Spirit Testimony Recorder
Ken Hanggara
Translated into English by Nicolaus Gogor Seta Dewa
Illustration by Annisa Rizkiana (Nicacomica).
There was a time when spirits’ words were considered important and not fairy tales. At that time, there was a man who was thrown into a remote place with his hands and feet tied, and his body put into a sack. Night had only just fallen when the man regained consciousness and thought death had taken him away from the earth.
At that moment, if someone were watching (though no one lived there or stopped in or ever passed by), their eyes would notice a strange human-sized object struggling against sand and wild plants.
That object was a sack—dust flying around it, until, finally, a man got out. No one ever saw that moment. And not one sound was heard, until the man wondered aloud: Do hell and heaven look like earth?
While checking his surroundings, the man whose hands and feet were still bound felt relieved when he realized he wasn’t dead. His baby was at home. There was a pretty wife in his warm bed. Thinking about those two made him get up quickly; he was scared that something evil was watching and toying with him, as if he were in a play. A play about liberation that would end with his death.
“We’ll never be certain that we’ve been released until I get home safely,” the man said.
He tried to untie the knot binding his two hands any way he could. There was nothing around to help him except some fragile twigs and dead tree trunks. He didn’t know how far this desert was from his home. Didn’t know if he would reach civilization without meeting anything unexpected. One thing was sure, his bonds had to be removed immediately.
When he managed to remove them, the day had gone dark. There was no light, so he could walk calmly across the dunes. Because it was dark, he was certain those cruel people who recently abducted him were not watching.
“Make sure there is no light coming from any direction,” he whispered, as if there were someone nearby.
And so, the man—who had managed to get out of the sack and successfully untie his hands and legs—walked for so long he couldn’t take it anymore. How long? Three hours? Four hours? He didn’t know the way, but a strong hunch told him that he must walk south. Thus, he’d been walking south from the start.
In his mind, the south was the safest place. There was a beach with a small house on top of a hill there. The south was the place he must go when he felt lost and unsure. He didn’t know why he believed that. At least that was what he felt three or four hours ago. Now everything seemed confusing.
Suddenly the man stopped and felt some people watching him from afar. There was no light, but he was sure those cruel people weren’t as stupid as he thought; those people might have special glasses or cameras or something to help them see in the dark. Sure enough, something else entirely was following him silently and he was aware of it—something lifeless, which was no cause for alarm. Dead people can’t kill you, can they?
The man was unsure that he could get home. After all, he was really tired. He decided to stop and sleep there. Let the morning come or the night kill him in some unimaginable way. It wasn’t long before he was asleep.
Morning came and no one had disturbed him. There were no evil people there. The sand stretched as far as the eye could see. Once again, the man mustered up his hope of going home and meeting his wife and baby, as well as starting a new life far away from that beach. It clearly wasn’t the safest place at that moment. It used to be, but not after what had happened recently.
Plans were darting about in his head about travelling with his wife and baby somewhere very far. Idyllic and safe new places in the middle of nowhere flashed through his mind; from the foothills of a small town he once visited with his father when he was seven or eight years old, to a village full of flower fields where he had once gotten separated from the research group and stayed for a few nights, to the warm guest room in a wooden hut on the edge of a forest where he’d breathed in the scent of romance for the first time. In those new places, he was unlikely to meet the cruel people that had tried to hurt him because of his special ability. How could he tell his wife about what had happened?
The man doubted he would ever tell his wife that his disappearance these last seven days was due to his ability to see invisible creatures—an ability that was considered important because anyone who had it could talk to spirits.
The sight of hundreds of people lined up to be put into the back of trucks and brought to a giant warehouse still lingered in his memory. The fishy smell of blood in that large room hadn’t left his brain. Who knew how many were killed there? Some tried to escape and died even more miserably. Those cruel people had killed the abductees—people who shared the same fate as him and could communicate with spirits—at the request of some influential legislators in order to evade being charged with corruption and the murder of a private bank employee.
Of course, the man knew about the case of the murdered bank employee, who somehow had gotten hold of the file containing the legislators’ names, along with evidence of their involvement in the corruption around the council’s toilet building project—the mastermind of which had not been revealed. But the truth was sure to be revealed if a person with special ability could hear and channel the testimony of the bank employee’s spirit.
