The One Thousand Days

Chapter 24. Second Death

My breath began to calm down. But my hands continued to tremble. My heart was still pounding as if it wanted to jump out of my chest. Honestly, with this loud bang I was afraid that the organ would break into fragments in there.

“Since when?” my voice is still shaking. I still can't believe Alex really\-know this.

“What?” Alex looksatchered.

“So I don't know..,” I gulped. “Soal Geral.”

Alex pulled my chin towards him, an act that forced me to look him in the eye. “Forget Geral, Enza. Brother please,” his voice sounds soft.

Forgetting she said. How-to? How can I forget someone who almost died in front of me?

Forgetting Geral felt like a wish too far away. How not, I can't even forget when I saw it. His warm body and the melt of his blood were still felt on my lap. The rancid smell of the dark red liquid was still poking at the nose. Instead of forgetting Geral, shouldn't Alex be able to suggest removing the blood splash that was stuck in my palm at this time.

Now I bow to observe staring at my palm. My palm is still red, the blood is still there. My lips tightly closed. Alex didn't talk either. This room suddenly went quiet. There was no sound of water droplets moving wildly out of the faucet. I'm looking ahead. My brother\-lak has disappeared. My hand moved where it was, nil. He's vanished. I looked in all directions. The coldness attacked my neck. Sweat also pours out on the forehead. Horror has invaded my mind. Its bad. I was alone in this empty room.

“Kakak!”

Silent. There is no lawfulness. Where was the person who was just next to me a moment ago?

I looked in all directions to look for him. However, Alex completely\-disappeared.

“Sister Alex!” call me again while trying to hide the fear shakes in my voice.

Again\again Alex did not reply. Suddenly a voice sounded to make me jerk. I turned towards the gurgling sound from the corner of the room. Bubble\-bubble embossed at the end there. A liquid color of blood spurted out. It was as if there was another push that threw the liquid out onto the floor. A smell filled the entire room. It's blood, it's not wrong anymore really\-blood. The thick liquid began to pour out until it flooded my body. Now I'm sticky and smelly.

 “No, help me! Please!”

I howled loudly, hitting the\-pulking foot to the floor. Blood splashed on my face.  I slapped my cheek hard hoping to get rid of the liquid there. My body was shaking, I bit my lips. A salty taste filled my mouth as the inside of my cheek began to bite. I started to shiver in the cold and maybe it's time to die drowning in a sea of blood.

“No! Nah! No!”

 “Enza! Enza!”

“Please!” I said again trying to reach for that voice. The owner of this voice is my one\ only hope.

“Za! Enza!”

Another man's voice called my name.  However, the voice was no longer heard. Now I turned my eyes to the corner of the room. Staring at the pool of blood that was getting higher and higher. Something gushed out of the pool of blood. That thing then floated. I rubbed my eyes, not an object but a piece of body. I was stunned, my breath hunting as I recognized the figure lying on the puddle. That person is Geral. His chest was moving up and down, it could be that he was being killed on the other end.

“Gerals! Gerala! Geral!”

My lips called his name over and over again and I slid forward. Approaching the young man who was now lying stiff in a pool of blood.

“No, no, no, don't die! I beg!” tears just spilled down my cheeks. My heart started to beat.

I shook his stiff body. The blood that flooded the floor gushed along with my hand that continued to shake the young man's body. Geral's face was pale, her eyes wide open. Those eyes stared blankly at the ceiling\-ceiling. There was no light in those eyes. She die. Oh, naw. I hit her\-hit chest hoping she moves. Cry broke. However, Geral's body remained rigidly motionless.

“Enza, wake up!”

“Enza!”

I take my eyes off. His voice was faintly\-vaguely re-sounding. Still soft and quiet as if calling from a far away place. However, the long\-long sound was getting closer. I almost squealed when a boy\ boy was right in front of me. He looks friendly and does not look evil. I looked at him, looking at his face. Screams came out of my mouth as the boy's face changed, blood flowing down his cheek. His eyes were reddened by broken blood vessels. Really\was scary until I chose to move away.

My body moved backwards, my hands stuck to the floor to support me from falling back. The sticky blood stuck back to the palm of my hand and made me lift it in disgust. An arm pulled my hand, I shook it. He pulled me close to his arm holding me in his arms. The monster hugged me, he was going to kill me. I kept screaming again for someone to help me or any creature to help me. However, his grip grew tighter as I began to scream.

