2
The lecture hall emptied far too slowly, the murmur of
chatter the only thing filling the prolonged silence. Irmak sat at one of the
desks in the farthest row, her chin resting against her palm, staring at the
chalkboard where her professor had just outlined the following week’s
assignments. Several of her notes were laid neatly in a pile in front of her,
ready to be packed into her leather bag, and that was that. She waited for her
classmates, or the majority of them at least, to exit already so that she too
could leave. But it took forever.
So, she shifted her gaze with a sigh. Outside, the dying sunlight
slanted through the wall-length windows, catching the dust that floated into
the warmth. At that moment, she daydreamed away, imagining a different course
of life – one much different from the one she currently led. After all, she had
always been somewhat of a dreamer, or a romantic if one could say that. Had she
been a Disney princess, she’d be Belle. But daydreams were just that, dreams,
and nothing else. Ghosts of the mind, in other words. Maybe she wanted to
become a ghost too, live an invisible life far from the plain reality she lived
through each and every day. She wanted more; worked harder than anyone else. Still,
all she ever amounted to was being this sorry of a person she was.
In the backdrop, conversations about plans for the weekend took
over and drowned out all other subjects. It wasn’t like she wanted to eavesdrop
or something, only she heard everything by default – even from miles away – as
though she was some sort of Wonder Woman. But she didn’t want to. Heck! she
even tried not to! It did not work one bit.
She put her hand to rest and let her fingers drum over the
desk, faster and faster, until she could no longer take it. Standing upright,
she nimbly folded her notebooks and tucked her pens into her bag in a certain
order only she knew, all while her mind wandered from the words on the board.
She thought of home, of the familiar streets she had left behind two years ago
to live in the dormitory, and a small knot of unease curled in her stomach.
“You’re coming, right?” Dilara’s booming voice reluctantly
pulled her out of her thoughts. But she paid no attention to the blonde girl
and kept packing her stuff. “Hey, do you even see me?”
“I told you, I’m going nowhere. Just hang out with—”
“Come on! You can’t just leave me hanging, can you? Pleeeaasse?”
Irmak rolled her
eyes, drawing a deep breath to steady her nerves.
Who’s Dilara, again? Her friend, or rather, the only person
willing to talk to someone like her, an outsider from the rural parts of the
country. Though not in the mood to entertain her, Irmak finally broke off and
met the other’s pleading gaze. She was literally leaning against the desk, her
bare legs crossed in a certain way to accentuate her shape, and her eyes
sparkled with mischief, as they always did. Now that she thought it over,
Dilara reminded her of a puppy, one that always needed attention. Or she would
get all sulky. But Dilara was more than just that, she was what people would call
a “hot girl”, the kind that turned heads just by existing.
“Come on! It’s Friday!” she insisted. “We’re going out for
drinks to celebrate my birthday! You can’t just stay cooped up in your room
like you always do.”
Irmak tugged her bag strap over her shoulder, ignoring her
friend’s question, and started towards the exit. “You know I don’t like
drinking, and it’s not like my allowance is—”
“It’s just one drink,” Dilara called, hurrying to
catch up. “I promise – promise – it’ll be worth it! Besides, it’s on me!
You won’t have to pay a penny! I swear!”
There was something in Dilara’s tone that made it impossible
to refuse. Reluctantly, she nodded, letting Dilara steer her through the crowd
of students and down the packed streets near their university. That silly girl
even started dancing in the middle of the road as they crossed it to celebrate her
hard-earned victory. Seeing her beam so widely, Irmak couldn’t help but smile,
too. Dilara might be a “hot girl”, but she was definitely no “typical girl.”
By the time they arrived, the bar was packed, and the overwhelming
mix of alcohol and sweat, together with the strong scent of perfume, made her regret
her choices at once and wish she could disappear into the shadows and catch her
breath. She wasn’t used to these kinds of places and felt sick already.
Dilara ordered some drinks not long afterwards, and Irmak
sipped cautiously from hers, tasting the bitterness of the liquid without
letting herself indulge too much. She preferred control, even here, even in the
swirl of loud music. It was then that Bilal and Mehmet appeared, weaving
through the crowd.
Bilal was one of Dilara’s many flings and was studying history
at their university, while Mehmet was Irmak’s crush. When they approached and
sat at their table, Dilara winked at her as soon as she sought her eyes, as if
she had planned all this beforehand. She rolled her eyes in response. It wasn’t
like she could flirt with Mehmet; he had a long-time girlfriend and was a
decent guy. And for some reason, Dilara thought that was more of a reason as to
why she had to steal Mehmet.
