toward us. Geerana looked at me puzzledly, before turning to greet that boy, who raised his hands to give him a wai. Looking at it like this, he almost seems like a normal boy. If only I hadn’t seen the horror movie-like scene earlier, I would have believed full-heartedly that he is a regular primary school boy.

“Oh. You are not going back home yet? Aren’t you afraid of getting scolded by your father?” Boss said to the boy. “It’s not good for children to stay up late.”

The boy made a face. “Father is not at home… Don’t worry about my sleep, I can just nap in the classroom later.” …He uses the exact same strategy as me. I used to play Dota [2] all night and then went to yawn and sleep in the classroom. Even if I get punished to stand in front of the class with a ruler in my mouth, I can still fall asleep standing in that posture. Look how proficient I was!

While I am recalling my past exploits from my youth, the boy turns his gaze to me. Don’t come any closer! I have a Geerana shield can’t you see! Hah… The boy walked past me to the remains of the monster’s body with a put-upon look. Before uttering impudently. “Uncle, I only eat corpses, not living humans.”

..Who is your uncle! I almost forget my fear and bare my teeth at him. Even if I am almost thirty, you still can’t call me uncle!”

The corpse-eating boy, with a face full of boredom, squat down beside the body and… Wait. Corpse eating!?

Corpse eating!

Corpse eating!!!

Rip! Crunch.. Crunch! Crack! Yup, I can see it as clear as day.

The boy slowly pulled out pieces from the corpse similar to how people would pull-apart a loaf of bread into small pieces before sending it into his mouth. However, the filling of this bread is human organs…

I.. I… I can’t do this anymore!

“Mr. Phat / Phat!” In the midst of the voices calling my name, I can feel my body falling backward… with the sound Thud!

And then I faint for the second time today.

“Was it a dream…?”

Good dream~ Sweet dream~ or bad dream. Last night I dreamt I had become…

My smile froze as I noticed the blood on my boss’s shirt. The song that Auntly Toi likes to sing while cooking keeps repeating in my head.

“O, Oh ~ ” I sing like Teletubbies. “… Just now, there was a monster in the company, and a corpse-eating boy… Did I remember that correctly?”

Boss laughed. “Yes… That is correct.” …Alright, so my memories are still fine.. Dammit!

“I’m going back home first- oh, you are awake?” A fourth person appears from behind the curtain, making me who is preparing to scream bloody murder shut my mouth. At first, I was puzzled by the sound of the wheels, before I noticed that the person who just entered was sitting in a wheelchair with a blanket covering his legs.

Boss turned to smile at him. “Yes. Thank you so much, big brother Na. We had troubled you.”

Boss’s ‘big brother Na’ smiles back, before turning to face me. Making my nerves jump.

“Hello. My name is Kritsana [3] .” He introduces himself, which I reply shakily. “You should still go see a doctor, since I’m not really one. I just did some basic first aid”

“If you choose to see the doctor outside, remember to bring the bills back to us since we have employee welfare reimbursement for employees who faced attack from inhuman creatures.” Boss said smilingly. I give him a sideway glance… Instead of having a reimbursement budget for something like that, isn’t it better to increase the security for the safety of workers!

Mr. Na also let out a laugh, whether it is from my expression or the boss’s sentence I couldn’t tell. He seemed to have remembered something as he looked at me. “Oh, before you go back, maybe you should try wiping your wound with the water from the Anodard pond first. It might help.”

“T- Thank you very much.” My brain has stopped functioning at this point. I only know that I should be thankful to show good manners. The other person gives me another smile before bidding farewell to the boss who raises his hand to give Mr.Na a wai, which Gee and I immediately follow.

After he had left, I also returned to staring at the handsome spectacled man who is my boss… My brain that has stopped functioning tries to pull up some memory. “..So the strange test during the interview?” Those matching pictures with monkey, bird, and snake.

“Yes. That was a test for your spiritual power. It would be quite hard to work in our company without having any special sense since most of our works are received from customers elsewhere.” Boss grinned widely. I want to ask what he means by elsewhere but think better of it. Something is just better left unknowing, so I just shut my mouth.

