(Tom"s PoV)I took a deep breath to calm my pounding heart beat. The ghost in front of me was still struggling to be let out of my chain, but tears was still streaming down her face. I retracted my hand as for the first time I could feel her anger, hatred, sorrow, and desperation. I was a man but my heart felt so full of pain. Even as a man, I didn"t think I could keep that much of feeling inside.
What about this woman? She sacrificed her own life to avenge her son. Did she succeed? What"s the relations.h.i.+p between that immoral man with Nita? Was she one of his offsprings? Since the woman cursed his whole family not to have someone to continue their line of family, I doubt that Nita still had the same family name as that man.
If I didn"t remember wrongly, Nita was the only child at home. She said she had a younger brother but he died a week after he was born. After that, her mother was always sick. I wonder if it related in any way to this ghost in front of me.
I pitied this woman, but I couldn"t help her either. I had never known any way to undo an agreement between human and devil. She was too deep to come out from the hole she dug herself. Even so, she willingly jumped into it and lived in it.
"Is there a way for me to keep her?" I asked Putra through my consciousness.
"You want to keep her?" Putra sounded shocked.
"Yes. If I keep her with me, I"m sure she won"t do anything bad to Nita and her family anymore. But, I need to make sure she is locked up and unable to come out. Tell me, is there a way for it?"
"Humans are strange, indeed. Don"t you know that human who died by killing herself won"t be accepted under the earth and above the sky? Why do you have to burden yourself with her?"
"I know that, too. I just want to find a way to clean her from her promise with the devil. I want her to be clean from this black mist around her. I want her to remember her old self, not the one tainted by hatred."
Putra went silent for a while, but then he said helplessly, "Send her here. I"ll put her in the cage near the crater."
I smiled, even though I didn"t know he could see or sense it or not. "Thank you." I waved my hand and the ghost in front of me disappeared along with the chain.
I took a deep breath. The situation had finally calmed down. I looked around me and found out that other than Nita being unconscious and the room was slightly in a mess, it was all still in good shape. I thought my fire would leave a trace, but fortunately it didn"t.
Otherwise, I didn"t know how I could explain to Rama.
Speaking about Rama, where was he? He had gone out for quite a while, didn"t he feel bad for leaving her wife with her wife"s ex-boyfriend alone in their room? Not that I wanted to do something bad towards her, of course. I was just saying...
Well, I might as well retract my chain that was sealing the room. I opened the seal and the chain went back to my wrist. At the same time, Rama came.
"Tom, how is it? Oh!" He looked surprised as his steps were halted. His eyes focused on my wrist.
Did he see it? I glanced at my wrist, but the chain had disappeared even from my eyes.
"What is it?" I asked casually.
"Ah, no, I thought I saw something around your wrist." He said as he pointed at my arm.
"What thing?" I purposely raised my hand and showed him. "I don"t have anything around my wrist."
"Probably just my illusion." He shook his head. "How about Nita?"
"She is fine." I nodded at his bed.
Rama approached his wife and held her. "Are you sure she is fine?"
"I"m sure." I nodded as I shot a long glance towards a new ghost that had just entering the room. Some of them were peeking from outside, but no one was brave enough to enter, except that ignorant Kuntilanak.
I flicked my fingers and a small dot of fire shot towards her, making her ran away in fright. It was a warning. Come inside and I"ll burn you.
"So, are we safe now?" Rama asked carefully. "What"s happening?"
"Well, just a bit problem. I"ve taken care of it for you. You don"t have to worry." I answered calmly. "But if later she is still having nightmare, or something strange happens, you can call me. I"ll check again for you."
"Thank you." Rama said whole-heartedly.
"Don"t mention it." I waved my hand. "Well, I need to go back home now. I"ll come by later. No, you don"t have to send me to the door. Just stay beside her. She will need it." I hastily said as soon as I saw him stood up.
"Okay." Rama smiled weakly. Then, I waved goodbye and walked down to the first floor. I still put some attention towards the house, checking here and there, but fortunately, other than the man in the living room which was a good ghost, I didn"t find any other casualties.
Now, I needed to go back and packed my things. As my mother said, I needed to pick Jane quickly. I only hoped she didn"t forget me during our separation. I tried to call her again on my way home, but my call got cut off even before it got through.
This was strange. Even if she changed her number, it wouldn"t be like this.
"h.e.l.lo, Kunti. Nice to see you again." I greeted as I watched from the rear-view mirror. A ghost was sitting there silently ever since I walked out from Rama"s house. But, I ignored her. Only now that I greeted her.