“Emotional affinity influences the recording of the spirits’ testimonies,” were the words uttered a decade ago by Suli Mugeni—an expert in the supernatural, a physicist, as well as the inventor of a spirit-testimony recording device in the form of a box containing a memory card.
Thanks to Suli Mugeni’s legacy, many high-profile murder cases were solved. However, not all people with the special ability had enough of an inner affinity with certain spirits to ensure that the dialogue could be recorded; the process needed such people in order to make the spirit willing to describe in detail the events that caused them to die. The spirits would only trust people whom they thought would understand their condition—they who’d been killed, who’d died tragically of some disease, and so on. Without communicators who were trusted by the spirits, this sophisticated tool would be of no use.
Unfortunately, inner affinity was impossible to detect with any certainty. The crooked politician that was behind the murder of the private bank employee knew this. Immediately, the politician called on all his fellow legislators, whose devious acts were also under threat of exposure, to hire cruel people—professionals to kill anyone capable of communicating with spirits.
Those forty people—who came from many parts of the world, with various specializations and impressive track records in their secret profession as hitmen—gathered on one cloudy morning, and listened to the legislators’ instructions to hunt down everyone in the city who could communicate with spirits. They devoted all their resources to discovering anyone with the special ability. Naturally, they couldn’t simply kill the targets. The targets had to be taken to an undisclosed location before being killed.
That was why the man, who had been targeted, had been kidnapped from his house on a hill, near a beach on the edge of the city. His wife and child weren’t home at the time. Now the man was worried because he didn’t know his family’s fate. Those people might have finished them off, but he hoped that wasn’t the case.
The man felt a little calmer—because of his kindness in the past, he had managed to escape. He would not have reached this point if he hadn’t recognized one of the executioners, whom he had once helped out of a difficult time. Now, the executioner had helped him in reciprocation, for in the past, the executioner had needed his services to communicate with his deceased lover’s spirit. So the man was not killed, but simply tied up by the executioner—without the knowledge of the other executioners who were busy slaughtering—and then dumped in a sack.
Now, the man was still able to breathe even though he was exhausted, in a desert, located nobody knew where on the world map. But, of course, there was nothing he could do but keep walking south. Continue going south.
With each step, he was not really alone, but rather, accompanied by one of the spirits that had followed him from the site of the massacre, earlier. The spirit appeared to have died long ago because the smell was so distinctive. They finally got acquainted and started talking about the cruelty of the corrupt legislators who killed even more people just to prevent the murder case from being solved. Yes, the spirit revealed that he was the bank employee who was found dead in his rented house with his neck slit open.
“I can’t just talk about it to anyone! Not even people with your abilities,” the spirit said.
“I don’t know why you’re afraid, now that you’re no longer alive! Look how long your case has been tossed about! This situation just gave the legislators time to kill people like us—a group often excluded from social interaction because of our abilities. Well, if we didn’t exist, ordinary people would be nothing more than a bunch of poor, helpless creatures!”
“All of this turned out unexpectedly. I didn’t want to sacrifice other people just so my case could be solved right then and there. That’s why I’ve waited so long. Now I regret it.”
They were silent for some time.
“We don’t have to go to your house, man,” said the spirit, when the man looked like he was about to faint.
“I have to go home. I have to see my wife and baby first.”
“For now, we need one of those spirit testimony recorders. There must be one in the nearest town.”
“No, thanks. I’ve endangered myself enough just by being born with this ability. And I still don’t know if my wife and child are alive or dead!”
“They don't know that one of you has escaped. They won’t kill your family or the families of those people who suddenly disappeared. There would be too many risks if they did. After all, how much chaos would happen if they did that?”
Both of them were silent for a few minutes, then the spirit spoke again, "What would you do if your wife and child really had been killed?"
"Demand justice."
"Is that so? That's what I tried to do, man."
The man looked at the spirit wearily. It looked like this spirit wasn’t giving up and would continue to follow him until the matter was settled. Maybe his wife and baby were dead. But it was certainly possible that those people had let them live; what the spirit said about the risk of chaos sounded reasonable. But he still wasn't so sure.
“What do you think?” The spirit asked once again.
“Okay, let’s say my loved ones are dead—and honestly I’m starting to believe this is the case. Suppose my wife and baby are dead, what do I get from helping you?”
“Their deaths won't be in vain. And even if your family is still alive, and let's hope so, you also won’t waste the lives of the other people like you whom they killed. It’s time for the scum of this country to be taught a lesson. "
"What should we do?"
