I'm a young guy on a scholarship studying in America.
My name is Faisal. All I cared about was my studies, really. I wanted to graduate from college with a high GPA and make my folks proud.
I was living in an apartment with a bunch of guys, and I considered them like brothers, maybe even more. We spent a lot of years together, and we had a good time. I liked all of them except for one guy...?
To be honest, I totally despised this one guy. And he knew I hated him and couldn't stand him, and he hated me too. Everybody knew we couldn't stand each other and we were always arguing and fighting over the dumbest stuff.
His name was Khalid, and he didn't pray or fast, and he also drank (alcohol). Man, I hated him and despised him.
And he was the reason for some of the trouble we got into. Every time I told the guys to just kick him out of the apartment, they wouldn't listen to me. They'd say, "We're all one, and nobody ditches anybody."
And they'd also say, "Just because you hate him doesn't mean we all have to."
And I just put up with seeing his face every single day.
Anyway... days went by, and there came a day when all the guys went out to hang out and have some fun, except for two of us. That was me, 'cause I was feeling a little under the weather, and the other was Khalid, the guy I hated, even though he was the one who suggested going out and he didn't go with 'em!
It was just him and me in the living room. I was on my laptop, and he was on his phone. I considered him invisible, like nobody else was even in the living room with me! And he was ignoring me too, so, you know, mutual feeling!
It was quiet between us, until Khalid broke the silence with a laugh... Then he stopped and just stared at me...?
I said to him, "What's up?"
He said, "Hey Faisooli, what do you say we go out together, hang out, have a good time, and be buddies?"
I said, kinda surprised, "Go out with you...?"
He said, "Yeah, why not..."
Honestly, I refused to go out with him, and he kept trying to talk me into it, swearing I had to go out with him. He kept saying, "Let's forget everything that happened between us, all the hate, and start fresh." He bugged me until I finally agreed to go out with him!
He was thrilled! I agreed, but I wasn't really sold on the idea.
Anyway... we left the apartment, and it was after dinner time. We had two cars that all of us guys shared. The guys had taken one, and the other one was there.
I got in the car with Khalid, and just then, one of the guys, his name was Ahmed, opened the car door and got in with us.
Ahmed said, "Whoa, you guys together? What's going on? How'd that happen...?"
I said, "You seein' this?"
Ahmed said, "No, seriously, what happened? You guys make up?"
Khalid said, annoyed, "Yeah, we made up! What's it to ya? And what'd you come back from the guys for anyway? C'mon, get out, we wanna go!"
Ahmed said, "Dude, what'd I do to make you mad at me? Besides, I got bored hanging with the guys and came back. But hey, it's cool you guys are going out, and I don't wanna be home by myself."
Khalid said, "Listen, just quit yakkin' and get out before I smack you with this can."
Ahmed said, "I'm not gettin' out of the car no matter what happens! And why don't you want me with you guys? Where are you headed?"
I said, "Nah, it's cool, come with us. Just ignore Khalid. Seems like he wants me to bail. And seriously, Khalid, if you get pissed off, I swear I'll hate you even more than I did before!"
Khalid said, "Alright, fine. And listen up, Ahmed, seriously, you'd better get out!"
Ahmed said, "Don't even try it, I'm not gettin' out!"
Khalid said, "Alright, you asked for it."
I was thinking to myself, "You asked for it." What did he mean by that?
Khalid started driving the car, and minute after minute, time just kept ticking by. We'd been driving for an hour.
I lost my patience and yelled, "Where the heck are you taking us?!"
Khalid said, real calm, "Just hold on a sec!"
So we waited and waited and waited... I checked my watch, and it was 1 AM.
Finally, Khalid stopped the car. But where'd he stop...? Some place that was just trees, no sign of life, totally deserted. Basically, it was a creepy place.
Finally, Khalid stopped the car. But where'd he stop?
Some place that was just trees, no sign of life, totally deserted. Basically, it was a creepy place.
................
Ahmed said, kinda ticked off, "Man, if you guys were comin' here, you should've told me! I wouldn't have bothered comin' with you. What a waste of a trip!"
I said, "Seriously, I didn't know he was bringing us here either, or I wouldn't have come."
Khalid said, "Pipe down, both of ya, and get out. You'll see this place is way cooler than those malls you guys hang out at!"
