Secret Denis
Twenty

Denis sat on a boulder under a banyan tree by the river. His eyes stared at the astonished sight before him. River water flowing non-stop through the rocks lined up along the flow. His thunderous voice echoed through the deep valley. Denis remembered when he was on a cliff, the sound of the river flow was heard up above.

The gushing valley wind swept across his trembling body since half an hour ago. Both of his hands were folded in front of his chest. His hair started to pass through his ears because it had been more than a week not cut. Usually he will feel amused if the hair hit his ears.

Denis stared at the stream without a dull look. There was a calmness of his own when he enjoyed this alone here. He was desperate to go alone from the cottage because he was bored after seeing Alex who was asleep leaving him alone.

Actually, he doesn't matter if he has to be alone, no one invites him to talk. He doesn't like to talk too much. But being alone in this foreign place feels different.

The sound of a broken branch made Denis stunned from his daydream. He swiftly changed his position. He turned around and with sharp eyes saw who the person behind him was.

Denis breathed a sigh of relief when he saw who the person who was walking towards him was. He turned his body back to the river. Letting that person approach her and stand beside her.

"I'm looking for you around the cottage. It turns out you're here."

Denis did not answer. Alex picked up a small rock and threw a flat water face. The rock soared several times to the surface of the water before falling into the river water.

It did not seem to escape Denis' attention. He seemed to be fascinated by what Alex was doing. Denis turned towards Alex with shining eyes.

"How can you do that?"

"Why? You've never done this?"

Denis shrugged his shoulders. Alex smiles. He returned to get a pebble. Throwing back in the same way as before followed Denis' gaze.

"When I was a kid, my family had a villa by the lake. We always spend the holidays there. Gathering with our little family, it was a lot of fun. It was the most beautiful memory of my life. I learned to do this at the time. A little friend of mine taught it to me and I remember it until now." Alex smiled faintly reminiscing about his childhood. He sighed deeply and then again threw the pebble over the surface of the water.

"You try Den."

Alex hands a pebble into Denis's hands. Denis did the same thing Alex did.

"Wow! I can Lex!" fun. He tried it again and it worked. Denis laughed. But his laughter shrank when he realized something. Alex did not answer. He was even staring at her. It's the first time Alex has seen Denis laugh, and it makes him look so different.

Denis goes into early mode. His face was cold with a cold look.

"Well, did you find me?" ask after a little bit of puffing. Alex blinked his eyes from what had been the center of his attention.

"Mmm.that's.ah yeah. I think where you went. I'm afraid you're okay." Alex sat next to Denis making their elbows collide for a moment. Denis shifted his body making a little distance with Alex.

"Why did you come here alone? Are you bored in the cabin?"

Denis gave a little smile.

"Why lo? Afraid I'm staying here?"

"Yes not really. I'm sure you still need me to get out of this place."

"Isn't it back?"

Alex laughed a little. His gaze was centered in the middle of the river. Seeing some birds that perched on the rocks looking for food in the shallow water.

"I sometimes wonder at this life. Everything changes suddenly. And I'm here now. Being among the people who are truly sincere to me. The man I trusted all my life, he was the one who hurt me. And you, the people I just met, are even angels to me."

Alex's voice was softened by the roar of water. Denis listened to Alex. Not interrupting or chiming. But Alex knew, the person next to him heard his words well.

"What about you Den? Does your family still exist? You don't want to go back to them?" Denis did not say long. Alex looked at Denis's expression. I saw a somber eye there.

"We're in this mood, Den. If you want to say something about your family, I'm ready to listen."

"Gue has no family. You know that, right?"

"okay." Alex fell silent. He couldn't force Denis to tell him about his personal life. It was very difficult to find out even a little about Denis' personal life.

"You know Den? My family already thinks I'm dead. The news is in the papers. It says that I died in a car accident."

"Where do you know?"

"Sir Darman found a newspaper when he was in the village. The newspaper ran news of a car accident. He thought it was news about me because of the name on it. That's why he took it and showed it to me. And it turns out it's news about me."

Denis was stunned for a moment.

"Then what's your plan?"

"I don't know yet. Maybe I should find out first the truth of the news. I need to call my family."