The one sitting in the back was the same Kunti who was with Jane and me that time. Even with her terrifying appearance, I could recognize her right away. Seeing that she didn"t manage to scare me, she laughed and changed her appearance to a better one.
"You remember me!" She exclaimed while grinning.
"Of course. Were you trying to scare me?"
"Yeah, but it didn"t work. Now I see that you have some abilities in you. You got a lot stronger than you used to be." Kunti was staring at me from top to bottom teasingly.
"Well, something happened. By the way, do you remember that time when you attacked Jane?"
"Ah that..." Jane awkwardly laughed. "Of course. Even though I couldn"t control myself, but I knew what I was doing. Actually, I have just gained my full freedom a month ago. It was hard to break free from that kind of bind. It"s just my luck that someone helped me, and I only needed to deal with the aftermath of breaking the contract. Well, the contract happened without my consent so I didn"t feel loss. For now I made sure to stay away from bad human again."
I looked the determination in her eyes and wondered why she lost her control at that time and suddenly brought up the issue about contract.
"How exactly did you get involved in that mess?"
"Well, you might not notice back then, but even though I always boast about how powerful I am, I was just an underling. My leader sold me to that creepy old man after she manipulated my mind. Even just thinking about it made me infuriated to no end. Huff..." She looked p.i.s.sed, indeed. "But, after that person helped us, she freed us not only from the man"s contract, but also from our leader manipulation. That"s why I ran away and picked a place to heal myself and made myself better."
She sounded like human talking like that; ran away to heal herself? Huh, I bet if she were given an opportunity to be alive, she would take it right away.
But, her leader?
"Your leader? Can you describe to me about your leader? Is she a human?"
"Ah no." Kunti shook her finger dramatically. "She is a Kuntilanak, just like me. But, she is stronger. A lot stronger even when she first came into our dimension. She was strong when she was human, and became a lot stronger when she became one of us. You don"t want to deal with her, trust me." She shook her head with all seriousness.
"A strong Kuntilanak, huh?" I was tempted to find out about this leader, but I was soon be reminded of what my first goal to come back home. "How about the person who helped you? Do you know who she is?"
"Err, I know her. But I couldn"t tell you." She said hesitantly. "By the way, I saw you when you walked into that house." She might want to divert the topic. I had not even asked her how she found me, but she started talking about it. Not that I complained about it. If she wanted to hide the ident.i.ty of the person who helped her, I didn"t matter to me.
"I thought why you would enter that deadly house? Turns out you got some tricks under your sleeves. Hehe..." She chuckled.
"It was pretty hard to deal with her, trust me. But, I managed."
"It"s good that you could come out alive. If something happened to you, how should I explain to Jane when she came back?" Kunti said grumpily. "I haven"t even asked for an apology yet, and I have to explain about your incident? I don"t think I have that much of courage to face her wrath."
I laughed hearing her fear towards Jane. Did she forget she made Jane fainted when she first appeared with her horrible face in front of Jane? Jane was still a beginner back then, she had the ability but she couldn"t use it properly. I wonder if she had developed her skill now.
"You talked as if Jane has changed into a terrifying person." I said between my laugh.
"Oh you haven"t seen her. She has changed, one hundred eighty degrees. She is no longer the weak Jane that was afraid of ghosts. She is a fighter now." Kunti replied firmly. There was a hint of proud in her speaking tone.
Well, Kunti could be said as Jane"s coach in getting used to ghost appearance, so it was normal for her to be proud with Jane"s development.
"Well, Kunti, do you remember your name? It"s hard to call you Kunti all the time." I asked. She once refused to tell her name, saying that we only needed to call her Kunti.
"Since I had broken free from that monster"s clutch, I can tell you my name. My name is Amira." Kunti, no, Amira introduced herself with a smile on her face. "I couldn"t tell you my name before because I was still her underling, means our name was bound to her. But not anymore."
Amira looked even more cheerful than the last time I saw her, still teasing Jane in my room at that time. Now I wondered how could a young woman as cheerful as her die and end up as Kuntilanak?
"Are you going to visit Jane?" Amira asked.
"Yes." I stopped the car in my uncle"s house. "Do you want to come with me or wait here? I"ll leave tomorrow." I looked at her before I got down from the car.
Amira looked troubled. "Maybe I"ll stay." She said softly.
"Sure. But for now, I advice to go. My uncle doesn"t like your kind." I warned her.
"Ah right. See you!" Amira went and disappeared in hurry. I chuckled seeing her fleeing so fast.
After talking to Uncle Ben, I went back home and started to pack up my things. Finally, in less than 24 hours, I could finally meet Jane!