The pounding beneath the house grew louder.
**THUD...**
**THUD...**
**THUD...**
Each vibration made the stone floor tremble.
Laras clutched her chest.
“Dad... my heart is beating along with it.”
Mr. Wiryo immediately pulled her into his arms.
“Don’t listen to that sound.”
“But it feels like there’s something inside my body.”
Surya Wijaya only smiled.
“Because there is.”
Mr. Wiryo glared at him.
“Shut up.”
Surya chuckled.
“All this time, you thought wealth-pact sorcery was only about money. Gold. Riches.”
He pointed at the floor.
“But all of that was only bait.”
“Bait for what?”
“To make humans surrender their own blood.”
Mr. Wiryo gripped his machete.
“I won’t surrender my daughter.”
Surya shook his head.
“You still don’t understand. You don’t have to surrender her.”
“Then what?”
“She’ll come on her own.”
Laras looked at her grandfather.
“Where?”
Surya pointed downward.
“To where she came from.”
The floor suddenly cracked.
**CRACK!**
Mr. Wiryo pulled Laras away.
Red light spilled through the crack in the floor.
In the middle of the light stood a stone staircase.
A staircase descending into unfathomable depths.
Surya walked toward it.
“Come on.”
Mr. Wiryo didn’t move.
“What for?”
“To meet your ancestor.”
“I don’t have ancestors like you.”
Surya smiled.
“Every human has a dark side.”
Then he descended.
Laras looked at her father.
“We have to follow him.”
Mr. Wiryo shook his head.
“No.”
“But if we don’t know what’s down there, how can we stop him?”
Mr. Wiryo fell silent.
Laras was right.
They had already come too far to turn back.
At last, Mr. Wiryo followed.
The staircase seemed to have no end.
They descended for nearly half an hour.
The air grew hotter.
The stone walls changed to a deep red.
Images of people carrying coins stretched along the walls.
Some were kneeling.
Some were crying.
Some had transformed into piglike figures.
Laras studied the final image.
“Dad.”
Mr. Wiryo stopped.
“What?”
“Look.”
The image showed a woman carrying a baby.
Behind her stood a huge black figure.
Beneath the image were the words:
**WHEN THE WOMAN’S BLOOD AND THE GUARDIAN’S BLOOD MEET, THE LAST HEIR WILL BE BORN.**
Mr. Wiryo stared at the inscription.
He thought of Sulastri.
Then he remembered Laras’s birth.
Something he had never considered before suddenly surfaced in his mind.
“Laras...”
“What?”
“When you were born...”
Laras looked at him.
“What do you remember, Dad?”
“Nothing.”
Mr. Wiryo wasn’t ready to tell her.
But he had remembered the night his daughter was born.
That night, the village lost power.
Sulastri gave birth at home.
And a few minutes after Laras was born, they heard a pig squealing behind the house.
At the time, they had assumed it was only a wild pig.
But now Mr. Wiryo wasn’t so sure.
The staircase ended.
They arrived in a gigantic chamber.
A black pool lay in the center of the room.
Its water was perfectly still.
Ancient chains hung above it.
Surya stood at the edge of the pool.
“This is where it all began.”
Mr. Wiryo looked around.
“There’s nothing here.”
Surya smiled.
“Not yet.”
He raised his hand.
At once, the surface of the pool stirred.
**Glug...**
**Glug...**
Something rose from the water.
A massive stone shaped like a pig’s head.
Its eyes were made of gold.
Laras stepped back.
“What is that?”
Surya answered,
“A vessel.”
“A vessel for what?”
“A place to store every pact.”
Mr. Wiryo frowned.
Surya approached the stone.
“For more than a hundred years, humans have come to this place.”
“They asked for money.”
“Power.”
“Health.”
“Revenge.”
“And every request left a mark.”
He pointed at the pool.
“All those marks became one.”
The black water began to swirl.
Faces appeared on its surface.
Mr. Wiryo’s grandfather.
His father.
Mbah Ranu.
People he didn’t recognize.
Then Sulastri’s face appeared.
Laras began to cry.
“Mom...”
Sulastri’s face looked at her.
“Laras.”
The girl stepped forward.
“Mom!”
Mr. Wiryo held her back.
But this time, Sulastri said,
“Don’t be afraid.”
“How do we stop it?”
Sulastri’s face turned toward Surya.
“Don’t trust him.”
Surya laughed.
“You’re still trying to fight?”
“I’ll always fight.”
Sulastri looked at Laras.
“My child, listen to me.”
Laras sobbed.
“I’m listening.”
“The first pact wasn’t made by your grandfather.”
Mr. Wiryo was stunned.
Surya’s expression immediately changed.
“That’s enough.”
Sulastri continued.
“Surya only discovered this place.”
“Then who made it?”
Sulastri fell silent.
Then she said:
“The creature in the pool.”
Mr. Wiryo looked at the black water.
“A creature?”
Sulastri nodded.
“That creature existed long before our family.”
Surya shouted,
“Be quiet!”
But Sulastri didn’t stop.
“Surya made a pact with that creature to gain wealth.”
“In return, he had to give it his descendants.”
