The One Thousand Days

Chapter 3. Ordeal

I took my eyes off the calendar and rubbed the sweat that soaked my forehead.  After that, I bent my legs until my head could fall on it. The night has gone down since just now it's just that I can't stop thinking about any recent events\-recent. In addition, the matter of the dream that happened a while ago somehow still feels strange. The dream that happened was even quite strange and awkward even though it was only considered just a sleeping flower though.

Although I'm not smart, but I don't think I'm stupid enough to understand that bringing a dead person to life is impossible. Calling his ghost alone seemed to require some effort. Then the awkwardness is about timing the dream itself. It felt like someone had deliberately arranged for me to dream like that. It was as if I was an actor who followed the storyline in my own dreams. Suddenly I remembered Alice, the girl I met near the pharmacy. Could it be that he was able to manage one's dreams.

Uh, where is it possible. How can someone manage someone else's dreams. Let's say the phenomenon I experienced was lucid dream then it seems impossible for him to get into people's dreams. It would be very possible if I who experience lucid dream is myself, then I should be able to manage everything. But the truth is, I can't do anything there. Even if the dream I had was the embodiment of the deepest desire in the human mind, but I could not have expected anything bad to happen to Geral.

Another option is ghosts. This is quite reasonable because I am often disturbed by the appearance of creepy creatures. However, I have never heard of a ghost that can control human dreams. Why the theory that appears increasingly disconcerted. Ah, no, no, maybe the dream\-dream was just a coincidence and the flower of sleep was just like the person\-people said, just that the dream continued to float in front of the eyes as if they deliberately wanted to disturb me. The sound of Geral beating my eardrum to the touch of his fingers at the top of the head, all felt real as if I could embrace it now, right now. I gasped as the sound of broken objects echoed across the room.

A mouse or a cat?

My estimation seemed to have completely missed when the sound of footsteps sounded from outside. As I recall last night the front door was locked. Don't forget there is a thief who entered the house as Alex and Aunt said next to the house. No, no, that's ridiculous. What they want to steal from me. I don't have anything.

I haven't been able to get out of bed when my door knob is turning. My eyes were puffed up as the door slammed open. A tall figure with a cover over his face that only looked like part of the eye was now pointing a gun at me.

“Do not move!” he said with a stinging voice behind the cloth covering his mouth.

Tonight, I really\-committed a thief. If I had hoped to wake up from a dream, I would now choose to return to dreamland rather than wake up. Great gigilan penetrated my body when I saw them begin to enter my room. Let alone to run or take anything to fight, my mind was now completely\empty. My body was the same, still frozen in the temple. I was not sure if I had legs or not. A large\-large spit down my throat while cold sweat began to crawl down my nape. However, my lips remained tightly clenched and I completely failed to just scream.

“God, I have long believed in you, praying though not often, for this time only please make them leave this place.”

“Where did you save your money?” he said as he moved closer with a weapon in hand.

I was silent, not God answered but turned away. They also ask about money. But what money are they looking for. I have absolutely no money.

“Why shut up, answer!” speak wrongly of them with an impatient tone.

“A—aku ti—ti—have no uu—uuang,” word\-word it's hard regardless of my lips.

“Don't joke! Give me your money now or I blow your head off!” threaten him while walking closer.

Blow my head up he said. It's easy they say all that. Killing and dying are just a game. They don't know anything about it. Yeah, they don't even know what it's like to be left for dead. My fingers, which had originally twisted each other under the covers, slowly began to clench. I was scared at first, but now I'm angry. This time I looked up to stare at one of them and glared at them without blinking.

“You need to get beaten up first apparently!” said The Holder of the gun as he walked closer.

“Do not approach!” my screams screech.

“DIAM!”

After that shout, the sound of an eruption followed by the sound of a broken object sounded from above the head.  I didn't have to turn around to see if the bullet hit the window behind me.

“Does he need us to rape first, Bro?” One of his comrades who moved in started to make a sound.

Raped.

Hearing the word\-word felt like something was breaking up inside my head. Nope, no! These guys are crazy. For I have to fight, but in what way.

“Let go of me!” I said at last after struggling to gather courage.

“Say where your money is!” The gun carrier didn't answer my question.

I have to survive first. Maybe giving them what they want can help me now. True, money and treasure can be sought again while life will never return when it is gone. I gulped and turned to the cupboard and pointed at it. There all my cash and jewelry are kept. One of the robbers opened the closet brutally, throwing all my clothes on the floor. She swiftly put the jewelry and cash I should have used to buy the flowers into her bag.

“Only this?” ask her in a shitty tone.

