The Midnight Shuttle

Chapter 17 : Dita

Marni, once known as a beautiful and brilliant young woman, fell into complete despair.

The love she had believed would change her future vanished in only three months.

She had given everything—her heart, her dreams, and even her dignity. She had imagined becoming Mas Miftah's second wife, bearing his child, and one day replacing Mrs. Mirasih.

Instead...

She was the one who was thrown away.

Marni had once heard rumors that Mrs. Mirasih had financed her husband's political career and built several successful companies for him.

She was no ordinary woman.

She was powerful.

And Marni had never stood a chance against her.

"You already know what happened to Marni after that, don't you?" Ki Kusno asked while remaining seated beside Dita's bed as she continued to writhe under possession.

"Yes," the neighborhood chief answered. "Marni developed severe mental illness. She believed her skin was burning and that she had become hideous. A few months later... she died."

Ki Kusno lowered his head.

"I was the one who introduced Mrs. Mirasih to the black magic shaman."

Silence swallowed the room.

"It was December 5th, 1997," Ki Kusno continued quietly. "Heavy rain poured that day. A luxurious car stopped outside my hut. A beautiful woman stepped out beneath an umbrella held by her aide. She carried herself like nobility. Even without asking, anyone could tell she came from an incredibly wealthy family. A village head's wife alone could never afford a car like that."

He gently stroked Dita's hair before continuing.

"I had known her long before she married. Her entire family often came to me whenever they needed to meet someone... someone capable of destroying business rivals, making people fall mysteriously ill, suffer accidents, or even die."

Back then...

Money was everything to me.

I never once considered how many lives we were ruining.

"So you cursed Marni?" Pak Dirga asked while sipping his coffee from beside the bedroom door.

"Yes."

"We used Cidra Black Magic."

"It is an exceptionally powerful curse. The victim gradually loses their sanity and begins seeing horrifying distortions of themselves."

"The ritual required strands of Marni's hair, her photograph, offerings for the spirits, soil taken exactly thirty-three centimeters deep beside the grave of someone buried for an odd number of years... and finally, the victim's birth date."

"You targeted an eighteen-year-old girl?" Pak Dirga snapped. "What a rotten world this truly is."

Aditia silently handed plastic stools to everyone so they could sit through Ki Kusno's long confession.

"Don't forget," Ki Kusno replied, "that same eighteen-year-old willingly became another man's mistress. She was a beautiful, intelligent university student with a bright future. She could have married someone her own age from a wealthy family and lived happily."

"But instead..."

"She chose to pursue another woman's husband."

He closed his eyes.

"Marni died in July 1998."

"In that very same month, Mrs. Mirasih gave birth."

"Even before Marni died, I warned Mrs. Mirasih to stop. Marni had already become a living corpse. But jealousy deafened her. She continued sending curses until Marni finally breathed her last."

He sighed heavily.

"It turns out even refined women can become monsters once jealousy consumes them."

"You filthy old man!" Dita suddenly screamed. "That cursed woman deserved everything I suffered!"

"You were the one who chose this path!" Ki Kusno shouted back. "Didn't I warn you? I even came to your university. I told you to be careful because you had become a target. But you laughed and said you weren't afraid."

"I warned her before we performed the ritual because her father had once been my school friend."

"But she was blinded by desire."

"What happened afterward?" Aditia asked.

"After Mrs. Mirasih gave birth, everyone celebrated. The baby was beautiful... fair-skinned... absolutely perfect."

"But the moment the nurse placed the baby into her mother's arms..."

"Mrs. Mirasih screamed."

"She insisted her child was horribly deformed."

"She even threw the baby away."

"Thankfully, a nurse caught the infant before she hit the floor."

Pak Dirga frowned.

"Was that the curse rebounding?"

"At first, we believed so," Ki Kusno answered. "Everything was identical to Marni's condition. Only Mrs. Mirasih could see the child as monstrous. Everyone else saw a beautiful baby."

"Since the family trusted black magic, they sought another shaman."

"Not through me."

"After Marni died, my own family collapsed. My child died from an unexplained illness."

"I realized God had finally punished me."

"So I repented."

"But Mrs. Mirasih's family continued sending curses, believing someone from Marni's family had retaliated."

"They were completely wrong."

"So what really happened?" Aditia asked.

"A man who drove a minibus visited the Village Head's house."

"He said Marni's restless spirit refused to return home because of her hatred."

"She had attached herself to the baby."

"That was why Mrs. Mirasih saw her own daughter as hideous."

"Marni wanted Mrs. Mirasih to experience the same suffering."

"And then..."

"She intended to take away the child they had waited so many years to have."

"My father?" Aditia whispered.

Ki Kusno nodded.

"Yes."

"Nobody knew your father possessed abilities beyond ordinary humans."

"He was a good man."

"We talked often."

"He opened my eyes to what awaited me if God never forgave my sins."

"He was the one who led me back onto the right path."

Ki Kusno quietly wiped the corner of his eye.

"So... Father couldn't send Marni home?"

"No."

"Marni's hatred had already become too powerful."

"She resisted even God's call."

"Little by little..."

"She became a demon."

A heavy silence settled across the room.

Both neighborhood chiefs had witnessed Aditia's father helping possessed people countless times, yet neither had truly known what his real work was.

Just as neither of them had fully understood Aditia.

