The journey home felt much quieter than usual.
Mr. Wiryo and Laras walked side by side without saying much. The sun was beginning to set when they emerged from the forest.
But ever since they had left the old house, Laras had felt something.
As if they were being watched.
Not from behind.
Not from the trees.
But from beneath the ground.
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
“Stop for a moment.”
Mr. Wiryo stopped.
Laras closed her eyes.
She heard a faint sound.
**Thud...**
She opened her eyes.
“There’s something.”
“What?”
“A heartbeat.”
Mr. Wiryo listened too.
There was nothing.
But a few seconds later, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble faintly.
**Thud...**
Mr. Wiryo looked at Laras.
“Don’t panic.”
**Thud...**
The second tremor was stronger.
The birds in the trees suddenly took flight.
Laras grabbed her father’s hand.
“This isn’t coming from the house we visited.”
Mr. Wiryo nodded.
“I know.”
They quickened their pace.
When they reached the village, everything seemed normal.
The villagers’ house lights were on.
Children played in the streets.
Several people sat at a small shop.
No one knew what had just happened in the forest.
Mr. Wiryo was almost relieved.
But when they passed the shop at the end of the road, everyone suddenly fell silent.
An old man stared at Laras.
Then he lowered his head.
A woman pulled her child inside the house.
Doors slammed shut.
Mr. Wiryo watched them.
“What’s going on?”
No one answered.
They kept walking.
When they arrived home, Nyi Karti was already waiting on the porch.
Her face was pale.
“You’ve woken it up.”
Mr. Wiryo stopped.
“What do you mean?”
Nyi Karti looked at Laras.
“It has chosen you.”
“Who?”
Nyi Karti did not answer right away.
She closed the door.
“Come in.”
The three of them sat in the living room.
Nyi Karti lit an oil lamp.
“What lies beneath that old house isn’t a creature of wealth-pact sorcery.”
Mr. Wiryo frowned.
“Then what is it?”
“People in the old days called it **the Collector**.”
Laras swallowed.
“The Collector?”
“Because it doesn’t give anyone wealth.”
Nyi Karti looked at Mr. Wiryo.
“It only waits for people who owe a debt.”
Mr. Wiryo shook his head.
“But our family ended the pact.”
“The pact with Surya.”
Nyi Karti pointed to the black book.
“Not with the Collector.”
Mr. Wiryo opened the book.
“Then what does it have to do with Laras?”
Nyi Karti was silent for a long time.
Then she said,
“Laras is the last descendant to bear the breaking mark.”
“And then?”
“If the Collector succeeds in taking that mark, it can enter the human world.”
The room fell silent.
Mr. Wiryo looked at his daughter.
“How do we stop it?”
Nyi Karti shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“There has to be a way.”
“There is.”
Nyi Karti took something from her bag.
A small wooden box.
She placed it on the table.
“This belonged to Sulastri.”
Laras immediately leaned closer.
“Mom?”
Nyi Karti nodded.
“She entrusted it to me six years ago.”
Mr. Wiryo stared at Nyi Karti in shock.
“Why are you only giving it to us now?”
“Because she told me to open this box when the breaking mark appeared again.”
Laras opened the box.
Inside was a white cloth bracelet and a letter.
Her hands trembled as she unfolded the letter.
She recognized the handwriting immediately.
Her mother’s handwriting.
> Laras, if you’re reading this letter, then what I feared has happened.
Laras held back her tears.
She continued.
> I don’t know whether I’ll still be here when you find this letter. But listen carefully. Never seek wealth from anywhere. Never accept a coin given to you by anyone.
Laras stopped.
Beneath those words was another sentence.
> Because a coin is not a means of payment.
Mr. Wiryo frowned.
Laras read the next line.
> A coin is an eye.
Mr. Wiryo immediately looked at the coin they had found in the forest.
“We have to throw it away.”
Nyi Karti shook her head.
“It’s too late.”
“Why?”
“Because it has already seen you.”
Suddenly, a sound came from the yard.
**Ting...**
All three of them froze.
The sound of metal.
Like a coin dropping.
**Ting...**
Laras stood up.
Mr. Wiryo held her back.
“Don’t go outside.”
A third sound rang out.
**Ting...**
Then came the sound of footsteps.
Slowly.
**Thud...**
**Thud...**
**Thud...**
Nyi Karti extinguished the lamp.
“Don’t make a sound.”
The three of them sat silently in the darkness.
The footsteps drew closer.
They stopped right outside the door.
Then came a knock.
**Knock... knock... knock...**
Laras covered her mouth.
A woman’s voice came from outside.
“Mr. Wiryo.”
Mr. Wiryo froze.
It was Sulastri’s voice.
“Mom...” Laras whispered.
Nyi Karti shook her head emphatically.
“Don’t answer.”
The voice came again.
“Wiryo, open the door.”
Mr. Wiryo closed his eyes.
He knew Sulastri was gone.
That wasn’t his wife.
“Open it.”
The knocking grew louder.
**KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!**
Laras began to cry.
Then the voice changed.
It was no longer a woman’s voice.
It became a man’s voice.
Then a child’s.
Then an old person’s.
All the voices blended together.
“Open it.”
“Open it.”
“Open it.”
The door trembled.
Mr. Wiryo took up the machete.
Nyi Karti whispered,
“Don’t fight it.”
