"I honestly admire you, Petra. Living with someone whose mind is that sick, and somehow you haven't gone crazy with her. You're such a compassionate person, aren't you?"
.
.
Naphatsorn's words made Petra freeze.
She had been living with Rafah for a month. Sleeping beside her every night. And yet she had never once suspected that Rafah was battling depression.
Petra drew in a deep breath and tried to gather herself. She refused to believe Naphatsorn's words so easily.
"Where did you get that from? That Khun Rafah has depression?"
"Hah. You don't believe me, do you?" Naphatsorn gave her a mocking smile. "I know because I happened to find Rafah's medication packet on Black Eden. Everything was written on it. The hospital name, the patient's name, and the name of the antidepressant Rafah uses."
The woman paused for a moment before pronouncing the name of the drug clearly.
"Fluoxetine, 20 milligrams. It helps increase serotonin or whatever. I looked it up, you know. It's supposed to help improve your mood, help you sleep better... something like that."
A faint smile appeared on her lips.
"Rafah hid the medicine inside a book on her desk."
Petra clenched her fists.
She hated the way Naphatsorn talked about Rafah's illness with such contempt.
"So what? Even if Khun Rafah really has depression, what does that have to do with you?"
"When you date someone who's sick in the head, sooner or later... your mind gets sick along with hers, Petra!"
Those words only made Petra angrier.
The more she listened to Naphatsorn, the more disgusted she felt by the woman's way of thinking. Petra hated people like this, people who had no compassion for another human being.
"If everyone in this world thought like you, then this world would be full of nothing but cruel, selfish people with no empathy for anyone. Don't use your selfish little standards to judge other people."
She looked straight at Naphatsorn, refusing to back down.
"Khun Rafah's depression is not a problem for me. The two of us love each other just fine. If you're planning to use someone's mental illness as a tool to get what you want, then I think you're the one who's truly sick."
Petra clenched her fists tighter.
"If you brought this up to make me and Khun Rafah break up, then you should know this right now, Khun Phat. I'm not breaking up with her."
Naphatsorn froze for only a split second.
Then she slowly rose to her feet and clapped, slow and deliberate.
"Very impressive. I honestly admire you, Petra. A fucked-up family isn't a problem. Her mental health being that much of a wreck isn't a problem either... So I guess Rafah's BDSM preference isn't a problem for you either?"
Her gaze swept over Petra from head to toe.
"Unbelievable, really. A sweet, delicate little doll like you, willing to be Rafah's submissive and let her boss you around in bed."
Petra's last thread of patience snapped.
She shot to her feet at once.
"I'll excuse myself, Khun Phat. I've wasted enough time on you."
But before she could take even one step away, Naphatsorn grabbed her wrist.
"Petra! Don't you want to know what Rafah really uses Black Eden for?"
That sentence worked.
Petra stopped immediately.
"I think I'm the only one who can give you the answer, because Rafah will never tell you the truth."
Naphatsorn stared deep into Petra's eyes, as if sending a clear signal.
If Petra wanted the truth, she had to sit down.
And it worked.
Petra sat down again, though her face made it obvious she did not want to.
"First, let me prove to you that I know Rafah better than you do. Petra... answer one question for me. Where did Rafah go today?"
Petra frowned, not understanding what game Naphatsorn was trying to play. But she still answered honestly.
"Khun Rafah has a board meeting today at one of THE ÉCLAT GROUP's hotels."
Naphatsorn burst out laughing at once.
"And you believe that?"
"..."
"Rafah lied to you."
Naphatsorn slid her phone in front of Petra.
On the screen was a photo of Rafah sitting and talking with Pimphisa inside a private room.
"Today, Rafah went to see Pim. She didn't go to any meeting like she told you. Rafah lied to you."
The word "lied" was emphasized again.
Petra stared at the image in silence.
She could not speak, because the clothes Rafah was wearing in the picture were the same clothes Petra had chosen and prepared for her with her own hands the night before.
Rafah...
Why would she lie to her?
Heat rose to the rims of Petra's eyes, as if tears were about to spill over. But the tears that almost fell were forced back by pride.
Petra would not let herself lose in front of a woman like Naphatsorn.
She forced herself to gather her composure and asked, cutting straight to the point.
"Can you please get to the point, Khun Phat? What exactly did Khun Rafah do on Black Eden? That's all I want to know. I don't care about anything else."
Naphatsorn watched that attempt at strength with pitying eyes.
Then she smiled.
"Okay. Since you want to know so badly, I'll do you the favor."
She spoke briefly.
"Rafah likes to draw you before having sex with you, doesn't she?"
Petra went still at once.
As if ice-cold water had been thrown over her.
Because what Naphatsorn said meant that what Rafah did with her had not happened to her alone.
"Are you shocked?"
Naphatsorn pretended to ask with a smile.
"Oh, Petra... did you think you were the only one who ever lay there naked for Rafah to draw?"
