Light 1: Sandekala

The Real Being

These last few days my dreams have been strange.

The same dreams that often arise.

About the red girl I don't know her identity.

About the black creature that held me in its arms.

A creature that always imagined and in the end made me hallucinate. If it is a hallucination.

I felt like I had a sign of something. Maybe I should forget it so that the creature that sometimes appears to notice me disappears.

This week is the most important day for my sister. Ronny's gonna propose to his girlfriend. But for me, today would be very boring.

After finishing the morning shower, I went downstairs bare-chested. Just wearing a thin boxer. I immediately ate a bowl of cereal while watching television.

"Jeez, Danny, get ready! You haven't changed your clothes? Quickly change there!" mother ordered while combing her hair in the front room mirror.

"Yes, Mom, just a minute," I said lazily.

I finished my breakfast faster and put the empty bowl in the sink.

The bell in front of the door rang as I was about to climb the stairs. Soon, I open the door.

"Hi, Dane!" greet Iza Zulistyav, son of my mother's friend.

I didn't expect that it wasn't just Iza and her sisters who came to my house. But all my cousins and their parents came. My family is big. I still have four other cousins besides Ian and his sister—Siman. They were all the children of my mother's brother and sister.

"Who, Dane?" ask Mother. "Oh, guys. Come inside!"bring him. "Danny, get changed! Look at your brothers! They're all ready to go!"

I'm surprised, Ronny's gonna propose why they're all that excited?

"Come on Dane, change your clothes. Your brother is going to propose you should join him, "Siman said with his arm on my shoulder. Together, walk to my room.

"Aren't you having a holiday? Don't you usually go with your gang?" I opened the closet.

Siman was sleeping in my bed. Grasping the silver ornaments he took from the study table.

"No. Today is not Ronny—"

"Yayaya I know!"

I don't know what to wear. In my closet there are no shirts. School uniforms are not dry. I feel bad about having to wear a shirt.

"How's school? You still ranked first?" tanyakanya.

"Sure," I answered. "I wonder why you're not like your brother? When he went to school, he was the smartest student."

"Then, why aren't you the same as your brother?" he asked back.

I'm unmoving.

I know he doesn't compare me to Ronny in terms of cleverness. But, he insinuated my physique. That makes me a little uncomfortable. I don't really like my 'bule' physique either.

I found a white shirt. I'm just wearing it instead of nothing. I covered the shirt with my light blue warm shirt made of wool. For his subordinates I wear black jeans like Siman.

I neatly comb my hair in front of the mirror. Year after year my hair color is getting brighter. It used to be black, dark brown, and now my hair is light brown like corn hair. These glaring changes to my body are making me even more uncomfortable. I really was like a stranger picked up by this family.

"Danny, hurry! We're leaving soon!" call Mother.

"Yes. Okay, Mom!" sahutku. "alright. Go, Man!"

I was forced to ride in the Iza family car because my father's car was filled with Mom's friends. And I had to jostle with my sisters in that car. Siman was riding a motorcycle with his brother. Same with the other parents.

I said nothing in the car. It feels so bad to hear them talking about their girlfriends.

All the way I was just staring out the window. Stare down the street and hope to find something interesting out there.

***

The girl my brother is going to propose to lives in the mountainous area of Vereyon. It was hard to get to his house. Four-wheeled vehicles could not go deeper and we had to walk tens of meters to his house.

Ronny's girlfriend's house is a simple stilt house made of wood and an arrangement of bamboo cubicles. Just like dozens of other houses.

"Please enter! We've been waiting for you" said a middle-aged woman from inside the house.

We sat on the wooden floor with the mats of his house.

"As we talked about a few days ago, our arrival here is to propose to your daughter ..," I spoke at length. Talk about this and that about everything related to marriage.

I didn't notice them. My eyes looked out the window. It was fixed on the vast expanse of forest at the foot of the mountain.

"Ron, beautiful as well as your boyfriend," whispered Ian beside me into Ronny's ear.

"of course. You should have a boyfriend, too."

"What's his name?"

"Teny Cartica."

"Oh ...."

After a few hours, their conversation was finally over. Ronny inserted a diamond ring into his girlfriend's ring finger. A sign that they are tied to each other.

The show ended with a meal. I'm not interested even if all kinds of food have been served. I politely declined and opted out for a walk around the house.

I walked to the front yard. Looking at the forest that is spread green like a rug down there as far as the eye can see.

Far away in the middle of the forest, stood a mountain. The river flows from the mountain and branches into seven parts.

I walked down the slopes of the fields on the edge of the ramps of the mountains unconsciously. I don't know why my feet feel like stepping into the woods. Until a villager shouted from above calling out to me. When I realized, I had gone too far.

What surprised me was that I stopped right in front of a giant banyan tree.

"Hey! What are you doing there?! Come quickly! It's dangerous in there!" shouted an old man.

I saw my whole family staring at me in amazement.

"Danny, come here! We're going home!" call Iza.

I was about to return down the uphill path that I passed just now. But, as I stepped foot, it felt like something was holding me back and hugging my body tightly to the point that I could not move from the area of the banyan tree. When I was about to scream, there wasn't a word I could get out of my mouth.

What's the matter?

I started to panic.

Fearful.

The people say this place is dangerous. But what is dangerous?

Whatisthis? I can't move out of here!

"Danny ...," a man's voice whispered into my ear like the wind.

I looked back.

Back to seeing that figure.

