Handiko Wijaya - Short Story Writing - Preliminary Round NEO 2020

MEMORY: REMEMBER

If you ask a man on the street about Gods, they will relate it to religion. But have anyone ever think or see Gods as someone who just... a being with such a high power to able to create an entire endless universe; a dark place that covered with blazing stars and planets, but never be able to end. It is scary; the universe and Gods. A mystery of the universe and everything. But! If you come to someone, that thinks out of the box that this realm gave to them, they probably answer it as someone who is strong and there are no words that human created that can describe it.

On the cold white land of Antarctica, a brave widow, Carvia Linus found herself a ticket to all of the answers that mankind seeks for centuries. Well to be fair, this is just a mere sketch. Nothing can be sure about this. Carvia found out about this idea when she read a thousand ancient books with countless sleep. Trying to figure out how can these ancient societies and ruins all share the same culture and description of Gods. "They are not connected by land. From India to China, from Amazon to Java, even if they share their cultures from trades, it's just all too similar to each other. Their description of Gods and the concept of hell and heaven. Even if it's just a way to dictate the society to behave, all of them are too similar," she said a month ago before she started the preparation for this day.

So it happened. The brave widow who fears no one, travels far from Aceh to Antarctica, just to prove that her theory is right. That may be somewhat and something in the middle of this planet hide the information that human seeks. A land that sits in the middle of this big wonder and covered by white thick cold material, also no one lives there, except those who brave enough to fight the coldness. Antarctica is a rough gem for Carvia.

Her feet stand on top of what seems like a hole or perhaps something. She can feel the ground different from the rest of the snow that she walked through today. So she digs it up with a shovel that she bought in a market in Langsa. The hole leads into a dark entrance. She throws a flare into it and it seems more like a deep long abyss rather than an entrance towards something greater. Her feet are trembling as she descends into the otherworldly darkness. It feels cold and damp and so freaks her out. But she pretends that she fell nothing, just like a brave explorer that she read in the book that her dad always fed her when she was a kid.

Then she arrived on the bottom lightless pit of the wonder she is longing for. It is almost impossible for her eyes to see what is in front of her. She opens her backpack and turns on the lantern from her town in Langsa. It's not really useful, but her eyes can see things better now. It's a ruin. Like temples in the land of Java that were built during the ancient time. But this temple is strange. It feels like a mix of many cultures into one. There are dragons statue everywhere on the ceiling like those in China, the head of Hindu God and Goddess from India also can be seen in the wall, the sun stone from Aztec also exist on the floor where she stood. Among the freakiness that spooks her, there is this thing that spooks her the most. Carvia cannot move. Her legs are numb and shaking so hard like jelly. In front of her can be heard the roar, the scream, and the agony of something unexplainable and never heard before by her. Before Carvia become an explorer, she used to work on a zoo in Banda Aceh. Her interest in animals made her into an explorer like today. But that voice is a wonder by itself.

A quick flash of memories of her determination to find out the truth make her able to move her legs. She quickly hides behind the pilar that carved with the face of Shiva from Hindu mythology. Both of her hands close her mouth and nose, so her breath is unstable. Her chest and stomach keep shaking and sweats dripping from every pore in her body. Suddenly, the sounds come closer to her. Like, whatever it is can find her easily. At that moment, Carvia doesn't care if this is how her fate will be. She is just so happy to be able to see this wonder. Every step that thing takes, it sounds more like a human. But it's something wilder than human. There's a deep and huge breath, and there's also a hissing sound and a moan—like it's hurt. The thing also stops taking a step, but it drags its leg instead.

A few seconds later, wild memories of how determined Carvia to find out about the secret of humankind and the universe take over her mind and body. All those memories are made up and real. Like a flash of pictures that keep popping up to her brain. There are also some whispers in both of her ears. Her own voice! But she sounds scared and happy and also calm. Every emotion can be heard by Carvia. Whispering the same thing, go get it, the answer you are dying for, the answers of mankind and universe that you will do anything to get, go and get it, what are you waiting for.

Without any doubt, she takes a big step and sees what it looks like. A big sudden beam of light shine at Carvia.

"So that's it. So that's the answer. Gods and Goddess and Empress and Mistress. Billions of cosmos and stars on a jar of black ink. Bubbles of hopes and dreams. Flying without determination, but yet thirst for the answer. Oh! And I see it. Finally. The cold but warm green of a garden. A snake! I see the snake. Huge wings of a snake and a bunch of eyes staring at it with arrows burn in flames raining to the snake. And oh, I see the emptiness. It is all empty. There is nothing to be praised."

Months after that incident, the local police in Langsa is reporting a missing case of a woman that her name is not in the record. Nobody seems to remember this women's name, but people remember that she used to live in Langsa. A woman that lost her husband and child. Women with wavy hair up to her shoulder and barely stay at home. She sometimes said to them, "oh me? I'm looking for something big." And yet, nobody remembers her name. They just have a piece of her memories, and yet no name.