"Why do we get out of this valley tomorrow?"

"Where are we going?"

"We met bang Theo first. Maybe he'll still help us."

Both were silent for a moment. Soluble with each other's minds.

"You think those people are out of town?" ask Alex after a while.

"Gue doesn't know. Maybe they still have spies here to monitor our progress. Surely they do not want the incident when you are helped by the same bang Theo repeated again."

"You're right. We need to be more careful."

Alex walked to the water. He scooped up cold water with both hands. Wash his face until it hits the front of his hair.

"The water is so adem. We take a river bath first, Den." Alex yells at Denis who is still faithful sitting on the big rock. He pulled his shirt up revealing his white body. He took off his shirt and threw it at the nearest rock where he was standing.

Denis who only watched Alex from a distance that was not too far seemed a little stuck looking at the scene. Unbeknownst to Alex, his heart thumped slightly looking at Alex's plain stocky body. If only Alex had noticed, he would have seen a red hue on Denis' face.

"here, Den. We play river water first." Alex waved his hand at Denis. His hands were preparing to open the trousers he was wearing.

"Lo napaen." Denis threw a pebble at Alex's back.

"Aww. Take a shower." Alex's voice grimaced a little when the pebble Denis threw hit him.

"Don't open it all the time."

"Why? I don't want my only pants wet. Wherever there are people taking a shower wearing full clothes." Regardless of Denis, Alex unbuttoned his trousers.

"Lo take a shower, I go home first." Denis jumped down from the rock he was sitting on earlier. I mean to get out of that place. His face was already red without Alex noticing.

Denis's steps came to a halt when suddenly a rumbling sound rang out from the direction of the river. Denis sharpened his vision towards the arrival of water. Black color appears from a distance and moves rapidly closer in a time that is only an instant.

"Alex! It's flooding!"

Alex looked at Denis who was panicking. I don't understand what Denis said.

"Get fast!" Denis runs up to Alex and pulls the hand of Alex who is still unaware of the danger that is hunting him.

Denis' hand still had time to reach Alex's shirt lying on the rock before dragging Alex's body away from the river lips. Just as they reached higher ground, waves of river water carrying rocks and pieces of wood that were pitch-black came pounding their place earlier. In an instant, the large rock that Denis was sitting on was no longer visible. Even the big banyan tree on the river bank is now almost half covered in water.

Denis fell while jumping a higher plane mwnghindar from the overflowing river water. Just a few meters away, even a splash of water hit his clothes. Alex, whose hand is still in Denis's grasp, fell down and crushed Denis' body under him.

For the second time they are in this position. The two were stunned, staring at each other for a while. Their faces were so close, only a few inches apart. Denis held his breath. I looked at Alex nervously. He immediately pushed Alex's body from above his body.

Alex did not respond to Denis' hand thrust. He was still silent and looked at Denis. His gaze went down towards Denis' chest. There he could feel something different from a man's chest.

Know the direction of Alex's gaze, Denis pushed back Alex's body.This time stronger until Alex's body fell backward and almost into the water that was raging.

"Alex!" With a swift Denis again grabbed Alex's hand and pulled it. Alex grabbed Denis' body, so now they're hugging. Back they were fixated in the silence of their fused bodies. Denis let go of his embrace and immediately stood up nervously.

"You gapapa?" A voice distracts them. Darman seems to be in a hurry to come closer to Alex and Denis who are still glued.

Frantically Darman checked the state of the two people who had been accompanying her days for several days.

"Thank God you're okay." Darman frowned when the two people he spoke to did not respond to him at all.

Alex got up from his seat. Picked up his shirt that fell out of Denis' grasp earlier.

"Did this happen often?" Ask Darman while wearing his slightly dirty clothes.

"Not really. You see it on the west side. Although this place is still hot but there it looks darker sky. It might be raining up there. We should be vigilant because floods like this can happen at any time. Fortunately you are not carried away by the flood, if you get carried away, it is certain you will not survive."

Denis and Alex looked at each other with faces full of horror, unable to imagine that they were a little late to get away from the edge of the water.

