Burial and Exorcism

[AUTHOR'S NOTE: Everything below is purely fiction, not be judged or compared with the real life]

The next day, the 2nd day, arrived peacefully, it was the day of the burring ceremony. Everyone would participate along with the Exorcist’s lead. The Exorcist would use needed exorcism to purify the soul of the dead. But they have to start at the night, at 8:00. It was quite fearful.

After eating lunch, he was ordered to help with the decorations. A few servants took him to his uncles’ room. It was so beautiful, with red and black lanterns hanging down the wall. Yuan was mesmerized. But all in all, everything was for the dead. The dead; His dead uncle. He thought, why so much decoration when he is no longer in the world anymore?

The servants specially asked him to put black lotuses around the bed, where his uncle was laid. His body was covered with a black cloth with red fabricated designs of spider lilies. On the top of the bed’s shelf, he was ordered to place the 3-spider-lily bouquet.

After the decorations ended, Yuan was a bit tired. He wanted to sleep a bit. For a reason, he kept feeling tired the moment he entered his uncle’s room. Maybe because the spirits didn’t want him to. But that was quite absurd.

Yuan, along with the 3 servants, finished the decorations. In the end, they didn’t forget to put long, red talismans of blocking evil spirits. How could they know that their own member was an evil guy?

Yuan came out from the room with the 3 servants. He met the old woman and man again, outside.

“Er Yuan, you finished so early?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah, thank god. I felt so tired and felt like my body was overweighed. Haha,” he gave a doubtful smile.

“Don’t worry, let’s go have some tea.” She smiled as both elders led him to the main shrine.

*****

There were sipping sounds from white cups of tea from the inside shrine. The main shrine had a hall room. There, only the representatives had the power to let people come in or not. Since this was the Lin family, of course, no doubt, Yuan was allowed. For the family’s members, there were 3 siblings: eldest brother, Lin Tong Wu. Younger brother, Lin Sao (Yuan’s dad), and the youngest sister, Lin Su. Everyone had their own matters inside and outside the family. Yuan was just drowning in the question about his grandparents.

“Yuan er. How are you feeling here?”

Yuan tilted up his head to face them. He smiled lightly and said, “Yes, I feel good.” He was clearly faking it.

The old man frowned with a sigh. “Uh, how come son and daughter-in-law didn’t come?”

Yuan first thought of an excuse, then got 2-3 goosebumps. “They possibly had something urgent came up to.” He felt hesitant.

“Oh?” the old man seemed doubtful on Yuan’s reply.

Yuan sighed and wished for this moment to be over soon.

“Yuan er. We shall warn you; after the ceremony at 8 pm, you shall isolate yourself in the room given.”

The old man added, “Also, do not, at any serious or not case, leave your room after 12.”

Yuan’s eyebrow raised. “Why so?” he asked impatiently. He was already doubted that this place is NOT safe.

“…” both elders muted. They lowered their head. Then they looked at each other. They decided to reply peacefully. “It’s, it’s the spirits.”

Yuan’s eyes opened wide. As he was going to speak ‘what?’ they continued. “They roam randomly on our lands. We have tried to consult the Exorcist many times, but he himself had no idea of why they did so.”

“Why not consult the Northern Taoist?” said Yuan.

They looked at him in surprise. How come Yuan was familiar with the Northern Taoist? Was all wandering in their brains.

“That… it's not possible for us. Or even if we call them, they wouldn’t come. Some of the Taoists were timorous; they were feared to come here. And some of them said they had no power to break the evil spirit’s core. What were we supposed to do next, then?” they frowned in dismay. The old couple, how much though gloomy they were, looked utter sincere.

“I see...” Yuan sighed of displeasure and continued. “I will do as you said, but I wish to be a minor contributor in the ceremony.” He made it clear to not attract any unnecessary attention, after all, he was forced to come there.

The old couple looked at him with a little surprise. As they thought it over, their frown faded, and accepted his deal. Reasonably, they could see how much Yuan was scared from the beginning. “Okay, son. We wish you well.” And smiled.