"When Mrs. Mirasih's influential family learned the truth, they became furious," Ki Kusno continued. "Instead of seeking help through faith like your father advised, they returned to black magic, hoping to destroy Marni once again."

"But everything collapsed."

"Their daughter remained haunted."

"Mrs. Mirasih lost her sanity."

"And Mas Miftah..."

"He abandoned them."

"He couldn't bear the shame after his affair became public."

"Rather than protecting his wife and infant daughter..."

"He ran away."

"What a coward."

"So what does Dita have to do with all this?" Aditia demanded.

"What year were you born?"

"October 1997."

"And Dita?"

"July 1998."

Ki Kusno smiled faintly.

"Only nine months apart."

"Didn't that ever make you suspicious?"

"Did your mother really give birth... and become pregnant again almost immediately?"

"Dita was born prematurely!" Aditia argued. "She was only seven months when she was born!"

Ki Kusno remained calm.

"Have you ever looked at her birth certificate?"

"Or her adoption records?"

"Go."

"Bring them."

"We'll learn who Dita truly is."

Without another word, Aditia rushed to his mother's wardrobe and searched frantically among the family documents.

Then...

He found it.

His hands trembled as he read.

"Do the documents say she was adopted?" Ki Kusno asked.

Aditia's face turned pale.

"Yes..."

"Dita was adopted by my parents."

"And whose names appear as her biological parents?"

Ki Kusno asked quietly.

"Miftahudin..."

"And..."

"Mirasih."

The document slipped from Aditia's trembling hands.

His knees gave out beneath him.

The little sister he had loved his entire life...

Was never his biological sister.

"And now you understand," Ki Kusno said softly.

"Village Head Miftahudin and Mrs. Mirasih are Dita's real parents."

"That is why Marni has never stopped hunting her."

"But..."

"My parents never told me."

Aditia's voice trembled with anger.

"They wanted Dita to grow up believing this family was truly hers," Pak Dirga answered gently.

"So..."

"What does Marni want?"

Aditia already knew.

He simply needed someone else to say it aloud.

"She wants to take Dita with her."

"She believes the child is payment for everything she lost."

"No."

Aditia's eyes burned with determination.

"Dita is my family."

"And she always will be."

"Then do what your father once tried to do."

"Take Marni home."

"How?" Aditia asked.

"Marni refuses to leave. She only wants Dita."

"We must end her hatred."

"Someone buried the Cidra Curse inside Marni's grave."

"That is why her spirit awakened."

"It wasn't her family."

"I'm certain of it."

"We must dig up the curse so Marni can finally return home."

"Then let's go," Pak Dirga said.

"We'll become the replacement sacrifice?" Aditia asked.

"We uncover it..."

"We replace it."

"Astaghfirullah..." Pak Dirga groaned. "The spirit world is far too complicated."

"I'll do it myself," Ki Kusno said while rising to his feet.

"I must take responsibility."

"Ki, wait!" Aditia called. "Can't we use another method? What about Father's protective barrier?"

"He'll only find another way back."

"Dita is still too young to suffer the same fate as her biological parents."

"Ki..."

"Don't follow me."

"It's too dangerous."

"Once I remove what's buried in Marni's grave..."

"I may never return."

"I've prepared for this day for a very long time."

"The shaman who cast the curse will also die."

"So..."

"Prepare my funeral."

Without another word...

Ki Kusno walked away.

"What do we do now?" Pak Dirga asked.

"We wait."

Aditia returned to Dita's bedside.

She sat there silently...

Staring into nothing.

...

The night grew impossibly late.

Both neighborhood chiefs had already gone home.

Only Pak Dirga remained beside Aditia.

"Kak..."

"My head hurts."

Dita's weak voice woke him.

"Hang in there, Dita."

Aditia pulled her gently into his arms.

"Why am I tied up, Kak?" Dita asked, tears filling her eyes.

She was finally herself again.

"It's okay."

"Just go back to sleep."

He gently stroked her hair.

Then...

From the corner of his eye...

He saw a woman outside the bedroom window.

She wore a long black dress.

Her hair reached almost to the ground.

"Sir."

"Please watch Dita."

"I'm going after Marni."

Certain it was her, Aditia rushed outside.

The woman was still there.

Slowly swinging from the branch of the enormous tree behind the house.

"Marni..."

The figure turned.

Her face was pale.

Thin.

Deathly hollow.

Without a word, she threw a bundle of black cloth toward him.

Aditia caught it.

Inside...

Several strands of hair.

A woman's photograph.

A clump of grave soil.

The Cidra Curse.

Ki Kusno had succeeded.

He had dug it out.

"Ki Kusno managed to retrieve it," Aditia whispered. "Now I only need to destroy it."

As he prepared to burn the bundle...

Marni suddenly appeared directly before him.

"There was a kind woman," she whispered, "who willingly traded her life for this."

Her icy hand gripped Aditia's head.

"What do you mean?"

He instantly drew his keris and knocked her hand away.

"She kept begging me..." Marni said with a smile.

"'Please don't take my daughter... please don't take my daughter.'"

"So..."

"I told her to dig up my grave."

"And bring this back to me."

She pointed toward the cursed bundle in Aditia's hands.

"A life exchanged..."

"The Black Kuntilanak!"

Aditia lunged forward.

His keris pierced straight through Marni.

An ear-splitting scream exploded into the night.

The sound rang so violently that everyone's ears buzzed.

Then...

Marni vanished.

She was gone.

"Mother... Mother... Mother!"