*CHAPTER 3 - Paranormal Events*

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*CHAPTER 3 - Paranormal Events - EXTENDED*
_At that moment Cenk shouted from behind, from the 3rd floor window, real Cenk, forehead burning:_ "Haydarcan, stop! It's not me! That's not me! Don't listen to it!"
_The Cenk standing next to Haydarcan on the 2nd floor landing suddenly froze. Then his silhouette shifted, like TV static, like glitch. Skin melted into shadow. The fake Cenk turned into a creature. Same 2.50 meter tall black, but now smiling, if shadow can smile. Its mouth opened too wide._
_Terrified, Haydarcan's knees gave out and he collapsed to the ground, ass on cold marble, crawling backwards, hitting wall._ "No no no no no!"
_While the monster was busy with Haydarcan, enjoying his fear like perfume, the real Cenk quickly ran, limping, to get out of the school. Down the stairs, 3rd to 2nd, 2nd to 1st, forehead seal burning like ice._
_Seeing Cenk run away downstairs, leaving him with monster, Haydarcan roared in rage, betrayal, same rage Cenk felt minutes ago:_ "Don't run, you bastard! Help me! CENK! HELP!"
_Cenk, halfway down, turned his head for a second, breathing hard, as if taking revenge, as if karma, said in a mocking tone, echoing:_
_CENK:_ "Isn't this déjà vu, Haydarcan? What goes around comes around. Deal with it yourself. You left me, I leave you. Fair."
_HAYDARCAN - begging, hands clasped, tears now:_ "Stop, don't go! Help me! Please man, we are friends since primary! Help me!"
_Cenk, as if to say "screw that", middle finger up, but voice breaking because he is also scared:_
_CENK:_ "Fuck off! Friends don't leave friends to die!"
_Leaving behind Haydarcan's dying cries and the monster's eerie shadow that now leaned over him, Cenk sped up his steps, almost falling down stairs. He was rushing down the stairs of the first floor like crazy, like a madman. His heart was pounding like it would burst out of his chest, thump thump thump in ears, and all he could hear was the ringing in his ears and his own breath._
_At that moment, under the old radiator in the corner by the wall on the stairs, first floor, near exit, a brown beaded object was glinting on the dusty marble. Small. Cheap. A girl's hair clip. Brown beads, a little rusty clasp. It was half under dust, but it caught light from window and glinted. Like it wanted to be found._
_But Cenk was in such blind panic, such animal panic, that he didn't even turn his head to look under the radiator. He had only one focus: that heavy iron exit door across from him, 5 meters away, with light behind it. Freedom._
_That hairpin, in the dim light, seemed to be holding some mysterious secret as it lay there on the marble, untouched for maybe months, maybe years, while Cenk slammed the door open with his shoulder, BOOM, and threw himself out into the cold air of the courtyard, falling to knees outside. He was drenched in sweat, couldn't catch his breath, seal on forehead pulsing cold._
_When he looked up, wiping sweat and tears, he came face to face with Beyza and Kerem, who were waiting for him right in front of the door, worried, plus Buğra and Erkan behind._
_BEYZA, with her usual worried, protective mask on her face, but eyes scanning his forehead immediately, stepped forward:_ "Are you okay, Cenk? Oh my god your forehead! What happened?"
_Cenk, breathless, his chest rising and falling rapidly, stared at the girl, angry that she asks stupid question._ "Do I _look_ okay? Do I look okay to you? I was just... thing... monster..."
_Kerem immediately stepped in, protective over Beyza, and walked up to Cenk, grabbing his arm to lift him._ "Don't shout at the girl, man! Chill! And... what's that on your forehead? Is that a devil drawing? What's up with that? Did you tattoo yourself inside? Is this a prank?"
_Cenk reflexively brought his hand to his forehead and felt that sneaky coldness on his skin, like touching cold metal, not skin. He flinched._ "It... the monster did it! It burned me! It sealed me!"