There was approximately, a number of 2 hours left at the start of the ceremony. Yuan could see the servants preparing and roaming here and there for the arrangements. However, their faces were always blank; dully expressionless. They showed no sign of emotion, less chatting. Only the clattering of dishes, for serving, and patting of their footsteps, to show how diligently they were working. Looked as if they were almost inhuman; ghosts. Yuan was, anyway, surprised as well flustered to a headache.

He got up from the chairs and went to his room. He laid on the bed, flapping his hands around, and inhaled and exhaled deeply.

“Ahhhh… I wish I could go home. I really miss mom and dad.” It was a sudden strange moment; he felt tiny drops of tears falling from his eyes. “Wh-what? Wh-why?” He buried his face in the arms, allowing no one to see, not even mistakenly notice that he was crying. Sniffing and sobbing, with faint moaning, echoed in the room.

Suddenly, Yuan felt something weird. He felt someone was embracing him, comforting his whole body at ease. He wanted to move but felt someone’s invisible presence behind him, exerting their weight on his back.

That was still until Yuan calmed down. He looked back saying, “I’m fine, thank you.” But he saw no one was there. “Eh?” No one. Yet, he was embraced smoothly. How come?

Suddenly, a knock on the door sounded. “Young master Lin, please come by, the funeral is going to start within a few minutes.”

Yuan cautioned up. “Y-yes? Oh! Okay! C-coming,” he slithered from his bed and got up, immediately. Yuan wore the black funeral attire and brushed his hair as he set out.

He hurried up, running to the elder’s side. “Ah, ah, sorry, if I’m late.” Panting, while the old man patted his shoulder, relieving him that he’s not.

It was night. There were lanterns of red lights, white and yellow light poles, but they still stood in the darkness so no one was even able to see their own fingers. Yuan felt goosebumps. This time, they were quite heavy.

And the red, black, grey, and white decors, let the ceremony ready to start. The two elders; the organizers, were smiling with pleasure that the soul of their dear son will finally be at ease, finally rest in peace. And further, able to reincarnate, too.

The old woman ordered 3 servants to bring the dead body over the grave and rebury it. But the servants, despite being silent and robot-like, were scared so they bowed to refuse. However the old woman reprimanded and so, they were unwillingly persuaded.

The 3 servants brought outside the dead body, covered in a black clothing sheet, fabricated with red spider lilies, and put it on the refined land. After, they opened the grave’s opening and held the dead carefully, then slowly placed him inside it. After all that, they closed the grave opening and carefully wiped off their bodies’ filth. The invisible impurity from the impure soul.

After doing that, Yuan could see their hands, arms, and legs trembling in fear. He went over and patted to relived them. The old woman sighed and disagreed, “There’s no need.” Yuan disliked that.

The grave, in the deep corner of the personal graveyard of the Lin family, was lighted up by small, thin, white, light strings. It was to light up the name of the depraved soul. Their uncle was almost hated by the whole family, so his soul was remarked as impure by the Exorcist.

The Exorcist walked ahead; for whom they were waiting for. He bowed in front of everyone. Finally, he spoke:

“Good evening, people of the Lin family. I’m here for exorcising the impure soul that has been wandering in dark pits, not wanting to be reincarnated. Today is the day of his purification and reincarnation. Let’s all hope, he reincarnates, may the soul rest in peace.” As the Exorcist finished his speech, everyone started humming about Lin Tong Wu’s reincarnation and afterlife peace. After living his entire life of sins, no one believed that he would be able to pass through this easily. Just a spell and some movements from the Exorcist, he will be purified. But neither did anyone know that there existed a powerful ghost to demolish them.

The people contributing to the funeral were: Lin Su, Lin Yuan, the two elders, two male relatives; Lin Hao, Lin Shou, and two female relatives; Lin Xie, Lin Mian. And Yuan’s aunt who was standing beside the grandmother, Lin Nao. Calculating everyone, with 10 servants, standing far behind, who were only allowed to observe but not come closer as they were not a part of the family. It would be, 19 people. Only 10 people contributing to a funeral. Not extravagant. Not special.

There were also dining tables with each having a pair of 4 chairs. You can guess how big-small they were, according to having only 4 people sitting.

Next, the Exorcist came forward to the tombstone. Before that, he murmured something in the elder’s ears. Yuan wanted to know so, he nudged Lin Su and asked in a low voice, “What are they mumbling about?”