I kept quiet and refused to answer. My lips clenched tightly while a salty taste now began to fill the mouth. My teeth clenched in them withstanding the horror I felt. My hands are still smothering the ears, really\-really afraid of another eruption.

“Not there again?” snapped at the man carrying a weapon and stood not far from me.

I shook weakly. I have nowhere else to save money. However, they will obviously not believe my explanation. They searched all over the place. The rolling me stood in the corner of the room with the muzzle of a gun ready to crack my head at any moment. I can only sculpt when they break into bed\-fabricated, box\-boxes under the bed to buckets and sliding racks. They also threw my underwear out. It makes me very upset. My fingers clenched on the surface of the thin nightgown that wrapped my body.

“Stop!” my screams.

“You dare to talk, heh!”

“I said stop! There is nothing else\-nothing in this house.”

“You think we'll believe. A house this big can't you not have more money.”  The man who had been busy searching was now moving closer.

“Go!” grunt me with hunting breath. “GO FROM MY HOUSE!” 

My screams filled the room. Not long after I heard a muffled sound from the back. Pain running behind the head. Looks like they hit the back of my head with the handle of a gun or something. I just found out it feels like this sick. Pain and pain mixed into one, it felt like my head was starting to break.

I could no longer keep my balance when my body was dazed and slammed hard on the floor. After that I heard something else placed next to me. I looked, this gun was there. I stuck out my hand and tried to grab the thing. However, the man kicked the thing away. Not enough to get there now he's pinning down my body. My breath choked when his hand touched my chest. Not long after, I heard the sound of rags tearing.

“Do not move on, Sweet!” said.

The man who was now on top of my body began to pull his mask up. His stiff square face and torn lips are now clearly visible. His teeth were even visible when he grinned.

“Lease!” my peek.

“Let's remember, won't be long!” he said while chuckling softly.

I shook my head while screaming\-screaming. My feet were wriggling and my fingers started clawing at the floor. My breath jolted out when a single blow hit my cheek. The scent of alcohol suddenly\-switched into the air. As I recall there was no liquor in this place. I blinked when the square face with the ripped lips changed. It felt like the face was getting younger, maybe a dozen. His face was oval and his lips were not torn. Even so, his face was unclear. I could only see that the young man was now holding a glass bottle in his right, seemingly ready to hit that thing to break my head at any moment.

The young man swung the bottle and I screamed. As hard as\-hard and as tight as I can. My scream turned into a groan when something hard—maybe that bottle— hit my head. My eyes started to close when something—entah apa—kini sank in between my lips. It could be that I was forcibly kissed by these\-people or that something else was stuffed into my mouth. I don't know because it feels better to sleep.

 “God. After a dozen years, you even refused my prayers again this time. Can I ever regret praying to your\?”

~\*~

Alex hugged me again after I opened my eyes this morning. Although he explained anything, I started to remember the events that happened last night. The man also tried to get me to talk several times since I woke up, but I was reluctant to answer. Now I'm still wondering\wonderful what the events of last night were to such an extent because my memory seems unbelievable.

My heart was pounding when I turned and found that my shirt was torn on my shoulder. It turns out that the rag tearing I heard last night was real, it all made me shiver. I hurriedly\hurriedly pulled the blanket that covered my lower body. My eyes on my thighs were poking a little because the nightgown I was wearing was almost torn to the waist.

“Ke—why this—bi—”

“Not anything\-what, Za. It's nothing\-what.” Alex replied while hurriedly covering my thighs with a blanket.

“Not what\-what how?” my many.

“Listen, nothing happened last night. When I came, they were just—ah—”

Alex did not continue his words because he now clenched his hands and punched the surface of the bed. His breathing was hunting while his face was flushed red, it seemed like he was really\-angry right now. I stood up and pulled her collar.

“Tell me what they did!”

“Better you don't know,” he said while throwing away face. His eyelids look down and his lips fold.

“I'm entitled to know!” pekikku while tightening the grip.

Alex took a breath. “They kiss you.”

“What?”

“Yes, when Big Brother comes you have fainted and one of them kissed you.”

“They kiss you,”

 “You think they'll harass you?” tanyanya hunt. “Because your shirt was torn?”

“Then?”

“Nothing happened because the police have arrived.”

“Unfortunately I can believe such nonsense?”

Alex is looking at me. “You can see the results of the visa and you will know that I did not lie.”

“Stop!” Alex pulled my hand.

“No, not this should be cleaned,” reject me.

“You will get hurt,” he said while pulling me back in the arms.

“Calm down, nothing happened. You can trust Big Brother, if they dare to touch you more than that I myself will kill them.”

My cry broke again in Alex's arms. My life has never been worth anything either in my own eyes or in the eyes of others, but why does this kind of thing keep happening? Do I have to go to ashes or something like that until all these horrible things can stop?

