Rituals on the Beach

"I can't wait for Elia to come out of that Vacuum. I'll go to Gorakshana to ask what he saw from Bibi. Maybe there will be clues about the figure who experimented. Moreover…" Max tentatively said, "I'll do an outside investigation and not come here until Elia comes out. Let me know if she's back," he looked straight at Melianor. In the sentence expressed in a doubtful tone it contained a message, although I wanted to, we could not be together.

"Theria will be watching Elia. While I will communicate with Gelombang," said Melianor, who can receive the message.

Theria became upright to hear Melianor say it. Communicating with Gelombang meant that she would go to the Ruang Rupa. It's a dangerous place.

"This is my job, so I can do it," Melianor told Theria. She realized Theria was worried about her.

The reaction made Max bite his tongue. The person who would later be beside Melianor when she was injured again was Theria, not him.

"I can't predict what will happen later, but please be careful," that's all Max can say.

Melianor nodded.

"Tell me your plan is clear, if there's anything I can help you from here, I'll do it," Theria told Max. He couldn't do anything about Melianor's plan because only Melianor was accepted into the room. Anyone who tried to enter other than Melianor would simply turn to ashes.

"I will tell you as soon as I need you. Right now all I'm thinking about is going to go to Gorakshana and listen to the facts from him. Then I'm going to B'tavia. We have to find out the contents of this Bibi's phone, in B'tavia I can find a way. And about Elia, I have a lot of questions about her, so try to keep me in touch with her if she's out in any form."

Max said so because there are two possibilities of someone who made it out of the Ruang Hampa, becoming an enemy or an ally. If she came out as an enemy, Theria would paralyze her and block her out of the Mansion.

***

When her eyes closed, Elia only tried to concentrate and control her thoughts that were still running. The mind is like a living thing that does not want to be silent, has its idealism, and is even very chatty.

Why does he keep wandering and making me remember so many things? Even trivial things are so clearly remembered now. But everything I never thought of!

Elia felt that she would fail if she did not face it, so she decided to deal with it. She chooses how to follow where the thought takes her, when there is a chance later, she will break it and burn it.

Maybe I can use the same kick for my mind, damn it! Why the hell do I keep thinking?

Elia sighed and felt alone. Isn't that the task of the mind? It must think to still be called a thought. Does meditation keep us asking questions like this? In the YouTube show, it seems very calm. The meditation teacher didn't seem to think at all. In one second it can be calm, like being immersed in its world, or is it what is visible on the surface. That's right, I can't see what's going on inside of that meditator anyway. Moreover... Come to think of it, it's only natural that you can meditate quietly and be able to focus for a short time because you have been doing it for so many years, while I am? I was just a few minutes ago. It is also a forced situation, forced. If it weren't for this situation, maybe I would never have done it.

Elia took a breath, she was still trying to master her random wandering mind. Suddenly able to criticize, then move on to the moment of wanting food, thinking about holidays, and picnic spots, until she arrives at the beach.

Now I'm on the beach. I've known that since then. The sound of the waves is huge. Just now the water was bluish-green, sparkling with sunlight. If it is made into salt, it will probably produce many kilos of salt, it can be cooked and sold, and making money from the sea eventually becomes very easy with the condition of painstaking courage. Ah, accuracy, such a thing has never existed in my life. My life has been this long... Elia pondered. Her mind stopped here.

There is nothing in Elia's life that can be called the fruit of accuracy. She can wake up as she pleases. She can get food as she pleases, just tell the rewang recruited by her mother to cook food, wash her clothes to take care of all parts of her house. She could also easily buy the various items she wanted because of her money supply such as mineral water supplies at home. There is always if she is almost exhausted, she just needs to turn the faucet and the water will come out of it, then someone will boil it for her. The faucet was her mother and the person who boiled it for her was the investment manager she had chosen herself since she was in junior high school. With Max's help, she got acquainted with a reliable investment manager. If she runs away from the money, Max promises to take care of it. To this day, such a case has never happened. Of course, that person can be paid high, so what does she turn off her financial resources for with deeds such as stealing or escaping money belonging to her source? Ask to be killed?

Elia clucked. She felt caught off guard by human nature. Very few of them are honest with her. No one wants money or her body.

Elia shuddered, the coastal wind blowing her ears. There was a scent inhaled by her nose. It got rid of all her thoughts about money. She was attracted to the fragrance smelled by her nose.

This is the scent of incense, Elia slowly opened her eyes. She could immediately see an unpleasant scene. A peculiarity from the past that somehow persists today. Far in front of her, a person was sitting cross-legged. The person faced the sea. Between that person and the sea, there was the burning of incense and a trident wood with a daughter tied up. Both hands were on their backs on both sides.

Shit! Who performs the ritual!

Elia ran close to the ritual in front of her, but within a few steps, she was transfixed. The sky turned blackish-red, the scene of the bluish-green sea and the sky decorated with yellowish auroras disappeared, replaced by the blood-red tinged night sky.

What the hell is this, isn't this my world? Then who are the woman and child? The people I've known? The person I've ever met? Or just something I've accidentally seen and wanted to forget forever but my subconscious kept it and now presents it?

Elia's body was hot and smoldering when the woman in front of her just burned incense right under the girl's feet.

If this is indeed my memory, I should know what it is. I need to get closer. They will not attack me because this is just my memory.

Elia walked slowly closer to the object. Her already slightly trembling legs made her slip sand many times, set slightly, and stiff enough to move.

Why do I feel like I won't be able to deal with it?

Elia was already at a closer distance to the object so that she could see the state of the daughter who was nailed. Elia's heart beat fast and her fear returned.

Isn't she me?

Elia tried to stand stiffly upright in her place watching Elis being nailed in a state of the blood. Her body was covered by dried blood, there was no cloth or anything else to cover her vitals.

What's wrong with this world? Why is everyone crazy, including my mind?!

Elia slapped herself in the face. It doesn't hurt, it means it's a dream. The nightmare I have to face?

Thinking the events in front of her was just a dream, she ran quickly forward. She wanted to make sure the girl wasn't herself.

Whatever happens, I don't care, I just want to save myself.

The problem is, that Elia ran without a plan. Her whereabouts were discovered by the woman who performed the ritual and she threw a dagger right into Elia's heart. The dagger shot so fast that Elia could not see it coming. Elia's steps stopped and she was shocked to the bone. She thought her soul had escaped from her body right then and there when the dagger split her heart in half and when her eyes saw who the woman who had performed the ritual was, tortured her, and stopped her heart with a knife.

"Mom?"

Elia asked hoarsely before falling. Her face dredged the sand first. The dagger stuck in her heart from the chest penetrated to the back. Elia's body was convulsing, in such a situation, she no longer felt pain. It was her broken heart that judged the situation.

Mom never wanted me as a daughter. She always does. I don't know what potion to use, the wounds caused by her torture quickly healed and disappeared, as well as my memory. Every time I start to remember, everything disappears again, I don't recognize myself, what happened yesterday, and the days before. I couldn't stand it all, I was like her stuffed toy, her ritual doll, making me desperate to kill her. She's not my mom. She's not human. She's a monster. I don't want to ask Max for help because I want to kill her by myself. She's a monster that eats humans and other monsters. Her humanity disappeared. She is no longer my mom. I have to kill her before the others kill her.

The voice inside Elia's head grew softer and softer as her consciousness declined.