“This Sister, Enza. Brother Alex..,”

I was moving wildly, trying to break away. My body continued to move while screams were still coming out of my throat. I took a heavy breath as my chest started to tighten.  The smell of cigarettes mixed with sweat entered my nose. I looked around. The feathers of kudukku bristles. Strange, there was a familiar smell. The smell I often smell. I move my head. The ears, the hair, the scent of his neck, are all familiar. A memory sprinkles in my brain. Why can I forget it? Forgetting this scent, it just doesn't make sense. This smell belongs to someone I know very well.

“Kakak,” gumamku ogled. Still hesitant to call his name, even a familiar scent can mean a trick.

“Iya, this is Brother,” he said confirming. The man still held me in his arms. My breath was tight, I couldn't move.

 “Let go of me!”

“No,” he said still sounded adamant, locking me in the clutches of his two arms. “Do not like this, Enza.”

“I'm good–”

His arms held my body as I nearly fell. His fingers patted my back gently. I gave up on her. When he lifted my body. My hands wrapped around his neck, sticking my head on his chest.

“Kakak.”

“Kakak won't go anywhere\-where, Enza,” his jakun moves up and down as he talks.

I smiled faintly, he was indeed my brother, not the monster that had just attacked me. He took me out. I no longer care when lifting my body whether heavy or light. The thing I want now is to close my eyes because everything is spinning.

I opened my eyes and the white ceiling\-ceiling greeted me. I want to close my nose when I smell the aroma of medicine\-medicine floating in the air. Though I took a deep breath\-deep in hopes of getting some fresh air because my head was still dizzy. When I tried to get up, Alex held me back.

“Sleep if you are still dizzy!” said. The worried expression was still clearly drawn on his face.

Alex also held out a bottle of mineral water that had opened the lid towards me. I received the bottle and immediately swallowed the water with two big gulps to trigger the cough to come attacking.

“Pelan\-swallow,” he said as he patted my back.

“Geral?” my voice echoed quietly among the coughs that were still attacking me.

“Enza,” there's a sense of tiredness in that voice. “You till when are you like this?”

“Geral accident again, Brother knows?” sue me for an explanation.

Alex took a breath while I closed my eyes for a second after I opened them again.  Now I'm trying to be ready to accept whatever fact will slide off Alex's lips. However, my preparations were not ripe as my fingers still trembled as I twisted the cap of the mineral water bottle to close it.

“We know, everyone who knows him knows.”

“What?” my eyes looked at him in disbelief. Close the bottle of mineral water out of my hand.

That's not possible. How can everyone know what I did to Geral's soul. Well, then, what am I supposed to do?

“Why are you so surprised? Didn't Geral die from an accident three months ago?” this time Alex sounded a little confused.

“Oh, about that,” I said as I pressed my shoulders.

“Whatever especially?”

“Bu–not anything\-nothing, Brother is right,” I said again trying to remove anything that could encourage suspicion to arise.

Being suspected is not a fun thing. It'd be better if Alex didn't know, now and forever. No one should know that secret.

Wait, the accident. How's Geral doing?

I just remembered now. After putting the used bottle of water on the nightstand, I immediately shifted the body to move down.

“Where are you going?” Alex held my arm back.

“I want to see Ge–eh I mean Rael.”

Alex took a heavy breath. He shook a few times. Several times he rolled his eyes as if he was looking for something else to look at, he did not avoid my face.

“Don't tell me, he died too?”

“Enza..,” Alex patted my shoulder.

This isn't true, is it? Did someone die twice in the near future and in the same way?

My mind was suddenly empty. My body was limp and my hands were drooping. If Rael dies then Geral disappears too. Geral may have returned to the afterlife or her soul floated in the world. No, this can't happen. I can't without him. It's all my fault.

“Enza!”

An unfamiliar voice resounded in the corridor. I looked, looking for the direction the sound came from. My eyes are wide open. The figure of the white-tinted youth standing at the end of the corridor while waving his hands towards me. I choked as I stared at that figure deeply\-deeply. A very familiar face and I wish that all this was just a nightmare. Rael could not have died.