"We’ll go to the nearest town. There’s a recorder there. And then, we play my testimony’s recording in the town square. Let the public hear and ensure that those people receive the proper punishment. It will be safer for you. After those people are caught, you can go anywhere without being haunted by fear."
At these words, mysteriously, the man feels an enormous energy. There is no further dialogue between them until later, when they arrive in the nearest town. Shortly after the tape is released, he will go home and, God willing, he will take his wife and baby away as far as possible from the rotten city where they live now. Over and over, the man hopes that something bad won’t happen to his family.
© Ken Hanggara
English translation © Nicolaus Gogor Seta Dewa
TEKNOLOGI KESAKSIAN ARWAH
Ken Hanggara
Ilustrasi oleh Annisa Rizkiana (Nicacomica).
Pada zaman ketika omongan arwah-arwah dianggap sebagai sesuatu yang penting dan bukan sekadar isapan jempol, seorang lelaki dibuang ke tempat terpencil dengan tangan dan kaki terikat dan tubuh dimasukkan ke sebuah karung. Matahari belum lama tumbang ketika lelaki tersebut sadar dan percaya maut telah membawanya pergi dari bumi.
Saat itu, dari jauh, jika seseorang dapat melihat (namun, di tempat itu tidak seorang pun manusia menetap atau singgah atau sekadar lewat), bola matanya akan menangkap sebentuk benda aneh, seukuran tubuh manusia, yang bergelut dengan pasir dan tanaman liar.
Benda itu karung. Debu-debu beterbangan di sekitarnya sampai akhirnya seorang lelaki keluar dari dalamnya. Tidak ada yang benar-benar melihat saat itu. Tidak ada secuil suara keluar sampai lelaki itu bertanya-tanya: apa rupa neraka atau surga tidak jauh beda dengan permukaan bumi?
Memeriksa situasi sekitar, lelaki yang masih terikat tangan dan kakinya itu merasa lega karena dia belum mati. Ada bayi di rumah. Ada istri yang cantik di tempat tidurnya yang hangat. Memikirkan dua orang itu membuatnya cepat-cepat bergerak; takut jika sesuatu yang jahat mengamati dan mempermainkannya dengan drama ini. Sebuah drama pembebasan yang hanya berakhir maut baginya.
"Kita tidak benar-benar yakin kita sudah dibebaskan sampai aku tiba di rumah dengan selamat," kata lelaki itu.
Dengan berbagai cara, dia mencoba melepas ikatan yang cukup erat di kedua tangannya. Tidak ada benda apa pun kecuali beberapa ranting rapuh dan batang pohon-pohon kecil yang sudah mati di sekitarnya. Tidak tahu berapa jauh padang pasir ini dari rumah. Tidak tahu juga apakah dia akan berhasil mencapai peradaban terdekat tanpa mengalami apa pun yang tidak diharapkan. Tetapi, yang jelas ikatan ini harus segera dilepas.
Begitu tali pada tangan dan kaki berhasil dilepas, hari sudah gelap. Tak ada cahaya apa pun sehingga dia dapat berjalan dengan tenang melintasi gundukan demi gundukan pasir, dan karena kegelapan inilah dia yakin orang-orang kejam yang belum lama ini menculiknya tidak sedang mengamatinya.
"Pastikan tidak ada cahaya apa pun di setiap penjuru," bisiknya seolah di dekat situ ada seseorang yang menemani.
Demikianlah. Si lelaki yang berhasil keluar dari karung dan sukses melepas ikatan pada tangan dan kakinya berjalan begitu lama sampai rasanya tubuhnya sudah tidak lagi kuat. Berapa lama? Mungkin tiga jam? Mungkin empat jam? Dia tidak tahu arah, tetapi perasaannya begitu kuat mengatakan bahwa dia harus berjalan ke selatan. Maka, dia pun sejak awal melangkah ke selatan.
Dalam pikirannya, selatan adalah tempat teraman. Sebuah pantai dengan rumah kecil di atas bukit terletak di sana. Selatan adalah tempat yang harus dia tuju di dalam situasi tersesat dan tidak pasti. Tidak tahu kenapa dia yakin itu. Setidaknya empat atau tiga jam yang lalu. Sekarang segalanya terasa meragukan.
