Murder In The Old Castle
319. Night Surprise
The night began to cover the castle and its surroundings. Darkness mixed with deep fear, crawling through the entire castle. Especially out there, there are wild dog howls from the plantation area. After dinner, they gathered on the front porch feeling tense and agitated. The most riled up among them are Jeremy and Ryan, as their wives have yet to be found. While others are also anxious, because it turns out Maya and Farrel have not returned from the waterfall. They wonder, where did Maya, Nadine, Stella, and Farrel go?
"Four people are missing within a day. This is really bad. Very bad! The waterfall is not a safe place to have fun" Reno growled.
"Am I to blame for this?" ask Lily while she tightens her knit coat.
"For now, we don't have to look for anyone's fault. From the beginning, the reunion plan was wrong. But we cannot regret this. Tomorrow morning, after breakfast, Dimas and I will return to the forest and around the waterfall to find their whereabouts. For your safety, no one will come. You stay inside the castle, while there are Bang Ammar, Ramdhan, and Juned who will take care of you. I hope things go well, and find your friends alive" Reno said.
Everyone present there could only be silent. Their minds are still muddled, not knowing what to do. So too is Dimas. This murder incident feels that there is no clue, because everything seems to be done randomly, in contrast to previous cases that have been related to each other. He thought, maybe he had to work extra hard to solve this case.
They were still sitting on the front porch, while the clockwork was docked towards the twelfth clang. No one feels sleepy, even though tired feels whack. Suddenly, Ammar stood up from his seat, staring intently at the faces in the place.
"The rest we rest. Today was quite exhausting. More we prepare stamina so that tomorrow morning we can be fit and think clearly to solve this problem" said Ammar.
They all agreed with Ammar's words, although in fact they felt it was hard to close their eyes. But they can't keep it. They must fulfill their body's right to rest. One by one they entered the castle through the hallway that connects with the dining room, leading to their respective rooms. However, only a few people entered, suddenly from outside the castle came the sound of a shriek that was faintly heard.
"You heard something, didn't you? Like a cry for help" Edwin said unsure.
"You guys stay inside! Let me and Dimas check!"
Reno and Dimas immediately acted. They immediately exited the castle towards the front yard, the direction of the sound source who was shouting for help. The front yard was so dark that Dimas used a flashlight to light up the area. In the darkness of the night, among the trees, they saw a woman staggering. They approached the woman immediately. Dimas directed the flashlight to the woman's face to recognize her figure.
"May?" said Dimas.
The woman was Maya. He squinted at being disturbed by the flashlight directed by Dimas. He covered his face with his fingers.
"Where have you been?" ask Reno.
"I .. I was walking towards the crossroads but someone hit me on the back of the head, so I didn't realize. When I woke up, it was suddenly dark. I was confused, so I searched the way towards the castle. I'm .. I'm so scared" said Maya with a terrified face.
"Did you see your hitter?" ask Reno again.
"No Sir! It happened so fast. I knew I felt a blow to my head, and I felt excruciating pain. My gaze became very dark, and I felt dragged somewhere I didn't know. I woke up, found it around dark. I was so scared, that I looked for my own way to the castle. Fortunately I got to the intersection of four, so I can go straight here," said Maya.
"Hmm."
Reno muttered while frowning. Looked at Maya's face deep, so that the young woman looks misbehaved and down. Her beautiful face she tried to hide. Reno immediately invites Maya to enter the castle and clean up. Without waiting for long, the woman immediately went inside, heading for her room. After Maya's departure, Dimas looks contemplated, then looks towards Reno.
"Eitherway. I just thought that, if he had been hit by someone on his head, why he wasn't all killed, he was dragged elsewhere. So what's the purpose? There's a liar here. Whether he's in the castle or out there, I don't know. It's a complicated case, because there's no clue whatsoever that we have" Reno asked.
"That's what we're gonna find out. Maybe I'll figure out each other's background and past relationships" Dimas said.
"Tomorrow the task of finding the remaining ones, namely Farrel, Stella, and Nadina," Reno said.
"May they be found alive!"
***
The night is getting late. All the residents of the castle moved towards their respective contest. The atmosphere of the castle was so quiet and desolate, just the sound of the howling of dogs in the distance made the heart even more wry. In one of the rooms in the castle, Mariah could not even close her eyes. He did not stop thinking, why is this reunion business runyam like this? He sat down in front of the dresser, staring at the shadow of himself. He felt unsettled, thinking about the fate of Stella, Farrel, and Nadine who were still out there.
Suddenly, her eyes were fixed on a small envelope placed on the dresser, pierced with a stick of lipstick. The envelope is similar to the envelope used to fill money. He wondered, what is the contents of this envelope? He opened slowly, finding a piece of paper inside. A piece of pink letter paper, like the paper used to write love letters.
He slowly opened the paper, finding the contents of which there was a short writing.
"Old things will repeat. A De Ja Vu. An old dandam who's hidden."
Mariah read the short note trembling. In his heart wondered, what bad event would repeat itself? What was the murder of the writers? Wasn't that event buried deep no longer revealed? Who wants to bring that horror story back to life?
Not to mention that he was aware of the contents of the letter, he suddenly heard the sound of the door being knocked. For a moment he hesitated to open, for the day was late. Her husband would not knock on the door. Mariah chose to be vigilant, asking.
"Who's out there?"
Mariah's question went unanswered, so Mariah decided to silence her. But five minutes later, he was curious, so with a strengthening heart, he opened the door to the room. There was no one outside the room, just a dark and quiet hallway. Mariah can see unseen things around her, but tonight, even ghosts are reluctant to show themselves.
Mariah was suddenly shocked, seeing that there was a sack of rice tied to a raffia rope in front of her room. He wondered what the sack of rice was. His heart beat fast, slowly he opened the sack of rice.Raffia rope ties he released slowly, until the mouth of the sack tebuka.
He opened the sack, and he almost fainted when he saw the sack!
***