The sun rose once more on the eastern horizon, banishing the darkness of the night that had finally ended. Its rays began to spread warmth across the sky, freeing the Earth from the night's chill as quickly as possible.
In a beautiful house on the outskirts of Jakarta, there was still no sign of any activity inside.
The house was occupied only by a college student named Srikandi, who attended the same university as Syafir and Pio. She lived there all by herself because her parents spent more time overseas than in Jakarta, where they could accompany Srikandi, their only child.
At least, that was her claim whenever people asked about her and her family.
Whether that claim was true or not, no one knew.
The house looked drab and neglected. It wasn't that Srikandi couldn't afford to hire a maid to take care of the place. She deliberately let it look completely uncared for, so the house's mystical atmosphere would be more strongly felt by others. People who saw it were frightened, but Srikandi herself loved it.
Yet although the outside looked utterly drab and neglected, the inside of the house was actually very clean and well maintained.
Every wall inside was decorated with twenty-five-centimeter golek dolls, secured to the walls with concrete nails.
Besides golek dolls from the Sundanese versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, there were also golek dolls resembling modern-day people, works of contemporary art. Larger golek dolls stood on the floor beneath the smaller ones attached to the walls.
Srikandi's room measured four by four meters. Its walls were decorated with a mural depicting golek dolls in various forms. The room also had its own bathroom.
Srikandi was still asleep on her large bed, lying on her back with an Arjuna golek and a Srikandi golek lying beside her on the left.
Even asleep like that, Srikandi looked incredibly beautiful, with the face of a goddess from an ancient legend come to life in the modern age. Her skin was smooth and fair, and her straight black hair fell to her shoulders as she remained lost in her dreams.
Suddenly, her phone alarm began to ring. It blared the crowing of a rooster over and over until Srikandi was jolted from the world of her dreams and returned to reality.
When she opened her eyes, they revealed a pair of medium-sized eyes with sharp outer corners, shaded by thick brows and framed by long, curled lashes.
Once she was fully awake, the first things she looked for were the Arjuna golek and the Srikandi golek beside her—not the phone alarm that had awakened her. It was her nightmare that had truly pulled her from sleep.
Srikandi then rolled over until she was lying on her stomach.
“Hey, you two are awake too, huh? You must have had a dream like mine. That scary dream...” Srikandi spoke to her two golek dolls, which were unable to answer. They were inanimate objects, after all, and could not speak.
The two golek dolls were nothing more than ordinary wooden dolls, but Srikandi considered them alive.
“Even though you can't answer, I know you understand what I'm saying. You two are my favorite golek dolls...” Srikandi said cheerfully, still talking to her beloved pair.
Srikandi got up and picked up her phone to turn off the alarm, which was still ringing.
Once the rooster's crowing stopped, she put the phone back on the bed. Then she walked toward the bathroom inside her room.
Not long afterward, she had finished bathing. She quickly put on a long purple T-shirt layered beneath a purple-based sweater, with a printed image of an Arjuna golek on the front. The back featured a Srikandi golek, and she paired it with purple trousers.
After getting dressed, Srikandi tied her hair back with a purple hair tie, forming a ponytail. Then she picked up a large purple shoulder bag and put the Arjuna golek and Srikandi golek inside, along with her notebooks and college books.
Once she was ready to leave for campus, Srikandi put on purple athletic shoes, making it clear that she was a lover of the color purple as well as a true golek enthusiast.
When everything was ready, Srikandi left the house and walked toward the main road to catch public transportation to the nearest Transjakarta stop, which would take her straight to campus.
At last, the public minibus she had been waiting for arrived.
Srikandi rode it to the nearest Transjakarta stop.
Twenty minutes later, Srikandi arrived at the Transjakarta stop. She immediately placed her e-money card against the detector on her right and tapped it.
Once the transaction went through, she entered the Transjakarta stop's waiting area. As luck would have it, a Transjakarta bus was already stopped there, so Srikandi could board the bus that Jakarta residents took such pride in without having to wait long.
Inside the Transjakarta bus, Srikandi sat in a seat reserved for women. The passengers on either side of her were busy with their smartphones, and Srikandi paid them no attention. Without the slightest embarrassment, she took the Srikandi golek out of her bag and lovingly stroked it. Her behavior left the other passengers staring in bewilderment as she seemed completely absorbed in her own world amid the crowded Transjakarta bus.