“The plot has been arrested so you can calm down now,” he said as he pulled my face to look at him. He rubbed my cheek with his fingers. “You are safe, there will be nothing\-nothing more.”

Calm down? Be safe? You know what? You don't get it! You don't know what it's like to be me!

But I said nothing but crying. Alex just hugged me without saying anything.

“You better rest now, let you calm down,” he said after my crying stopped.

“Jawab my question just this once, was there a young robber last night?” my many.

Alex's forehead suddenly wrinkled. It seems like he is remembering\-remember. “I know I don't. Viewed from his face about forty years.”

“So no one is a teenager.”

 “It shouldn't. Is there anything you remember? Has anyone else escaped?”

I'm shaking. “Now.”

“Yes already, now you are sleeping. Don't think of anything\-assortment,” entertain him while pulling a blanket to cover my body.

So last night there were no teenage criminals. Judging from the small bandage that was installed on the back of the head and there was no wound on the forehead then the glass bottle was also not there. Am I dreaming again? Dreaming of such a bad event is horrible.

“What do you think?” ask Alex again.

“Nothing,” I lied before I closed my eyes.

Alex was still patting my head when the drowsiness I was forcing finally came as well. Right, right now maybe sleep is the best option. Yes, indeed I have no better option to do.

The next day Alex took me to the hotel after my condition was stable enough to stay outpatient and check back if the medicine ran out. Alex asked me to stay there before my house was cleared. He drove me to this place after I told him I was afraid to go home. Afraid that the robber will come again. She refused when I asked her to go home.

“There's Dad. You won't like coming home to us.”

So said. Word ‘we’ behind word home shows that there is no me. No words ‘kita’ there. Our house is not our home, it is not my home. Just a subtle affirmation that's obvious enough. I bent my legs and hugged her, letting the sound of the television fill the room. Breakfast provided since morning has not been touched. Alex has been away for a few hours now for work.

I've reached for the remote to turn off the television. However, I immediately stopped when I heard a cheerful voice from inside the glass screen.

 “Hotspot will present seven true stories that prove rising from the dead was really\-true. Don't go anywhere\-where, wait after the commercial break a moment more!”

Uh. Really\-really real? Rise from death? Is there anything like that?

The info will Hotspot deliver in a few moments.

I put my chin on my knee and then tapped my thigh impatiently as the commercials began to appear on the screen. I started counting every second I missed while I waited. My heart started pounding as the incandescent ball spun on the glass screen as a marker of the event I was waiting for to begin.

“Is it true that rising from the dead actually\-happened? Does reincarnation really exist? These are the seven stories of the\-people who rose from the dead and the\-people who were mistaken for the spirits of long-dead ancestors.”

The first story, a toddler named Ron. His parents were shocked when he confessed that he was the one who crossed the portal to get into Ron's body. He could also explain the murder that befell his sister by being drowned in the river. When asked how the chronology of his death, Ron patted his head and acted as if in pain. Strangely enough, Ron's grandfather died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Uh. Can it really be like that? Soul transfers from the past or is it reincarnation. If reincarnation really happens I should be able to call Mama back. If Mama had come back from the afterlife, Dad and Alex would never have been angry with me again. They'll take me back. Mama will come every time when I'm sad it should be. I sighed softly, re-attached my ears, trying to listen to more of the stories that would be unfolded on the show.

Turning to the next story, a boy named Ryan who suddenly rebelled one morning and asked his mother to drive him home, he said he missed his house, even though he was at home. Ryan said his former home was larger and more comfortable than his current one. His mother borrowed a book in the library about Hollywood history and hoped that the\-image could entertain her son. Ryan then shouted when he saw one of the portraits, the man was me, me in the past. The scene is from the 1932 film Night after Night.

How's permiras? It's surprising, isn't it? Is reincarnation really\-existent or is there indeed a resurrection after death. All of this remains a mystery.

My heart is beating now. If reincarnation really does not happen in all those events then the old memories should not be that clear. Perhaps a few pieces of memory would be erased, if anything it would not be that clear. Even if in a movie\-film or novel, there are characters who remember their past and can even go back to repeating their lives. Plus I've read novels that explain the main character's move into the novel world. So the\-case is not reincarnation, but soul transmigration. Maybe I'd rather believe that the case\-case in the Hotspot show was a kind of possession and a change of soul. The question is if all of that is possible, whether the soul of a deceased person can come again to the world, like the human soul moved into the world of novels.

Uh, wouldn't it be that the world of death and life should still be a straight day. I think this could happen. The proof is that there are people who recover from a coma or who suddenly wake up after death. They are also called back from the dead.