_The air was heavy. The sky had turned an ominous gray, darker than before, as if it was about to collapse on them, like a ceiling falling. It was like even the sky could feel the gloom of the situation, could feel that two people are now marked._
_BEYZA - voice low, asking, her voice... weird, trembling but something else:_ "Where's Haydarcan?" _Her eyes dart to school door._ "Cenk... was he inside before you came out? Was he with you?"
_Cenk swallowed. His throat was dry like desert. Avoiding their eyes, looking at ground, he spoke in a whisper, lying half:_ "He... the mon— he was behind me..."
_BEYZA - louder now:_ "Where is he, Cenk?!"
_Suddenly, an angry voice echoed through the yard, shattering the tension, full of dust and rage. Haydarcan burst out from the corner entrance, not the main door but side door, covered in dust and dirt, panting like dog, uniform torn. Rage had taken over his eyes, but also fear. The seal on his forehead was very different from Cenk's, glowing faint red. While Cenk had the presence of a mute devil on his forehead, mouth stitched, on Haydarcan's forehead there was a devil figure with a tongue that was long and eerily sticking out, down to bridge of nose, laughing._
_HAYDARCAN - roaring, pointing at Cenk:_ "Cenk! Cenk, where are you, son of a bitch?! You left me! You left me to die!"
_Cenk straightened his shoulders, trying to look tough despite pain, and said in that cold, mocking tone like a chilling wind:_ "Here I am." _There wasn't the slightest trace of regret in his voice, only defense._ "Is there a problem? You alive, right? So what's problem?"
_Haydarcan walked toward him like he was about to grab him by the collar, fists up._ "What the hell do you mean by leaving me behind? I was going to die in there! That thing touched me! Look at my forehead!"
_Cenk squinted one eye, trying to suppress the ache of the mute devil seal on his forehead which throbbed._ "I think you're the last person who should be asking that," _he said in an icy voice._ "I just imitated my master. I did exactly what you did. You left me first. So don't play victim."
_Something in Haydarcan tightened with guilt, he knew, but he didn't back down, because guilt feels like losing._
_HAYDARCAN:_ "There was nothing I could do there! It was giant! What should I do, punch it?!"
_Cenk laughed; but there was only hatred in that laugh, and pain._ "And I had plenty to do, huh? I should have fought 2.5 meter monster for you? Superhero?"
"Okay, everyone be quiet, please!" _Beyza cut in, standing between them like a wall, small but loud. Her eyes were wide with fear, looking at both seals._ "We should be figuring out how we got here and how to get out of this cursed place, not fighting! We are stuck! Can't you see we are stuck?!"
"Yeah, shut the fuck up!" _Kerem roared, head hurting from seals, from shouting._ "You're giving me a headache this early in the morning! My brain is already fried from teleport!"
_Cenk dropped the argument, breathing hard, touching seal._ "Where's the rest of the class? Where is everyone? We were 15."
_Right at that moment, as if answering him, as if school heard him, a sharp crack split from the roof of the old school building. CRACK. Like a gunshot. Like wood breaking._
_In that millisecond when the wind changed direction, a wind that wasn't there before suddenly blew, a huge, heavy roof tile, old Ottoman style, came loose from 5th floor roof and fell straight toward Beyza. Straight down. Whistling._
_Beyza froze, just standing there, eyes up, mouth open. She couldn't move. Trauma freeze._
_But before she could even realize what was happening, with an instant reflex, a sudden burst of speed—this 1.80m tall kid made his move. Buğra, who was silent until now, with the agility of a panther, of a footballer, grabbed Beyza by the shoulders and yanked her hard toward himself, spinning. As they rolled on the ground together, dust, that heavy tile slammed into the concrete floor where Beyza had just been standing and shattered with a loud crash, pieces flying. A cloud of dust and debris scattered, one piece cutting Beyza's ankle slightly._
_Everyone held their breath, frozen. Death had passed just a few centimeters from Beyza. If Buğra was half second late, her skull would be cracked._
_Lying against Buğra's chest, on ground, Beyza looked up with her chest heaving fast, dust on face. When her eyes met Buğra's green eyes, so close, his arms around her, her heart rate doubled, not from fear, from something else. She felt safe for first time since morning._ "You saved my life..." _she whispered, her voice shaking, holding his shirt._ "Thank you, Buğra. Thank you..."