“Why not?”
“It isn’t allowed to come in yet.”
“What if it breaks through the door?”
“If you fight it, you’ll invite it in.”
Mr. Wiryo lowered the machete.
The knocking stopped.
Silence.
Then the voice outside said:
“Laras.”
The girl covered her ears.
“Don’t listen.”
“Laras.”
The voice grew gentler.
“I know you want to see your mother.”
Tears streamed down Laras’s face.
The voice continued.
“I can bring her back.”
Mr. Wiryo looked at his daughter.
“Don’t believe it.”
“I can return everything you’ve lost.”
“I can make your father rich.”
“I can give your family its home back.”
“I can bring your mother back to life.”
Laras stood up.
Mr. Wiryo immediately grabbed her hand.
“Don’t.”
The voice laughed.
“All you have to do is open the door.”
Laras stared at the door.
For several seconds, she did not move.
Then she said,
“If Mom is really out there...”
The voice stopped.
“...she wouldn’t tell me to open the door.”
Silence.
Laras continued,
“Because Mom knows I wouldn’t trade my freedom for her presence.”
The knocking stopped.
Then came a growl.
**Hrrr...**
Nyi Karti whispered,
“Good.”
But suddenly, the sound of something cracking came from beneath the house.
**CRACK!**
Mr. Wiryo turned.
The living-room floor split open.
Laras backed away.
“It’s coming in from underneath.”
Nyi Karti stood up.
“That’s impossible.”
The crack widened.
Black smoke rose from the gap in the floor.
Then a hand emerged.
Not a human hand.
Its fingers were long.
Its nails were white.
Mr. Wiryo pulled Laras back.
“Get behind me!”
The hand gripped the floor.
Something was trying to climb out.
Nyi Karti opened the wooden box and took out Sulastri’s white cloth bracelet.
“Laras!”
Laras turned.
“Put this on.”
She took the bracelet.
The moment it touched her skin, a white light appeared.
The creature beneath the floor screamed.
Its hand caught fire.
**Fssss!**
But before retreating underground, the creature left something behind.
A coin.
The coin fell right in front of Laras.
She did not touch it.
The coin slowly spun.
Then it stopped.
New writing appeared on its surface.
**ONE NAME MUST BE PAID.**
Mr. Wiryo stared at it.
“What does that mean?”
Nyi Karti went pale.
“It has started collecting.”
“Who has to be paid?”
Nyi Karti looked at Laras.
“Not who.”
She looked at Mr. Wiryo.
“What.”
Mr. Wiryo didn’t understand.
Nyi Karti pointed at Laras’s chest.
“It wants the breaking mark.”
Laras held the white bracelet.
“What if it takes it?”
Nyi Karti answered softly,
“It will have a way into our world.”
They did not sleep that night.
Just before dawn, Mr. Wiryo made a decision.
“We have to find somewhere safe.”
Nyi Karti nodded.
“There’s one place.”
“Where?”
“The old mosque on the hill.”
Mr. Wiryo was startled.
“Why there?”
“Because its grounds were once sanctified by people who knew about this pact.”
Laras stood up.
“We’re leaving now.”
They packed only what they needed.
But when he opened the front door, Mr. Wiryo stopped.
Dozens of coins lay in front of the house.
They were arranged in a circle.
At the center was a single object.
A photograph.
A photograph of Mr. Wiryo, Laras, and Sulastri.
But Sulastri’s face had been crossed out with black ink.
Written on the back of the photograph were the words:
**IF YOU REFUSE TO BECOME RICH, I’LL MAKE YOU LOSE EVERYTHING.**
Mr. Wiryo crumpled the photograph in his fist.
“It’s threatening us.”
Nyi Karti shook her head.
“No.”
“What, then?”
“It’s telling you the rules of the game.”
Mr. Wiryo stared at the coins on the ground.
Then he realized something.
“In that case, we won’t play.”
He gathered all the coins.
Laras was shocked.
“Dad!”
Mr. Wiryo carried them to the stove.
He lit the fire.
One by one, he threw the coins into it.
**Ting!**
**Ting!**
**Ting!**
The coins began to glow red.
Then something strange happened.
They did not melt.
Instead, human voices came from inside the fire.
Dozens of voices.
Hundreds.
“Wiryo...”
“Laras...”
“Help us...”
“Don’t...”
Mr. Wiryo nearly dropped the last coin.
Nyi Karti shouted,
“Don’t listen!”
Mr. Wiryo threw it into the fire.
The flames suddenly shot high into the air.
Then they went out.
All the coins had turned to ash.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
Mr. Wiryo let out a relieved breath.
But Laras suddenly grabbed her head.
“Dad...”
“What is it?”
“I remember something.”
“What?”
Laras looked at her father.
“When I was born.”
Mr. Wiryo fell silent.
“I remember someone’s voice.”
“Who?”
Laras shook her head.
“Not Mom.”
“Then who?”
Laras stared at the forest.
“A man’s voice.”
“What did it say?”
Laras answered slowly:
**“This child will return to me when she turns seventeen.”**
Mr. Wiryo went pale.
Nyi Karti covered her mouth.
Because they all finally realized something.
The pact had not begun when Laras was born.
The pact had been waiting for her **before she was born.**
And now, the Collector knew exactly when the time would come.
**Three months from now.**
**To be continued...**