Rain fell steadily outside.
Batavia Central Hospital smelled of antiseptic and camphor.
Zahra paused at the hospital room door and knocked. Inside, quiet, muffled sobbing.
Annelies entered first.
Kartika Notoadmojo looked up. "Nona Nelle…?" She stood and hugged her—quick, tight, then let go as if she shouldn't have.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
"You look worse."
Annelies almost smiled. "You should see the other guy."
It was a weak joke. They all knew it.
Annelies studied her a second longer than politeness allowed. "I heard about your brother."
Kartika's fingers tightened in the bedsheet.
"How are you holding up?"
Kartika had not slept since the man came back the second time. Every time she closed her eyes, the man's voice returned—patient, professional, almost gentle. Until it wasn't.
"Did he… hurt you?" Zahra asked, quieter than before.
Kartika hesitated, then nodded.
"The first time, I thought he was asking," she said. "The second time—"
Annelies' fingers curled slowly into her palm. She forced them open.
"He was the same. Same badge. Same voice. But the questions were different." Kartika's fingers twisted deeper into the sheet. "He asked about my brother's childhood. His fears. Whether he talked in his sleep."
Zahra shifted, listening.
"And the laundry," she added after a moment. "Someone broke in a few days before. Nothing important gone. Just clothes. The police said it was random."
"Was it?" Annelies asked.
The word hung there.
"The neighbor's dog wouldn't stop barking. It wouldn't come near him. Just kept backing away and growling."
She swallowed. "When he first came, it lasted twelve minutes. The second was shorter. He already knew where things were."
"That's not what I asked."
"He said my brother wasn't my brother. That something had taken him. He said he hunted things like that."
Zahra and Annelies exchanged a glance that lingered half a second too long.
"You believe him," Kartika said.
Annelies didn't answer.
Kartika watched her. "He said if you went quiet, it meant you were angry."
A pause.
"Are you angry, Nelle?"
"I will need you to tell me everything."
Kartika laughed once—brittle and exhausted. "He said that too."
"He started talking about himself like he wasn't himself. About a sister who walked away. About a family that hunted things." She looked at Annelies. "Does this make sense?"
No. It didn't.
Diederik would never—
Annelies chose her next words carefully. "What kind of monster?"
Kartika hesitated. "The one that could wear skin. Wear memories."
"And you didn't tell the police?"
"They already thought I was hysterical."
Convenient.
Annelies rose slowly. "We need to go."
Zahra's jaw tightened. "Now?"
She walked out.
Zahra followed a step behind.
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Silence, except for the cool breeze.
Blue sky, thin clouds drifting.
White blossoms falling in slow spirals across the yard.
A small house. Dinner on the fire.
He stood in the tall grass, then ran.
No pain. No fatigue. No thoughts. No obligations.
The wind pressed against his face as the door rushed closer.
Inside, dimmer. Warmer.
Dark eyes lifted to meet his. A quiet smile waiting there.
He smiled back.
Hold onto this moment.
Because it won't last.
Diederik opened his eyes.
The ceiling above him was concrete.
Too close. Too solid.
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Annelies and Zahra did not return to the station. At the hotel they changed. The women who left weren't dressed to be seen. The familiar weight at Annelies' side. Old routine.
"Fake-Diederik is in custody," she said. "It wanted to be there."
Neither of them answered that.
Diederik's steam carriage waited in the narrow alley near Notoadmojo's residence.
Old habits never die.
"Subtle," Zahra murmured.
"Family heirloom."
A carriage compartment opened under Annelies' hand. Oilcloth. Steel. Weapons meant for things the law did not arrest.