Lin Su smiled and replied, “The Exorcist is talking about ceasing interruption during the ritual.”

Yuan frowned, “What ritual?”

“An exorcism ritual.”

That’s right. It’s a ritual performed to purify the soul and rest them in peace. However, it wasn’t too easy. A little disturbance could ruin everything and the Exorcist would have to restart. So they were seriously warned not to disturb the Exorcist during the ritual.

The ritual started in a few seconds.

The Exorcist walked forward to the grave. At first, he cast 2 spells of exorcising and then blew the words on the tombstone. Next, he took a small bowl containing a black liquid with red blood indications. After reciting a few exorcism incantations, he pointed his twin fingers towards the tombstone.

“Cleanse!”

He poured it onto the grave. Spurt the few droplets on the grave’s opening. Everything looked too intense.

After that, he took out a tall, golden talisman, written with red cinnabar, “Purification” and again recited the incantations. He blew on the grave and glued the golden talisman on the tombstone. In the end, he loudly, incanted 3 long spells;

“Evil spirits be gone,”

“With the power, thou heavens clean the impurity from this soul.”

“Vanish the spirits and make this soul pure, thenceforth reincarnate it.”

He pulled back his hands, as the incantation circle disappeared from the tombstone, eventually claiming the soul is purified.

Yuan's expression was blankly distorted. He wanted to say out loud, ‘Dude, don’t say you just purified it. What the hell…’

And so, the funeral was almost over. Generally speaking, this looked like an exorcising more than a funeral. Nevertheless, it happened and ended peacefully. Everyone headed towards the open-air dining hall. Sitting under the dark night, with not even a single shining star in sight, they started the feast. How pitiful. Yet dark.

Yuan wanted to throw up before even touching the food. He just pulled up the drink, which seemed to be grapevine, he swirled the glass and then drank a sip. “I should only drink this and…”

As he was playing with the wine glass, he witnessed something weird, strange. Yuan saw, through the white, clear glass, a long black-haired woman, dressed in black funeral clothes, walking through the wall. Yes, through the wall! He put down his glass, in a fretting behavior, he ran towards the hallway of rooms. There was a wall that partitioned the end of the hallway from both sides, right and left. Yuan monitored the wall. Another man, dressed in black, came with his head dropped down in sorrow, as Yuan saw him pass through the wall again! What the hell on earth was this? Yuan rubbed his eyes twice, stretched opened them again, and gasped, “What the heck? Is this reality?!” He was so surprised that his back hairs stood up in horror.

For a normal human, yes, that was quite a horrifying joke. But what can a ghost do? It would just be its normal propensity; passing through the walls here and there, despite being aware of where it is residing.

What Yuan saw right there, was quite inhuman for him. For a person with disbelief in ghosts or religious things, he knew nothing about what was happening. He was a realist by-birth, alright.

Yuan just thought this would probably be his night hallucinating; the doctor, he recently consulted, already told him that his night vision is decreasing slowly. By a certain time, he would be hallucinating. So he didn’t bother the more. Wiping his sweat off, he sighed and strengthened up his demeaner. He went back to the dining area,.

Yuan encountered the elders again.

“Er Yuan, are you not feeling well?”

Yuan thought for a while, ‘How can I feel good? After meeting such suspicious grandparents, you said you were, do you think I’m gonna believe my dead grandma is alive?! Okay, well, I might take you like them, no forget you, but listen, elders, what I saw just now, 2 people passing through the wall?! Are you freaking toying with my heart?!’

He was baffled. But more horrified. But seeming so he couldn’t really say that. “No, I’m good. You’re just imagining much.” He twitched a smile.

“Oh, ho, ho. Haha, sorry for not making you comfortable here. We also didn’t want to do this dark stuff, but your uncle was impatient. He would, no wonder when, come to hunt us within his all 50 years, so we couldn’t, not at any cost, accept it. That is why we had an expensive Exorcist help us.”

After hearing such pitiful words from his grandma, he decided to tolerate it all. He just nodded with a smile, “Yes, ma- I mean, grandmother, thank you for your much kindness.”

“I’ll be leaving to my room. Please deliver my dinner after a few hours.”

Both elders nodded in agreement and Yuan went to his room.