Chapter 6

Throughout the whole day, Irene can barely concentrate on her classes. One, the thing following her since morning continues to persist and frankly, it's annoying. Two, she continues to wonder how Safira and her friend are doing, she knows pregnancies can be unpredictable, what if Safira's friend suddenly goes into labour? Timing is very crucial in these cases. And three, Kai's been constantly in her mind ever since he said he would never be too busy for her and that he's not expecting any money from protecting her. If that doesn't sound like special treatment, she doesn't know what counts as special treatment.

"Irene?"

Irene looks up to see Aisya looking at her, her eyes are full of worry as Aisya retracts her hand after tapping Irene's shoulder. "You haven't been well since you met up with Kai, is something wrong?" She asks.

"It's nothing, just... Kai. You know how he likes the paranormal and stuff and he's been bugging me about it since he found out I don't believe in them." Irene lies, technically she didn't, but she simply twisted the truth a bit to avoid any further questioning.

"Oh... Kai likes the paranormal? I didn't know... actually..." Aisya trails off.

Irene senses that somewhat breaks Aisya's heart, thinking about it, she would also be heartbroken if she found out someone she likes is closer to someone else in their preferred gender. "Don't think too much about it. He just happened to overhear and decided sceptics are unforgivable."

Irene stands up from her seat and gathers her things before following Aisya out, it's their last class for the day but unfortunately not Theresa and Kai's last class. Since she promised Theresa that she'll meet her after class ends and walk to their homestays together, she and Aisya sit around near Theresa's class building, she has an inkling Aisya wants some more information regarding Kai out of her.

"So, Irene um... this is a bit embarrassing..." Aisya starts once they sit down in a more secluded place. "How... how close are you to Kai?"

Irene blinks owlishly, of course she expected this question, but she didn't think she'd ask her outright. "We just happen to have something to discuss, we're not all that close."

"Oh... I just thought..." Aisya mutters, embarrassment clearly displayed on her face.

"It's fine, Kai's kind of persistent so a lot of people would get the wrong idea." Irene waves off.

Silence envelops the two as the conversation ends. It's awkward and Irene wants nothing more than to leave. Just as she thinks of a plan to escape, she notices something at the corner of her eye, she can barely make out what it is, but it sure did pique her interest.

Irene stands up from her seat and quickly follows whatever she saw, ignoring Aisya's calls for her attention. She curses herself knowing this is how a lot of people die in horror movies, but she just can't help it. The shadow leads her to a secluded area of the campus, an area where there isn't even a single person present. It's strange, something isn't right, Irene knows this area isn't that frequented by people but there should at least be a person or two milling about.

Her ears catch something that breaks her out of her train of thoughts, a small whimper somewhere up ahead. Irene's gut is telling her not to, but somewhere deep in her head is telling her to check and unfortunately, the voice deep in her head wins this battle. She slowly makes her way towards the sound, only now realising just how dark and cold it feels despite it only being 4 p.m.

The air around Irene gets even thicker as she gets closer to the source of the whimpers, yet no matter how much she trembles she continues to trudge forward, only stopping when she is about to round the corner. Irene takes a few deep, nervous breaths before she peeks to the other side of the corner, gasping when she sees a sickly man lying on his stomach on the ground, his elbows propping up the upper half of his body.

If that man were unconscious, Irene would've thought that he's a corpse. His ashen skin is pulled taut over his protruding bones, visible under the thin material of his t-shirt, green veins are visible throughout his face and neck. His sunken eyes are wide in fear while his hand covers his mouth, something dangling out from in between his fingers. The man notices Irene and immediately looks over to her, slowly starting to crawl with one hand.

"Help... help me... save me..." He rasps, doing his best to reach over to Irene.

"I-I... how... what--" Irene stutters, but her question is cut when the man chokes in front of her. The hand he has over his mouth clenches to grip on the thing fangling in between his fingers as he frantically pulls something from his mouth and that something can be clearly seen by Irene now.

It's hair.

