Behind the Eyes of INDIGO
Tumbles

It's been about half an hour since Mr. Aji went to call Mr. Austadz. Ms. Mia was getting more panicked as she held onto Alia's hand which kept getting hotter.

Mr. Aji came with Mr. Ustadz, Ms. Mia was asked to wait outside.

Alia was lying on a thin mattress on the floor of her room, she kept shouting, Mr. ustadz asked Mr. Aji not to touch or hold Alia first, he said, so he just sat down next to Alia and helped Mr. Ustadz recite the prayer.

The two men prayed together to drive out the creatures that were torturing Alia.

Alia's neck, wrists and ankles were all red as if they had been fastened tightly using a rope.

Mr. Aji even to the astonishment of seeing it can happen to his son, he was eager to hold and hug his eldest daughter, but he remembered the word of Mr. ustadz not to touch Alia's body before he finished reading the prayer.

The sound of Alia's cry began to weaken with fatigue, her tears came out, enduring the intense pain, Bu Mia hugged Sita and looked at Alia from behind the door of her room.

Meanwhile, in Azam's room, he was still struggling with the terrible creature, his breathing became increasingly tight and his whole body began to turn blue, he continued to fight to fight against the creature, until he really couldn't breathe for a while.

Almost an hour ago Azam focused on praying against the creature, he kept his eyes closed without caring about the circumstances around him, until he could actually finish his prayer.

Slowly the coiled root-like grip on his neck began to loosen until it finally came off.

The creature disappeared without a trace, and the maggots scattered near Azam stopped moving. The maggots turned black as charred and lay around Azam.

Slowly Azam began to open his eyes, he no longer saw the figure, but only saw the carcass of a very smelly maggot.

"Alhamdulillah..."

Azam spoke softly while looking around him. He got up from his seat and began to clean the carcasses.

*****

Alia's shout slowly stopped and already felt no more pain, but the red scar did not disappear, she also lost her consciousness.

Ms. Mia approached Alia, she was worried because Alia lost consciousness, but Mr. Ustadz said that it was not a problem.

Mr. Ustadz said goodbye and left, Ms. Mia sat down next to Alia and held her hand. He began compressing the wounds on Alia's neck, hands and feet using warm water.

"Why can we do this, sir?"

Ms. Mia was really sad to see her daughter's condition, she compressed the wounds while continuing to shed her tears.

"Please, what matters now is better" said Mr. Aji.

"If I may choose, I would like to have an ordinary child, as normal as any other child, not one like this sir"

"Yes patient, ma'am, after all it was because of his ancestor Mother"

"Mom knows sir, but there must be smart people who can throw away that ability, right?"

"Where else are you looking, ma'am? we have come to dozens of smart people and kyai and ask to ruqyah our child to be blindfolded, but maybe this is the fate of Ma'am, we just live it, and be grateful"

Ms. Mia just fell silent and was unable to say anything. He continued compressing Alia's body until late at night and accidentally fell asleep next to her.

Until morning came, Alia was still unconscious as well. Ms. Mia woke up from her sleep, unaware that it was already noon. He asks Mr. Aji to call Afi and says Alia cannot go to college because of illness.

Mr. Aji invited the doctor to check on Alia's condition, but the doctor was surprised to see Alia who was still unconscious because all her body was fine except for bruises.

The doctor only gives the ointment medicine for external wounds only and then leaves.

After seeing Alia, Afi said goodbye to go to college, he was also asked to write a doctor's certificate to allow Alia.

**********

Afi arrived at the campus, he walked past the parking lot and was about to walk to his class but he saw many people crowded in the park near the parking lot.

"What's that, what's the big game?"

Out of curiosity, Afi tried to get closer and see what happened.

How shocked Afi was when he saw what was happening there.

The large Cherry Tree fell to the roots, and under the roots there was a whole human skull, and even more surprising it turned out that the middle of the tree was empty, like just the bark of the tree, there is no part in the wood, but until yesterday the tree was even able to stand firm.

"What a strange thing, the tree that only stayed bark until yesterday is still standing and bearing fruit, is it possible that the tree fell down because it ate maggots? but there's no way maggots can eat wood overnight, right?"

Shortly thereafter police arrived and lifted the skull frame under the tree roots, and the campus had also called officers to take care of the fallen tree.

*****

Afi went away from that place and walked towards the classroom. Accidentally, Afi meets with Azam.

"Woy Azam!"

Afi immediately stopped Azam from seeing anything different from him today.

"Eh Afi, why?"

"No papa, it's just weird to see this hot guy with that thick scarf. I think people have broken their necks!"

"Oh, I'm just a little unwell"

"What's your neck?"

Afi was curious to see a slight bruise from Azam's neck, even though it was covered but Afi's eyes were very careful.

"No papa"

Afi grew curious when he realized that Azam's voice was also very weak as almost lost his voice due to suffocation.

Not wanting to be questioned, Azam tries to avoid going to class.

"That's what it is to go! but the one on the neck is like I saw it too, but where is it? oh yea! it was exactly the same rich thing that was on Alia's neck, I was sure that it was actually the same wound! actually that's Abis's son, why? kok can have the same rich wound Alia, and suddenly the Cherry tree is also uprooted, or maybe not..."

Afi continued to talk to herself, until some passersby started to look at her.

He left because he did not want people to think strangely about him.

From a distance Mr. Yahya looked at the fallen tree, no matter what he thought, no one knew.

"Finally the tree fell as well..."

Mr. Yahya said softly while continuing to look at the carcass of the Cherry tree.