Before anyone realized it, a month had passed since Ari vanished, without a single trace of him being found by anyone.
Ari had vanished as if swallowed by the earth. Even the authorities had stepped in to search for him, while also trying to solve the mystery of the strange and gruesome murders committed by Golek Goddess after midnight in recent days.
Golek Goddess had been killing young men wherever she encountered them, together with the purple-robed figure. It was as if the two of them had made it their hobby.
The two had become a terrifying menace to young men who liked going out or spending time outside at night. Even so, young men who didn't believe in the supernatural dismissed the purple-robed figure carrying Golek Goddess as his killer doll as nothing more than a rumor. They even considered the purple-robed figure and his Golek demons to be nothing but tall tales told by cowards who were too afraid to go out at night like they did.
News of Ari's disappearance and the murder terror had become the hottest topic on the campus where Pio and Syafir studied, eclipsing gossip about Angel's beauty and the mystery surrounding Srikandi, who liked carrying an Arjuna golek and a Srikandi golek in her purple sling bag.
Several versions of the story about Ari had spread. Some said he had been kidnapped, murdered, or run away. Others even believed that Ari had been carried off by a kuntilanak who had fallen in love with him.
It was a story that only made the disappearance of Ari, the campus playboy, even more complicated.
In the campus garden, Syafir and Pio sat side by side on a metal bench, talking. They stared ahead, watching their friends pass through the garden, as they had been doing for some time.
"After Ari disappeared, now Andra's gone too," Pio said in a slightly loud voice, startling Syafir. It wasn't Pio's raised voice that surprised him, but the news itself, which had been completely beyond his expectations.
"Andra? The genius everyone knows?" Syafir asked Pio, turning his gaze toward Pio's eyes beside him on his left. It was as if he wanted to make sure Pio wasn't lying.
"Yeah. Who else would I mean? If not him, then who, Syafir...?" Pio replied, his expression serious.
"This is strange, Pio. If Ari disappeared, I might still understand why. But if Andra is the one who's missing, that I don't get. Andra wasn't a playboy like Ari. In fact, he was known for being cold toward women," Syafir explained, picturing Andra's face. He knew Andra fairly well.
"That's what I don't understand either," Pio added with a sigh.
"Pio, do you know who Andra was with the last time he was seen before disappearing?" Syafir asked, probing.
"It seems he was with Srikandi. Just like Ari, who disappeared first," Pio answered.
So Srikandi was the key to all of this after all. Pio's suspicions about Srikandi had apparently been right all along... Syafir speculated to himself, beginning to believe what Pio had said before.
The handsome young man drew a breath before responding to his friend's words.
"It seems your suspicions about Srikandi were right all along," Syafir said in a flat voice, almost entirely without emotion.
"So now you believe all of this has something to do with Srikandi?" Pio asked incredulously. Syafir had always been difficult to convince once he believed something was true.
"I'm not a hundred percent convinced yet. That's why, starting today, we need to seriously investigate Srikandi," Syafir replied firmly.
"What did you just say, Fir!? You want to seriously investigate this? Did I hear you right?" Pio exclaimed in disbelief, as if he couldn't believe anything Syafir was saying.
"I'm serious. I'm not joking. Not like the other day," Syafir replied, completely earnest.
"Then what are we going to do next?" Pio asked eagerly.
"We'll figure it out and discuss it at home. This is our secret, so we'd better talk about something else," Syafir said, his eyes scanning the surrounding area. He felt as if someone was watching the two of them, though he had no idea from where.