Biohazard's Catastrophe: Death's Hallway

Meet Aunt and Niece

“Punten...!”

In a low voice and seemed polite, Ardana called the residents of the house. He stood in front of the porch while looking. The doors and windows are closed as if indicating the owner is not in place. All that is seen on the veranda is a classic chandelier and a round wooden table surrounded by four chairs on the left. On the right side of the veranda there are chairs neatly arranged facing in unison to the left.

The young man repeated his words three times. After not getting an answer, he glanced at Paramitha.

“It looks like no one. And just look, the houses around here also seem to be quiet as well,” he said.

Paramitha went to the veranda, ignoring the words of Ardana. The black-and-white sneakers that protected both of his legs were tracing rather hard on the white marble floor. Then carefully the door of the house was knocked.

“Punten...! Whoever is inside, we have a need with you!” it's a little loud.

Ardana was surprised by what Paramitha did. The man hurriedly approached and held the girl's shoulder.

“Duh, don't shout so,” reprimands restrained.

Paramitha crossed her arms in front of her chest and turned her back. “You want to stand outside like you were and call, right? Until the rabbit can play volleyball will also not be opened, Ardana!”

“Eh.” Ardana was flabbergasted, not expecting the sentence to slide from Paramitha's thin lips.

Geck! Geck! Geck!

This time the knock on the door was made louder than before. Paramitha's hand looked like a hammer that hit the nails many times in Ardana's eyes. This young man turned his head left and right with an anxious expression. Fear that other citizens would reprimand him or worse accuse them of attempting theft.

When Ardana turned her back to descend back into the yard, her steps were immediately restrained as soon as she saw that someone else was already standing there.

“You looking for who?”

A middle-aged woman dressed in a dark blue shirt with long pants was staring in their direction. In his left hand was clutched a grocery bag filled with food ingredients in the form of vegetables and cooking spices.

Ardana gasped as she alternately looked at Paramitha and the woman. The faces of both are similar. Although she was not young, the person standing in the courtyard did not lose her aura of beauty at all.

“Tu—wait a minute, why does it look like this? No way... surely I saw wrong, nih,” hiss Ardana.

Paramitha was silent hearing the reprimand earlier. Slowly, he turned around without lowering his hand from the door he had just knocked on. Who reprimanded even shocked not kepalang, inversely proportional to Paramitha who actually seemed calm to see it.

“Mother must be Marni Suheni?” Paramitha immediately asked an unexpected question by the woman in blue shirt. How not, because the name asked is his own name.

“True, I'm Marni Suheni. Who are you two and where are you from?” Marni alternately looked at Ardana and Paramitha. A longer gaze was aimed at the young girl before him, when it came to knowing their faces were similar.

Paramitha just kept quiet while showing her the diamond-eyed necklace she was wearing. For a while watching the object, which was all made up of antique silver, there was no reaction from Marni. But after he recognized the shape of the diamond in the necklace, his eyes widened along with a change in expression on his face. This woman was barely able to say anything due to her overwhelming shock.

“Cannot be! How could? You already...”

One second later Marni held her head until she almost fell backward, while feeling her eyes twitched and her head heavy. Ardana and Paramitha move quickly to catch him so as not to fall.

“Aibi! We go inside first, come on!” paramitha. This beautiful girl is worried about Marni's sudden declining health condition.

“No, it's okay. It will be fine,” he said while still holding his head. Slowly, Marni balanced her position to stand up again.

Even so, Marni seemed unstable. Paramitha led him very carefully to the porch to sit in the guest chair, while Ardana brought a bag of heavy-duty groceries and placed it on a round wooden table in front of them.

For a while there was no conversation. Ardana did not dare to start a conversation after seeing Marni still seemed to be in a daze. The face of the woman who turned out to be Paramitha's aunt was slightly paler than before.

“Difficult to believe, very difficult. Neng... aunty is very happy today to be reunited with you,” shrill haru, “ unexpectedly, after many years due to the incident before you were reported missing.”

“How can Aunty be sure this is me? Though at that time I was a child,” refuted Paramitha to know his aunt's reaction.

Marni shook her head, “That necklace.the same necklace that your grandfather gave to your aunt and mother.”.