Tiba-tiba lelaki tersebut berhenti dan merasa beberapa orang sedang menatapi dirinya dari jauh. Tidak ada cahaya, tetapi dia yakin orang-orang kejam tadi tak sebodoh dugaannya; orang-orang itu bisa jadi memiliki kacamata atau kamera khusus atau benda apa pun yang membuat mereka bisa melihat dalam kegelapan. Memang sesuatu yang lain mengikutinya diam-diam dan dia tahu itu. Sesuatu yang tak bernyawa, yang tak perlu membuatnya gusar. Bukankah orang mati tak akan bisa membuatmu mati?
Si lelaki tidak yakin dia sanggup pulang. Lagipula, tubuhnya sudah sangat lelah. Dia memutuskan untuk berhenti dan tidur saja di situ. Biar pagi mendatanginya terlebih dulu atau malam membunuhnya dengan cara yang tak terbayangkan. Tak berapa lama, dia pun tertidur.
Sampai pagi tiba, ternyata tidak ada yang mengusik. Tidak ada orang jahat di sekitar situ. Tetap pasir sejauh mata memandang. Sekali lagi, si lelaki memupuk harapan untuk bisa pulang dan menemui bayi serta istrinya, dan memulai hidup yang baru di tempat yang sangat jauh dari pantai itu. Pantai itu jelas bukan tempat teraman saat ini. Dulu memang aman, tetapi tidak saat ini setelah apa yang baru-baru ini terjadi.
Di kepalanya melesat rencana-rencana kepergiannya bersama sang istri dan bayi ke tempat yang sangat jauh. Tempat-tempat di antah-berantah yang indah dan aman silih berganti bermunculan di pikiran; mulai dari kaki bukit di suatu kota kecil yang dulu pernah dia sambangi bersama ayahnya sewaktu umurnya masih tujuh atau delapan tahun, atau desa yang penuh ladang bunga tempat dahulu dia pernah terpisah dari kelompok peneliti dan menginap untuk beberapa malam di sana, hingga ruang tamu hangat di pondok kayu di tepi sebuah hutan yang menjadi tempatnya mengenal bau percintaan untuk kali pertama. Tempat-tempat itu kemungkinan besar tidak akan membuatnya sekali lagi bertemu orang-orang kejam yang mencoba mencelakainya karena kemampuan yang dia miliki. Bagaimana mengatakan kepada istrinya tentang apa yang terjadi?
Si lelaki tidak yakin akan mengakui kepada sang istri bahwa hilangnya dia selama tak kurang dari seminggu terakhir disebabkan oleh kemampuannya melihat makhluk-makhluk tidak kasat mata. Kemampuan ini dianggap sesuatu yang penting, karena siapa pun yang memiliki kemampuan seperti dirinya akan dapat berkomunikasi dengan para arwah.
Masih lekat di ingatannya tentang ratusan manusia yang berbaris masuk ke bak truk-truk dan dibawa ke sebuah gudang raksasa. Bau amis darah di ruangan besar itu belum minggat dari otaknya. Entah berapa banyak yang mati terbantai di situ. Sebagian yang mencoba kabur malah tewas dengan cara jauh lebih mengenaskan. Orang-orang kejam itu membunuhi para korban penculikan—orang-orang senasib dengannya yang mampu melihat dan berkomunikasi dengan arwah—karena permintaan beberapa anggota dewan yang berpengaruh agar mereka lolos dari berbagai kasus korupsi dan pembunuhan seorang pegawai bank swasta.
Tentu saja si lelaki tahu kasus pembunuhan si pegawai bank yang entah bagaimana memegang berkas berisi nama-nama koruptor, beserta bukti keterlibatan mereka, dalam korupsi proyek pembangunan toilet gedung dewan, yang tidak juga terungkap otaknya hingga detik ini. Tapi pasti akan terungkap jika orang berkemampuan khusus sepertinya bisa mendengar dan menyampaikan kesaksian arwah sang pegawai bank.
"Kedekatan emosional memengaruhi jalannya perekaman kesaksian para arwah," demikian dikatakan beberapa dekade silam oleh ahli supranatural sekaligus fisikawan terkenal, Suli Mugeni, penemu alat perekam kesaksian arwah berupa sebuah kotak dengan kepingan kartu memori di dalamnya.
