On the day that no one is at home

The fig tree, shedding its leaves and fruit onto the sandy ground, created a pile of foliage and fruit. Only a few earthworms and leaf fragments were on the ground. Birds flew down to eat the fruits and the worms beneath the fig tree. Flocks of birds were returning to their nests before nightfall, signaling that darkness was approaching. And what came with the night was just as perilous...

On the day that no one is at home

During the hot season of the year 2007 (B.E. 2550), my siblings, friends, and I used to play together. We had my older brother, Eak, Paong, Noy, Puy, and Tay in our group, all of whom were of the same age.

Our play area was under the jackfruit tree in front of Eak's house. To the right of Eak's house was our neighbor Nai Charoen's house, and to the left was Noy's house, which had a lot of banana trees that could almost be considered a banana forest for us.

And on those nights, around 7:00 PM, after playing with our younger siblings, we would engage in a little mischief. We liked to imitate Nai Charoen and make long, drawn-out sounds, saying, "Poo Charoen" in the Khamer language, which means an old man who likes to play things and then make long, scary sounds. In reality, Nai Charoen wasn't scary at all, and we only did it among ourselves to make each other laugh and have some fun.

So, we thought about playing a prank on Nai Charoen. Given that he was an easily irritable person, sometimes he enjoyed standing in front of other people's houses, not caring about the kids who were watching, and he would toss garbage onto Eak's side of the house. So, we decided to give him a taste of his own medicine, even though Nai Charoen was known to be very afraid of ghosts, despite being in his 30s.

At 7:00 PM, we secretly positioned ourselves in the bushes at different corners of the house so that Nai Charoen wouldn't see us. It was dark enough to conceal ourselves.

Then we called out to him from outside the house, saying, "Poo Charoen..." My response was, "Ta Charoen." My older brother and Nong Eak chimed in with, "A Charoen." We coordinated our voices from different sides to create the illusion that there were many people calling him.

The goal was to make Nai Charoen too scared to venture out in the middle of the night or evening. That night, we succeeded in keeping him awake. We laughed and felt quite satisfied when morning came.

And that's how the plan unfolded as planned.

This event was very eerie because it was a real-life experience. It was a psychological thriller at its peak. We were sitting and watching TV in the house when it all started. It began with my older brother hearing something unusual.

Around 7:00 PM, just a few days after we had played the prank on Nai Charoen, after we had finished eating our dinner that evening, my brother and I separated to each side of the house. The sounds of the trees were heard first, the trees next to our house, which would often make sounds when the wind or a storm came, causing the roof to creak.

"Kreuk..."

The sound of the trees being dragged was eerie and nerve-wracking, causing kids like us to imagine dark and terrifying things. We were convinced it was a demon or something similar.

"Miaow..."

Before it turned into the sound of cats, the ones that were about to play on the roof, the sound suddenly got louder and more unsettling.

"Meowwww, Kieowwww..."

Normally, they wouldn't meow this loudly, but that night, they seemed to be meowing and whining excessively.

The events that followed were beyond our expectations.

The menacing sounds from the outside seemed as though they were encountering an adversary up there, which left my brother and me stunned. We immediately looked up.

My brother asked, "What are those cats doing?"

I replied, "I don't know."

We could only wonder because it had been a long time since those cats had made such loud and unusual sounds, which was not at all normal. Or maybe we just hadn't noticed before.

Then, the strange sound around us suddenly transformed into silence and was replaced by a different noise, which was almost drowned out by the loud TV:

"Sed, Sed, Sa, Sa... Krueeeng..."

The intruding sound made us uncertain whether it came from the TV or from outside. Outside was nearly silent as if there was no air movement. This was odd, considering that there had been the sounds of trees and those running cats earlier.

"Chuwwwww..."

The last menacing cat sound indicated something abnormal about them, and they fell silent.

There was a sense of dread, and something had made their sounds disappear.

"Krueeeng, Krueeeng..."

The TV and the computer made abnormal, distorted sounds. I started turning off the computer because it seemed like I had been playing it for too long. My brother, however, was still watching TV. We took turns as I watched TV, and he tried to turn the computer back on, but it seemed like the computer couldn't be turned on.

After that, we both began watching TV together. The eerie silence from outside made the previously loud TV sound strange and unsettling. We didn't want to listen to it, so we paid more attention to the quietness outside, where there was almost no sound of cars passing by, leaving a mysterious feeling in our hearts, as if something strange was going to happen that day.

Then, what I had been thinking about started to unfold.

...We focused on listening, and the sounds outside gradually morphed into the sound of someone knocking on the door, from the front of the house. It was loud, as if someone was walking around the house. Then, the loud knocking sound continued:

"Thung... Thung... Thung..."

My brother said, "Hey, Poom, go and see who's knocking on the door now."

I replied, "Okay."

I thought to myself, why does it have to be me? I'd already mentioned earlier that I shouldn't open it, but I had to because my brother ordered me to.

As I opened the door:

"Eeyoh..."

The door opened slowly, with me being cautious. I looked around, but there was nothing there, just darkness outside, and a chilling atmosphere surrounded me. My hair stood on end, and the cold air rushed in, making me feel twice as cold.

My brother asked, "Did you see anyone?"

I said, "I didn't see anyone."

My brother almost didn't believe me.

I added, "I think it might be the wind."

