Inside the hut, there was nothing but a mattress with a mat underneath, a table, and a kitchen. Rahman made coffee for them and asked them to sit at the dining table. Both sat down, but their eyes remained fixed on the head hanging on the hut wall, directly opposite the entrance.
"What head is that?" Brian asked.
"Ah, that? You can call it whatever you want. If you say jinn, yes, they are jinn. If you say demon, yes, they are demons. If you say kuyang or leak, yes, they are kuyang or leak. If you say vampire, yes, they are vampires too. So feel free to name it whatever you like," Rahman said while pouring hot water from a thermos.
After bringing two cups of coffee to the table, Rahman sat across from Brian and Riana, with his back to the head on the wall.
"Okay, let me explain now. What you two saw in the village, not all of it is true. Don't you two feel strange? All the women are pregnant, there are no small children, everyone is pale like corpses, and they are all young couples," Rahman said.
Brian and Riana began to think. What Rahman said was true, and they admitted it. Then Rahman stood up and walked to his mattress. He took a notebook from under the mattress and brought it back to the table.
"Everyone in the village, no one is aware. They all think this is heaven, but in fact, this is hell, because we are now on a farm, and we are the livestock to feed creatures like that head," Rahman said, pointing to the head behind him with his thumb.
Hearing Rahman's words, Brian and Riana were very surprised. Although their hearts denied Rahman's words, their logical minds confirmed them.
"Can you explain what you mean?" Brian asked.
"You know that tiger tunnel, right?" Rahman asked.
"Yes, we know," Riana replied.
"Every month, they take half of the villagers out to that tunnel. They tell the villagers it's for health inspection, but actually, they're taking blood, flesh, and babies of the sedated villagers, then returning them here to live as usual," Rahman replied.
"Huh, impossible. Taking blood and flesh? If so, everyone here would be dead," Brian said.
"Did you see the Japanese man earlier?" Rahman asked.
"Yes, why?" Riana asked.
"Didn't you find it strange? He stabbed and tore open his own stomach, but he rose again, and his wound disappeared. He was even crying, wanting to die, right?" Rahman replied.
Brian and Riana looked at each other. They swallowed their saliva because they had actually seen it with their own eyes and felt it was strange.
"Here, we are all immortal. If you don't believe me, I'll prove it,"
Rahman opened his book. He took a razor blade from inside the book and turned his arm. Rahman slit his wrist in front of Brian and Riana. Fresh blood came out but immediately stopped, and the wound slowly closed, leaving both of them speechless.
"H-how is that possible?" Brian asked.
"Because everyone who comes to this village is always injected with a yellow liquid, which is actually an elixir of immortality. That elixir changes the body and instantly repairs anything wrong with our bodies," Rahman replied.
"W-what? So what Vincent gave us wasn't poison?" Riana asked.
"Poison? Yes, it's poison, a poison that makes the body immortal," Rahman replied.
"But why? Why do they make us unable to die?" Brian asked.
"As I said earlier, we are livestock whose blood and flesh are taken. You see the unconscious villagers with pale skin due to lack of blood and many other colored skin patches on their bodies, that's because they don't realize they're being cut and drained," Rahman replied.
Hearing Rahman's story, Brian's and Riana's hairs began to stand on end. Both held hands, and their bodies began to sweat.
"Why are we being made like this? What is their purpose?" Brian asked.
"Of course, their purpose is to eat. Because we are their food. In other words, we are like cows and chickens that are farmed for their milk, eggs, and meat, which humans take. We are the same to them," Rahman replied.
"So... we're livestock. Then why are the women all pregnant? I talked to some pregnant women, and they said they always miscarry. Is that true?" Riana asked.
"Oh, they think they miscarry, but actually, they give birth or their babies are forcibly delivered. But as soon as they're out, their babies are taken and made into luxurious food for those creatures," Rahman replied.
"W-what? So they only get pregnant for that? Like toys?" Riana asked, standing up.