Although she felt out of place at first, as she drank more
and more and the night deepened and music grew louder, they were laughing,
sharing stories and joking around as though they were more than just
acquaintances. Soon, she found herself drawn into the rhythm, tapping her foot
to the beat, letting her body move without surrendering her thoughts entirely. From
somewhere near the back of the bar, then, just out of reach, a shadow moved
against the radiant light. Her gaze flicked towards it from where she stilled
on the dancefloor, though she quickly dismissed it as a trick of her intoxicated
mind. Yet there was a chill that ran along her spine, nonetheless. She tried to
shake it off, focusing instead on Mehmet, who leaned in and brushed up against her,
and then, suddenly, he wasn’t that decent guy she thought he was.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, his eyes settling on her
lips. “Did anyone tell you that?”
Before she could withdraw, repulsed at having mistaken him
for a good guy, he leaned in, his lips inches from hers when—she turned her
flushed face away before they could touch lips. She retreated to their table without
saying anything and was soon joined by Dilara and Bilal, who had just exited
the bathroom after making out in one of the stalls. They were too caught up in
one another that neither noticed the distorted look on Irmak’s face as Mehmet
too sat down and downed a drink.
At one point, however, things took a drastic turn, one she
did not see coming. It was Bilal who broke the ice, after noticing the rising
tension that had suddenly fallen over their table for reasons he did not know.
“You guys know Professor Necmiye?”
“Yeah,” said Dilara, sipping from her drink. “What about
her?”
“The bitch’s crazy!” he said. “She just assigned us a paper
on local haunted towns or some shit. Fucking hag.”
“Haunted towns?” Dilara repeated. “What the fuck?”
“She wants us to prove that so-called “hauntings” are more
about poverty, historical tragedy, and neglect than anything supernatural. Man,
she’s a total nutjob! Like, how am I supposed to prove that, even?”
“I think it sounds fun, though. Better than our boring
assignments on classical literature,” Dilara said, then turned to face Irmak
with a glint in her eyes as a moment of acknowledgement passed between them.
“Right, Irmak?”
“…Yeah, I guess so.”
“So?” she said, shifting her focus back to Bilal. “Have you
found something, then? Maybe we can help.”
“Kind of. Apparently, there’s a village called Karakaya
nearby, it’s said to be haunted. A total ghost town.”
The words hit Irmak like a punch to the gut, and her hand
tightened around the glass, the cool liquid trembling against her fingers.
Karakaya. She had not expected to hear that name, not here, not now.
Dilara’s eyes widened too as she turned to her, all
excited.
“Hey, isn’t that… the place you told me about?”
Irmak hesitated. She could feel her heartbeat in her
throat, the memories of the abandoned streets and corpses found all over the
village. Finally, her voice came out but was quieter than she intended.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea—”
“She’s from that place, actually,” interrupted Dilara.
Bilal’s eyes went wide. “Oh, wow. Really?” he asked, leaning
over the table to get closer to her. “Heard a lot about that place from a friend
of mine. Are the rumours about the village true? Like, that the whole village
had been found dead overnight?”
She paused, swallowing hard. The music, the lights, the
laughter around her – all seemed to fade away in that moment and suffocate her.
She took another sip from her glass, her hands trembling out of control, gathering
enough courage to say the words that lingered on the tip of her tongue.
“…Hmm. But I do not want to—”
Bilal, “Well, if we’re all free this weekend, then why
don’t we go see for ourselves? Find out if it’s really haunted or not?”
Dilara exchanged a glance with Irmak before responding.
“Sure! Why not?”
Mehmet, “Fine by me, too.”
The three of them then turned to face her, expecting her to
say something. But just the thought of returning to that place twisted
something in her gut and made the bile rise in her throat. She wanted to
refuse, to retreat to her dorm and the safety of her solitude, but Dilara’s
hand pressed gently against her shoulder.
“Please,” she said. “Come with us! We need someone who can
take us there, after all. You’re the only one who knows. Right?”
“I-I can’t... I…”
Bilal, “Come on! What’s the worst that can happen?”
Irmak bit her lips. A lot of thoughts weighed her down and meddled with
her senses, but in the end, she nodded and agreed to take them to Karakaya. Bilal
was right. The soldiers had found the witch’s corpse in the well already, and
the entire village had been a ghost town ever since. She had nothing to fear.
So… why did it feel like she couldn’t breathe?
