Cold.
That is the first thing Janu felt when he regained his consciousness.
His body shivering tremendously on a muddy surface. His white shirt is soaking wet and can't be protected by his black jacket. The river water dripped from the tips of the hairs to the arms. His head feels heavy, like just being smashed to a rock. He lay for a couple of seconds while staring into the sky through the gap in the leaves.
Still dark.
Janu frowned. He closes his eyes, then opens them again. Still, the sky stays the same dark bluish black without any sign of the sun. Fogs linger low between the trees like a thin smoke that cannot be moved.
"FU—" Janu stood up too quickly until he almost slipped again. His left arm reflectively grabbed a fallen tree branch on the side.
"You just passed out before." Jantaka's voice appears.
Janu immediately glanced in all directions. "You! Out!"
"I am indeed not out there."
"Drop that riddle, asshole!" snapped Janu. "Get out! I am not scared of you!"
Jantaka just chuckles.
Janu rubbed his head and neck until he took off his jacket as if looking for something. "You must be planting chips or hearing aids on my body, right? Answer me!"
"No, I have been with you since the beginning."
"Hah. Bullshit!"
"Your breath becomes shorter when you are in panic."
Janu froze.
"In your adolescence year," continued Jantaka patiently, "you have experienced crashing into those iron wagons while running from the adversaries."
Janu tensed up. "... Iron wagon? You mean a car?"
"Your wounds are tended by the debts of your parents."
Janu is taking a step back slowly. His hands are touching his right thigh.
No. This cannot be.
"You are often involved with the lawkeepers. Lucky for you, always get spared because they think you are just a kid."
"SHUT UP!"
"You failed to continue your education. Your parents are disappointed, and they are anguished over that. And you are forced to taste the fruits of hard and gruelling labour."
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
Jantaka is silent for a moment, then laughs again.
Janu is looking down in fear. His breath became disturbed. Not because Jantaka's voice sounds exactly like a ghost, but the fact that this mysterious entity knows him so much better.
Janu wiped his face violently. "I must have been hit on the head."
"That is an odd but comforting interpretation."
"I am hallucinating."
"By all means, if that makes you at ease."
"This must be a dream."
"Then, keep on dreaming."
Janu is clenching his teeth. He walks in a circle on the riverside while scrubbing his head.
"Nope, nope. This is so out of any sane mind."
"You are present in a place where even basic logic could not reach."
"And what are you exactly? A genie that's rent-free on my head?"
"I am already renting here, way back when you could not even utter a single word."
Janu got goosebumps. "What exactly is your goal? "
"Protecting you."
"Bullshit again."
"That is the order."
"Order from who!?"
No answer.
Janu chuckles in frustration.
"Let me tell you something, since the beginning you just keep circling your reasoning." He kicks the gravels to the river. "If you really are a protector, then why the fuck could I end up in this hell!?"
"Because this place is seeking you also."
Janu turns slowly. "What?"
"Some human wanders too close to something that should not even be touched," said Jantaka softly. "And when that happens … Pinarbutan pulled them."
Janu stares blankly towards the river. "I don't understand."
"And that is good."
"Good for what!?"
"Because people, when they understand this place so suddenly, they usually do not survive."
Janu was silenced. The wind breezes through the tree's gap. Not a single sound of a bird or insect can be heard. Even the fog did not change when he woke up.
He reached into his cargo pants pocket and took out his mobile phone that was still slightly damp.
Black screen. Dead.
He tried to turn it on a couple of times. But not one responds.
"You cannot see time with those tiny devices."
"So noisy!" protests Janu. He gazes at the sky, it should have been morning at least, or the sky changes too at the very least, but no. Even the moonlight is becoming obscured by the thick cloud.
"... You said Pinarbutan before, right?
"Hm."
"What exactly is that place?"
A long silence, until Janu thought Jantaka disappeared.
"A stage."
"What?"
"A place for humans being hunted and gutted like game"
Janu is frowning with cringe. "Could we talk normally?"
"Yes, you are asking for an answer. I only told the truth."
Janu rubbed his nape violently. The river sound keeps dominating, and it's making his head aching.
"Oh my goodness…" sighed Janu. "At this point, I don't know if the forest or you that's more dangerous."
Jantaka laughed again. "Both hold some truth to it."
