Ballad of Love The Dancer
Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The deafening sound of lightning striking in the midst of the heavy rain shattered the hearts of anyone who was about to leave the house. Heavy rain flushed the city of Semarang almost a full day making flooding in several places.

The clock shows at eight p.m., Sari just got out of her workplace. It was a pretty exhausting day for him. Sari takes night college because she herself has to work for one of the news portals during the day.

She is one of the talented students in journalism. Her beautiful appearance with a beautiful body, shoulder-length hair, white skin, and blessed with a Javanese-Dutch face makes it easy to get the job she wants.to be anchor.

Unfortunately the road to his dream is not as easy as he imagined. Sari has to start from zero, starting with being a freelance writer. His high spirit to achieve his dream ushered Sari at the highest point at the moment. Trusted to cover the news and be a host for an event.

It has been about fifteen minutes Sari waited for the arrival of his online taxi order but there has been no sign of the taxi coming. Actually Sari was about to cancel the order but the taxi driver online begged her to give him a little time. Understandably flooding everywhere makes the taxi driver difficult to find a way.

Sari tried to understand that and she decided to wait at a stop not far from the campus. Heavy rain and lightning still continue to flutter the city of Semarang making the night air even cooler.

Not long after that, the taxi he was waiting for appeared. The taxi driver rushed out to pick up Sari with an umbrella in his hand.

" Sorry mbak.. flood is quite high in Simpang Lima so I have to find a detour first" said the driver apologized when Sari was sitting in the passenger seat.

" Yes sir, it's okay if the name is also again the rainy season as usual city must be flooded" replied Sari as she continued to stare out the car window

" Matur Nuwun nggih mbak, the order was not canceled.

Sari smiled at the driver who saw her through the rearview mirror in front,

" Yes sir." answered Sari

Taxi drove to Bendan Ngisor area, where Sari rented. The rain does not seem to want to be friendly with the night and Sari has imagined the hassle tonight because her rented house is leaking in several places and if heavy rain like this there will certainly be local flooding from leaks house roof.

Finally, there was also a taxi in front of his rented house. Sari paid some money along with additional tips for the driver.

" This is the money sir, according to the application."

Sari got off the taxi with her own umbrella.

" Neh mbak.. maturnuwun."

Apparently the new driver realized if the money given by Sari was excessive,

" Eh mbak, this is the money mostly." exclaimed the driver to Sari

Sari looked over and smiled, though,

" Make dad wish you blessings."

"Alhamdulillah, maturnuwun mbak."

Sari nodded her head and immediately turned around to enter the house. The sound of lightning that shrinks the guts yes to linger outside.

True to Sari's guess the rain drops from the leaking roof began to pool in several places. Deftly Sari immediately picked up a bucket to hold the water droplets and mop cloth to dry the puddles.

Everything was sorted out in a short time, Sari immediately cleaned herself and laid her tired body on the bed. And unfortunately the electricity went out shortly after Sari fell asleep. He did not even realize if the electricity in his house was out because it was already sound in a dream cradle.

The sound of water droplets in the bucket of the shelter as if to be a lullaby for Sari. Cold air, electricity is off and the occasional sound of frogs outside the house makes the night feel longer.

...*********...

Pawon pond

Isie dandang kukusan

Ari kebul kebul

Wong nontone on a get-together

Sari tried to sharpen her hearing. He walked among the crowd of people gathered somewhere.

Down sintren, sintrene widadari

Nemu kembang Yun swing

Nemu kembang Yun swing

Kembe si Jaya Indra

Widadari.

The song was chanted again by several sinden women dressed in white kebaya. The smell of incense began to pierce Sari's nose, it felt really stifling chest. Until Sari covered her nose with her hands. 

Curiosity brought him closer to the crowd of those people. Slowly he tried to sneak between the bodies mingled in sweat. His fairly slim body made it easy for him to immediately reach the forefront.

Sari was aghast at what was in front of her. A show is starting with a handler circling a closed cage. In the hand of the handler there is a tool to burn incense that is carried around the cage.

Some of the female dancers seemed to dance with gusto while occasionally sowing flowers accompanied by singing songs from the sindens.  

Before long the handler stopped and crouched down on the other side of the cage. His mouth seemed to be committed to chanting a mantra. The cage is shaking. Sang Pawang assisted two of his assistants immediately opened the cage slowly.

Sari was surprised to see the figure behind the cage. He rubbed his eyes many times, it was himself in a dancer's outfit and in glasses. Sari saw herself standing with two handlers behind me and started dancing.

" What am I doing there, where is this?" his mumbling was smirking

A person dressed exactly as the charmer had suddenly stood beside him and pulled Sari's right hand violently to follow his footsteps.

" Hey, who are you? Do you want to let me go!" Yells 

He tried to release his hand but the man's hand was so strong that there was only pain. 

The man suddenly stopped and let go of Sari's hand. He turned around with his face full of anger pointing in a direction.

Sari followed the direction that the angry-faced man pointed to, she was again surprised by the figure of a sintren dancer with a face full of blood. He shuddered in horror at what had happened to the dancer. The smell of blood even smelled from the place where Sari was standing.

The figure opened his mouth and said,

" Please…,"

His hand stretched out towards Sari as if he wanted to reach her. Fear struck Sari until she slowly retreated and turned around, but unfortunately the bloody dancer was right behind her.

...********* ...

" Aaaargh..don't!"

Sari awoke from her dream just as a huge lightning bolt struck.

 Sweat drenched his entire body, his heart beating quite fast, his eyes looking around, dark, only occasionally visible light from outside due to lightning flashes.

Sari immediately got up, walked slowly to find an emergency lamp and turned it on. His head was dizzy and his heartbeat was hunting fast.

" Thank God it's just a dream, it's terrible" he murmured

He walked into the kitchen and took cold water from the fridge. Plastered a glass of cold water to his head that felt dizzy, with eyes closed.

He walked towards the central room, and as he passed the table he saw a thick book open. There was no book he had read when he left this morning. Curiosity makes Sari want to see the open book. His eyes widened, he tried to look back at her. An article about a sintren dancer with a portrait of the dancer is clearly displayed on that page.

Lightning again struck hard, making Sari's heart beat faster,

" You must be joking with me…."