Ultimate Note: You Are Worthy

Panma's Story Part Two

Wu Xie

This time, all three of them were allowed to hear the story, not just Wu Xie, so they sat around the long table and waited for Panma to start telling his real story, hoping for no more interruptions from other people like last time.

"Like I said before, thirty years ago this village was very poor when the team came, bringing into the village a very tempting supply of food we usually will not have access to it otherwise. The temptation was so big that it leads me and a group of friends into committing our greatest sins."

"One night, we went into the mountains unannounced. We knew in which tent the supplies were been kept and when no one was around, we sneak in with the intention of stealing some rice to feed our families. It was not something to be proud of, but for the sustention of our families, we were willing to steal a bit with no regrets."

"I said to steal just two bowls for bag of rice, so the team will not notice what we stole too much in one go, but my friends got greedy, taking more bowls than I had told them. I couldn't blame them, because once you started stealing the rice, it was hard to stop with just a handful when there was so much in front of you. That, of course was our doom, because the more we stole, the more time it took and we were discover by a member of the expedition."

"Of course, he was surprise to find us stealing their food and I told him it will not happen again if he let us go, but he wanted to take us to their leader, which we couldn't let it happen. In our panic, one of my friends took his carrier bag and put it over his head and affix him to death. I watched as everything happen in the blink of an eye... one moment we just wanted to steal some rice to survive and the other we became killers out of our own greed."

"I was shocked at first... but what was done could not be taken back and we did what we could do at that time. We carry the body to bury it in the woods, but once again we were spotted and in our crazy state, we decided to kill all of them, so they will not tell anyone in town of what we did that night. We spared no one and after everything was done, we throw the bodies into the lake and went back home carrying as much rice as our backs could hold."

"We were become blood-lust that night, beast and demons guided by greed and necessity... but... that was not the end of it as we thought..." Panma told them and Wu Xie could not help himself but to ask.

"Why not? You said you had kill them all... well, at least the ones who were in the camp at that time. Did the others came back and find out what you had done?" Wu Xie asked.

"Oh, no... it was far worse than that. No one came knocking on our doors when we come back to our homes, but in the next morning, I went back to the camp, to see if the rest of the team who were out that night came back and were looking for their teammates, but what I saw that day was terrifying..."

"What was it?" Wu Xie asked again.

"All those men we killed with our own hands... there were walking around the campsite like if nothing had happen. All of them were alive and well and with no recollection of what we did the night before... like if they were demons that aroused from the deeps of the lake in were we throw them. I was scare to death and I fled the campsite, thinking that the demons were going to come after me for what I did."

"Wait, are you sure they were the same men, not just alike?" Wu Xie interrupted.

"I was sure they were the same, there was not the slight difference of the ones we killed and the ones I found in the morning. They even recognize and treat me the same way they usually did... there was only one difference... they smelled like the dead... just like him..." Panma said as he looked at Xiaoge and Wu Xie did the same unconsciously. Of course, he didn't believe that Xiaoge was either a demon or the undead, but he didn't want for Panma to stop the story midway again.