Naphatsorn stressed the words "lay there naked", as if she meant to trample Petra down and make her sound like an object.
"Every woman who's slept with Rafah has been treated that way. None of them were special. Just sex objects Rafah used to satisfy that pretentious little artist mood of hers from time to time."
Petra lowered her head in silence.
Her breathing began to falter uncontrollably. This time, her tears almost truly fell.
The phrase sex objects used to satisfy Rafah's mood pierced straight into Petra's heart, because deep down, Petra had always feared it.
Feared that Rafah might really see her as nothing more than one of her collectibles.
But Petra still gritted her teeth and forced the tears back.
She would not cry.
At least... not right now.
"So what? What does that have to do with Black Eden?"
Petra forced herself to ask, trying to sound hard.
That made Naphatsorn smile with pleasure.
Satisfaction flashed clearly in her eyes as she watched the woman she hated sitting there on the verge of tears.
"You've probably heard the story of Adam and Eve, right? The first man and woman in the Bible. The story says God created those two humans, then created the Garden of Eden for them to live in."
Naphatsorn stared deep into Petra's eyes.
"There were two important trees in Eden. One was the Tree of Life. The other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God forbade Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But, you know, whether it's a novel or an old legend, there has to be a villain, doesn't there?"
The woman curled her lip in bored contempt at the old formula of those stories and legends.
"Because in the end... Eve was tempted by the serpent, the one people say represents Satan, into eating the fruit from that tree anyway. Adam joined in too. The result was that both of their eyes were opened. They learned right from wrong. And when God found out, it ended with both of them getting kicked the hell out of Eden."
Petra frowned hard.
"Why are you telling me all this?"
Naphatsorn laughed.
"Because Rafah sees God's Garden of Eden as nothing more than a cage for humanity's raw sexual desire."
She leaned back against the chair comfortably, looking relaxed, as if she were telling a bedtime story.
"If that serpent hadn't existed, humans probably still wouldn't have had their eyes opened. So Black Eden is the opposite of Eden. It's the true paradise for people who want to release their raw instincts without worrying about moral boundaries. There, everyone gets to reveal their true self, especially when it comes to sex. To put it simply, it's a place built for doing filthy things."
Then Naphatsorn pressed harder with an even sharper sentence.
"Broken rich people like Rafah sometimes have tastes in bed that ordinary people like you could never imagine. Maybe the only thing that still makes them feel alive is doing things that get more and more extreme... Group-sex parties. Hardcore BDSM play parties. Really extreme kink. Maybe it's because her life is so fucked up that her sanity finally snapped."
She deliberately moved her face closer until her warm breath brushed against Petra's ear.
"And has Rafah taken you to meet her Black Eden friends yet? The group of friends Rafah... lets have sex with her own partners."
Those words made Petra's entire body go numb.
A tight lump lodged in her throat. Petra's expression gave everything away, and that pleased Naphatsorn immensely.
So she drove the pain in deeper.
"Have you ever wondered, Petra, why Rafah's Black Eden has No. 4 in its name? I'll tell you out of kindness. It's because the number 4 is their secret code. Every fourth day of the month, Rafah holds an extreme BDSM play party. Sometimes there's sex. Sometimes there isn't. Each time, they select beautiful women, never the same faces, to join in. Sometimes she lets them sleep with her own friends, while she sips wine and watches, or paints erotic abstract art to keep afterward."
Petra clenched her fists.
She could not say a single word.
She wanted to run away from this place. She wanted to stop hearing these disgusting things right now. But her legs had gone so weak that she could not move.
And Naphatsorn still would not stop.
"Being friends with benefits, having BDSM sex with Rafah, things like that... I was fine with it. Even lying naked as a model for whatever ridiculous erotic art she wanted to paint, I gave Rafah everything."
Naphatsorn paused slightly, staring deep into Petra's tear-filled eyes.
"But having to sleep with Rafah's friends? That really wasn't okay. Don't you think?"
Petra swallowed with difficulty.
Her throat was so dry she could barely make a sound.
"I didn't want to do it. But you know what Rafah is like. If she wants something, she gets it. In the end, she found a way to make me agree anyway. Do you want to know how Rafah did it?"
Naphatsorn fell silent for a moment.
Then she said the one thing Petra could not accept the most.
"Rafah drugged me, Petra. A lot of women who were taken there were drugged too."
Petra's heart dropped.
As if it had been yanked down into the dark.
What she had heard was too horrible to accept. It was beyond horrible. What Naphatsorn described was no different from assault. It was a violation of a person's humanity in the worst possible way.
"I understand the world of sex, you know. Group sex, swinging, people who like watching their partners have sex with others. As long as everyone consents and agrees willingly, it's just a matter of preference. It's the same as having a BDSM preference. No different."
Naphatsorn stared at Petra.
"But what if it happens because someone uses drugs?"
She paused for a moment.
Then asked in an ice-cold voice.
"That... is called rape, isn't it?"
The pain written clearly across Petra's face was the prize Naphatsorn wanted most.