Berkat warisan Suli Mugeni, banyak kasus pembunuhan tingkat tinggi terungkap. Hanya saja, tak semua orang berkemampuan khusus memiliki kedekatan batin dengan arwah tertentu sehingga dialog itu bisa direkam; butuh orang-orang yang memiliki kedekatan batin dengan sang arwah supaya arwah itu sudi menjabarkan secara rinci kejadian yang membuat dirinya tewas. Para arwah hanya akan percaya kepada orang-orang yang dianggap memahami kondisi mereka karena telah mati dibunuh atau mati karena penyakit mengenaskan dan lain sebagainya. Tanpa komunikator yang dipercayai oleh arwah, alat canggih itu tak akan ada gunanya.
Sayangnya, kedekatan batin tak mungkin terlacak. Politikus busuk yang berada di balik pembunuhan si pegawai bank swasta menyadari itu. Dengan segera, dia ajak seluruh rekan anggota dewan yang terancam terbongkar perbuatan licik mereka, untuk membayar orang-orang keji, para profesional yang mampu membunuh setiap orang yang punya kemampuan khusus berkomunikasi dengan arwah.
Orang-orang dari entah negeri mana saja, yang berjumlah tidak kurang dari empat puluh, dengan berbagai spesifikasi dan rekam jejak mengagumkan dalam profesi rahasia mereka sebagai pembunuh bayaran, berkumpul di pagi yang mendung, dan mendengar arahan para anggota dewan untuk memburu semua orang di kota mereka yang bisa berkomunikasi dengan arwah. Segala sumber daya mereka kerahkan untuk mencari tahu siapa saja orang-orang berkemampuan khusus itu. Tentu para target tak bisa dibunuh begitu saja. Para target harus dibawa ke lokasi yang dirahasiakan sebelum dihabisi.
Karena itulah si lelaki, yang juga telah ditetapkan sebagai target, diculik dari rumahnya di bukit, dekat pantai di tepian kota. Istri dan anaknya tidak ada di rumah waktu itu. Sekarang si lelaki cemas, sebab tak tahu nasib keluarganya. Orang-orang itu mungkin sudah menghabisi mereka, tetapi dia berharap itu tak terjadi.
Si lelaki sedikit lega, karena ternyata berkat kebaikannya di masa lalu, dia berhasil lolos. Dia tidak akan sampai pada titik ini andai saja tidak mengenali salah satu algojo, yang dahulu pernah dia bantu ketika kesusahan. Kini, algojo itu membantunya sebagai upaya balas budi karena dahulu sang algojo membutuhkan jasanya sebagai komunikator arwah kekasihnya. Si lelaki akhirnya tidak dibantai, tetapi diikat begitu saja oleh sang algojo tanpa diketahui algojo lain yang sibuk membantai, lalu dibuang dalam karung.
Si lelaki kini masih dapat bernapas walau kelelahan di padang pasir yang entah berada di bagian mana dari peta dunia. Tetapi, tentu saja, tak ada upaya lain yang bisa dilakukannya selain terus berjalan ke selatan. Terus ke selatan.
Dalam tiap langkahnya, dia tidak benar-benar sendirian, ditemani oleh salah satu arwah yang sejak awal membuntutinya dari lokasi penjagalan massal tadi. Arwah itu tampaknya sudah lama mati, karena baunya begitu khas. Mereka akhirnya berkenalan dan mulai bercakap-cakap tentang kekejian para koruptor yang membunuh lebih banyak orang hanya untuk mencegah terbongkarnya kasus kematiannya. Ya, arwah itu mengungkap bahwa dirinya adalah si pegawai bank yang tempo hari ditemukan mati di kontrakannya dengan leher tergorok.
"Aku tak bisa sembarangan bicara ke orang-orang dengan kemampuan sepertimu," kata si arwah.
"Aku tidak tahu apa yang membuatmu ketakutan, sedang kamu sendiri sudah tidak hidup! Lihatlah, berapa lama kasusmu terombang-ambing! Keadaan ini justru memberi para koruptor itu waktu untuk menghabisi orang-orang seperti kami. Kumpulan orang yang kerap terbuang dari pergaulan sosial karena kemampuan kami. Yah, kalau tak ada kami, orang-orang biasa itu tak lebih dari sekumpulan makhluk malang!"