A jet-black figure was standing on top of the banyan tree.

It's not a shadow.

And it's definitely not a hallucination.

It is a real form.

I'm afraid not to play. My knees were no longer able to support my body which began to feel heavy until I finally fell down. My body is covered in mud.

All of a sudden the path felt slippery and made my body slip closer to the banyan tree.

"Mother!" I screamed as loud as possible.

My voice echoed throughout the mountains and forests at the foot of the mountain. Only my mother is the person I remember right now.

I can finally move. The strange shackles that shackled my body finally came loose. I immediately got up and quickly ran up the algal ridge up the path to my family.

I was immediately helped by the villagers when I could no longer walk before I collapsed.

***

"Willow ... Danny ...," call Mom.

I woke up on the couch in Ronny's house.

I glanced at the window. It's getting dark. In this room all I see is my father, mother, brother, and his fiancee's family.

"Where are the others?" ask me Mom.

I try to sit.

"Lay down, Dane."

"It's okay, Mom. I'm fine," I said a little dizzy.

"The others have gone home first. If you're sick, we'll just stay here" Dad suggested.

"No, Dad. I want to go home" I asked.

"Danny, what exactly is going on? What are you doing there?" ask Ronny.

"I don't know why I was there. I was unconscious. Like someone told me to go to that place. I only realized when the villagers were yelling at me. I heard that place is dangerous. What's dangerous?"

I looked at Ronny's fiancee's family who had been staring at me.

They're speechless.

Doubtful.

But, try to tell a story.

"Near the banyan tree is a crack in the ground. It was like a bottomless abyss. If you slip there you won't survive" said Teny— my sister-in-law.

"What?! It's a good thing you survived, Danny," Mom's shock hugged me.

"Already, Mom, I'm okay," I said convincingly. "But, it doesn't seem like that's all that's dangerous."

"What do you mean?" ask mom Teny wonder.

"At any moment, I can't move. Like someone tied me up in that place. And ... I see ..."

I hesitate to say it.

"See what?"

"Maybe villagers like you would believe. I saw a black creature on the banyan tree. And not this time I saw him. I saw him yesterday too. I thought it was just my hallucination. But, the incident made me sure of something," I told them.

"Sandekala," Teny said.

"Sandekala?" wonder Ronny.

"Maybe what you saw was Sandekala. The devil the kidnapper of children. There are rumors about the existence of Sandekala in the forest at the foot of the Andekhala mountains. But no one has ever seen it for sure. Because Sandekala is just a parent legend to scare his children to stop playing and enter the house when dusk arrives. Sandekala itself means the change of time between afternoon and evening. That is twilight," said Teny.

I saw my mom and dad seem to be in disbelief. But they tried to listen to his explanation.

"Parents use the story to get children to obey them. Because parents used to have their own way to teach their children not to do things that are forbidden by them. With superstition. The ban should not sit in the doorway, should not eat two fused bananas, or should not play after dusk arrives because that is the time Sandekala kidnaps children. Actually it is all intended so that children do not do something at will.

"From the many prohibitions, only about Sandekala that seems not just superstition and become a real legend. But, the truth about Sandekala's creature is still in doubt because no one has ever definitely seen it. Although often in a year no less than five children next door village disappeared. But, they were found a few days later on a banyan tree or riverbank in a half-disfigured state.

"According to the children's confession, there was a group of 'people' dressed all in black and a group of small children on a raft and took them upriver. Even if Sandekala does exist, only children and certain people can see it."

"Why should I? What's the connection with me? I'm a city guy and nobody knows anything about that thing. Why did the creature appear to me as if I had been chosen by him for so long?" my many. "I've always been overshadowed by that creature wherever I am."

"If they're real, they can't hurt you. They are supernatural beings. So, you don't be afraid, Danny."

I was silent for a moment.

"Well, Mom, I want to go home" I asked.

"certain. But let's clean up your filthy body first" said Mother. "Ron, take your sister to the toilet and give her your jacket."

"Come, Dane!"

I took off my clothes that were filled with dry mud. Washing my dirty body.

"Teny, do you have any men's pants?" ask Ronny.

"Wait a minute I'll get it!"

"Dane, put this jacket on."

"It's my training pants" said Teny, giving Ronny the pants.

"Dane, replace those dirty pants with this!"

***

On the way home I kept thinking.

Why does Sandekala keep showing herself to me?

I'm too old to kidnap her.

Does this have anything to do with me?

With my past?

With my true self?

Or... Is there anything else that makes the creature interested in me?

In the warm water that soaked my whole body I remembered my previous dreams. About them; the terror. And about the girl. Maybe he's the key to the answers to my questions.

I reopened the memory of my dream.

I close my eyes.

I remember!

There's a village there. A village I've never seen, but I seem to know well. I feel like I've been there. I saw the parents shouting the creature's name. A name that made the children terrified was incredible.

I tried to dig deeper into my dreams. I saw the girl. A red bob haired girl. But I couldn't see his face clearly.

The girl had a gun. A sword so strange. I also saw all my brothers there with each carrying a weapon made of gold, silver, and bronze. Unusual metals to serve as weapons of war.

I continued to dig deeper into my memory of the dream. I saw my whole brother die. One by one they died in the dark and black forest. Until I remember my last dream. Sandekala took me and the girl fell into the abyss.

I reopened my eyes. I took a towel hanging on the side. After I finished dressing I immediately hid my cold body in a blanket. Tiredness made me fall asleep.