The After I Die

Second Death

“Nak, take Nukas home, “ said Kina's father made Kina who had folded the napkin jerk in surprise, he daydreamed, remembering his dream last night, as if the dream was a real thing, he said, Kina still felt a tightness in her chest due to the river water and the painful pain in her head from crashing in the stone.

Kina glanced at her father who was talking to her mother, they were indeed not as intimate as the other couple, not close, but not far away, everything looked ordinary, nothing strange.

Her mother still likes to nudge her, her father who is passive and never defends anything for her, as well as Kina who is always labeled slow. Everything's normal.

It must have been just a sleeping flower, Kina thought too much about things.

His father could not have had the intention to kill him, the more he remembered the dream, the more his head hurt.

Kina folded her last napkin, and headed towards Nukas who had been waiting for her with a loud bang in her hand.

“Remember direct home!” Her mother shouted from the kitchen, Kina just clucked lazily, but in her heart she agreed with her mother's words, not to break the village law.

He did not want to meet the undead and the house was the safest place of them.

Kina and Nukas joined hands walking in silence. Every now and then Kina greeted the villagers who passed by them.

After Nukas cried before him, Kina did not dare to touch the boy carelessly, afraid that there was a new wound on his body, nor did she dare to ask about it, nor did she demand Nukas to speak to her.

He did not want Nukas to stay away from him, however much this boy already considered his own sister.

DENGS...

DENGS...

The sound of bells roaring from the wooden tower, twice, from a distance Kina was sure the one wiggling it was Eda. Kina gulped, lately the sound of bells is a bad omen, suddenly she felt nervous.

The villagers look rushed, running towards the road they are on, making Kina wonder, she intercepted a teenage boy who happened to be coming from the opposite direction, “What's wrong?”

“There's a corpse in Grandma Niba's well!” he said loudly, took off his hand and ran away.

“Niba's Grandma's Age?” Kina muttered softly glancing at Nukas who looked trembling.

There, my mom slept there.

Nukas beside him suddenly threw a bushel, made porridge scatter on the ground and ran towards Grandma Niba's house, Kina followed him frantically, screaming to call Nukas.

“Nukas, wait!” Kina yells.

"Hey, Nukas!" the boy ignored him.

The wooden house that was originally deserted and almost never visited by the residents was suddenly filled with residents, especially the well located next to the house, some men were pulling something out of the well.

Bu Mursa immediately caught Nukas body running towards the well, he rubbed Nukas back, patted his head, trying to calm the boy down.

“Nak, quiet nak.”

Nukas opened his mouth, as if he wanted to scream, but all he could hear was the sound of akhh being restrained, like his throat in a nail stick.

"It's okay, Nukas is just like a mother."

Why is this boy still pretending? Is she so afraid to talk?

Kina was still curious about Nukas reason but she could not do much.

The boy wept, rebelling from Mursa's arms, the more he rebelled the tighter the woman hugged him.

Kina distracted her as the villagers exclaimed in panic, something managed to be lifted out, a figure wearing a long black dress and unraveling hair covering her face, her bulging eyes peering at the crevices of her hair. His body swelled up, giving off an unpleasant smell, seeming to have been dead for days.

Villagers who were around there immediately moved away while covering their noses, there were also vomiting. Kina stayed behind beside Mursa and Nukas, silently pecking.

“Mm..aa..a..” Nukas seemed to be trying hard to make a sound, but his voice sounded like someone was poking at the water. His hand was flailing for air.

“Narsih, the Narsih!” The woman screeched, turned her body and hugged Nukas' head, the boy fell silent, uncontrollable, understood that the mother was gone, and then cried a sigh.

“Jeez Narsih! Wife Mr kades!”

“Narsih? Not work in the city?”

“It has long been invisible.”

Villagers began to argue, Kina saw Pak Mursa calling out the name of his second wife with grief, stroking her long hair, and then hugging her lovingly, ignoring the pungent smell and disgusted gazes of the citizens will Narsih's body swell.

There have been two deaths in the village in less than a week, all unnatural. Does this death have anything to do with Eda's father's death? Kina did not know exactly what her death was like, which she heard from Bu Yuni that the man drowned in a swamp, not far from his home.

Villagers could not call the police because Damung village was very remote, and police would not be able to investigate deaths in wells or drown in swamps, at best, it is considered a case of suicide due to household problems.

Kina had never known Narsih, had never met her before, other than she knew this woman was the mother of Nukas, some time ago Mursa said that she worked in the city, and Dayuti said that Nukas had not been with adults all this time.

Confusingly, Kina could not figure out whether this woman had killed herself or been killed.

Kina recalled Nukas pointing at the well when she asked where her mother was, is it possible that this boy already knew? Did he know his mother died in the first place?

Kina shuddered with her own thoughts.

He circulated his gaze, looking at the villagers around him, this death would probably only be the wind then like the death of Eda's father, timid, but those terrors, those undead, those dead bodies, it doesn't seem like it's going to end, if it doesn't do something. If these deaths are related, there will be subsequent deaths.

The sky was still bright, there was still an hour before the legal deadline of the village, but the atmosphere felt stifling and poignant.

His eyes saw the sturdy wooden house standing, Grandma Niba's house, stalled in the wide-open window at the end of the house with white lace curtains, slightly covered with plants that were creeping upwards, the report said, but Kina could still see it, behind the swaying curtains Grandma Niba looked at Narsih's corpse while sitting on her swaying chair, the look on her face was somehow, Kina felt that the old man looked, very satisfied?

That old granny really can't die, is it possible that she's the killer? Nukas is in danger of staying with him.

"It's overflowing, soon after dusk," Ni Lewun's voice broke the silence, Mr. Mursa with a pias face carrying Narsih away.