The trip to the village took four hours from the city. Yasodana drove the car himself, while all the furniture had been transported the day before and arranged by the housekeeper. All they had to do was move in without exhausting themselves directing the movers.
“Why have you been so quiet, Naes?” The twenty-year-old man looked confusedly at his youngest sister in the front seat.
“I’m fine, Mas Sagara. Just finish your work,” replied the teenage girl, who was three years younger than her eldest brother.
Wedanta Sagara, the eldest child, was quiet and aloof but loved both his younger siblings. He had graduated as a top programmer, and now he could take his work anywhere—in other words, he worked from home. He spent his days in his room, working.
“You probably don’t like living in a village, huh? Me neither. If it weren’t for Mom, I’d rather stay in the dorm,” whispered the young man beside her.
“Nalesha Abimanyu, it’d be better for Mom to tie you up than let you stay in a school dorm. You wouldn’t study—you’d just play motorbike racing,” Anandini scolded her second son.
“But, Mom, school in the village won’t be fun. I bet all the students there are backward.” Nalesha grumbled, annoyed that he had to move because of his father’s job.
“Who told you that? Your father and I visited your new school yesterday. It has the same facilities as your old one, the buildings are grand, and the kids aren’t backward either. Give it a chance,” Yasodana said from behind the wheel.
“You’re sure to like your new house and school, Naeswari,” Yas continued to his daughter, Naeswari Pangayuh.
The sixteen-year-old girl had been born into a family of doctors, while her mother’s family was descended from a famous seer known throughout the country. Naeswari had no friends at her old school. She spent most of her time in the library, keeping company with books.
No one had asked how she felt about moving through her phone. Not that it mattered ... everyone at school thought she was strange. She sat in the very back, arrived early, and went home last. When someone greeted her, she only nodded without replying.
[“Weird girl. That crazy girl talks to herself.”]
[“Don’t be friends with her or talk to her. She’s a jinx.”]
Naeswari had been tired of it since she was little. While other children had happy childhoods, Naeswari’s was different. She spent most of her childhood at home or all day in the city library.
The ability her father called special was anything but that to her. She disagreed with him. To Naeswari, having this ability was exhausting and made her friends shun her. She hated it, but there was nothing she could do to get rid of what she had now.
[“Your ability can help the lost, Pangayuh.”]
Her grandfather’s words before he died still stayed with her. How could she help them if he had meant the dead? She had tried, but it had only ended badly.
“Pretty girl ....”
Naeswari heard someone calling her inside the car. The voice had greeted her as soon as she got in, but she hadn’t responded. Naeswari thought maybe her earphones were broken and causing the sound of a whisper.
“Pretty girl, tindak pundi?” [Pretty girl, where are you going?]
This time, she knew she wasn’t imagining it. There really was an old woman’s voice inside the car. But when she searched for its source in the back seat, all she found was her brother Sagara, busy with his laptop. No matter how hard she covered her ears with her earphones, the old woman’s voice could still be heard.
“Why are you stopping, Dad?” Sagara asked when he noticed the car had pulled over by the side of the road.
“I’m going to buy some coffee at the convenience store first. You kids wait here. Your mother and I are going out for a minute. It’s drizzling outside.”
Yasodana was a coffee lover. He could drink two cups a day to keep himself going. Whenever he saw a convenience store, he stopped and took his wife inside to buy snacks for the children. He told all three of them to stay put in the car.
While the two siblings were absorbed in their own worlds, Naeswari’s world was different. She looked uncomfortable now. Something was bothering her.
“Pretty girl ...” The voice came again, this time clearer and closer.
“Pretty girl ... mulih! [Miss, go home.]”
Panic began creeping through her entire body. Her hand trembled as she reached for the door handle, but she hesitated to get out. Outside, the rain was growing heavier, and the dark road looked even more frightening. Inside the car, the fear felt more real—something invisible, yet terribly close.
“Hey ... Naes. Are you okay?” Nalesha asked when Naeswari’s hand began to tremble, then took it.
Naes only nodded faintly, her voice caught in her throat. But in her heart, she knew something terrifying had come to her that afternoon—and it might not be over yet.
When the car started moving again, Naes glanced at the rearview mirror. In the back, beside Sagara, she could almost swear she saw an old woman with her hair wound into a bun watching her before slowly disappearing into the darkness.