The Day Of The Confession

In one clear day, I was about to leave rhythm City. Most people didn’t know who I am. But then, someone called me from behind.

“Aira, there you are!” Storm said.

“Hey Storm, what makes you want to see me?”

“Well, there’s been something I want to tell you. Can you please go with me for a bit?”

“No, I’m kind of tired after dancing. You know that I dance a lot.”

“Just please, I’ve been looking for you for a whole week! Can you please listen to what I’m about to say?”

“Okay, I’ll follow you.”

 

After giving up upon his request, I followed him into a small alley. After he saw nobody was around, he stopped, and looked into my eyes.

“So, what business you have for me?” I asked straightforwardly.

“I know this is sudden but, please be my dance partner!”

“Yes yes, WHAT? I’m sorry but, what did you say?”

“Like I said, I want you to be my dance partner.”

“Is that some sort of joke?”

“Do you think someone who has been looking for you for a week supposed to be joking about it?” His tone was dead serious. I couldn’t look him at his eyes.

“I suppose not. But that was… just, so sudden.”

“So, what’s your answer to my proposal?”

I wonder how many girls you have confessed, Storm.

 

I had a small pause before answering his question. Then I tried to say it without feeling hesitant.

“I’m sorry; I can’t accept your proposal.”

“…Huh, why would you do that? I know the fact that you aren’t seeing anyone anymore.”

“You’ve got me wrong, Storm. It’s not like that.”

“Give me the reason why, unless you can’t tell me about it.”

 “No, I can’t. I don’t know what to say…”

“If that’s the case, you may not answer it right away. I’ll be waiting for your response to my question, or rather, my proposal.”

“Thanks, I need to go now. My head is getting hurt.”

“Want me to accompany you to leave this city?”

“No thanks, I know you’re a busy person. Your friends may have been waiting for you in district 69. Just go for them.”

I left him behind. I could see his face was worried about something. That might be because I wouldn’t change my mind, rather than worrying about me in pain. But I did wonder about the reason why he asked me out to be his dance partner. Whatever, I needed to go to my city.

 

The Day of The Halloween

Fionn came to our house to accompany me because I was late; it was already 09.30 in the nighttime. After few minutes of walk, we arrived at his place. But I was taken aback by his house.

“What the hell is wrong with the house decoration?” My voice was angry.

“Umm… How will I say this, this is Trevor’s idea!”

“For what purpose you decorate your house looking like this?”

“For Halloween purpose, he said.”

“Got it, I’m leaving.”

“Wait!”

Just before I got to walk away, Fionn’s hand held my wrist. His hand pulled mine so strong that I felt pain rushed into my hand.

                “You’re hurting me.”

                “I’m sorry! I did it unconsciously!” Fionn said this as he let go of my hand.

                “You know that I hate things like these, don’t you?”

                “But it’s Halloween! We’ve got to celebrate it!”

                “Did he know I hate something scary?”

                “No, he didn’t. It’s just me.”

                “Fine, I’ll tag along.”

I knew something was fishy. Trevor was the culprit behind the scheme. He might have known that I hated scary-related-stuffs, including stories. Fionn was only helping out because it really was almost Halloween’s day. At least, that was what I believed.

As I entered the house, I felt goose bumps. The house didn’t have enough light. I could see some scary dolls and ghastly paintings placed all around the house. There were mini figure of zombies and graveyards. Ugly looking face of pumpkins were literally everywhere. Their efforts were so good I started to feel sick just by looking at them.

                “I’m back.” Fionn said.

                “Hey everyone.” I added.

                “What took you so long? It’s almost 10 in the night time.” Ayy grew impatient.

“No worries, the later she comes, the better the party will be!” Trevor exclaimed. I had a bad feeling about Trevor’s sly smile.

“But Dion will be worried about me! I don’t like arguing with him, you know!” Ayy pushed Trevor’s exclamation.

“Come on, it’s just she was being a bit late!” Trevor didn’t feel backing down either.

For some reason I felt glad instead of feeling guilty by Ayy’s words.

“H-how about we have cup of coffee now? Or tea?” As he said this, Fionn seemed that he was worried about something. Like a big fight would lit between those two with no stopping it.

            “I prefer tea; it is originally tea party, right?” I tried to get along with Fionn.

“Alright! Let’s get started with the party!” Trevor didn’t seem to worry about a thing. He was drinking a cup of coffee in a hurry.

“Better you didn’t vomit drinking like that.”

“Cut it out, Ayy. It’s my drinking style in drinking party!”

“This is only tea party, you know.”

“Stop right there. Don’t make fuss wherever you guys are together. This is a party, you two should behave!” I glared angrily at them.

