The old mosque suddenly fell silent after Sulastri's shadow vanished.
Laras stood without moving.
Her face was pale.
Her mother's last words kept spinning through her mind.
**“Your biological father is still alive.”**
She slowly turned to Mr. Wiryo.
“Dad...”
Mr. Wiryo didn't answer.
“Was what Jaka said true?”
Mr. Wiryo closed his eyes.
Laras waited.
A few seconds felt like hours.
“Dad?”
Mr. Wiryo finally opened his eyes.
“Laras, no matter what you hear tonight, one thing has never changed.”
“What?”
“I'm still your father.”
Tears fell from Laras's eyes.
“But are you... my biological father?”
Mr. Wiryo fell silent.
That answer was enough.
Laras took a step back.
“Why didn't you ever tell me?”
“Because I didn't know everything.”
Jaka laughed from outside.
“The first lie is always the easiest to believe.”
Kiai Hasan stood in the doorway.
“Jaka, enough.”
Jaka looked at him.
“You know who Laras's biological father is.”
Kiai Hasan didn't answer.
Jaka smiled.
“Isn't that right?”
Mr. Wiryo looked at Kiai Hasan.
“Kiai?”
Kiai Hasan drew a long breath.
“Yes.”
Mr. Wiryo clenched his fists.
“Who?”
Kiai Hasan looked at Laras.
“His name is Arga.”
Laras furrowed her brow.
“Which Arga?”
“He used to live in this village.”
“Where is he now?”
Kiai Hasan looked at Jaka.
“In the same place you've been searching for all this time.”
Mr. Wiryo understood at once.
“The old house?”
Kiai Hasan nodded.
“No.”
He pointed toward the forest.
“Deeper in.”
Jaka and the men in black finally withdrew.
But before leaving, Jaka said,
“Find Arga, if you dare.”
Mr. Wiryo replied,
“I'll find him.”
Jaka smiled.
“If he's still human.”
Then they left.
Kiai Hasan closed the mosque door.
Laras sat by herself.
She wasn't crying anymore.
That was what worried Mr. Wiryo even more.
“Laras.”
The girl stared at the floor.
“I'm not angry with you, Dad.”
Mr. Wiryo sat beside her.
“I know.”
“I'm just confused.”
“So am I.”
“Why did Mom hide it?”
Mr. Wiryo sighed.
“Because maybe she was afraid.”
“Afraid of whom?”
“I don't know.”
Kiai Hasan approached them.
“Not of Arga.”
Laras looked at him.
“Then what?”
“Of what would happen after Arga found out about you.”
“Why?”
Kiai Hasan picked up an old book.
“Because Arga isn't an ordinary human.”
Mr. Wiryo looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
“Arga was the first person to escape the pact without becoming a sacrifice.”
“Like Laras?”
“No.”
Kiai Hasan shook his head.
“Arga didn't break the pact.”
“Then what did he do?”
“He took it over.”
The room turned cold.
Laras whispered,
“How?”
“By replacing himself as its guardian.”
Mr. Wiryo frowned.
“Guardian of what?”
Kiai Hasan opened a page covered in symbols.
“Guardian of the Collector.”
A chill ran through Laras's body.
“So my biological father guards that creature?”
“For many years.”
“Why?”
Kiai Hasan answered,
“Because if he stops, the Collector will fully awaken.”
Mr. Wiryo stood.
“Then we have to find him.”
“Yes.”
“Now.”
Kiai Hasan nodded.
“But there's one problem.”
“What?”
“Arga doesn't want to be found.”
They set out before dawn.
Kiai Hasan went with them.
Nyi Karti stayed at the mosque to guard the place.
The forest felt different from before.
There was no fog.
Yet the air was much heavier.
Laras walked between Mr. Wiryo and Kiai Hasan.
Every now and then, she felt the white bracelet on her wrist pulse.
**Thump.**
Then it stopped.
**Thump.**
It stopped again.
“He's close,” Kiai Hasan said.
“Who?”
“Arga.”
Mr. Wiryo looked around.
“How do you know?”
“Your bracelet.”
Laras looked at it.
“This?”
“Blood recognizes blood.”
They walked for nearly an hour.
At last, they found a small house in the middle of the forest.
The house appeared empty.
Its door stood open.
An old pair of shoes sat on the porch.
Mr. Wiryo went inside.
“Arga?”
There was no answer.
Inside, there was only a table, chairs, and several books.
An old photograph hung on the wall.
Mr. Wiryo took it down.
The photograph showed three people.
A young man.
Sulastri.
And another man.
Mr. Wiryo froze.
The young man was him.
But his face was much younger.
Arga stood beside him.
And between them...
Sulastri smiled.
Laras took the photograph.
“Mom knew him.”
Mr. Wiryo nodded.
“She didn't just know him.”
Kiai Hasan said,
“They used to be friends.”
Laras stared at the photograph.
“Then why did you marry Mom, Dad?”
Mr. Wiryo fell silent.
“Because Arga disappeared.”
Kiai Hasan continued,
“A few months before your wedding.”
Laras looked at Mr. Wiryo.
“So when Mom married you...”
“Arga was already gone.”
Mr. Wiryo lowered his head.
“But I didn't know she was carrying his child.”
Laras closed her eyes.
All the pieces of the past began to fall into place.
Her mother had once loved Arga.
Arga disappeared.