I thought silently that the wind outside was almost non-existent. At that moment, my brother still didn't seem to understand. He appeared unsure if it was a person knocking or perhaps just the wind. But when I opened the door and said that, I did it to reassure him.

"Thung... Thung..."

...We were now sure it wasn't the wind. My brother decided to open the door himself this time, and as expected, there was no one there.

My brother opened the door, then quickly shut it, with a look on his face as if he had seen something. He turned to me and asked, "Do you feel the same way?"

I nodded my head and thought, I've known that for a while, but you insisted on opening the door.

We were both starting to get frustrated, and the TV show didn't seem enjoyable anymore. So, we turned off the TV to listen more carefully to the outside sounds.

"Kok, Krek..."

The sound of a doorknob turning, but it didn't actually turn. We both turned to look at the door, as we were sitting in front of the TV and were intently listening to the sounds from outside. The sound came from the front door, and we both turned simultaneously, seeing the shadow of a person passing by through the gap beneath the door. It was a dark shadow.

My brother and I decided to open the door together, and we stepped out to open the door.

My brother said, "Who's there..."

"*@#^&%$^"

The response was a string of profanity, and it seemed to come from the person who had been knocking or whatever they were doing. But then... what we received in return was silence. The atmosphere around the house was quite intimidating for kids with no neighbors nearby, and it was dark with no streetlights in the middle of the road. I quietly thought, what would we do if the lights went out inside the house?

We quickly closed the door after the shouting was over. We thought that if it was a person, they would be angry and respond in some way. But there was no response whatsoever. Not long after, we heard another round of knocking on the door, about 5-6 times, and this time it was even stronger than before. At first, I thought someone was playing a prank, but I checked the time, and it was past 2 a.m. Who would be playing pranks at this hour? I didn't dare open it, so my brother did it instead, and it was just the same. I was starting to feel uneasy about what was happening. The important thing was that both my brother and I were aware that something was not right.

The knocking on the door was getting increasingly intense. It was coming from above, from the roof, and even from the bedroom window. The sounds echoed through the house. The knocking on the door this time made us scared, and we were too afraid to open it. The loud knocking became softer and then quieted down, but it started again, and we began to get worried, not understanding what was going on. The most crucial realization was that my brother and I were both aware of the abnormality.

The knocking from above, the roof, and the bedroom window started to make us feel threatened, and we didn't dare open the door. The knocking on the door was softer and quieter, and then it started again. At that point, we were becoming more frightened, and we no longer paid attention to the knocking.

As we began to get scared, the sounds we heard were the laughter of a woman, a joyful laughter coming from the front of the door.

"Hmm... Hm."

Elder Brother: "Did you hear that too?" Me: "The laughter, right?" Elder Brother: "Yes." Me: "Ugh," I responded with a shiver, and we both made uneasy faces. We didn't want to believe what we had heard and agreed with each other.

"Hm hm." The woman's laughter sounded from the front of the house, then moved to the back.

"Hm... Hm." It even echoed from the roof!!! Although it shouldn't be like that, my brother and I were extremely scared. We held our father's hidden knives and guns that we used to play with and shoot. As long as we had weapons, we felt a bit more confident. We knew our mother wouldn't help us with anything unless it was something we could shoot or harm. We clutched our amulets and recited prayers to get through the night.

The laughter continued to grow louder, and there seemed to be no end to our discomfort.

As we began to lose our composure and feel more fear from the laughter, my brother asked if we should go out and confront it. He was very determined, loading the gun with bullets, and I, holding a knife.

We went outside and found something even more bizarre. We encountered a blinding, unnatural light that was not like any other light. It was a strange, blinding light. We asked what it was, but there was no response. My brother was about to shoot it, but I stopped him. I don't know why I did that, but I did. We returned to our room, terrified, and that night ended with us falling asleep, exhausted.

We recounted the story to our parents, but they didn't believe us.

At noon, a stench of rotting flesh began to permeate our room. My brother and I followed the scent, which led us to the place where we had seen the strange light. It turned out to be a pile of straw next to the house that was emitting a foul odor. We discovered dead kittens inside, their eyes filled with worms and their intestines spilling out. It was exactly where we had gone out to confront the strange light. It was a complete coincidence. Luckily, we didn't end up like those poor kittens.

This was the reason why the mother cat cursed and feared us, causing her offspring to meet such a fate.

I have a feeling that Naa Jerk is up to something, because Eak also experienced something similar, but I can't remember what Eak experienced. However, I don't think it's a coincidence that someone is coming to offer us strange food.

We often share this story with everyone because it's an experience that has become a favorite tale among us when people from out of town come to visit. We ourselves cannot figure out what it was. Sometimes we think that the people we played a prank on back then are now playing a prank on us in return. But it's been a long time, and sometimes we may want to forget it. However, my brother and I never forget because it was so creepy at the time, and it actually happened.

Ripe tamarind fruits have a combination of sourness, bitterness, and sweetness, much like our lives in childhood, where the flavors change with age. It grows into a bitterness that hurts and is difficult to swallow. That's the taste of life, and the sweet and sour tastes of our childhood make us wonder why its bitterness affects the sweet and sour parts in such a way, but it's all part of the taste of life that we have to experience.

In memory of our beloved little brother Eak, who passed away in the year 2562, with love and remembrance.