My mind drifted while I wrote down notes into my field journal. I've been puzzled about the night here in this particular village. I've been to several in East Java, Indonesia, each one very similar to this one but extremely different in other aspects. Shivers ran through my body as the night crept in, standing near the window of the small hut I watched them drag their feet, looking distant, and sadder as the night dragged on. Every night around 3 am a girl would appear at the edge of the village swaying to a melody that played through out the street. No one knew where it was coming from though. I watched her move her hips in a tantalizing dance drawing you in with every sway to the rhythm. Her hair swept past her slender waist dark as the night sky and her eyes were empty her expression that of pure misery. Which made me wonder if she was the cause for the sudden change in all the villagers demeanor as the night fell upon them.

The days past by each night tearing into my soul bringing about a sadness I've never felt before. My heart ached; tears threatened to fall from my eyes as I stared at the girl dancing around. I was at my wits end; I couldn't handle much more of this awful assault on my emotions. So, I dug deeper into the history of this small village. Digging deeper came with it's consequences I was casted out of the hut I was staying in and found myself with the village outcast. Angkasa lived in the tree line just to the left of the village elder. Even though she was frowned upon by everyone she was still very kind and helpful.

"Oh yes... yes here..." She pulled a very worn book from the tiny shelf above her bed handing it to me. When I opened it, the writing was very fluid and smooth. I couldn't quite interpret all of it, but one thing stood out to me. This book belonged to someone by the name of Kemala.

"What is this?" I asked flipping through the frail pages. Her face fell as she gazed at the book in my hands.

"That's my sister's diary."

"Oh... where is she?" I looked up at her waiting for an answer. Regretting it seconds later when tears poured down her face in ribbons.

"She was murdered..." she sobbed dropping down like a sack of potatoes onto her bed, clutching her pillow tightly. Her finger pointed to the book in my hands.

"Everything is in there..."

I nodded apologetically. I hated seeing her that way, she opened her house to me and all I did was bring her grief by prying into her villages past which was heavily connected to her I would soon come to realize.

Dear Diary,

Abyasa has promised to meet me at the edge of the village so we can run away together. We can finally be together without the fear of the arrangement made by my father. My heart has wings it will carry me away from this pathetic life in the warm embrace of a true lovers might. Ha-ha... listen to me spouting sonnets almost...

My sister Angkasa found me... she has drug me back to this hell that is my home. Mother has scolded me, and I have received the switch for the umpteenth time. I swear she hates me. Why can't I just be happy? What did I ever do to Angkasa to make her hate me so...?

I stopped reading to look at Angkasa. She was staring at the floor picking at her fingernails.

"Angkasa? Why did you bring her back if she wanted to be with Abyasa?" I was curious more than anything else about the relationship between the two sisters. Angkasa slowly looked up at me tears pooling in her eyes, her dark hair like curtains falling in waves into her lap.

"She was leaving me to deal with our father... she protected me and then she was just going to leave me..." she looked down at her hands guiltily. I went back to reading Kemala's diary.

My dad came into my room his expression was murderous. He wouldn't do anything to hurt me I was his prized possession. Instead he turned on Angkasa blaming her for me wanting to leave. Said she was always needy. He beat her mercilessly that night no matter how hard I hit his back he wouldn't stop. He didn't stop until she was completely silent, I dropped to my knees beside her broken body holding her tightly to my chest. I pleaded with God begging him for a way to save her. To save her from the vile man who was our father.

The diary fell from my hands my mouth falling open in disbelief. Nothing about her diary made sense. If Angkasa was the one being beat and Kemala was the prized possession, why was she murdered? I looked up at Angkasa seeing her for the first time. She had scars riddled across her arms, one of her eyes were white, and the other an olive green. She was blind in one eye due to the abuse she endured from her father. What happened to her father?

"Angkasa what happened to your sister?" my voice was hoarse from the emotions I felt.

"She got in the way..." she then pointed to the diary on the floor, or at least I thought that's what she was pointing at. The floorboards had deep cuts in them from what looked like a hatchet. Angkasa picked up the diary flipping through the pages until she found what she was looking for then handed it back to me with trembling hands.

When I looked at the page the handwriting was different not as elegant rougher and more unsteady. The page was riddled with tear drops that had dried and stained the page as well. My heart squeezed I was afraid to read what was written here. Alas, I needed answers to my questions.

This isn't Kemala... this is Angkasa, I am here to tell you what happened that night. The night of my sisters death. Although because of my mother you won't believe me... She has convinced you that I killed them both due to jealousy and a mental instability... Which is why I am the outcast now. That night my father came into my room after finding Kemala and Abyasa in a lover's embrace hours before his arrival home. Her innocence was tarnished he could no longer use his precious gem for a political gain in the villages committee. He was enraged when he came in my room. He grabbed me by my neck blaming me for all my sisters misdeeds. That I somehow planted the dirty seeds in her mind to make her dishonor him in such a way. Sadly, I did not. He choked me until flashes of light skittered across my vision. Pressure was building behind one of my pupils I could feel it when it ruptured. Everything went dark on that side, his face distorted with it, his malice piercing through my soul. He would have killed me had it not been for her.

He reached behind his back pulling out a rusty hatchet getting ready to swing and end my life. But, when he slung it back it hit something solid, getting lodged deep with a wet thud. That was the sound of Kemala's skull being crushed. My father's face paled as he turned to her grasping onto her collapsing body. I fell to the ground coughing while he yanked the hatchet from her head cradling her head rocking back and forth.

"no... my baby... my precious baby..." He sobbed his shoulders heaving in grief. I almost reached out to comfort him instead my hand fell on the hatchet stained with my sister's blood. That's when I saw red... I stood over my father and my dead sister's body swinging hard over and over again... I had lost the one person I loved most. By the one person who hated me more than anything, with no reason to whatsoever. My mother came in to see me passed out on the floor later. I had exhausted myself. Both bodies lay before me unrecognizable. It was a bloodbath... I am forever stained with the death of my father, I will never be able to look my mother in the eye, and I fear the only reason my sister haunts the village is because of me. She is still trying to protect me... But, when she sees Abyasa she becomes so sad and their lovers song begins to play causing us all to fall into deep sorrow. I don't know how to fix this... I just know that I am sorry.

I couldn't look up from the pages. The story was most gruesome, I no longer wanted to be in this hut or this village anymore.