"Yes, they only get pregnant for that purpose. Not much of their flesh is taken, but their babies will keep being taken. Normally, a woman can carry a maximum of 20 times before her womb is damaged, but what if their bodies are immortal and their wombs are healthy?" Rahman asked.
"They'll keep getting pregnant, hoping their children will be born, and it will never happen," Brian said, banging the table.
"That's why there are no small children here, and those creatures created a competition: if anyone successfully gives birth to the first child in this village, they can go home to visit their relatives. Of course, everyone immediately raced to make children who will never be born," Rahman said.
"Brak," Riana stood up, her face turning very red. All the life she had experienced replayed in her mind. She turned to look at Brian next to her, who was also looking at her.
"Bri, I want to go. I don't want to be here. I want to go. Take me away," Riana said, her body trembling.
Brian stood up and immediately hugged Riana. "We will go, I promise," Brian said to Riana.
"Listen, to leave here, I know how, but I can't do it yet," Rahman said.
"Why?" Brian asked.
"We need two magical heirlooms to open the gate inside the mountain that can take us to the human world," Rahman replied.
"What do you mean, brother?" Riana asked.
"Sit down first, I'll explain," Rahman replied.
Rahman opened his book and handed it to Brian and Riana, who had just sat back down. The contents turned out to be a legend from the Mist Village. The legend stated that the Mist Village was built by a goddess who descended from heaven along with a meteor that fell centuries ago. The goddess emerged from within the mist, so the villagers named her Dayang Kabut (Mist Maiden) because her real name was very long. When the king of the Padjajaran kingdom came with his royal subjects to Mount Halimun, they met the goddess, and eventually, the king married the goddess.
The result of their marriage was a daughter who inherited the king's spiritual power and the goddess's strength. The villagers named this princess Kanjeng Putri Kabut (Mist Princess) because the name given by her mother was very long. The princess had eyes with a green circle in her right pupil and a blue circle in her left pupil. The eye with the green circle had the power to see a person's true feelings, while the eye with the blue circle had the power to see a person's thoughts. After the king left and the goddess returned to heaven, the princess lived with the villagers.
One day, when the princess descended the mountain and went to a human village, she met a man who was a merchant and fell in love with him because she saw the man's sincerity, honesty, and selfless nature in his work. The man also had feelings for the princess, and eventually, they married. Since the princess could not stay long in the human world, she finally invited her husband back to the top of the mountain. There, they lived happily. The princess gave birth to three sons. The first son inherited her green eye, the second son inherited her blue eye, and the youngest son inherited both of her eyes.
The princess and her husband deeply loved their three children, but their affection was more focused on the third child. The first and second children became envious, then they conspired to kill the third child, who was their parents' favorite. Finally, at the engagement party of the third child with a merchant's daughter from across the land, the first and second children killed the third child and his fiancée in front of their parents. Then they prostrated themselves before their parents and said that the third child was deceived by the princess and intended to leave his parents, in other words, they did it for their parents.
The princess became furious. The two circles in her eyes turned red, long fangs emerged from her upper and lower mouth. She immediately bit her husband, who was trying to calm her down, and sucked his blood until it was all gone. After that, she began to attack everyone in the party tent, including her children. Her husband, who was bitten first by her, transformed into the same appearance as the princess and helped the princess kill all the villagers. The princess's mother, Dayang Kabut, saw everything from heaven. She descended from heaven then stopped the princess by plucking out both of her eyes. After that, she took the princess back to heaven with her.
The princess's eyes, plucked out by her mother, transformed into a pair of green and blue bracelets, which were considered sacred and became the key to crossing over to the human world through a gate inside the mountain where the princess used to enter and exit the human world. The princess's husband, left on Mount Halimun, built a new village filled with creatures just like himself and was confined within the mist by the goddess without being able to leave. It is said that the two heirloom bracelets of the princess are hidden somewhere in the village because this Mist Village is where the legend took place. Brian and Riana, who read the legend, shivered, speechless.