Seven Sisters and Seven Marks

Afraid

1992

Heavy rain fell mercilessly. The wind blew so hard that the tree branches leaned to the side like something was pulling it. Tala’s blue eyes looked at the grains of rain falling down the window. The view outside looked blurry. Tala couldn’t see clearly. She also couldn’t hear anything. Sometimes she loved to be deaf, because she didn’t need to hear any horrible voices in this house. She didn’t need to hear the sound of crying or screaming. But sometimes, she wanted to hear the sound of someone’s footsteps, or the sound of rain, and her sisters’ laughter again. She forgot what the voices of her sisters were like. But, Tala was used to it.

Tala hugged her body. She sat on the bed. Her bed coincided with the window, so she could always stare out there to reduce loneliness. Although she has a lot of brothers and sisters in here, she still felt so lonely.

Tala’s bed felt moved. Someone climbed onto her bed. Tala turned quickly, apparently there was a short-haired girl there. She wore a large shirt and trousers. The seventeen-year-old girl smiled briefly at Tala. Her name was Bina Madhuswara. The girl in a hairstyle like a boy touched the window with the palm of her right hand. She mumbled. Tala watched.

“I’m looking for a way to get out of here,” she said.

“How? This place is remote. The distance from this place to the highway is far away. I even thought, no one knew that this orphanage was built. Besides that, Daddy is strong. You can’t run away from him.”

“I’ll use Daddy’s phone. Ah, I mean that jerk’s phone. Why should I call him ’Daddy’? Tonight, he’ll surely lock all of our rooms and open one of our rooms as usual. We are like s****l slaves and I’m sick of that, we have to end it now. I’ll tell Javis to open my door. And I’ll call the police. Ask for help.”

“It isn’t that easy,” Tala sighed. “After all, how does Javis open your door?”

“Javis is really smart but he didn’t have a courage to fight Daddy at all. He knows how to open the locked door. Last month was the last time he tried to run away. Daddy pulled him into his room. All I hear was a scream. The next day, he didn’t want to get out of his room, until Ara knocked on the door. After that, Javis really doesn’t want to try to run away anymore. He wanted to help if he just unlocked my room, as long as I call the police. Or if he just wanted to teach me, it doesn’t matter. I can do it all by myself.”

“Bina, you know the risk if you fail, don’t you?”

“Of course I know. I sacrifice myself for you. I can’t see the other kids being tormented. We are the oldest here. You are almost seventeen years old, so am I. Javis and Hendra are the only boys who are the same age with us. But, both of them are afraid. All that remains is me. You are all scared. I’ve been trying to gather courage for a long time. This is the time for us to be free.”

“Daddy will look for us after we all run away. We’ll definitely be finished by him. As he said, he’ll look for us as long as he lives, he’ll surely find us.”

“So, there’s no choice but to kill him. I don’t mind being labeled as a murderer, as long as we all can be free from here.” Bina looked back at the window, feeling the cold piercing her palm when she pressed it to the window.

“Then, I’ll help you kill him, Bina,” Tala said without looking at her.

Bina blinked several times, then smiled.

Tala remembered the faces of her ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ one by one while turning to look at the rain. There were twenty children who lived in this orphanage. Ten people were almost seventeen years old, the rest were diverse. The smallest was Fina, she was five years old. Ara was the oldest girl who always looked after Fina. One night, Lukman took Fina to the orphanage. Nobody knew where she came from. There were five boys, Javis and Hendra aged sixteen and seventeen years old, while three others were eight years old, eleven years old and thirteen years old.

Ara looked after them all, even though she couldn’t rebel if Lukman wanted to pull one of them into his room. Whether to be tortured or maybe to satisfy his lust. The other oldest sisters, including Tala, were also close to the children. The children were different from other children. In average, they seemed closed, passive, didn’t say much, only cried when Lukman pulled them away. And no one dared to rebel Lukman. This orphanage was very quiet. The children liked to talk while whispers, because Lukman hated noisiness. Lukman often sat in his room, no one knew what he was doing, because they never entered his room. But, everyone knew, Lukman often called someone during the day. No one knew too who was always on the phone with him.

