The rain still hadn't stopped when Raka left the old roadside stall.
The woman's words kept echoing in his head.
*“Don't say that name.”*
Raka walked back toward his car, but before opening the door, he glanced toward the clock tower in the middle of the village.
03:17.
The hands weren't moving.
He pulled out his phone and took a picture of the tower. The camera screen flickered briefly. For a fraction of a second, Raka saw something strange on the screen.
A woman was standing beneath the tower.
Her hair was long.
Her head was bowed.
Raka immediately turned around.
There was no one there.
He looked back at his phone screen.
The woman had disappeared too.
“Just a reflection,” he muttered.
Raka tried to convince himself.
He got into the car and started the engine.
At the end of the road stood a small inn with a wooden sign that read **LOSMENTARI**. The building was old, but it still looked well maintained.
Raka decided to stop there.
An old man greeted him from behind the reception desk.
“Looking for a room?”
“Yeah. For one night.”
The old man stared at Raka for quite a while.
“By yourself?”
“For now.”
The answer made the old man raise an eyebrow.
But he didn't ask anything else.
After paying, Raka received a key marked **6**.
“Your room's on the second floor.”
Raka picked up his bag.
Before leaving, he asked another question.
“Sir, I'm looking for someone. Her name is Rania Adinata.”
The old man immediately fell silent.
Just like the woman at the roadside stall.
“Why does everyone go quiet when I mention that name?” Raka asked.
The old man looked away.
“I don't know who you're looking for.”
Raka gave him a thin smile.
“You haven't even seen her picture yet.”
The man didn't answer.
Raka climbed the stairs.
Room number six smelled of old wood and mothballs.
Raka set his bag on the bed and pulled out his laptop.
He opened the folder containing pictures of Rania.
The images appeared on the screen one by one.
Rania smiling at the beach.
Rania reading a book.
Rania standing in front of her apartment.
Nothing was unusual.
Until Raka opened the last picture.
It had been taken two weeks before Rania disappeared.
Rania was standing in front of a wooden sign.
**KARANGWENING — 7 KM.**
Raka froze.
He zoomed in on the image.
Behind Rania were trees and fog.
Something sent a chill down the back of his neck.
The picture hadn't been taken two weeks ago.
He checked the file information.
Date taken:
**July 17, 1996.**
Raka stared at the screen without blinking.
“Impossible.”
He opened another picture.
The date was the same.
So was the next one.
Every picture of Rania connected to Karangwening was dated to the same year.
The year Raka hadn't even been born yet.
Suddenly, there was a knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Raka turned toward the door.
“Who is it?”
There was no answer.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
This time, the knocking was softer.
Raka stood and approached the door.
He peeked through the peephole.
The hallway was empty.
The light kept flickering.
Raka opened the door.
There was no one there.
But something lay on the floor directly in front of his room.
An old brown envelope.
There was no sender's name.
Raka picked it up.
The front bore a single sentence in black ink:
**FOR RAKA ADINATA.**
His hand felt cold.
He carried the envelope into the room and closed the door.
After opening it, a photograph fell onto the table.
A group photo.
A dozen or more people stood in front of an old house.
Raka recognized the faces of several villagers he'd met that night.
But the photograph looked extremely old.
Written on the back were the words:
**Karangwening, July 17, 1996.**
Raka studied the faces in the photograph.
Then his breath caught.
A young girl stood in the very back row.
Her face was incredibly familiar.
Long hair.
A sharp gaze.
Raka knew her.
It was Rania.
But that wasn't what made his blood run cold.
Standing beside Rania was a little child in a red jacket.
And beneath the photograph was a list of the people who had been there that night.
The first name.
The second name.
The third name.
All the way to the last.
Raka counted them.
**Seventeen people.**
Seventeen names.
Then he found something that made his hands tremble.
Beneath the list was a single sentence:
**“They all disappeared tonight.”**
Raka looked at the clock on the wall.
The hands moved slowly.
03:16.
One minute later, the bedroom light went out.
And from outside the window came the whisper of a woman.
“Raka…”
He knew that voice.
Rania's voice.
“Don't look for me.”