ALPENIA (The Cruel Small Town)

The Other Side of the Alpene Forest

Five minutes earlier

Dizziness in his head never goes away, his body temperature rises and falls uncharacteristically, cold and hot alternately together.

The reason, Iswanti saw a strange creature passing right in front of her. What a creature is not exactly. What was caught by his gaze was the shape of a large, half animal, precisely his legs like a horse and half his parts were human.

Not only passed, suddenly the creature turned and touched his forehead.

After that, Iswanti felt her head ache and heavy, as if she was carrying a large stone on it.

Then, the glasses girl was unconscious.

The eight friends were on standby carrying Iswanti's body to rest on the stump of the banyan tree Salman had pointed out.

"Clix.. Don't get into a trance anymore" Intan said annoyed and frightened.

Ulfa tries to resuscitate Iswanti by shaking her tiny body.

And Iswanti. He did wake up, but as if in a different realm, he saw a place that was familiar but felt foreign. By ourselves. There are no friends. It was like a dream, but it felt real.

He looked around, looking at the atmosphere of the Alpine protected forest more gripping. It was darker, foggy, and colder than he had felt. Also the red aura near the front fork made him shudder.

He walked alone, no friend ready to give support. Undeniably, he is now controlled by fear.

"Hey guys! where're you?" he shouted with his heart pounding, just the silence he felt.

The further away, he felt the presence of someone. Sure enough, his eyes caught a man in a black robe, who had come to him many times. However, something was different, this time he was not afraid, because the man smiled radiantly at him, not as usual with an expressionless blank look.

"Finally, you arrived here," the man said softly. "I've been waiting for this moment. I have been waiting for a long time, after the incident of your mother who failed in carrying out her duties," he continued to leave Iswanti astonished not to understand.

"meaning?"

"You and some of your friends are special people" the man continued, saying, "you can all save this city!"

Iswanti's eyes widened, increasingly unable to understand the words of the tall man in front of her.

Suddenly, a small child appeared next to the black-robed man.

"Grandfather, let's play!" force the girl while pulling the arm of the man with the radiant face.

Iswanti looked at the boy's face, as if she knew him. But who and where? He doesn't remember at all.

"Ade. Yes wait!" pinta Iswanti was fine, ignoring her thoughts about the boy, still curious about the words of the man before her who she thought were enigmatic.

He was about to ask the man to clarify, but all of a sudden, the horse-footed and human-like creature had hit him very hard. Until he felt his head back heavy, and he fainted again.

***

In a few seconds, Iswanti seemed to disappear from life, until the screams of her friends made the girl re-grown.

Iswanti returned to the real world. Unfortunately, it did not bring a clear answer from the short trip earlier. In fact, he was even confused by all the unsolved puzzles.

Iswanti shook her head, "my head is dizzy!"

"Can you not really do it for all of us parno, nerd?" cerca Intan a little emotional.

"lo not really understanding anyway, he was just kissing, do not get angry dong!" sela Annisa is upset with Intan's selfishness.

"Help me up!" pinta Iswanti to Ulfa while extending a hand.

With her head still in pain, the girl perfected her body to stand up. He asked Ulfa to let him go, trying to stay on his own footing.

Immediately, Salman gave a loaf of bread he kept in his jacket pocket to Iswanti. Luckily, he was always on standby to bring his favorite green bean sandwich, because he rarely had breakfast at home. The bread was originally made by his family's factory, "lo haven't had breakfast?"

Iswanti gently refused, "go have breakfast."

"Why did you faint?" Ask Renaldi.

"And why did you just talk to yourself?" Faisal also spoke.

For a moment, the long-haired girl was dumbstruck, trying to string up words to explain the thing she had been covering up all this time, for fear that it would sound strange to be exposed to the people around her, "I've never told you guys. This might sound silly, but actually, I have a sixth sense," Iswanti explained slightly hesitantly, but made everyone surprised, except Intan.

"Gue already thinks like that when you are possessed at school, and I don't feel it is ridiculous" Intan said casually while crossing his arms in front of his stomach.

"Surely just now, I saw a super weird thing. I saw a half-horse man!" iswanti continued to make everyone scream, a little distrustful of the girl's words.

"Iswanese. Are you sure you're okay?" ulfa asked in astonishment, showing disbelief.

"It looks like you're dreaming" Annisa added in support of Ulfa.

"There can't be such a creature!" Naya also hovered.

"He said he had a sixth sense. What we see is the same as what we see. Maybe what he said was true. Come on, what the hell is impossible in this damned city?" intan gave support to Iswanti alone.

"Gue told you, this is going to sound silly, but I'm sure the same thing I've been through, it's not a dream. All of you are not there, I am alone, see the half-horse human creature, and meet the black-robed man who always bothers me," detailed Iswanti trying reassuringly.

Everyone threw gazes at each other, still in disbelief, except for Intan who looked at Iswanti just plain.

"And you asked me why I was talking to myself. I'm talking to that guy again. He said the city needed to be saved. And, we can save this city!" continued Iswanti further explained about the incident she experienced earlier.

Alright. Everyone is trying to believe. Even if you have to pretend.

"Saving the city, from what?" ask Naya.

"Gue doesn't know. I haven't had a chance, because I'm hunting back here. You know, it's scary out there, like another world!" the light of Iswanti made everyone come back reluctant to believe it.

"OKAY. I'm the only one who believes the same here. We think, the guy thinks we can save the city. We connect with the current events. Kidnapping kids, maybe," Intan assumed.

"Kidnapping a child what the city has to do with. That's personal. Look, we're the only ones here who care to find them. The townspeople were even indifferent, "sela Ikbal disapproved of her twin sister's opinion.

"Exactly. The man said, only we can save the city. Maybe what I said was true. Because we're the only ones who care to dig deeper into the disappearance of children these days," Iswanti said trying to solve a puzzle that finally got a little bright spot.