The Midnight
Arboretums

In the corner of the new student crowd I sat down. I was one of them. But the difference, they are speakers who are so passionate about spilling their “isi heads”. I am just a loyal listener. How not, all day we are trained to be a good student. My energy is at the end of the tail. But wonder, why they still have a passionate spirit.

None other than that, we are currently undergoing a series of disciplinary activities commonly called ospek. Want not to have to be lived to completion. If not, we don't know what's coming next. Unfortunately, this series of ospek activities always take time and energy, what else if coupled with the current generation meeting.

“Bla... bla... bla,” I don't know what they're talking about, which for sure right now I want to go home soon. The more seconds, the sky grew darker, the atmosphere of the campus gradually quietened. “Oke guys like enough to get here first the talk, already malem too anyway, spirit!,” said he who I do not know, anyway he is one of the trusted people of the generation.

Finally I can go home, it feels like my body has missed the bed so much. I saw the watch in the hand turned the needle pointed at 22:30 WIB. I rushed to get my motorcycle, put on my helmet and gas tank.

Unfortunately, it turns out that the main gate or commonly called the old gate (gullam) is being renovated so that it cannot be passed by vehicles. I had to use another road.

The university has three gates: the gerlam, the new gate, and the Arboretum gate. The new gate is a newly built gate but it is very far from the gerlam, like from end to end. Meanwhile, the Arboretum gate is a gate close to the lake owned by the university or commonly called the Arboretum, this gate is usually opened only on weekends.

I don't think I dare to go through the new gate, considering that it's late and the distance is quite far. Finally I decided to use the Arboretum road by chance this is Saturday.

The atmosphere of the campus is so gripping if at night, the students are no longer visible stem of his nose. So do my class friends, they live in boarding houses and do not use vehicles so that they can go through the gerlam easily. Meanwhile, I am a PP (Return Go) child whose distance between campuses with houses is quite far. Without a second thought, I headed straight for the Arboretum.

The road is so quiet, not a single vehicle is passing by. The longer, the air felt increasingly cold, the wind blew gently. So silent, not even the sound of crickets was heard. I arrived at the Arboretum lake, part of the edge of the lake is directly adjacent to the road I passed. On the edge of it were several street lights but only one lit up. Unknowingly I turned towards the lake, dimly seeing the water so calm. Occasionally, bubbles of water burst on the surface, perhaps from the mouths of small fish inhabitants of the lake.

My bike kept going but it felt like it was getting slower. Now I'm going through the only street light that lights up. But I saw under the lamp a boy, in a red shirt with knee-length pants, about 7 or 8 years old. The boy stood looking at the lake Arboretum.

“For why is that little boy malem-malem gini by the lake?” muttered. I rushed up to him, parked my bike right under the streetlight in front of the boy. While patting his shoulder, I asked him what he was doing there. The boy turned his head, with a pale face and a slightly startled look, over time his eyes glazed over and then cried. “So please take me home,” the door while crying and clutching my hand.

Her hands were so cold and wet, I immediately calmed her down and asked her where her house was. “Deket kak” replied, but strangely now he spoke while grinning. There was no suspicion in my mind, what was in my brain at the time was to quickly escort the child.

“Kak please put me down here,” said the boy, even though my motorbike has not been three minutes running and we are still in the Arboretum lake area. I stopped my bike, he came down and thanked me.

“Dek instead of going home huh?” many wonder.

“Iya this brother has arrived,” he said with a grin.

I was astonished and could only be silent to see him getting further away. The boy walked along the edge of the lake and what made me inexhaustible, now he walked to the middle of the lake. The longer the deeper, the longer it sinks until the crown is not visible at all. At that time I could not do anything my whole body felt stiff, even blinking was difficult.

About a minute into a rivet, suddenly thousands of water bubbles burst all over the surface of the lake. I was surprised to run away from my bike. Running in no direction and suddenly without me knowing, I fell into the lake. I can swim but I don't know why it felt like I lost everything. Every now and then I drowned and felt the bottom of the lake filled with sharp twigs.

The lake water was so dark and the smell of blood. I realized that while I was in the middle of the lake, I was beginning to be able to control myself. Try to calm down, and things go back to quiet. Suddenly I felt something start to appear from the water. Right in front of my face, there appeared a dead boy, in a red T-shirt, with some chipped and wrinkled skin, like he had been drowning for days. One of his eyes was missing, from the missing eye hole came out fish like a medium-sized catfish.

When I swam to the edge of the lake in panic, it felt like the edge of the lake was getting away. My breath was running out and I was finally unconscious.

I faintly heard the voice of Adhan, I opened my eyes and was aghast. I realized, now I was lying by the lake on the mud and grass with wet conditions. From a distance I saw something floating, I was sure it was a corpse. Not wasting any more time, I immediately ran for help.

At around 06:00, the body was evacuated. At once the Arboretum lake was filled with people. Among the crowd I saw a mother who was crying hysterically, maybe it was the mother of the corpse I found. Before long, the police approached me and asked for testimony. I don't tell you about the horrible things I've been through, I'm just testifying about things that make sense. After witnessing, I was allowed to go home.

Unfortunately, this information has been published in the media, the police concluded that this incident was purely an accident. The boy who disappeared five days ago had played in the Arboretum, it is thought that the child was careless and his feet were stuck on the branches at the bottom of the lake so that he died without anyone knowing.

After that incident, I no longer dare to go through the path of the Arboretum lake. In fact, every class meeting I always ask permission to go home first. Because I don't know what's behind the late nights.