Ch34: The Snake
444 Words
The temple was older than anyone remembered.
Sari had passed it a thousand times. The walls were grey stone, blackened with age, covered in moss and vines. The gate was wooden, carved with patterns worn smooth by rain and wind.
She had never stopped to look closely.
Today, she did.
The afternoon sun was hot, the air thick. She stood at the gate and looked at the carvings.
The patterns were old. Javanese, mostly—flowers, leaves, geometric shapes. But among them, half-hidden by moss and shadow, was something else.
A snake.
Coiled in a circle, its tail in its mouth. The same shape she had seen in the dream.
She reached out and touched it.
The stone was warm. The carving was deep, precise, newer than the rest—cut into the wood long after the gate had been built.
She pulled out her phone and took a photo.
Then she turned and walked back toward the village.
---
That night, she dreamed of the grey city.
The fog was thinner, pulled back from the buildings. He was there.
“I found it,” she said.
He turned to face her. Still shadowed, but she could feel his attention sharpen.
“The symbol. The snake. It's carved into the gate of Mbah Ratu's temple. I took a photo.”
She held up her phone, but in the dream, the screen was blank.
He stepped closer. “Describe it.”
“Coiled in a circle. Tail in its mouth. The eye is hollow. It's newer than the rest of the carvings.”
He was quiet for a long moment.
“I know that symbol,” he said.
“You said that before.”
“Now I remember where I've seen it.”
She waited.
“My uncle uses it. Viktor. On his shipments, on his buildings.” His voice was flat. “It's called the Ouroboros. Represents cycles, eternity.”
“It doesn't look like eternity.”
“It's been corrupted.” He looked at the horizon. “Viktor took something old and twisted it into something else. Control. Power.”
“And Mbah Ratu uses the same symbol.”
“Then Viktor is connected to her.”
The fog shifted.
“What do we do?” she asked.
He turned back to her. “You stay safe. You don't go near that temple again. You let me handle Viktor.”
“You can't handle him from there.”
“I can try.”
She stepped closer. “And if trying isn't enough?”
He didn't answer.
The dream held.
“Don't do anything reckless,” he said.
“Don't you,” she answered.
- Writer