Me and Ahmed got out and started walking behind Khalid. And I gotta tell ya, this guy Ahmed was a total riot, loved laughin' and havin' a good time, even when it wasn't exactly the right moment. I was swatting away branches hitting me in the face, and Ahmed was singin'. Told ya, even at the wrong times.
Anyway... we kept walking behind Khalid, and it felt like forever. We were getting tired.
Ahmed yelled, "Dude, where the heck are you taking us? We're beat!"
Khalid said, "Almost there, almost there!"
A few minutes later, we got there. And the place was like a farm with a shack, and next to the shack was a super small house, so small I couldn't even stand up inside it. On the other side, there was a well. The whole place was deserted, no life anywhere. Everything about it told you nobody had lived there for years!
Khalid said, "Where's the flashlight?"
Ahmed said, "I dunno. And seriously, what is this place?"
Khalid said, "Hold on, let me run back and grab the flashlight from the car. I'll come back and tell you guys why I brought you here and what this place is."
And he took off running.
Ahmed started walking towards the shack.
I said, "Hey Ahmed, stick around here till Khalid gets back with the flashlight. This place is spooky. You never know, there might be snakes or scorpions."
Ahmed said, "Nah man, let me check it out."
And Ahmed kept walking towards the shack.
A nearby dam caught my eye, and I was curious what was behind it...?
While I was checking out the place, I heard a moan behind me. I spun around, looking left and right, but there was nobody there...
I said, "Khalid, is that you...?"
Just then, I heard Ahmed scream, and I whipped my head around towards the shack. And I saw a whole bunch of bats flying out...?
I freaked out and my limbs felt frozen with terror.
I took a deep breath and ran towards the shack and stood in front of it. I looked around, left and right. I yelled out, "Ahmed! Hey Ahmed, where are you?" I didn't get any answer. My heart was poundin' from fear, I couldn't even breathe. It was dark, I was alone, scared... That was the situation.
Terror had a hold of me, but... my spirit came back the moment I heard Ahmed's voice in pain.
He sounded like he was hurt by something, but I was just happy I heard his voice. I followed the sound till I reached that tiny house next to the shack. I lowered my head and looked, and this house was actually an entrance going down. There was a ladder going down.
And I could hear Ahmed moaning down there... I yelled, "Ahmed! Can you hear me?!"
Ahmed's painful sounds were still there, but he didn't answer me...
I thought about going down, but... the look of the place spooked me.
I sighed and started trying to go down, but... something inside me was telling me, "Don't go down." While I was thinking, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around scared, and it was... a little girl, fair-skinned with long black hair, wearing a black dress as black as night. She had a little red bag with her, and her big black eyes were full of tears. She whispered sadly to me, "What are you looking for?"
I didn't answer her and just kept thinking where she came from, and why was she crying?
She looked at me with clear sadness and pain and said, the tears racing her words, "Are you looking for your friend, like I looked for my grandfather?" This made me nervous, and I asked myself, "How did she know I was looking for Ahmed, and what's the deal with her grandfather?"
I said, sadly and feeling sorry for her, "Where's your grandfather...?"
She told me, "He went far away, very far away."
This girl was starting to freak me out??
I said, "He'll come back, don't worry. But what's your name...?"
She told me, "Wafaa. That's the name my grandfather chose for me!"
I said, "Okay. Where are your mom and dad...?"
She told me in a spooky way, "I don't have a mother or father. I have my grandfather, and he's gone!"
I thought maybe she was an orphan and her grandfather had passed away, but what was her story, and what was she doing in a place like this...?
I said, trying to get rid of her 'cause I was starting to get scared of her, "Okay, I'm going down there!"
She shook her head and turned and started walking towards that dam that had caught my eye earlier. I watched her till she went around the dam and I couldn't see her anymore.
I went back to what I was doing, but this time the sound was gone. Ahmed's painful sound was gone, his moaning sound was gone.
I went back to what I was doing, but this time the sound was gone. Ahmed's painful sound was gone, his moaning sound was gone.
...............
I just put my trust in God and went down... Man, it was a long, long ladder. It took me a while to get to the bottom. Finally, I made it. It was like a room, not big, not small, just medium size, totally dark. The walls were made of mud, and the wooden doors were pretty much busted. It looked weird and creepy, like a bad omen. I didn't take a single step. I just stood there by the ladder, looking around. I tried to move 'cause the ladder was on the right side of the room and I couldn't see the left side.
