(Tom"s PoV)Standing in front of me was someone I had been wis.h.i.+ng I could meet soon. Her bright eyes were a bit watery, staring at me pitifully, creating an image of a weak and fragile woman. Her dark brown hair was tied up in a pony tail, swayed with the wind. She was still as beautiful as I remembered her to be.
Ah, not right. How could Jane be here? How dare this thing used her appearance to seduce me!
I seethed in rage. This resemblance really caught me off guard. Even though I had a strong mind after being forged in the first trial and after all I had been through, I was still swayed by this familiar presence. If it were any ordinary person standing here, that person might have succ.u.mbed to the seduction.
Too bad it provoked the wrong person. Even if you took after her appearance, there was no way you could act like her to fool me. "You"re a thousand years too early to copy her." I gritted my teeth as I frowned in anger.
"Hng..." "She" let out a throaty moan as she still attempted to seduce me. Her hand pinched my sleeves slightly as her pitiful expression was still intact in her face.
f.u.c.k! Jane never made that kind of face only to seduce me! Never! Get that disgusting expression out of her face!
I could feel my veins popped out in anger as I tried hard how to eradicate this lowly creature. My soft spot for Jane made me holding out from strangling its neck. I didn"t want to see Jane"s face contorted in pain as I tried to strangle her later. That"s why, I needed to find another way to make it stop copying Jane"s appearance.
"It"s easy. Just close your eyes, you stupid human." I heard Putra"s voice in my mind. "To be able to copy someone"s appearance, it seems like this one has some abilities. Unfortunately, it hasn"t mastered the technique yet when it met you. Well, I"m waiting right here. It will be a good firewood for me." His childish voice sounded so funny with that commanding tone in it.
"Since you want it, I"ll give it to you." I closed my eyes as my hand grabbed the copycat in front of me. Lifting my hand up, I could feel its struggle to be free from my clutches and its original voice leaked out.
Its sharp scream felt like needles stabbing my eardrums but I didn"t let it go.
"Let go! Let go! Why aren"t you seduced? Why?" It screamed madly.
"You can never imitate her. Even a thousand years of practice won"t be enough for you." I replied coldly. "Now, go." The chain appeared around my wrist and glowed dangerously before it moved and entwined itself around the thing in my hand. I didn"t have the chance to properly see its original form because I was closing my eyes the whole time and only opened it up after the screaming was gone and I could feel nothing in my hand.
"Heh, it"s a good catch. This thing has killed several people before, so it has rich dark energy in her. Good job, human." Putra"s voice was heard again. He was praising me, but I felt like
"Ireng, talk to me in that tone again and you"ll see what I"ll do to you." I warned him casually as I sat on the bench in the corner of the rooftop.
"Don"t call me Ireng!" He shouted, clearly upset with how I called him.
"Be good and speak properly. Don"t use that tone when you"re speaking with me."
He was silent for a split second before I heard him speak again. "Then, how should I do it?" He asked weakly.
"When someone gives you something good, or help you, you should say thank you. And when you want something, don"t forget to say "please". You are a good boy but you should really learn how to speak properly." I said.
"This good boy is thousand years older than you!" He hissed.
Well, that"s true, but in my eyes, he was still a young boy. "Talk properly according to your age, then. If you can do it, I"ll stop treating you like a kid." I said casually. "Now, be good and learn properly. I"ll find time to visit you there later."
"Don"t come!" He shouted in irritation, but I didn"t reply. I still had some matters to do right now.
Well, how long would it take for Rama to get here? It should not be long since his house was not that far from this cafe.
I took my phone out and tried to call him. My call was picked up after second ring, though. "I"m here. Ah, hi, Old Man. Is Tom here?" He said before I even asked.
"Usual place." I heard the old man below replied.
"Huh?" Rama sounded dumbfounded. "Tom, are you in the rooftop?" He asked quickly.
"Yes. Where else?" I asked in confusion.
"Come down! Don"t ask, just come down!" He sounded panic as he rushed over.
I frowned, but I stood up and went to the stairs. I was about to head down when I saw him hastily climbed the stairs. "Tom, come here!" He waved his hand as soon as he saw me.
I walked down casually, didn"t understand why this man looked so fl.u.s.tered. "What"s wrong?" I asked him.
"Ah, we haven"t used the rooftop after you... you know. But, then rumors said that there"s ghost there. I went there before and the atmosphere really changed. It was creepy and terrifying there. Even after the old man has tried to brighten it up with more flowers, the atmosphere is still gloomy and dark. The old man is the only person who can go there without losing his mind. He didn"t tell you, did he?" Rama talked fast as if he was afraid I would interrupt him.
"He didn"t." I nodded. I guessed the rumor started because of the ghost just now. But, I had sent it away, so it should be fine. How could I say that to Rama?
"What ghost? There"s nothing there." The old man came with a tray filled with my order.
"Right. I was okay just now. Nothing haunted me." I nodded sincerely. I guessed it was better than to explain about the whole thing to Rama.