             “Okay Ma’am, we’re sorry…”

At first, Trevor started the conversation with his usual speech. But it didn’t stay long; he distorted our evening-tea-party into Halloween party.

“As you guys have known, that abandoned tree has its mystical power. Everyone believes that it would be best not to play around the tree in the town hall. From what I’ve heard, a young woman was having affair with her landlord. The landlord was in love with the girl too. But their status made their relationship impossible to be shown in public. So they secretly met under the big tree every night, to shower their love to each other. Until that day, people started to know the fact; the fact that they have been seeing each other.” Trevor was full of himself. He looked so serious and I had more bad feeling about it.

“Then the guy moved away while the girl was sentenced to death just ahead of their rendezvous spot. The end.” Ayy added this abruptly.

“Sure. But there’s a rumor that her soul didn’t rest in peace. Her soul was wandering around the trees; waiting for her beloved. So she will bother everyone near the tree, to ask whether they know where this guy is.” As he narrated this, his face looked so awfully annoying.

“It’s a story everyone knows already, Trevor. Why are you telling us this?” I tried to play it cool. But he didn’t feel down about it.

“It’s just the beginning, Alison. You know I have lots of stories to tell when it comes to Halloween. And the day just started.”

“So you have other stories to tell right?” Fionn tried to emerge into the conversation.

“Alright, so this is the other story. You know that we aren’t allowed to go to Dance School in this city right? There’s actually something happened in the night of October. That day, a group of people was trying to have a courage test at school. Everyone was very enthusiastic to do it. The rules are simple, two people have to go to fixed places and go back to the starting line. But one of them was not into something scary. To make it worse, she had to go the last run of all groups. Her partner was a careless girl; she didn’t actually feel scared of things like that.” Trevor was so into it that I came to spill my thought.

“Can you make it short?”  I abruptly said.

“What is it Alison, are you by any chance scared of this kind of story?” He was clearly teasing me with his tone, and yet I felt like talking back to him.

“Do-don’t get me wrong Trevor, I just think that Ayy would want to go home quickly because Dion will be worried about her!”

“Actually I want him to tell me about it now, I haven’t heard this one.”

“B-but you said that Dion may get mad at you.” My voice was shaking, as if I told them that I hated the idea of scary stories.

“See? Even Ayy now is on my side. You really are a coward.” His tone was mocking me, I didn’t like that.

“So what? I just can’t help it.”

“Come on Alison, you’ve got to know about this one. You may learn something from this.” Fionn was annoyingly supportive about this.

“As if. I’m the smartest amongst all you guys. There’s nothing new to learn.” I would usually appreciate something new, but I despised the conversation.

“Looks like that I need to continue with the story, to get to see your reaction.”

Damn it. Now everyone knew the fact that I hate scary stories.

“Don’t waste my time Trevor, Dion is waiting for me.”

“All right, when it came into the last group, the scared girl was walking side by side with the cheerful girl. Let’s call the scared girl by girl A and the cheerful girl by girl B. At first they didn’t meet anything strange. It was just an ordinary wind and all. Until, the A girl wanted to use the restroom.   This B girl was being left alone in front of the restroom. While she was alone, she could hear something strange calling her out. It was actually her friends who had the part of being the ghost.”

“Let’s stop for now. I don’t like it.”

“But the important part is right after that, you reaally need to know this.” Trevor added.

“Who’s there? She asked. But nobody answered. She wondered who that was, so she went for it.”

I could feel my chest was tightened. My hands were sweating too. I gulped hard to myself.

                “She walked carefully, while trying to call who was making such noise. She kept asking, who is there? But of course there would be nobody answering. When she was close to the window of 6^th floor, she saw something outside. It was, enchanting. She was charmed, and unconsciously, she opened the window to look for it. She was there, quite long, just to see that something. But you know what? The girl A was looking for girl B. when she finally found her friend, with a scared tone; she finally said ‘finally I found you’. The girl B was surprised by this, and, she fell outside from the window.”

                “That doesn’t make sense though. What was that thing?”Fionn asked out of curiosity.

                “That may just a pair of birds flying outside.” Ayy tried to be logic.

                “I wonder too, who knows. But of course, the girl B, who fell from the window died in the moment her body hit the ground. While, in the other hand, her friend was in shock, seeing her partner fell outside. She couldn’t say anything. She felt guilty, so much that she cried in her place. When her other friends found her, she said sorry many times without saying anything.”

                “What’s scary about this story again?” Ayy then asked Trevor this.