They all just took pot luck everyday. In the morning, Ara would make warm tea and rice water for the children, they would eat bread which was divided into several parts. They would have lunch with instant noodles, and dinner with boiled eggs and small amount of rice. That was why the children here were very thin and sad.

The children who lived here were picked up by Lukman from somewhere—they were too young when Lukman picked them, so most of them didn’t remember where they came from. But, Lukman stopped picking up children before anyone died. What was clear, the children who were trapped here were children with bad luck.

***

1999

“So, you mean that there’s a possibility that Bina will be the next victim. Am I right?” asked Tala in shock.

“I don’t know, Miss. This is just an instinct. If you already know the news about Miss Bina, could you please contact my office?” he asked. “Or if you know something, don’t hesitate to contact us,” he added.

Tala nodded. “Haven’t you found any clues?”

“Not yet. We’re still trying.”

“Sisters forever. Those words are our promise. Those who knew those words were just … us,” said Tala suddenly. There was a pause for a few minutes.

“Really?” Damar immediately took a small notebook from the pocket of his pants. He noted what Tala said. “Are you sure that no one knows about this? What if they tell someone else?”

“I don’t know if maybe they told someone else. But, I don’t tell anyone. And in my opinion, they didn’t do it too. Because, we won’t tell anything that shouldn’t be told.”

“Are you sure? Is it possible for Ara to tell this to someone else?”

“Yes, I’m sure. No, she’s not. Ara always told me that she hated telling things that are privacy. In addition, she wasn’t close to anyone. In the office, she just had ordinary friends, I mean not a real close friend. Have you asked her office friends?”

“Yes, I have.”

“What did they say?”

Damar thought for a moment, “It’s nothing, Miss. As you said before, she looked fine and said that she wanted to take a week off for a vacation.”

“Is it true?”

Damar nodded. “Ah, I almost forget. Did Ara ever tell you that she went to a psychiatrist?”

“Ara? Psychiatrist?” She didn’t know how many times she had been shocked today by that man. What she knew, apparently she didn’t really know about Ara. “What for?”

Damar examined the facial expressions of that blue-eyed woman. He didn’t know, who among them knew about everything?

“I thought you know about this.”

“No, I’m not. Ara was fine… or maybe… she just looked fine.”

“Well then, thank you very much for your time, Miss. See you later.” Damar was about to leave, but Tala held him back.

“Wait a minute,” she said. “I really have to know what happened. If you really think that one of us is the one who killed Ara—“

“Why are you thinking like that, Miss?” Damar raised his left eyebrow.

“Of course. Only fool who don’t think like that, especially when I myself said that only the seven of us know the words of ‘Sisters Forever’. You must be suspicious.” Tala clenched her fists. “Okay, here I’ll tell you. I lived almost all my entire life with my sisters. But, one thing now that I just realized, I don’t really know them now. Especially when you ask about psychiatrist. If Ara was indeed going to a psychiatrist, then that indicated that she wasn’t even closed to us, because she didn’t tell us at all.”

“Then, what do you want?”

“Let’s exchange information. I’ll help you extract information from my sisters. You also have to tell me about Ara. Whatever you get about the killer or anything about Ara. I have to know. I’ll help, but we need to exchange information.”

Damar laughed silently, staring at Tala as if the girl was crazy. “Sorry, Miss Luna. You can’t even convince me that you sleep at home from 2 to 3 a.m. at that night.”

“I’m not a murderer. And… do you think it’s easy to make my sisters open their mouth? Even at the police.” Tala folded her hands in front of her chest.

“There are sanctions for people who hide evidences or helping murderer, Miss.”

“I told you, I don’t even know who’s the killer. And after all, you don’t even know anything about us. Maybe you only now the ‘surface’. You don’t know Ara’s past, do you? Then, how do you want to get a clue?” Tala smiled sideways. “If it’s true that I killed Ara, wouldn’t it be easier for you to realize it if I was close to you? And one more, Mr. Detective.” Tala looked in Damar’s eyes, “if indeed you don’t want to tell me what you know about Ara, I’ll find out for myself.”

