I woke up as dusk approached, I got up from the carpet floor and found myself among my father's old books which had a strong smell of old pages. I felt something tickle on the soles of my feet and when I found a cockroach there, on reflex I immediately grabbed an old newspaper, rolled it up, and then hit the little cockroach that was bravely walking between my legs.
My head hurts, but I try to drag my feet across the green carpet. After some time my brain cells finally started working, reminding me of Ajeng's words this morning to water the plants behind the house.
After washing my face and withdrawing my consciousness completely, I can finally feel the fragrance of white roses and jasmine clearing my chest cavity. I almost died because of the stuffiness of my father's office. I was surprised the old man could survive there with the little ventilation, especially considering he was a heavy smoker.
The splash of water made the flowers sway as if they were happy after a full day of burning in the sun. Their branches have started to cool, now is a good time to water the flowers so they don't grow too barren, my little sister says every evening when she leaves me with the television on to water the flowers.
As soon as I turned off the water tap, my eyes fell on the big banyan across the grassy lawn. A swallow-tailed butterfly flew near me, then disappeared among the banyan leaves. As soon as the sun hits the horizon, my eyes widen at the large, old banyan branch. The twilight light turned into a reddish curtain. When the twilight deepened into the horizon, I saw shadows forming the figure of a woman there. The shadows that appear are getting darker and clearer, the figure seems to materialize from the shadow of the hanging roots which is slowly getting darker, from the shadow figure I slowly see eyeballs forming between them. The evening wind blew parts of the shadow and formed black hairs, the wind also pushed a pale face there which was originally covered by her hair. Staring at him carefully gave me a clear picture of her peeling paper skin showing a faint purple tinge of blood.
The black figure on the banyan branch now clearly forms the female figure I saw last night. The sinister girl was sitting on a branch, in a torn white dress with a pair of slender legs swinging. She looked at me with her right eye, while her left eye was covered by strands of hair that kept moving even though there was no wind. The hair seemed to want to move to reach me, but strangely she just sat there looking at me
Like a child looking at her new pet, the white girl seemed to be observing me. She just sat there sweetly while combing her hair with long nails. For some reason, her figure was friendlier than before. I rubbed my eyes and then looked at her figure again, hoping that I was hallucinating. But the black butterfly that became a hair ornament made me realize that the figure was real, and she was in front of me. We were only a few feet apart, and she didn't even try to attack me.
"Awakened by the twilight, wandering in the night.
I feel alone as if loneliness is always with me."
The white girl began to sing, with a song that invited another swallow-tailed butterfly with a bluish color to fly up to her and land on the palm of her clawed left hand. The sweet smell of frangipani wafted through my nostrils, beating the flowers near my feet. The breeze amplifies the scent as if inviting me to approach it.
"At this place, who am I actually waiting for?"
"I blame the loneliness, while I'm stuck here"
The white girl's voice shook my heart as if the song came from another world. My feet walked by themselves as if enchanted by her voice. The white girl realized that and she turned her attention away from the butterfly in her hand, in that form she tried to smile. Even though it actually made her reveal a pair of sharp fangs.
My steps stopped for a moment near the roots of the banyan tree, my eyes stared at him intently. Waiting for the white girl to continue the song, then suddenly her form was changed. Her face grew paler, while her eyes glowed as red as blood.
A danger signal appeared from inside my head, and inevitably the white girl suddenly jumped from the banyan branch. My body backed away instantly, but unfortunately, a wooden stump tripped over my leg. Made me fall to the ground, just as the pale nails tried to poke my eyeballs.
My heart stopped, and so did the white girl's hand. Somehow, the white girl stopped in midair. Her right hand tried to grab my face, but something in the air held it back. I looked at the banyan root around my feet, and that's when I realized that the white girl wouldn't be able to attack me as long as I was outside the banyan root limit.
Frustrated by that, the white girl gave up. She pulled her hand back, then the red eyes stared at me sadly. The sun went down perfectly, then slowly I saw her figure begin to fade away with the twilight.
As soon as the white girl disappeared, a crow's croak snapped me out of my thoughts. Dozens of crows glared at me, perched between the hibiscus and guava branches. The faint sound of the call to prayer seemed unable to drive them away, somehow I felt that the crows were the embodiment of another creature that was more or less dangerous than the white girl. I have to get out of this place before something else bad happens. After getting up from where I fell, I immediately took the water hose and rolled it up in a hurry, and went back into the house.