I started walking and turned to see the rest of the room, and the shocker? Ahmed was on the ground. I ran over to him and started shaking him. "Ahmed... Ahmed!" I gave him a couple of light slaps and put his head on my lap and tried to wake him up. A minute later, I saw him open his eyes.
He said, kinda groggy, "Faisal, is that you...?"
I said, "Yeah, it's me, Faisal. What happened to you?"
He got up off my lap and stood up on his own two feet. He held out his hand and said, "Faisal, we gotta get outta this place fast!"
I just stared at his hand and then at his face, totally confused...?
He yelled at me, pissed off, "I said, FAST!"
It was the first time I'd ever seen him that mad. I was used to seeing him laugh and smile all the time, no matter what happened, he never got mad.
I grabbed his hand and walked with him, and we got outta that place. We got up top, and I was walking behind Ahmed as he got away from the shack. Then he stopped and turned around to me and said, all worked up, "Where's that jerk Khalid?"
"Oh yeah, I totally forgot about Khalid."
I said, "Honestly, I dunno!"
He started yelling at me, "God take you and Khalid for bringing us to a place like this...!"
I said, "What's that got to do with me? Seriously, I didn't tell him to bring us here!"
He said, "I figured out you're clueless, Faisal! You guys haven't gotten along for years, and all of a sudden he comes and says, 'Let's be buddies,' and takes you to a place like this? Don't you think? Khalid ditched us! I hope God takes his soul!"
I was totally spaced out right there. I'd never in my life thought Khalid would do something that awful. Now I knew why he kept trying to get Ahmed out of the car and why he told him, "You asked for it."
While I was thinking, Ahmed sat down on the ground and started crying. Yeah, crying?
I sat down next to him and put my arm around him and said, "Why are you crying, Ahmed? We've never seen you like this."
He said, trying to wipe away his tears, "You didn't see what I saw. You didn't see anything? This place isn't just a farm with a shack, and a tiny house next to it, and a well. This place is WAY, WAY bigger than that! I saw something in this place you wouldn't even imagine. This place, and this place is..." And he trailed off, just staring at the place with fear and sadness.
Then he got up from next to me and stood in front of me and said, "So what do we do now...?"
I looked at him, feeling hopeless. Minute after minute, we were just standing there. And then I heard that same moaning sound behind me again. I jumped up and looked behind me, left, right, up, down. Nobody was there?
Ahmed said, "What's up?"
I said, "Do you hear that sound?"
And it kept getting louder, like it was getting closer?
He told me, "No, I don't hear anything!"
I yelled, "Oh my God!"
Then the whole place went silent...
Time went by, and kept going, and the fear of the place kept growing, even the sound of the wind was scary.
Then I turned and started looking at that dam again. That's when I saw something. Something moving faster, faster, faster than you could imagine. It was black. I shook Ahmed while I was looking at the dam. He wasn't paying attention to me. I turned my head to see what Ahmed was doing, but... he was standing there with his mouth open, staring towards the shack. I turned to see what Ahmed was looking at, and that's when... my limbs froze and terror took over. It was a person, really TALL, black, with red eyes. It was staring at us, standing by the shack.
This time it was staring specifically at me. Right then, I kinda lost it and gave Ahmed the hardest slap I could. Ahmed jumped like he'd been asleep, and he looked at me all surprised.
I grabbed his hand, and he didn't want to move.
Then he turned his face towards the shack and saw that terrifying person. That's when Ahmed freaked out and took off running, and I ran after him.
We ran back the same way we came, through the trees covering the path. We ran and ran, but something stopped us...?
A small boy stood in front of us and let out a death scream, and then he jumped on Ahmed and knocked him down. And he started whispering in Ahmed's ear, and Ahmed was screaming.
I didn't help him? 'Cause I felt a hand grab mine.
And it was COLD. I turned, and it was that little girl, but this time her neck was bleeding and she had scratches and wounds on her. I yanked my hand away and fell to the ground. The girl yelled in my face and said, "Don't even try! Your friend is ours!!"
("What do you mean, your friend is ours?")
I turned to see where Ahmed was, but he was... he was standing there, looking at me with anger, and that boy was gone. I turned to see the girl, but she was gone too. I got up and went over to Ahmed and said, "Ahmed, we gotta get outta here!" He looked at me with a weird look and said, "You go!"
I yelled in his face, "What's up with you? Are you crazy?!"
He laughed and said, "I'm not leaving here, this place is my home!"
And he left me and walked towards the shack.
