In Every Lifetime

Chapter Twenty Two

As much as Kongpob had explored the 'Realm of Souls' as he had so endearingly named it, he was still pretty much as clueless about the area as the day he had first arrived. No one knew much about the place and everyone kept to themselves in fear of being robbed which was the greatest irony.

After his conversation with Arthit however, he knew he had to find out more. Whilst he had never truly believed in the whole yin-yang theory of things, he also knew the consequences of not following a fortune teller's advice. After all, here he was, dead after his eighteenth birthday, just like how Master Danai had predicted many years ago.

So he set out, talking to everyone who was willing to have a conversation with him, until he found an old man who enjoyed sitting by the lake, some distance away from the Bridge of Naihe. After spending a few days talking about various matters with him, Kongpob finally felt comfortable enough to breach the subject he was about to ask the other.

"P'Deer, do you know when the souls are supposed to cross the bridge?" Kongpob asked, as he settled next to the old man on the bench.

"Have I never told you?" The elder chuckled. "They say that souls cross the bridge whenever they are ready to and when they have left all their earthly matters behind. Most of us stay for 49 days before being reincarnated. However, you've probably seen your fair share of others who are still here well after that time period. These are the souls with wishes or matters that have been unfinished in the earthly realm and their families have not helped them to fulfill it. That's why they are stuck here."

The old man glanced at another soul who was strolling by the lake.

"Some of them will never be reincarnated and will wilt away here for eternity." He sighed.

"How did you know all these?" Kongpob inquired curiously, a little hopeful that the old man might have the answers to the questions he wanted answered next.

"My entire family line were born fortune tellers. These were all tales and things I had learnt my entire life." Deer answered wistfully, "I wasn't born with the sight so I never took over the family business."

"So do you happen to know about the yin-yang balance then?" Kongpob shot back almost immediately, anxious to know if Deer would be able to help him decode the mysterious words of the fortune teller who had talked to Arthit that had been bugging him for days.

"What about it?" Deer gestured around. "This whole area is the biggest yin field you could probably ever find. The human realm would be full of yang. You see, only humans have the yin-yang balance. Souls like us are made up of pure yin. That's also why souls aren't allowed in the human realm. We throw off their balance."

"When you say 'we throw off their balance' what does that mean?"

"It means that when a human comes into contact with a soul, the soul starts feeding off the yang energy of the human naturally. It is the soul's natural way of trying to balance itself and it happens without the soul even knowing. But of course, when too much yang energy gets taken away from the human, they die." Deer answered lightly.

Kongpob sat in silence for a few moments. He had finally understood what the fortune teller meant. Arthit had been visiting him in this realm for far too long. Combined with the fact that he had been spending all his time in this realm with him, Kongpob was unsure how far off this balance had been thrown off and when, it would truly claim Arthit's life.

He had noticed the eyebags and paler complexion of the other but his husband had waved it off as 'bad sleep' owing to the fact that he had been meeting him every night. It was almost like dreaming every single night, Arthit had said, you wake up all tired because you feel like you haven't slept. But Kong knew now. It wasn't as simple as that.