“Cold... so cold...”

The voice came not as a faint whisper from the shadows, but with alarming clarity from the door of her own room. Ploysuay’s small hands clenched the blanket so tightly her knuckles were white, fear skyrocketing until her chest burned. The bedroom door shrieked open—a quick, violent push—as if someone was lunging straight toward her in desperate haste.

In that terrifying split second, the figure of a deathly pale woman with disheveled, wild hair appeared in the doorway. Her monolid eyes were wide, fixed on Ploysuay with an unrelenting stare that stole the breath from her lungs. She was frozen solid, as if cursed by the horrific vision.

Just as terror threatened to consume her, a sudden, blinding light flashed. The harsh glare momentarily obscured the spectral figure, which was instantly replaced by a different woman standing there: "Ae," her close friend, bundled entirely in a quilt, only her face visible.

“Ploy!”

The clear call of her name made Ploysuay jump violently. Regaining her senses, she slowly poked her head out from the quilt protecting her body.

"It's freezing! I guess this house has too many trees, and it backs right up to the fruit orchard. I’m just not used to it," Ae, the friend—with her cute, round face, rosy cheeks, and finely textured white skin contrasting with her shoulder-length black hair—said, hugging the quilt like a nervous cocoon. Ploysuay sighed in profound relief. Seeing her friend instantly dissolved some of the consuming fear.

"You startled me. I thought..." Ploysuay muttered to herself, her voice barely a whisper.

Ae tilted her head slightly. "Thought what?" she asked innocently. Ploysuay merely shook her head, avoiding eye contact.

"You heard them, didn't you? When we asked for directions to Rin Fah House, the locals told us the history... You remember that, right?" Ploysuay asked, her voice thin and frail.

Ae nervously scanned the dark corners of the room before inching closer until their shoulders almost touched. "Do you think it's true, Ploy? Or are the villagers just spreading rumors?" Ae tightened the quilt around her, resembling a trembling cocoon.

Ploysuay offered no reply, but she understood her friend's question perfectly. It was the story of... the lovers who fought violently, and the mysterious, terrifying disappearance of a young woman and a man, one of whom was rumored to have been murdered before they vanished from the house forever.