He laughed and said, "I'm not leaving here, this place is my home!"
And he left me and walked towards the shack.
................
They had a hold of Ahmed, and what was I gonna do? Go back and get him? But how? Or should I just leave and bail on him? I didn't think about it for long. I decided to get outta that place.
I walked through the trees for a long time. Finally, I got to the spot where Khalid had parked the car.
But of course, Khalid and the car weren't there anymore. I walked along the road we came on, but going the other way, just to get outta that creepy place. As I walked, I checked my watch, and it was 3 AM. That meant two hours had passed since we got there. I kept walking. The place was dark, and the wind was blowing hard. I walked and walked, until I started seeing light... Yeah, the streetlights, and cars going back and forth. I wasn't sure what to do. Okay, I got outta that cursed place, but where do I go? Khalid took us way out here. Even this highway, this street, this whole area, I'd never seen it before since I came to this country, and I've been living here for years.
I flagged down a car, and there was a young guy and his dad in it. I asked the guy if he knew a certain street in a certain neighborhood, and he said he did, which was great, but it was far away.
Anyway... they agreed to give me a ride. They were Americans, of course. The young guy started driving, and I just kept looking back at the place I came from, that cursed place. The old man saw me and said, speaking English, "What are you looking at...?"
I said, "At that place!" And I pointed at it.
He said to me, "Do you know what that place is, and why it's deserted while the road next to it is full of people...?"
I said, "No, I don't know, but I went in there and found a farm!"
He said, "Did you run into anything?"
I said, "Like what?"
He said, "Did you see anyone, or were you spoken to by strange people and children...?"
I was shocked by what the old man said, and I said, lying of course, "No, but what's the story of the children and the strange people, and the whole farm?"
The old man said, "Many years ago, there was an old sorcerer in that farm. He used to live with friends from the Jinn, and his human friends rarely visited him. His wife passed away when she was young, and they only had one son.
His son got married years ago and had two children, a boy and a girl. He used to visit his old father at the farm constantly, and his father loved him very much and loved his two grandchildren.
One time, his son left his children with his old father and went with his wife out of the country. A few days after they left, the old man got the news that his son and his wife had died in a car accident. He was very sad because he loved his son deeply. So he was the one who raised his two grandchildren, and he treated them kindly and with love. Everyone who visited him said he was the best grandfather.
He lived with his two grandchildren and his friends from the Jinn. And he let his grandchildren get to know the Jinn, and they became their friends too.
One day, the grandfather died during one of his rare meetings with his human friends. So they decided to bury him next to his farm and put a dam around his grave. Before they buried him, they told the two grandchildren that their grandfather had left.
They cried and screamed and refused to go bury their grandfather and stayed in the shack.
The people went to the burial, and after they finished burying him, they went to see the two children to decide if they would go to an orphanage or if someone would adopt them.
But... they found them dead in their grandfather's room. The girl's neck was full of scratches and knife wounds, which caused severe bleeding that led to her death. As for the boy, after the examination, they discovered he died from suffocation, and there were marks from his sister's hand on his neck.
And they found a piece of paper on the grandfather's bed, and it said, "My sister and I are going to kill ourselves because our grandfather was everything in our lives, and he is gone, so what do we want after him?"
And they buried them next to their grandfather.
The old man stopped, and then continued, "Many people said that after the death of the grandfather and the two children, the spirits of the two children took over the place. And they might take revenge on anyone who enters that farm. Everyone who went there came back either crazy or they would come back later and commit suicide."
I said, "Okay. Did anyone go in there and get taken by the children...?"
The old man said, "No one ever went in there without coming back. But they come back to commit suicide or to live in a room with a bunch of crazy people."
The old man was quiet after that, then said, "I can't believe you went into that place?"
I said, "Why?"
The old man said, "Nobody goes in and comes back okay. Did you do something specific for them to leave you alone?"
I said, "No!"
He said, "That's strange!"
After that, we finished the trip in silence.
We finally arrived, and I thanked them very, very much.
And I got out fast. I ran until I got in front of the apartment. And before I could knock on the door, I felt dizzy, and that's the last thing I remember.
I woke up, and I was in the living room, and the guys were moving around. One of the guys saw me and yelled, "Hey guys! Faisal's up!"
They all crowded around me, asking what happened, what was wrong, how did it happen. I wasn't really processing anything, and I didn't really focus until one of the guys said,
"Where's Ahmed?"
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