The thick, tangled black hair being pulled out of his throat is never ending, so much so the man starts vomitting blood-- no, it's not just blood. Irene can clearly see shards of glass, rusty nails, and worms tangled in the hair.

Irene wants to scream, the sight before her is more horrifying than yesterday, when she witnessed that woman being attacked by the gandaruwa. The man's horrifying choked wails continue in between the pulling and Irene is far too mortified to notice the figure standing just in the corner of her peripheral vision.

"Ren!"

Irene's vision goes dark as someone pulls her into their embrace, their big hand covering her eyes. Her trembling body is then spun only to meet this person's sturdy chest, their arms securing her body so she won't continue to witness the gruesome scene behind her.

"Theresa! Aisya! Stay where you are and don't come near!"

Kai, that's Kai's voice. The person currently holding her tightly is none other than the person who can save the tortured man behind her.

"Kai... Kai help him..." Irene mumbles, her trembling hands gripping Kai's shirt tightly. "Help him... you can do it, right?"

But Kai doesn't let go of Irene, the only thing that happens is his embrace on her getting tighter. "I'm sorry... I can't..." He whispers, one of his hands going to hold the back of Irene's head instead.

"But... but shouldn't you try?" Irene pushes, hoping that the man will either be put out of his misery or saved.

"I'm sorry Ren, I'm too late. There's nothing I can do." Kai says apologetically. "He's been cursed and is at the last stage of the curse. I can only have a chance of saving him if he hasn't reached that stage."

"Kai... what's going on over there?" Aisya's voice can be heard a bit further away from where Irene and Kai are standing.

"Don't come near here, both of you stay where you are!" Kai instructs, moving ever so slightly to face them.

"Is Irene okay?" Theresa asks.

"Hopefully, I can't say for sure yet." Kai answers as he pulls his attention back to the choking man.

A few minutes pass and the choking finally stops. Irene feels Kai's grip on her start to loosen and she wills herself to look at the man. Irene can see the difference of the corpse than when she saw him alive. His already thin frame is noticeably thinner, as if his whole body was made up of just skin and bones, whatever remaining fat or muscle completely sucked out of his body in a span of 5 minutes. His eyes are wide open in terror, yet they're lifeless, even Irene can tell. The previously light grey t-shirt he had on can't even be called grey anymore as crimson red blood had covered a lot of it. The hair that Irene saw the man pulling turns out to be longer than she initially thought as the hair is noticeably longer than the man with some still stuck in his mouth.

Irene shivers and turns back around to face Kai. She commends his self control as she hadn't noticed any signs of anger until she looks up at him. Kai had always been extremely cheerful in Irene's eyes, but she never thought he had this much self control, even when he seemed to be doing unwell back in their first year, he would always be able to control his emotions and not show anyonr what he's really feeling.

Yet, when Irene sees Kai clenching his teeth so hard that his jaw starts to tremble, his tanned skin red with a blood vessel visible on his forehead, she realised just how furious he actually is with the current situation, either at himself or whatever is responsible for the man's death. "Ren, quickly head back with Theresa and Aisya. Order a taxi and immediately lock yourself up in your room once you arrive."

"Wait, but what will you be doing?" Irene asks as she holds the sleeves of his shirt to prevent him from going away immediately.

"I'll have to investigate and see if this is done by the same person or not. Just leave everything to me and don't let it get to you. I know it's hard and it's not as easy as I make it seem, but trying to keep it out of your mind helps." Kai says as he slowly pulls Irene's hands from his sleeves.

Even though Kai's smile doesn't reach his eyes, he tries his best as he pats Irene's head. "I'll call you when I'm done and share the details with you, how does that sound?" He asks.

"That sounds... fine..." Irene reluctantly says, gluing her gaze to their shoes.

"Go on, Theresa and Aisya are waiting." Kai says and ushers Irene over to her friends. "Take care of her for me!" He says before rounding the corner out of Irene's sight.

"Should we go?" Theresa asks, pulling her phone out to order an online taxi.

"I guess..."