"But..." Rama was about to argue back, but his voice died down in his throat.
The old man walked pa.s.sed us but the way he glanced at me didn"t escape my eyes. I knew it! The old man knew about the ghost. But how he survived the seduction, I didn"t know. Unless he wanted to talk to me about it, I didn"t want to ask him, too.
We followed the old man back into the rooftop. My order was placed on the table as I sat back to where I was sitting before. Rama, on the other hand, was looking around full alert. The way he hesitantly walked while looking around almost made me laugh. Since when did he start to be afraid of ghost? I remembered him being the brave one who didn"t believe in ghost and always walked in the front whenever we entered a haunted place.
"There"s nothing here. You can relax." I said to him. "Didn"t you say we have a lot to talk about? Why don"t you sit here and start talking?" I nodded at the bench in front of me while stirring my juice. "Thanks, Old Man."
"Call me when you need anything." He said before he went back behind the counter downstairs.
After he left, it was just the two of us. I was still stirring my apple juice, waiting for Rama to start talking. But, minutes pa.s.sed and he had not uttered a word. He was just taking a sip of his black coffee almost every ten seconds.
"So?" If this went on, I doubted he would start speaking soon.
"Ah well..." He lowered his head. "I"m sorry." He said, barely audible.
"For what?" I leaned back after taking a big sip of my juice.
"You know..." He shrugged.
"Rama, I"ve told you before. It"s okay. If anything, I"m glad that you both got married. There"s nothing to be sorry about. You don"t have to constantly feel sorry about it. I"m fine." I emphasized every word I told him, hoping that this time it would be engraved in his mind and heart that I was happy with the both of them.
Rama looked up and met my eyes carefully. He must be feeling guilty all these years for taking my girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, as his wife. Well, he could feel so because he really took our friends.h.i.+p seriously, otherwise, he wouldn"t feel anything towards me after taking her as his wife.
"Say sorry about it once again and I"ll completely disregard our friends.h.i.+p." I glared at him, warning him not to be foolish.
He grinned. "Glad you"re back, buddy. You don"t know how broken heart we were when we got the news." He said, even though he was still feeling a bit reluctant, he had successfully supressed it and decided to go with the flow.
"I thought I was dead, too. It was terrible." I shook my head. I was telling the truth, but maybe Rama thought I was talking about what happened in that s.h.i.+p. "Now, tell me, what happened to your son?"
His smiled bitterly after I asked that question. "Well, he fell down... from the stairs." His voice trailed off. "Nita was watching over him in the living room in the second floor but because she rarely had a good sleep at night, she fell asleep just for mere seconds. Our son was only ten months, that"s the time where baby was the cutest, they started to babble and imitate us. Because our room was in the second floor, I made sure that everything was safe for both Nita and our son. I even installed a safety gate on top of the stairs to prevent him from falling from the stairs, but somehow... he still did!"
I watched the aggrieve expression on my bestfriend"s face. He said Nita blamed herself, but I knew he blamed himself, too. There must be something more about it.
"Are you sure the safety gate is working?" I asked carefully.
"I installed the permanent one, a large and wide baby gate. Only adults can open it. You can come to our house to see it for yourself." Rama answered hastily as he took a sip of his coffee. "Nita said that she had made sure the baby gate was closed before she laid down on the mat, watching our son playing. She said, she was dreaming. She saw someone opened the baby gate, and played with our son. Then she woke up because she heard our son"s cry so loud, but then she heard nothing. But..." He couldn"t continue. His jaw hardened as he tried so hard to control his emotion. His face contorted in agony. The image of losing his son in a horrible way seemed to haunt his mind.
"Where were you?"
"I was working. My mother called me to inform what happened and I rushed to the hospital. But, my son had gone." He clenched his fist tightly that I saw his knuckles turned white. He was not there to see what had happened to his son, but the image in his mind tortured him. What about Nita? No wonder she looked that pale and weak.
"Nita cries every day, blaming herself. It"s hard for her to sleep at night. She always has a nightmare and wakes up feeling agitated. I feel sorry for her. She always says that she saw someone opened the gate and led our son to the stairs. Someone must have targeted our son. She"s starting to accuse some people in our house. There"s something wrong with her. I think I should take her to see a psychologist."
Ah, their problem seemed complicated. Any mothers would lose their mind when their children died. Put my mother as an example. I was already so big when she got the news that I was dead, but even after two years, she had not forgotten about me. What about Nita who had just got the taste of being a mother for several months? I couldn"t imagine the pain she was feeling.
But, why did I feel this was not as simple as it looked like? Throwing a piece of toast into my mouth, I sharpened my eyes to see the man in front of me carefully. If I saw any dark mist hiding in him, I would make sure that whoever sent these shadows would rot in the hottest magma in Death Volcano.
Ah, they would not rot in magma. Before long, they would end up as firewood for Putra Semesta.