If there was the Serpent in God's Eden, the one that tempted Eve into eating God's forbidden fruit, then Naphatsorn in this moment was no different from that serpent.
...
That same night, Rafah was fast asleep.
Petra lay in Rafah's arms and slowly opened her eyes in the dark. Her beautiful eyes were still rimmed with dried tear tracks. She carefully removed Rafah's hand from her waist, her expression pale and unwell.
This was the first time Rafah held her, and Petra wanted to push her as far away as possible.
A sense of discomfort and nausea pressed tight inside her chest.
There was no scorching lovemaking that night like usual. Petra chose to lie and say she was tired and unwell. But the truth was that everything she had heard from Naphatsorn today kept haunting her, filling her with disgust until she did not want Rafah touching even the smallest part of her.
Just lying beside her was enough to make Petra feel sick.
Though part of her instincts told her not to believe Naphatsorn's words too quickly, Petra could not ignore what she had heard today. Especially when she connected it to Pimphisa's mocking words from that day...
Rate the merchandise.
Maybe Rafah had once sent her photo into that secret group so her friends could see whether she was "suitable" to become the next woman taken into Black Eden.
Petra decided to get out of bed.
She headed straight to the room Rafah had always insisted was only her private painting studio. Then she stopped in front of the solid door fitted with a digital door lock.
Naphatsorn's voice echoed in her head again.
"If you don't believe me, try going into that room. Aren't you curious? If it's really just a painting studio like Rafah said, why does the door need a passcode lock?"
"How am I supposed to get in?"
Naphatsorn laughed.
"The room code isn't hard to guess. Rafah doesn't believe in religion. She doesn't believe in God. She doesn't believe in anything. So she's kind of the type who likes defying God."
"In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapter 3, verses 5 to 6, when Eve decides to eat the forbidden fruit... the room code comes from those numbers. 030506. That's the code into Black Eden."
Petra drew in a deep breath.
With trembling fingers, she entered the code Naphatsorn had given her.
Unbelievably... the code was correct.
The moment the lock mechanism clicked, the door unlocked.
And when the door opened, Petra's heart almost stopped.
Inside the large hall, all four walls were covered with enormous paintings stretching continuously across the room.
The images resembled the Garden of Eden from the Bible, but its original meaning had been completely distorted. There was no Adam. No Eve. Only two naked women. One of them had her wrists bound above her head with dark restraints. Her eyes were covered with a pitch-black cloth. Both faces were beautiful, yet their poses and gestures made it look as though the two of them were together in Eden.
Above the bodies of the two women in the painting, a colossal black serpent coiled along the walls. Its body wound through branches and vines. Its eyes watched every movement, as if it were the observer.
In the center of the room stood a large red bed, the red so dark it was almost black. The bed was surrounded by artificial trees whose large branches spread out and wrapped around the bed frame. Around the room were tools Petra did not need to guess about to know they were meant for BDSM activities.
This was not a painting studio.
It was a temple of lust.
Suddenly...
Naphatsorn's voice echoed in Petra's head again.
"Rafah doesn't just like BDSM or painting her partners naked before sex. What Rafah truly likes is watching her own partner have sex with other people while she controls everything and paints it."
Naphatsorn's voice rang through her senses.
"If every party is willing, then I guess you could call it a personal preference... But the problem is that Rafah drugs her partners."
Petra pressed her lips tightly together, tears filling her eyes.
Deep down, she was still begging for everything Naphatsorn had said to be nothing more than fabricated lies. But the truth was appearing right in front of her.
Petra tried to stay calm.
She wiped the tears from her cheeks roughly and decided to walk around the room, inspecting it, until her eyes caught on one corner.
It was a built-in cabinet that reached from floor to ceiling, shaped like a large vertical drawer. It had been designed to blend into the wall so well that it was almost impossible to notice unless someone looked carefully.
Petra walked straight toward it.
Then she used all the strength she had to pull the drawer open.
Inside was a storage compartment filled with canvas frames.
With trembling hands, she slowly reached in and pulled one frame out to look.
The image in front of her was an oil painting. It showed a group of naked women. Some had their wrists bound with rope. Some were blindfolded. Though the painting did not show explicit details, the context made the physical relationship among them clear.
They were making love.
Naphatsorn's voice rose again inside Petra's head.
"I think it won't be long before Rafah takes you into that room and makes you sleep with her group of friends."
"If you refuse, Rafah will probably drug you."
Petra sobbed until her body shook.
Her whole body trembled like a broken-winged bird lost in a storm. She had never imagined she would have to face something so twisted and horrific.
She quickly stumbled backward, intending to get herself out of this hell as fast as possible.
But her back collided with a tall figure already standing right behind her.
"Khun Rafah..."
The name slipped from her trembling lips.
Rafah stood there.
Her face was calm and still, like a statue.
But there was no feeling in it.
She asked Petra in a flat voice, so level it was impossible to read.
.
.
"How did you get into this room?"