Janu clacked his tongue in annoyance then grabbed his backpack located near him on river rock. "If this is a dream," his gesture, "I want to wake up right here, right now."
His hand stopped. Something missing from it, he believes.
"I believe that my folding knife is around here," he said while pulling that thing out.
A badik in a black sheath.
The carving on its handle is dark and weathered. There is also a reddish stain in its wooden sheath like a dried blood stain. Strangely, its metal feels so cold when touched.
Janu threw it to the ground. "What the hell is this!?"
Jantaka suddenly fell silent. Then its voice became serious: "... Where did you get this?"
"I also want to ask that!" snapped Janu. "This is not mine!"
"... That thing should not be at your hand."
"Hah!? " frustrated Janu. "I don't even know it!"
Slowly the badik reflected a faint light through the gap in the leaves. And Janu doesn't know why, but he feels like that thing stares back at him.
***
Janu limped alongside the riverbank, clutching his aching stomach. His attire and hair are still wet. His body was still shivering to the point his jaws were clashing with each other.
He looked up slowly. The sky is still dark. The pale moon still lingers there, half covered by the black cloud.
Janu stopped. "How long did I pass out?"
"Long enough."
"Impossible." Janu keeps staring at the sky. "It should've been morning; why is it still night?"
Jantaka not answering. The river stream and wind breeze made Janu's heart beat hard. He continued his steps more quickly.
"Is there any place to rest?"
"This forest is not a place to rest."
"Your answer doesn't help a nick."
"Yet, you are still alive. And that is enough."
Janu clacked his tongue. His hand checked the backpack, making sure the badik was still present. Since the beginning, that thing feels so strange on his back. Feels like it has its own soul.
Jantaka chuckling. Janu almost responded to it, but he stopped his step.
At the front, the red fogs sweep in slowly from between the branches.
CRACK.
That crackling of bones again.
The figure stands between the trees. The burnt red fabric hung, touching the ground like burnt skin. Its neck is tilted and bent to the left. Two black, empty, hollow gazes stare straight in Janu's direction.
Janu stepped back in fear. "... Don't tell me it's still following me."
"It's getting familiar with you."
"THAT IS NOT GOOD NEWS!"
The creature starts moving slowly, accompanied by the red fogs closing in, as if the executioner knows the victim's fate has been sealed.
"Run?" Whisper Janu.
"If you insist."
"What do you mean if!?"
DUK.
That creature makes the ground tremble slowly each time its red fabric is dragged. Then from behind it, one by one, other pocong start appearing from behind the trees.
"Okay…" Janu takes a step back carefully. "I have to find a way out."
"Faster then."
"That's what I want too!"
His hands then instinctively reached for the badik in the backpack. Once his fingers touched its handle—BAM!—his head started to ache immediately. Fragments of strange images start appearing one by one in his head, forcing their way in: Sands. Bloods. A man screaming. Two people are standing inside a sarong, stabbing each other without being able to get out.
Janu startled and let go of the badik. "Goddammit—what is that?!"
"Memories."
"I don't remember doing that!"
"Indeed."
The red fogs keep getting closer. The tall pocong now has only a few metres between him. The smell of burned iron fills the air.
Janu then realized, there's a hundred voices around that beast, whisper, wailing, even prayer. Like people keep wishing for something. He kept stepping back until his back touched a tree.
CRACK.
Janu almost throws up, his voice shaking. "I can't run anymore."
His hand reached for the badik, even stronger now. Just when the blade comes out a little from the sheath, the red fogs move wildly. The other smaller pocong instantly retreated in unison and the tall beast … it stopped.
Janu stood frozen. The badik in his hand feels insanely cold. As if it's not a metal.
"Do not unsheathe it fully," said Jantaka in a serious tone.
"Wh-why?"
"Because I do not know what will awaken."
"Hah?"
That beast's head slowly began to rise, inch by inch, as if observing that badik more carefully. Then it backed up one step, followed by another pocong kneeling. And without a voice, it turned around. Red fogs followed soon, slowly vanishing between the dark trees.
Janu is still not moving an inch. His hands were shaking in fear, holding the badik, as if he had just stabbed someone.
"What… was that?"
"It appears…" Jantaka replied slowly, "It knows something inside you."
***
Janu is still holding the badik after the red fog's vanishing. His hand was trembling. The tip of its blade reflecting the pale moonlight like half-open eyes.