“But after many years, Surya found a way to cheat the pact.”
Mr. Wiryo stared at his grandfather.
“How?”
Sulastri answered,
“He created a new bloodline.”
Mr. Wiryo fell silent.
“A bloodline?”
“Yes.”
Sulastri looked at Laras.
“That’s why you were born.”
Laras clutched her chest.
“Me?”
“You’re more than just an heir.”
“You’re the child created to break the pact.”
Surya hissed.
“She was supposed to become my vessel!”
Mr. Wiryo stepped forward.
“What?”
Surya looked at him.
“The pact requires a human body.”
“And Laras...”
“...is the perfect body.”
Mr. Wiryo immediately stood in front of his daughter.
“No.”
Surya smiled.
“It’s too late.”
He raised his hand.
The pool suddenly erupted.
Laras was lifted off the ground.
“Dad!”
Mr. Wiryo caught her hand.
“Hold on to Dad!”
He pulled with all his strength.
But Laras’s body was slowly dragged toward the pool.
“Let go!”
“No!”
“Dad, let go!”
“I won’t!”
Mr. Wiryo gripped his daughter’s hand with both of his.
Surya stood behind them.
“Let her go.”
“Otherwise, you’ll be dragged in too.”
Mr. Wiryo didn’t care.
He kept pulling.
Then the white bracelet that had once shattered suddenly reappeared around Laras’s wrist.
But this time, the bracelet was red.
Mr. Wiryo stared at it.
“Laras...”
The bracelet pulsed.
**Thud.**
**Thud.**
**Thud.**
Then Laras stopped being dragged away.
She raised her head.
Her eyes had turned white.
Surya stepped back.
“No.”
Mr. Wiryo looked at his daughter.
“Laras?”
The girl didn’t answer.
The voice that came from her mouth wasn’t Laras’s.
“The first pact...”
Surya trembled.
“Impossible.”
“...has been canceled.”
The black pool began to boil.
The entire chamber shook.
Surya screamed,
“Who are you?”
Laras looked at him.
“I’m not your heir.”
Surya backed away.
“I’m the end of your bloodline.”
White light exploded from Laras’s body.
The chains above the pool snapped one by one.
**SNAP!**
**SNAP!**
**SNAP!**
A horrifying sound came from inside the pool.
But amid the chaos, Mr. Wiryo heard another voice.
Sulastri’s voice.
“Wiryo!”
Mr. Wiryo turned.
His wife’s shadow appeared on the surface of the water.
“Take Laras and go.”
“What about you?”
Sulastri smiled.
“I’ve waited too long.”
Mr. Wiryo understood.
“You’re leaving?”
“It’s time.”
Laras returned to herself.
“Mom?”
Sulastri looked at her daughter.
“Forgive me.”
Laras cried.
“I already have.”
Sulastri smiled.
“Now live.”
Then her shadow disappeared.
The black pool cracked apart.
Its water flowed in every direction.
Surya screamed.
“No!”
His body began to change.
His skin turned black.
His eyes reddened.
His hands became claws.
Mr. Wiryo pulled Laras along.
“Run!”
They ran toward the staircase.
Behind them, Surya let out a roar.
But before they reached the stairs, a voice came from inside the pool.
Not Surya’s voice.
Not Mbah Ranu’s voice.
A voice far older than either of them.
**“You think this is over?”**
Mr. Wiryo stopped.
Laras stopped too.
The chamber walls began to crack.
The voice rang out again.
**“The human pact has been broken.”**
Silence.
Then:
**“But I have not made a pact with humans yet.”**
Mr. Wiryo stared into the darkness.
“Who are you?”
There was no answer.
Only laughter.
Then the entire chamber collapsed.
Mr. Wiryo gripped Laras’s hand.
“Run!”
They climbed the stairs as fast as they could.
Behind them, the old house began to collapse.
When they finally emerged, the morning sun had already risen.
The house collapsed completely.
There was no door left.
No walls.
No path leading underground.
Laras fell to her knees.
Mr. Wiryo embraced her.
“We did it.”
Laras cried.
“Mom is gone.”
Mr. Wiryo nodded.
“But she set us free.”
They held each other.
But from the ruins of the house came the sound of a small piece of metal.
**Ting.**
Mr. Wiryo turned.
A coin rolled out from the rubble.
He picked it up.
There was no image of a pig.
No name.
Only one sentence:
**THE HUMAN PACT HAS ENDED.**
Mr. Wiryo let out a relieved breath.
But when he turned the coin over, there was another inscription.
Words that made his face turn pale again.
**THE PACT WITH THE OTHERS HAS JUST BEGUN.**
Laras looked at the coin.
“Dad...”
Mr. Wiryo didn’t answer.
Far inside the forest, something enormous moved among the trees.
Not a pig.
Not a human.
And not anything they had ever seen before.
Mr. Wiryo gripped Laras’s hand.
“Let’s go home.”
They walked away from the forest.
Behind them, deep beneath the collapsed earth, a pair of red eyes opened.
They weren’t human eyes.
And they weren’t pig’s eyes.
**Something far older had awakened.**
**To be continued...**