“While looking at your resume, the human resource department was very surprised. I was surprised too since we haven’t had any humans applying to work here for so long. It was quite hard to find an old test for you.” He gave a deep laugh. “The portraits you saw all belong to the employees in our company. I just want to test how accurate your sense will be, so I also add the last picture as a trick question. Actually, he is a person from the lion bloodline.. and you can still answer that correctly. I am amazed.”

Boss continues to praise me while I can only smile blankly. Seeing me sitting there quietly and obediently, the boss turned to Geerana. “Alright, Ge. Can I trouble you to send Mr. Phat home safely?”

Ahhhhhh! It’s finally come to this! I went out of my way trying to avoid this, but at the end, we are still going back together. Dammit!

Gee accepted the boss’s request, before coming to help support me when I try to put weight on my leg and found it still hurts.

“It’s very rare for us to have a human employee who has a special sense…” Boss interjects suddenly. “I hope that we will still be seeing you tomorrow, Mr. Phat.”

Boss smiled, but for some reason… I feel as if he is threatening me.

Regardless, prior to leaving the medical room, I finally recalled something, so I hurriedly turned back to ask him. “So, what are you, boss…?”

His smile broadened, then he gave me a wink. Honestly speaking, a grown-up man winking with playful expressions like this, if they are not as handsome as the person in front of me, I wouldn’t recommend trying it. “It’s a secret.”

Probably because of my expression, the boss laughed again. “You will know soon enough, Me, Phat.”

“See you later.”

…I am really pondering whether I should come back tomorrow now.

Ge helps support me down the troublesome elevator which is now back to working as normal. I am still a bit afraid, and instead of taking me down to the underground train, Ge leaves me to wait for him on a bench while he went to talk with the security guard. Both of them disappear to someplace unknown to me until Ge comes back with a plastic basin. Afterward, he gives me a smile, before disappearing again somewhere. I left for so long I almost thought I am going to be left behind like this, before finally coming back with his basic full of water.

“The water from Anodard pond has special properties that help curing illness.” Ge said before kneeling down in front of me.

“Woah. I can wash it by myself. You don’t have to do this.” But Ge has already taken out my leather shoes, before slowly pulling down my socks and dipping my feets into the water in the basin. A feeling of warmth immediately travels up from my feet.

A warm pair of hands slowly caressing my legs. Those long fingers gently and carefully rubbing my skin as if I am some exquisite treasure making my face feel strangely hot. Soon after, a fact finally came back to haunt my thoughts. The people here are creatures… from the Himmapan.

I look at the person in front of me. From this angle, I can see his thick eyelashes as if begging for me to touch. I try to concentrate on observing the face of the person who is washing my feets deligently, since if I don’t the feeling from those big palms caressing me would really be too… erotic.

It seems like I was staring too hard, because Ge suddenly stops his hands and life his face up to give me a smile that shows off his cute fangs and dimples. “Is there anything?”

“What… are you?” I ask the first thing that comes to my mind.

Ge blink, his thick lashes fluttering. The face with that pretty smile slowly moves closer until our noses are almost touching. I almost pull myself away in fright but Ge only stops there. Those pairs of dark eyes looking at me quietly.. with his deep voice replying, spraying warm breath on my face giving me goosebumps.

“A demon.”

A demon… with only half a soul.

Footnotes:

[1] Preta/Peta ghost or “เปรต” a type of ferocious ghost, believed to have a bone-thin statue taller than a building with a mouth as small as a pin. This type of ghost often appears to their relatives, asking them to share their ‘good merit’ with them. It is believed that the shrill, high pitch scream-crying voice at night belongs to this type of ghost.

[2] Dota is a MOBA game available on Stream. (The current name is Dota2).

[3] Phat boss’s name, or the IT department manager is Kritwarong, nicknamed Krit. While Mr.Na’s name is Kritsana. It is spelled differently in Thai.

Translator Notes:

This week, my proofreader is also having a midterm exam, so the update will be late again… Hopefully, we will be able to go back to updating on schedule soon!