"Semua ini berakhir di luar dugaanku. Aku tak bisa mengorbankan orang seperti kalian begitu saja hanya karena ingin kasusku cepat terkuak. Karena itulah aku menunggu selama ini. Sekarang aku menyesal."
Mereka diam untuk beberapa lama.
"Kita tidak perlu pergi ke rumahmu, Bung," kata si arwah, saat lelaki itu terlihat hampir pingsan.
"Aku harus pulang. Menemui istri dan bayiku!"
"Untuk saat ini, kita perlu alat perekam kesaksian arwah itu. Di kota terdekat ada."
“Tak usah. Terima kasih. Aku sudah cukup membahayakan diriku sendiri bahkan dengan hanya terlahir dengan kemampuanku ini. Aku juga tidak yakin anak-istriku masih hidup atau sudah mati!”
“Mereka tak tahu seseorang dari kalian berhasil lolos. Mereka tak akan membunuh keluargamu atau keluarga orang-orang yang mendadak hilang itu. Terlalu banyak risiko yang mereka hadapi kalau sampai berbuat begitu. Lagi pula, seberapa besar kekacauan yang mungkin terjadi jika itu mereka perbuat?”
Keduanya terdiam beberapa menit, lalu arwah itu kembali bersuara, “Apa yang kau lakukan seandainya anak-istrimu memang dibunuh?”
“Menuntut keadilan.”
“Oh, ya? Itulah yang kucoba lakukan, Bung.”
Lelaki itu memandangi sang arwah dengan pikiran yang sangat lelah. Sepertinya arwah ini tidak akan menyerah dan akan terus membuntutinya sampai segala urusannya selesai. Mungkin istri dan bayinya sudah mati. Tapi bukan tak mungkin orang-orang itu masih membiarkan mereka hidup; apa yang arwah itu sampaikan tentang risiko kekacauan terdengar masuk akal. Tapi ia tak benar-benar yakin.
“Bagaimana?” Arwah itu bertanya sekali lagi.
“Oke, kita anggap orang-orang tercintaku mati—dan sejujurnya aku mulai percaya itu. Anggaplah istri dan bayiku mati, apa yang kudapat dengan membantumu?”
“Kematian mereka tidak akan sia-sia. Kalaupun keluargamu masih hidup, dan mari berharap demikian, kau juga tidak akan menyia-nyiakan nyawa orang-orang senasibmu yang mereka bantai. Sudah saatnya para bajingan negara itu diberi pelajaran.”
“Apa yang mesti kita lakukan?”
“Ke kota terdekat. Ada alat perekam di sana. Sesudahnya, kita sebarkan sekalian di alun-alun kota rekaman kesaksianku. Biar rakyat mendengar dan memastikan orang-orang itu menerima hukuman yang pantas. Itu lebih aman untukmu. Setelah orang-orang itu tertangkap, kamu bisa pergi ke mana pun tanpa harus dikejar-kejar rasa takut."
Mendengar itu, si lelaki merasa mendapat energi berlimpah secara misterius. Tidak ada lagi dialog di antara mereka sampai nanti tiba di kota terdekat. Tidak lama setelah rekaman itu tersebar, dia akan pulang dan, jika Tuhan berkehendak, ia akan mengajak istri serta bayi mereka pergi sejauh mungkin dari kota busuk tempat mereka tinggal sekarang. Berulang kali lelaki itu berharap semoga sesuatu yang buruk tak menimpa keluarganya.
© Ken Hanggara
KEN HANGGARA was born on 21 June 1991. He’s been writing short stories, poems, essays and screenplays since 2012. His work has been published in various media such as Kompas, Jawa Pos, Tempo, Republika, Femina, Gadis, Nova, and detik.com. He has received various awards, including second in the Indonesian language category at the 2014 ASEAN Young Writers Award, and second in the Experimental Short Story Competition held by the publisher Basabasi (2018). His latest work is the novel Negeri yang Dilanda Huru-Hara (2018). His short story collection Pengetahuan Baru Umat Manusia is forthcoming.
NICOLAUS GOGOR SETA DEWA, known as Gogor, is a freelance photographer and translator based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He mostly translates movie subtitles since 2013. In 2017 he worked as a journalist for Kompas. Now, he takes pictures, translates, and struggles to write a novel in his free time.
ANNISA RIZKIANA was born in 1992. She’s a visual artist and writer, and also likes to make comics under the name Nicacomica.