"Oh, yes, please. Do whatever you want."

"You’ll be sorry."

"What for?" Damar said in a flat tone, completely devoid of condescension, even though his words did seem humiliating.

"Because one day when this case is deadlocked, you’ll come to me."

"You must answer our questions according to police procedures."

"Yes, I’ll answer. The problem is, you don't know what to ask, Mr. Detective. " Tala laughed briefly.

"You already said yourself about Ara's past, right? What was she like in the past? "

"Nice and wise girl." Tala smiled sideways. "I told you, you wouldn't know what to ask me." Tala still smiled sideways. "You and your boss just tried to unload us."

Because, we were taught how to lock a secret. Close our mouth tightly. Acting like a fool. And who can smell the secret are ourselves.

"You should help us find the killer. Instead of making it difficult."

"But, there was no thief who wanted to confess, only his close friends could smell his decay. You need spies. People who know everything, right? But, calm down. If I already knew who the killer is, I’ll report it to the police. Not to you."

Tala stepped away from Detective Damar who looked annoyed.

Ara, if indeed your killer is one of us, then I will find it. Only sisters can smell the lies of other sisters. Even though ... we still don't know. But, Ara, there isn't a single person in this world who knows us better than we ourselves.

Because, we are sisters forever.

***

Tala pulled the jeans jacket and bag from the hanger. She smiled at Mrs. Tiwi and said goodbye. "I go home first, Mrs. Tiwi. Good night," she said.

"Be careful, Tala." Mrs. Tiwi patted Tala's shoulder.

Tala stepped out of the Swarga flower shop. It's cold tonight. The rainy season made her had to refrain from cold weather. Even though the rain didn't fall, the night wind still felt very chill.

Tala tightened her jacket. The road tonight felt more quiet than the previous nights. Maybe because the sky looked cloudy, people were reluctant to leave the house.

The street lights were on. Some people were still seen passing by. Some vehicles were also seen passing. But, Tala's eyes were focused on someone across the street who was wearing a black jumper. Her head was covered in a jumper hood. The person looked down. Moments later, she raised her head, staring at Tala. Tala widened her eyes.

That was Bina, her sister who was disappeared a few days after Ara’s incident. Bina was very difficult to contact. Only a few days ago Detective Damar asked her about Bina's whereabouts, now the woman was in front of Tala.

"Bina!" called Tala as strong as she could. Although, she herself couldn’t hear her voice.

Bina turned to the left and right, she looked scared. She looked down again and walked quickly leaving where she was standing right now. Tala was about to run after Bina, but someone held the back of her shirt until Tala sat on the asphalt. Seconds later, the motorcycle drove in front of Tala. If she just ran away, maybe her life wouldn't survive.

Tala looked back straight ahead, looking for Bina. But, the figure disappeared like dust in the wind. Oh, God ...

Tala stood up from where she sat and looked back. There was Mrs. Tiwi there, staring at her with worry. She said, "Tala! You have to be careful! Can you turn left and right before crossing?"

Tala ignored, she continued to look for Bina's whereabouts. But, the woman really couldn't be found anymore.

Where is she going? Why does she look like in fear? Was it just... my hallucinations? God... I'm starting to worry.

Is it true... Bina will be the next victim? Is it true that... Ara's case will turn into a serial murder?

Is it true that ... the killer is hiding between us? Who? Where do I start? Do I have to start from... Disa?

Someone tapped Tala on the shoulder. Tala turned to her side.

"Is she your friend?" asked Mrs. Tiwi.

Tala looked back. There was a graceful woman with long black hair there. That was Danastri Elina, her sixth sister. Dana smiled bitterly.

"Mrs. Tiwi, sorry and thank you for saving me," Tala said before met Dana.

"Next time, be careful, Tala."

Tala nodded, then approached Dana.

"Tala, do you have some time? I have something to talk about." Dana's face looked worried and frightened.

"What’s wrong?"

"I ... was called by Bina."

Tala widened her eyes.

"She said ... she was scared."

***