Red Earrings

Heidy returns to her room after receiving a lengthy explanation from Patra. Ringing in her ears is the word 'pulung' which is a magical energy that carries a message from the sender, be it a 'good' or 'bad' message. Her mind wonders, who is the sender of the pulung and for whom?

Heidy, who is originally lying on her back, has now moved to her side. Her thoughts are still on the magical existence which is targeting one of the residents of the house. She only hopes that the contents of the mystical item are harmless. The longer Heidy thinks, the more unconscious she becomes. She does not realize if she is now in her deep sleep and dreaming or still in the real world. Not long after, the girl wakes up when a few drops of water drip down her cheek. She opens her eyes and widened her eyes when she finds out that she is no longer in the room. Heidy gets up and looks around. The comfortable bed has nowhere to be seen. There are only large rocks below, beside, and above her. It was only then that Heidy realized that she is now in a cave.

The girl then stands up and turns her body around. "Hello? Patra? Dad? Anyone? Where is this?" Heidy shouts confusedly in an echoing voice. However, there seems to be no one there but her. She is not sure whether the people she called earlier could hear her cry.

"Patra?" she calls again. However, there is still no response. Heidy starts walking, though she doesn't know where to go. Her footsteps continue to move, following the flow of a small river that split the rocks with its soothing gurgling water. In the end, she has to stop when the river's flow widened and ended in an open hole in the cave's wall.

Carefully, Heidy's one hand is holding on to the smooth natural stone wall arrangement, while her head is looking out. From there, she could see that it turns out that the flow of the small river formed a very large and swift waterfall. Under the waterfall, there are shady trees that grow along the river. The scenery looks so beautiful and also captivating.

Then she looks up at the sky. Something feels odd there, but she doesn't know what it is. She doesn't even know where she is. "Am I dreaming or is it really real?" she starts to mumble. It seems that she could no longer rely on her logic, after the many strange events she had experienced.

Heidy also looks surprised when she observes the river earlier. "How can such a small stream form such a rushing waterfall?" she thinks. The dark-haired sweet girl scratches her forehead.

Amid not understanding, suddenly an animal flew from the cave to the waterfall stream. Not to mention the shock that immediately makes her startled, another animal appeared flying right above her head. That's when Heidy begins to realize that the animal was a bat. "Aren't bats active at night, while it's still day?" she pokes her head out of the cave hole again. Yes, Heidy sees it right. The sky looks as beautiful as the one she observed earlier, although it is a little cloudy. The sun is not visible there, because it is covered by clouds.

"Where is this?" she mutters to herself, turning around and back into the cave. At the same time, thousands of bats fly so fast and crash into her body, as if giving her a rousing welcome. She doesn't pay attention to the pain from being hit by the bat's wings and hooves when she suddenly lost her balance. Heidy plunges from a height with her body facing the sky. For a moment, her body seems invisible, as the girl's slender body hits the surface of the water and begins to sink into the depths. She could feel the horror, surprise, and also fear, blend into one.

Faintly, she sees the figure of someone staring at her above the surface of the water. A hazy red figure, now clearly forms the face of a beautiful woman that she always sees in her dreams every night. The woman is wearing the same dress and scarf as the painting she had seen in the castle. The woman's graceful and elegant impression is increasingly visible, coupled with a pair of red gem earrings that adorns her ears. Padma, that's her. A symbol of extraordinary beauty and courage. The aura that radiates is so strong and added to the beautiful impression of the woman Heidy believes to be the mother she has never known.

"Padma? Mom?" she says in her heart. Heidy's hand reaches up. She tries to reach the beautiful shadow. However, her body seems to be sucked in by an invisible force that continues to carry her further and further to the bottom of the water. Heidy begins to give up as her lungs constricted, her consciousness dwindling. Suddenly an outstretched hand appears and immediately pulls her. The girl gasps when she sees her father who is swimming toward her and lifting her body.

Heidy sits up suddenly. She is now back in bed. Full of incomprehension, she looks around and then feels her whole body which is soaking wet. The bed sheet she sleeps on is even full of water and resembles a puddle. She inches out of bed in surprise. Whether it was a dream or not everything she was just experiencing at that time. One thing is certain because everything seems real to her, especially the condition of her body and the bed which also makes no sense.

"Heidy? Are you ready?" she hears her father's deep voice from outside. "We will depart using the earliest flight," Bayu knocks softly on his daughter's bedroom door. The girl looks even more confused. How does she explain it to her father? Heidy is sure that Bayu will not believe all the stories.

"Heidy?" Bayu calls again. This time, the bedroom door opens. Bayu stares at the state of the room in a messy condition. While his daughter looks like she had just finished diving. "What is this?" he asks in a high-pitched voice.

"I don't know, Dad," Heidy says doubtfully, "when I woke up I was like this," she continues, looking pitiful.

Bayu could only shake his head slowly. "I'm really tired," the man complains. "Get ready, we're leaving for the airport in a minute," he orders as if he doesn't want to care about all the weirdness. He just walks out of Heidy's room.

Feeling guilty, Heidy immediately makes her bed. She takes off the wet sheets and put them in a special basket for dirty clothes that Astri had prepared. When she is tidying the mattress, Heidy finds a small shiny object lying under the pillow. It is the red ruby ​​earring she had seen in her dream. The jewelry is similar to that worn by her mother, Padma.

"All right, just leave it there, Honey. Let me take care of it. You just get ready first," suddenly Astri stands at her back.

"Ah, yes, Auntie," Heidy immediately grabs the jewelry tightly and hides it behind her body. Without waiting to be ordered again, she rushes to the bathroom and cleans herself up. Once finished, the girl comes out and finds the room she occupied is already tidy. Astri has no longer seen there. She had left the room carrying a basket of dirty laundry.

Not wanting to keep her father waiting, Heidy packs her clothes into a large backpack. She doesn't bring much change of clothes, because from the start Bayu had emphasized that they wouldn't be in Indonesia for long. Heidy also puts the mysterious earring in her backpack pocket and rushes out of the room. Downstairs, Bayu already looks neat while holding his suitcase. He has been waiting for Heidy at the door.

Astri, Rendra, and also Patra, are standing side by side. They wait for Heidy to walk over. "Nice to travel with you," Patra winks as he extends his hand to Heidy. What Patra said, receives a strong elbow in the stomach from Rendra.

"Don't listen to Patra. I am very happy to finally meet you," she says, then hugs Heidy tightly. "Give our regards to Lingga and her husband," the woman says with a warm smile.

"I hope your father changes his mind so that he can invite you and Lingga here often," it is Rendra's turn to bid farewell to the niece he has just met after a long time.

"Thank you, everyone. Sorry for bothering you," Bayu interrupts. He takes Heidy's hand and leads her to the car from Rendra's office which is ready to take them to the airport.

"I'll come back here again," Heidy says, waving her hand, as the car slowly starts to roll out of the yard.

Meanwhile, on the balcony of Patra's room, a black cat is seen sitting and watching Heidy's departure, until the girl's car disappears.