Mr. Wiryo married Sulastri.
Then Laras was born.
But why did the Collector want her?
Kiai Hasan opened one of the books.
Inside was a note from Arga.
**The child must not become a sacrifice.**
Laras read the next line.
**If I fail to guard the Collector, I will entrust my child to Wiryo.**
Laras looked at Mr. Wiryo.
“So you knew?”
“No.”
Mr. Wiryo shook his head.
“By God, I didn't know.”
Laras nodded.
She believed him.
Because for years, Mr. Wiryo had always treated her as his own daughter.
Not because of blood.
But because of love.
Suddenly, a voice came from behind them.
“And that's why I chose you.”
They all turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
He was around forty years old.
His hair was long.
His face looked exhausted.
A circular scar marked his neck.
Laras knew at once.
“Arga?”
The man nodded.
“I am Arga.”
Mr. Wiryo stood in front of Laras.
“You're her biological father?”
Arga looked at Laras.
“Yes.”
Laras didn't know what to feel.
Arga looked at Mr. Wiryo.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For raising my child.”
Mr. Wiryo answered coldly,
“She doesn't belong to you.”
“I know.”
“She isn't part of the pact.”
“I know that too.”
“Then why did you let all this happen?”
Arga lowered his head.
“Because I failed.”
He pointed to the scar on his neck.
“Sixteen years ago, I made a pact with the Collector.”
Mr. Wiryo was shocked.
“Why?”
“To protect Sulastri and her child.”
“Then what?”
“I offered myself as its guardian.”
Arga looked at Laras.
“As long as Laras remained alive, I had to keep the creature asleep.”
“And now?”
Arga smiled bitterly.
“Now the seal is beginning to break.”
Laras asked,
“Why?”
Arga looked at her white bracelet.
“Because the severing mark has appeared.”
Laras gripped the bracelet.
“So I'm the one waking it?”
“No.”
Arga shook his head.
“You're the one making it afraid.”
“Why?”
“Because you're the only human who can truly end its existence.”
Mr. Wiryo asked,
“Then why is it chasing Laras?”
Arga answered,
“Because before it dies, the Collector wants to take over your body.”
Laras was startled.
“My body?”
Arga nodded.
“It wants to use your blood to be reborn.”
Kiai Hasan looked at Arga.
“How long?”
Arga looked at the sky.
“Less than three months.”
Mr. Wiryo took Laras's hand.
“We'll stop it.”
Arga nodded.
“There is one way.”
“What?”
“We have to go to the place where the Collector first made a pact with a human.”
“Where?”
Arga looked toward the forest.
“Beneath the village.”
Mr. Wiryo fell silent.
“Beneath the village?”
“Yes.”
“Why has no one ever found it?”
“Because the door isn't in the ground.”
“Then where?”
Arga pointed at Laras.
“The door is in the person who carries the severing blood.”
Laras slowly understood.
“In my body?”
Arga nodded.
“When your seventeenth birthday arrives, your body will become the door.”
Mr. Wiryo shook his head.
“I won't let that happen.”
Arga looked at him.
“That's why we have to move before then.”
Suddenly, a sound came from outside the house.
**Ting...**
A coin fell.
Arga immediately went pale.
“It found us.”
Mr. Wiryo grabbed the machete.
“Who?”
Arga stared at the door.
“The Collector.”
Then the entire forest fell silent.
The birds stopped singing.
The wind stopped.
Even the leaves didn't move.
A voice came from beyond the door.
The voice of a small child.
“Daddy...”
Laras froze.
It was Laras's voice from when she was little.
A voice she could never hear again.
Then it changed into Sulastri's voice.
“Wiryo...”
Mr. Wiryo closed his eyes.
Arga stood.
“Don't open it.”
A third voice emerged.
This time, it was Arga's own voice.
“Laras...”
Laras looked at her biological father.
Arga whispered,
“Don't answer.”
Then the voice changed into something ancient.
Heavy.
Deep.
And it made the entire house tremble.
**“My descendant...”**
Arga clutched his neck.
The scar there began to glow red.
**“Your time is almost here.”**
Laras stepped back.
Mr. Wiryo stood in front of her.
But Arga opened the door instead.
“Don't!” Kiai Hasan shouted.
Too late.
There was no one outside.
Only a single gold coin on the ground.
Arga picked it up.
The coin immediately turned to ash.
Arga stared at his hand.
Then he said,
“It didn't come to take Laras.”
Mr. Wiryo asked,
“Then what?”
Arga looked at them, his face filled with terror.
“It came to take **me**.”
And from beneath the ground came the sound of an incredibly long crack.
**CRAAAAACK...**
The earth beneath the house began to split open.
A black hole appeared.
Red light poured out from within.
Arga looked at Laras one last time.
“If I don't come back...”
He drew a breath.
“...don't let anyone open that door.”
Then Arga leaped into the darkness.
“Arga!”
Laras ran to the edge of the hole.
But the man's body had already disappeared.
Mr. Wiryo held Laras back.
“Don't!”
Arga's scream rose from beneath the ground.
Then came the Collector's voice:
**“At last, the guardian has come home.”**
The hole closed.
The forest fell silent again.
Laras stared at the ground.
And for the first time, she realized something horrifying.
Maybe her biological father hadn't been trying to save them.
Maybe all along...
**Arga had been waiting for someone to replace him.**
**To be continued...**