"... I don't like this," he rant.
"That feeling needed to resonate with each other."
Janu is looking on his side. "What is it to you and speaking normally?"
"I am not a human."
"Oh, thanks for the info!"
Slowly Janu put the badik on its sheath. When the blade closes, the strange chill also disappears.
He walked again along the riverbank. The sound of the stream accompanied his limped steps. The forest surrounding him feels too quiet. No crickets or even birds. Only the sound of flowing water can be heard like a distant whisper and Janu's voice cutting through tree trunks to mark the road.
"So, you want to explain everything now?"
"No."
"Fuck you."
No response from Jantaka.
Janu snorted in annoyance, but his steps stopped suddenly.
"Wait a minute." He pointed to a big tree. "Isn't post three supposed to be around here? Where is it?"
Silence for a moment, then Jantaka laughs. "You finally noticed."
"Don't laugh, you bastard!" Janu groans. "I hike up and down the mountain almost every week. I know the trail by heart. But I just got chased by a giant pocong just before. I'm not crazy, you know?"
"You are still in the mountains," cut in Jantaka. "But on a different layer."
Janu stares blankly. "Layer?"
"A layer that has attached so long, but not every human could find it. You humans have many different names for it."
"Now your answer is making even more nonsense."
"I tried to help."
"Then your 'help' failed completely."
Jantaka actually chuckled softly. Finally, they keep walking until the riverbank narrows. Large roots emerge from the ground like a petrified snake. Thin fogs hung between the tree trunks.
Janu glanced at the sky again; it was still night.
"Is it just me, or does time feel so slow?"
"Time does not always move in-line in Pinarbutan," said Jantaka. "Looks like there's no concept of day and night here."
"For the love of God, quit your mumbling."
"I am serious."
Janu wiped his face in frustration. "Okay. Okay.", said him while taking a deep breath. "If this place is real, why can I enter in the first place?"
"There are many ways for a human to be stranded in this place." answered Jantaka. "Sometimes they are lost, sometimes they are being called."
"Called by who?"
"Are you certain to know it?"
"Nope. But I don't want to die a stupid death."
The chill winds pass by through the gap between the trees. Instantly, Janu remembered that old man from Pasar Ghaib previously. A man in red playing traditional string instruments.
Janu stopped. "... That old man?"
Jantaka not answering.
"Wait—you know him?" Janu gazed sharply towards the forest, as if he could see the person he was talking to. "So it's all because of him?"
"Half the truth."
"Half?" Janu laughed briefly, filled with mixed emotion. "You mean, I got kidnapped by a freak old man to another dimension?"
"Pretty much."
"Pretty mu—" Janu scrubbed his hair. "Oh my goodness."
"I have said it earlier, my task is to keep you safe."
"Cut the crap."
"You are still alive."
"I don't even know what kind of creature you are."
"But your ancestors know."
"And that is the problem!" Janu held his head in frustration. "Everyone knows it except me!"
"It is necessary to keep you distanced from all of this."
Janu frozen. "... What?"
"Why do you think your mother hates my existence?"
Janu not replying. His steps became sluggish.
"Your father is still keeping the legacy, because to him, the bloodline of the ancestor should not be broken," continued Jantaka. "But on the other side, your mother wants to stop all of it. She said, "Those kinds of legacies only lead you into danger."
Janu was stunned. "No way…"
"That is how it goes," said Jantaka. "Your ancestors have attracted so many creatures and events beyond human comprehension. It was and is chained but also inherited through an oath until this very moment. Like a ritual."
"Why do they do that? "
"That is what I tried to understand"'
Janu bowed his head. His hands clenched without noticing. Slowly, his fears changed. Not anymore about those pocong, but if all of this nonsense were true…
"I have to get out of here."
"That is quite difficult."
Janu grabbed the badik.
"Don't pull that out yet," whispered Jantaka. "Not all of it. You are not ready yet to see what is inside of it."
"All of your words don't always have reassurance in them."
"Then your instinct is still alive."
CRACK.
Janu took one step back when he heard that voice. He then realized, the big trees in front of them has a long scratch. Its shape resembles an oblique cut.
"We already passed through here," he said to him, then slowly turned back. "... Then it is impossible to only circling around?"
"... Yes." Answered Jantaka.
The fogs between the trees move rapidly. And far inside the forest—
Something growling.