                “This is the starting of the event. After finding the dead body of hers, those groups ended the courage test. They were scared of facing the consequences, so they decided to take care of the body, by throwing it away in an abandoned well. Luckily, this girl has no family or relatives around. Nobody knows about this accident. It had been a peaceful days. No test of courage, either. But her soul couldn’t rest peacefully. Every night, around the school well, a voice could be heard, saying ‘why nobody looks for me?’ or ‘why did you leave me alone?’ .Then everyone around the academy knew something had happened around the school. And every night, her ghastly voice terrors the academy.”

I couldn’t listen much and ended up trying to cover my ears. I had been, very scared of these; my eyes were watery. I wanted to escape from this humiliating situation.

Mimpi yang Aneh

Pintunya sudah semakin dekat jaraknya denganku. Beberapa langkah terakhir kuambil untuk mencapai gagang pintu yang sudah tidak sabar ingin kugapai. Setelah benar-benar sadar bahwa aku sudah berada pada jangkauan gagang pintu, baru kusadari bahwa pintu ini berwarna keputihan.

            Kenapa pintu ini bisa terlihat jelas warnanya?

Pikiran ini terlintas pada benakku. Tentu ini adalah hal yang tidak wajar, mengingat bahwa tidak ada cahaya sedikitpun yang kulihat. Dalam perjalanan menuju pintu ini, tak ada secercah cahaya pun yang dapat kulihat. Lantas, mengapa aku sekarang bisa melihat pintu berwarna putih ini? Nyaris saja tanganku menggapai gagang pintu itu yang akan kubuka. Lenganku terhenti beberapa senti darinya.

Apakah ini langkah yang tepat?

Keraguan jelas muncul dari alam bawah sadarku. Sudah banyak kejanggalan yang terjadi di tempat ini. Misalnya saja tempat ini penuh dengan kegelapan, dan tempat ini sama sekali tak berbenda. Aku bahkan tidak bisa merasakan benda padat yang bisa kupegang; ruangan ini benar-benar kosong. Terpaan anginpun tidak dapat kurasakan. Mungkin saja karena tempat ini adalah ruangan yang sangat luas. Lalu, kupikir tempat ini adalah gua yang sangat luas.

            Mana mungkin ruangan seluas ini adalah gua!

Hantu Hutan - Prolog

Hari itu, aku tengah berjalan di tempat yang gelap, benar-benar gelap. Indera penglihatanku tidak berfungsi sebagaimana mestinya, hanya ada kegelapan semata. Di saat aku mencoba untuk memindahkan jari-jemariku untuk mencoba menemukan objek asing sebagai tumpuan gelapnya pemandangan, tidak ada yang bisa kutemukan. Namun demikian, aku masih bisa menggunakan indera pendengaranku.

“Sulit sekali bergerak di ruangan seperti ini,” ucapku dalam hati.

Masih dengan permasalahan yang sama, aku masih berupaya mencari benda yang bisa kujadikan sandaran dalam pergerakanku yang kaku. Di sisi lain, tak ada pun suara yang terdengar, kecuali langkahku seorang. Aku heran, kemanakah semua orang pergi?

Encourage English Department Students to Speak English More Frequent and More Confident

English speaking generally is a daily usage for students of English department. Nevertheless, not every college student will use English in their daily routine of life. This is quite troubling as they are students of English major. Not every student is willing to speak English often. They may don’t feel confident as well. In this case, there are problems why university students are not using English more often.

The first is they don’t have partner to speak English to apply what they have learned so far. This reasoning varies; it depends on students’ problem. It can be caused by the circumstances of the university student. Some students don’t like talking because they are worried of their mistakes while they speak.  Some think that it’s fine not to speak English because not everyone will be a teacher or lecturer of English. This reasoning will lead students’ lack of usage of English.

Second is they are ashamed to speak foreign language in front of others. Not everyone feels confident when it comes to speaking, especially English; its probability will increase if they are about to speak foreign language. If they don’t feel confident enough to speak in the public, how can they speak often?

The third is, they think it’s still good not to speak English as long as they master the theory. Even a teacher of high school doesn't always have the ability to teach speaking but theory.

Considering some facts above, let us increase the amount of using English more often and more frequently. So how to do so? There are things which can help you to be more confident of using English.

Speak to yourself. This can help English speaking activity to increase in amount. It will also help students to be more confident to talk in English. You can do it by locking yourself into a room, speaking it out loud so you can hear it clearly. You can also do it by practicing it by looking at yourself from the mirror so you will feel the eyes looking at you; even if it’s only your reflection.

Talk to students which have similar interest to speak in English. You can join a group talk outside of a formal group; or you can join a formal discussion using English. This will help you because you will get the nerve to speak in front of them because they are expecting you to speak as well as they will.

Things are normal if you aren't good at speaking. Even students who have more ability in speaking don’t always get it right. The important thing you should remember is you are developing and progressing from zero to one. At least you get something new rather than nothing, am I mistaken?