_From behind, Erkan's usual sarcastic voice was heard, trying to break tension with joke, because he is scared:_ "Ooo... is this love or what? In middle of apocalypse, love blooms? Should I play music?"
_In an instant, the tension in the air dissipated, replaced by embarrassed laughter. Beyza quickly pulled herself away and stood up, her cheeks burning red, dusting herself._ "There's nothing like that!" _she snapped, but smiling small._ Buğra also turned his head away, hiding his flushed cheek, ears red, and muttered, "Don't be ridiculous, Erkan. Anyone would do same."
_Kerem spat angrily, jealous or just annoyed._ "Is this some romantic comedy play going on here? Are we going to die or make TikTok?"
_Brushing the dust off herself, checking ankle cut, Beyza took a deep breath, trying to be leader again._ "You guys... after a certain amount of time at the entrance... everyone went home. I mean disappeared... we waited... then we... we came back to gate when we heard shouting. We thought you died."
_Haydarcan covered the aching, long-tongued devil seal on his forehead, which now burned cold, like ice fire. He scanned his friends with his eyes, paranoid._ "So it's just the six of us? Great... So what the hell do we do now? We are cursed, school is haunted, tile falls from sky... what's next?"
_Buğra, having completely shaken off the shock, turned back to Cenk, serious._ "You... what exactly did you see in there? What happened to you? What is that seal? Does it hurt?"
_Cenk took a deep breath and began to tell them, one by one, about the horror made of flesh, bone, and sound that they encountered behind those mute walls in the dark corridors, about writing on board, about monster that copies. The air in the courtyard grew even colder as the story went on, wind picking up, despite no wind before. Sky darker._
_When the story ended, Haydarcan grinned sarcastically, still holding grudge._ "Are you gonna tell the part where you sold me out too, bro? You ran, huh? Even Usain Bolt would've clapped standing up, that's how you sprinted. Left me with devil tongue."
_Cenk's eyes darkened. He gritted his teeth, seal throbbing._ "Do you want me to tell the first part where _you_ sold me out and left me to die, Haydar? Huh? Do you? Want me to tell Beyza how you said 'you're on your own'?!"
_The tension turned back into a powder keg. Accusations were shooting out of both of their eyes. Kerem clenched his fists until they were torn, his veins bulging like they were about to burst._ "Don't you start again, I swear to god! Just shut up already! I will punch both of you!"
_Then Haydarcan continues to tell what happened, how monster pressed seal, how it whispered "you talked too much, now tongue out" and laughed._
_Then Kerem, with an expression as if lightning had struck in his brain, as if connecting dots, as if remembering something from that brown hairpin under radiator that he glimpsed when Cenk came out, says_ "Guys, Beyza..."
_He looks at Beyza's hair. Her hair is tied but one clip missing. Brown beaded._
_At that exact moment Beyza brings her index finger to her lips and makes a "shh" sign to Kerem, eyes wide, panicked, begging him not to speak. Her face goes white._
_KEREM - confused:_ "What? But your..."
_Right at that moment, lightning struck from the sky and hit right next to them, right where that roof tile shattered, so close their hair stood up, so loud their ears rang. BOOM! White light. Everyone screamed and fell to ground. The sky that had no clouds a second ago now cracked open._
_And in that flash of lightning, for a split second, they all saw it: on the 3rd floor window, the black figure, but now there were two of them. And they were waving._
_End of Chapter 3_