In conclusion, is all that possible? Is this worth a try? Is summoning Geral's soul back really\-can be done?

Encouraged by curiosity, I did not want to wait any longer until the event was comfortable. I hurriedly turned off the television set and took out a wallet containing money and an ATM card and a new cell phone left by Alex. My hand quickly stuffed the two things into the sling bag that the young man seemed to have taken from the house. I quickly moved my legs after closing the door. Move quickly to the front gate and book a taxi online.

When the taxi I ordered came, I got on. The car moved while my heart started pounding. I want to go to Alice's shop now and ask about the soul awakening to the girl. Taxis are still moving through the streets. My hand was knocked impatiently.

About thirty minutes away, Alice's stall was already visible. However, doubt filled my mind. Lots of questions there. Am I doing the right thing? Is calling the soul of a dead person the right decision?

Ah, no, calling the dead is not right. I don't think that's possible either. The television show is not necessarily true. All of these things cannot be accounted for by the truth.

“Stop where, Ma'am?”

I flinched for a moment then hurriedly observed the streets. Swallowing the saliva down my throat as my fingers twisted each other.

“Front there, Sir.”

The driver nodded and dropped me off by the road, about a hundred meters from Alice's shophouse. After the taxi left, I ordered another taxi. The car I ordered came five minutes later. I got back in the car. I looked back for a while while the taxi kept going and maybe I didn't want to go there anymore. I think it's the right decision to call Geral back, probably the most ridiculous decision I'm ever going to make. Turning on a dead body might be a strange decision. Never mind, just go home and try to get on with life.

A taxi drove me home. The front gate still seemed to open slightly with a yellow line of police transverse in front as well as in front of the door. I stepped in by lifting the yellow ribbon that encircled the fence upwards. Fear immediately ambushed when he saw the living room that was in a mess with the number of things that rolled in all directions. I moved up and the damage on the second floor was just as severe. The house has not been cleaned as Alex claimed.

My lips folded while my teeth bit each other. How insolent a band of robbers did this to me, to my house. I opened the door and a horrible sight was welcomed. All my stuff was scattered on the floor, my panties and clothes were piled up near the bed mixed with other stuff.

My finger quickly pulled out all the scattered clothes and put them in the basket. All of these fabrics should be washed. My eyes stumbled on the hot pink flannel shirt tucked under the bed. The last shirt Geral bought. Uh! Last shirt. My chest is tight when I think about it. I grabbed the thing before putting it in the basket with the other shirt.

None of this should have happened if Geral had been around. He should be here to protect me. At least there will be to help me clean up all this or tell me that all this will still end well\-all right. My tears started to fall one by one. Where is everyone at a time like this. Alex isn't even around, let alone Dad. Everyone just left me, I was alone. Without Geral, I'm alone. Now I have to clean\-clean and clean up all this mess alone as well.

The sun was already down on the western horizon when I threw all the broken things into the trash can in front. The house is clean at the moment. As Alex said if not a dozen-year-old criminal, during the\-clean cleanup I did not find a single piece of broken glass. So the person I saw that night was probably just my imagination.

“Justify said Aunt, Za?”

I looked up to find the fat mother whose house was right in front of my house now standing in front of me.

“What's up, Tan.”

“Maling.”

“Iya,” I said softly even though I really hate to admit. This kind of person who sucks, already knows the problems of others is still busy to ask.

“You should come with your father, it's safer especially for vulnerable girls if you live alone. It's only natural that you're being targeted by a band of robbers. Good thing you didn't get raped, still grateful for that,” she said again.

He may try to sympathize, but unfortunately his voice is piercing with an obvious satirical tone. The sentence was polished with a soft tone, but it was annoying. I am most upset with people who pretend to ask when he knows and people who are busy giving solutions to other people's lives while he does not want to know what the person is experiencing. And this person entered both\-both, one who was too busy interfering in the lives of others. My fingers clenched tightly, wanting to punch the sagging face that now seemed busy observing my house.

“Kok not answered, Enza?” One of his eyebrows went up.

“Iya, Aunt.”

Maybe I should call Geral to punch this guy right in the face.

“Your boyfriend died huh? Also sorry, Za.”

You're not grieving! Stop pretending!

“Thank you, Tan,” I tried to suppress his inner urge that started to explode.

“If he exists you should not until last night's robbery,” he said lightly and asphalt flat.

I only smiled faintly and nodded before turning around inside the house. Responding to the woman will only add to the burden of the mind. He knows too much and sucks for a long time. Just one of the many annoying people on earth. This is what makes it so difficult for me to be comfortable with other people, Geral has always been the best for me. Only Geral is and I just want that young man.