64. Terror

Book:BROKEN : Satanic Verses Published:2024-5-1

Seeing all this, Dev holds her head, as if a heavyweight is standing there. The three pill caplets that she took out of her trouser pocket she swallowed without water. As she continues her journey, in the building of the late Nick’s pride, Mehmet begins to feel strange.
“Happy death day to you! Happy death day to you!” Mehmet’s eyes darted around as the lyrics played softly in his ears.
“Let’s sing!”
“Who are you?” Mehmet asked the owner of the voice, but the owner only let out a five-year old’s adorable laugh.
Mehmet checked every corner of the room. No children there. Only he and Jess were snoring soundly. The man with the whiskers stepped outside, but the sound of the guitar strumming held him back. Mehmet turned his head and looked at the musical instrument hanging on the side of the ornate glass cabinet.
From there, the strange things more felt. One by one, the jade ornaments in the form of various animals moved as if they had legs. The abnormal performance was followed by a chess game that moved as if someone was playing. Instantly, the room was noisy for no reason.
“Jessy … Jess!” Mehmet tried to wake his best friend’s wife, but his voice seemed to evaporate in the air. In fact, the noise didn’t even bother Jess to get up immediately.
“Hihihi … Let’s play together! Now or die?”
“Who are you?” Mehmet starts to panic. The owner of the voice just laughed, then the sound of something cracking was heard.
Mehmet looked up at the ceiling. Over the top of his head he saw the crack widening. The stench wafts through the nostrils. Black smoke gushed briefly and suddenly a group of flies emerged from the cracks in the ceiling and made a very loud sound. The man whose full name is Mehmet Al-Ghazali repel the flies using a cloth folded on the side of the bed. However, the number of insects from the order Diptera is increasing. A moment later, larvaes came out from there. Some fell on Mehmet’s head.
“Whoa!” Mehmet gasped in surprise. With a reflex movement he shook his head.
“Allahu laa ilaaha illaa huwal hayyul qoyuum ….” Mehmet recited the prayer whose next sentence was read silently. He repeated it three times. A scream was then heard. Things started to stop moving. The noise slowly disappeared. Flies and a collection of maggots mysteriously disappeared.
Whoops!
Mehmet closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then muttered, “Praise be to Allah.” After that, he approached Jess and started to say a prayer, then walked out leaving Jess.
“I’ll look after you here. After all you’re not someone I can approach,” muttered Mehmet.
He decided to keep Jess downstairs. On the dark brown chair, Mehmet put his palms together and read something.
أعوذبكلمات اللّه التّامّات من شرّ ماخلق
The man’s face returned to calm as a string of prayers filled the space of his heart.
***
“You will suffer the consequences if anything happens to Elfara!” Dev was talking to herself when she couldn’t find Elios and Nania’s whereabouts. Worried about Jess’ condition, she finally chose to return home.
In the courtyard, she meets Michele. The psychiatrist was carrying a tote bag which she believed contained medicines and medical devices. Dev understands the nervousness on Michele’s face.
“Dev, where have you been? You left your mother alone and didn’t call me?” Michele protested as they entered the entrance hall at the same time.
“There’s Uncle Mehmet.”
“Mehmet?” Michele frowned slightly while Dev only glanced at the man. The figure they were talking about was in sight after Dev pressed the bell several times.
“What about mommy?” Dev asks Mehmet.
“Okay. By the way, do you want to check it out, Doctor Michele?”
“Yeah, sure. I have to make sure she’s okay right now.” Michele responds to his former patient. They walked up the stairs.
When Michele checked on Jess, the woman was still fast asleep. The room is quite spacious and has one long sofa and two single sofas equipped with a table. He then sat down to prepare the medicine.
“Jess is just exhausted. In fact, a few hour ago, she was in a bad condition. Sorry, Dev, I had doubts about you,” said Michele.
“I just gave a little of my energy.” Dev who was sitting by her mother’s side replied.
“How was your search?” Mehmet’s turn to ask.
“A little clue. I have two people to keep an eye on.”
“Who are they?” The two grown men asked in unison.
“They’re people who helped me once, but I failed to get one of they to talk.”
“I’m sure you can find them,” said Michele.
“Dev … I want to ask you something.” Mehmet changes position. From standing by Dev’s side, then dropping weights on the long sofa.
“Just ask!”
“Did you feel strange about your mother or your house?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“I got distracted while you were away.”
“What do you mean, Uncle?”
“A little girl sings strange lyrics and invites me to play, but she doesn’t show what she looks like. Just a magical voice.” Dev and Michele looked surprised.
“Before meeting you, we also experienced an unreasonable incident. It made the hospital lose two workers,” said Michele. Mehmet’s gaze immediately turned to Dev who was dissolved with all the question marks floating in his brain.
“I think all the distractions are on Jess.” Mehmet guessed and it made Michele smile briefly, then dismissed the guess.
“No … no! Jess is only depressed from the accumulated injuries she has suffered since … Look! That mystical thing we were going through had absolutely nothing to do with Jess.”
“That’s right, Doctor. The hurt she’s been feeling too much, all the realities she’s not ready to accept. Anger, sadness, and disappointment are possibilities that draw energy from another world.” Mehmet responded.
“What you’re saying is true, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Jess because we’re the ones experiencing the disturbance, not Jess!” countered Michele.
“But ….”
“That’s enough! You guys make my head hurt a lot,” concluded Dev. She got up from her seat, then took out some same pills to swallow.
“Hey! What are you drinking?” Dev ignores Michele’s question. Her forehead began to sweat and seemed to feel something painful. Her heavy legs dragged her out of the room.
“Where are you going?” Mehmet asks and again Dev ignore him.
“We shouldn’t argue in front of that kid. Dev is in a bad mood,” said Michele.
“Yes. I really regret it.”
Dev goes to the basement. In an empty room, she grimaced. Trying to hold back something that hurt her. Beads of sweat trickled down from her pores.
“Who exactly is that little devil? Now, she dares to terrorize the people around me?” Dev clenched her fists, then pointed them at the mirror that lined the walls of the room.
When her fist hit the target, what happened actually made Dev’s eyes widen. There were no cracks at all, but the glass was like the surface of water that would bump when touched.
“What’s this?” Dev touches the glass in front of her again with great curiosity.
“Pronto para morrer? Come here, follow me!” Dev growls hearing a ringing sound in ears.
The mirror wall that was still under her observation suddenly became a wave of water that slowly filled the room. It was loud enough to reach her ears.
Dev who can’t swim finally stutters. There is nothing to hold on to. The splash of water that came mysteriously toyed with her in such a way.
With all her might, she tried to fend off herself with her magic power, but the broken focus couldn’t help her. At the second when the water began to flow through her lungs, her tired eyes saw something appearing on the ceiling. It was a very gruesome show.
“E ….” The words she wanted to say mostly just stuck in her throat.