"Thank you, Den. If you weren't interested in me, I don't know what would happen to my fate." Alex looked at Denis sincerely. His heart was still pounding at the thought of a blob of river water carrying his body if Denis had not saved it.

"Let's go home. I was so worried about you guys. I thought you guys went where there wasn't around the cottage. It turns out you're here."

They left the river still filled with water lumps that hit anything that prevented it. The sun was tilting toward the west as they walked along with Darman at the front. Breeze of wind accompanied their steps followed by the noise of rocks that roll collided with the river current behind them. Sounds pretty awful.

*****

The moon pokes behind the trees. The sound of river water has returned to normal indicating the flash flood has passed. Silence again ambushed the place after it was heard boisterously by the flood that hit the river flow. It can be ascertained, at this time the river water will be cloudy, not as quiet as before the flood.

Darman was burning cassava in the fireplace in front of his cabin. Alex squats in front of him watching how Darman does it. This was the first time he had seen a burnt cassava. He had never eaten cassava before. Denis sat on the edge of a bamboo bale not far from them.

The wind that blew out slowly carried a piercing chill. The dense fog slightly blocked the timid moonlight that shot out behind the trees. The sound of the night beast was unceasingly earthy.

"Where did Mr. Darman get this cassava?" alex asked as he continued to watch over Darman.

"That's my dad planted the tree there." Darman pointed to where the cassava tree was. Of course Alex didn't know it was a cassava tree. He grimaced to realize many things he did not know.

"Oyes, sir. I put a bubu on the river. If the flood is like this, drift dong lathe."

"Well, what else. Pasrah aja. Tomorrow it will flood again, hopefully it won't flood."

"Daddy still has the bubble?"

"There was. You don't go to the village every day. If you are in the lodge, yes, you make bubu so that the masang is not just one. So you can get more fish."

"Oh."

"Let's eat the grilled cassava over there."

Darman brought the ripe cassava up the bale. Two large baked cassava immediately served. Three cups of hot tea accompany the grilled cassava dinner tonight.

"We intend to get out of here sir. I feel very healthy now. I think it's time I go home." Said Alex while watching the way Darman ate grilled cassava in front of them.

Darman stopped his activities. Back he cut the cassava with his hand and fed it to his mouth.

"Come Denis. Eaten cassava. You must have never eaten this before." Denis smiled knot. He's mimicking Darman cutting cassava. At the same time Alex reaches out her hand to pick up the same cassava Denis was about to take. For a moment the two looked at each other until Denis finally took the other cassava.

"Where are you going? Do you have a clear purpose? Or do you have a plan?" Ask Darman then. He sipped a warm tea that seemed to still be steaming. The coldness of the night makes the tea taste right, not too hot.

Alex looked at Denis for a moment.

"We want to meet the person we used to live in. That person who helped me the first time when they tried to kill me."

"What do you mean?" Darman focused his attention on Alex.

"So this, sir." Alex then recounts all the events that happened to him from the time he was kidnapped to the realization that he was at Theo's house. He told me everything in detail, nothing was missed. Sometimes Denis chimed in to corroborate his story. He recounted until when he was shot on the edge of a ravine that turned out to be above Darman's cabin.

"So that's the story, sir. I was very lucky because twice I was harmed, twice I was saved. Right now, they probably wouldn't have expected me to come back safe. They even announced my death in print." Alex ends the story. Darman takes it very seriously. Sometimes he shakes his head, sometimes he's a beard.

"So you already know who did that to you?"

"Yes. He's a confidant of our family. He was given the responsibility to take care of all the company affairs by my papa." Alex's voice raucous. He remembered how his father was now. Suddenly came across a face that seemed to shine hope on him. Does his father know about the rottenness of his confidant so that whenever he meets Alex he always looks at Alex with a compassionate look? If only my father could talk.

Alex just realized the meaning of the gaze of his papa now. Yep. His dad must know about it. What about her mom and sister? What is their fate now?

Alex sighs. I can't wait to go home and uncover all the secrets that have been kept so far. That guy was so confident when he put a gun on him. He must have thought that it was okay for Alex to know the identity of the killer because after that Alex wouldn't die. But that man has made a mistake that will be regretted for the rest of his life, because it turns out Alex is still alive today.

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*****