The same necklace was also removed from the back of the neck.

Paramitha clasped Marni's hand so tightly. The face of his aunt who also had an identical resemblance to his mother made this shoulder-length straight-haired girl teary. There were a million happy feelings that erupted and then made him embrace Marni while shedding tears. Paramitha sounded faintly.

Although not part of their family, Ardana was moved. He also rubbed the back of the girl of his heart. There is no scene resembling a dramatic spiced soap opera about the meeting of two people who had not met for a long time because they were separated. Paramitha's reunion with her aunt seemed more heartwarming to Ardana as it was clearly not made up. Ardana could feel happiness in the bond of aunt and nephew she was seeing. This young man smiled wryly and let the two of them spill their respective feelings.

Rrrrr! Rrta!

Two seconds later, his smartphone, which was stored in the pocket of a HBT jacket, shook. When checked, there was a message from Ilham via Whatsapp. Feeling that it was not the time, Ardana deliberately ignored him. He did not want to ruin the happy and happy atmosphere that was in sight.

“What's up, huh? I'll read the message later,” his sis.

Paramitha turned around while handing the key to Ardana.

“Dan, I'm asking for help. Open the door, we take aunt inside,” she said as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyelids.

“Sure, it's okay.” Ardana took the key that turned out to be the key to the house and then went to the door.

After the door was successfully opened, Paramitha hired Marni to enter and then moved to the front room. Ardana took the initiative towards the kitchen to make warm drinks for the three of them. While Marni sat leaning with her legs straightened, Paramitha searched through the medicine or wind oil box in the front room to the middle. In the living room, he found something he was looking for. A small bottle of wind oil the size of an index finger with a local brand.

The oil is then brought close to Marni's nose, to keep her consciousness stable.

“Honey, you drink the tea first,” pinta Ardana while putting three cups of tea on the table. He returned to the kitchen with a bag of groceries.

Paramitha looked at the young man in astonishment. “It looks like you better call me Neng, deh. Being called like that was weird for me.”

Marni who was listening to them frowned. This woman tried to get up from the backrest and looked at Paramitha seriously.

“You have a boyfriend, Mitha?” tanyanya.

Paramitha just smiled shyly. For Marni, the attitude of her nephew already represented the answer given to her. He nodded while smacking a smile despite being a little weak.

“Aunt just rest first. Chat it later,” Paramitha said as she moved the medicine box from her lap.

At the same time, Ardana who was still in the kitchen tidied up the grocery bags. Starting from vegetables to kitchen spices that are in it are removed and arranged neatly on the dining table. The look of the dining room that fused with the kitchen was a little similar to the one he saw in Nina's house. It just looks a lot more antique. The color of the white paint is a little dull which also covers the kitchen wall increasingly confirms the age of the building that is long enough. Some tools even come from decades before Indonesia was established as their country. Long enough this young man paced around, looking at one by one items that he thought were interesting. Until the vegetable centong inscribed with the number 1869 on the part of the stalk is carefully observed and occasionally played, as if the object is a sword.

After being satisfied to explore the entire kitchen, Ardana moved to the living room. There are four rooms, all of which are closed. There are also many black and white photos on the wall. Members of the previous generation before Paramitha's parents who marched with some Dutch and other natives greetings wrapped in military uniforms donkerblauw KNIL. It goes on to another photo featuring local youths who were soldiers of PETA to the same people as the Red Cross girls wearing early generation TNI uniforms in Ciamis.

Ardana's attention was then diverted to one of the photos whose bottom reads ‘Lombok-expeditie 1894’. Caged in a wooden frame and set apart on a nearby reading table. When viewed it turns out there is a platoon of KNIL soldiers containing a mixture of Europeans, Indo-Dutch and Bumiputera against the background of the palace of the newly conquered King of Lombok. Nothing seemed interesting until his eyes were fixed on one person in the middle. The figure of a handsome man from the Indo-Dutch with a bamboehoed in the head that brandished the sword hartvanger upwards. Unlike his comrades who grinned happily, the man's expression looked bitter with his mouth tightly shut.

On the chest is written Latin letters connect with black ink that forms the word ‘Tjatranata’. His face was very similar to Paramitha.

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