*CHAPTER 6: CORPSES THAT APPEARED SUDDENLY*

*WARNING:*

Although some locations and institutions in this work are real, the events and characters are fictional and are not based on any reality. No institution is being defamed. This is fiction.

*CHAPTER 6: CORPSES THAT APPEARED SUDDENLY - EXTENDED*

_The noon sun was scorching the stones of Çınar Square. You could fry an egg on the marble, and some kid actually tried last summer._

_The sky was completely clear. No clouds. No wind. Not even a pigeon fart. The blue of the sky was so bright, so fake blue, it hurt your eyes to look up. Like a painted ceiling._

_Time: 12:39 PM. Thursday. Market day._

_Kids were running after the ice cream cart, shouting "dondurmacı abi dondurmacı abi!". The cart's bell ding-ding-ding. Aunties were gossiping on their way back from the Thursday market, bags full of tomatoes and peppers, complaining about prices. Young people were taking selfies in front of the big rooster statue, laughing, duck face. A normal, boring, beautiful Denizli day. Everyone was alive. Everyone was bored. Everyone wanted something interesting to happen._

_Until... two bodies collapsed in front of the marble steps of İş Bankası._

_Not fell. Not tripped. Collapsed. Like they were dropped from the 10th floor, but there is no 10th floor. Like they were thrown out of reality itself._

_THUD. THUD. Two wet, heavy sounds. One after another. So close together it sounded like one._

_The first scream came not from a woman, but from the old security guard at the bank door. 60 years old, belly big, drinking tea from a small glass._

_He was about to sip. He saw from corner of his eye: empty stairs. Blinked. Two kids on ground._

_At first he couldn't understand what was happening. Brain couldn't process. Two young kids. In school uniforms. Kazım Kaynak uniforms. On the ground. Face down. Arms twisted weird. Motionless. Blood spreading on the white marble like spilled paint, so fast, so red, hissing from heat._

_As he got closer, dropping his tea, his stomach turned upside down. Their faces were turned sideways. Eyes open. He knew those faces. He'd seen them on the local news every night for a week. On missing posters taped to the square's poles, now faded by sun._

_Haydarcan. Cenk. Class 11/C. Missing since last Tuesday. The kids everyone thought ran away to Istanbul._

"Oh... Oh my God... Allahım... çocuklar..." he whispered, his tea glass shattering on the ground, tea mixing with blood.

_Within 30 seconds the front of the bank was filled. Not with people, with a crowd. A hungry, curious, scared crowd that forms in Turkey in 10 seconds if someone falls._

_Mothers hid their children behind their long skirts, hands over their children's eyes and their own mouths. "Bakma yavrum bakma!". Young people took out their phones and started recording instantly, flash on, vertical video, shouting "Abi çek çek!". Aunties started chanting "Bismillah, Bismillah, nazar değdi, kem göz" loudly, as if prayer could rewind time._

_The air smelled of blood - metallic, hot - plus hot sweat, cheap perfume, simit grease, and pure panic. The ice cream cart stopped ringing. The ice cream man just stared, ice cream melting, dripping on his hand._

_At that moment a police patrol car sped into the square with sirens screaming WEE-WOO WEE-WOO, tires screeching on marble, scattering pigeons that were pecking at crumbs near the bodies. Now pigeons flew over blood._

_Doors slammed open. Two police officers ran out, hands on guns, but guns useless here._

_One bent down, two fingers on the neck, checking for a pulse. His fingers got bloody. Nothing. Cold. Already cold, even though sun is scorching. He looked at other officer and shook his head slowly. Dead for hours, maybe days, but appeared now._

_The other raised his radio, his voice shaking, trying to be professional but failing, everyone hearing him:_

_POLICE:_ "Dispatch! Code 19-84! I repeat, 19-84! 2 deceased! Juveniles! ID matches missing case 11/C! Location: Denizli Çınar Square, in front of İş Bank! Need ambulance and crime scene ASAP! Now! And... and bring extra units, crowd control! Crowd is huge!"

_The crowd kept growing, pushing against each other to see, phones up. Everyone had one question in their mind, but no one dared to say it loud, only whispers: How did these bodies get here? One second empty, next second there. Did they fall from sky? Did someone throw them?_

_Police put up yellow tape. "Stay back! Geri çekilin! Olay yeri! Çekilin!" they shouted, pushing people, but people pushed back to see._

_Then they stormed into the bank manager's office, almost breaking the glass door. Manager was eating lunch, beans._

_On the monitor it showed: 12:40:59 PM. The front steps. Empty. Sun shining. A cat passes._

_Next frame: 12:41:00 PM._

_Two bodies. Just there. Like a glitch in a video game. Like someone copy-pasted them._

_Between them: 1 second. 1 frame. 0 to 2 bodies. No walk, no car, no throw._

_The young police officer leaned toward the screen, his face close to the dusty monitor, breath fogging it. Squinted. Rewound. Played again in 0.25x speed. His hand shaking on mouse._

_Empty. Empty. Empty. Flicker - black frame for 0.01 sec. Bodies._

_Wait. In that black flicker..._

_A shadow. In that single flicker frame. A blurry human-like silhouette, too tall, too thin, with arms that were too long, like spider legs. It appeared for 1 frame and vanished. Holding something in each hand. Like holding two bags. Or two bodies._

_YOUNG POLICE:_ His voice dropped to a whisper, cold sweat on his forehead, pointing at screen, stammering: "What the hell is that... abi... is that a ghost? Did you see? Did you see its arms? Abi that's not human!"

_SENIOR POLICE:_ Older, 25 years on job, seen everything, but never this. He grabbed the young one's arm hard, nails digging, and turned the monitor off violently. His face was pale white, like paper.

"Shut up. Shut your fucking mouth. You saw nothing. Dust. Camera dust. I'm calling the manager. If this footage leaks to the media the whole country will go crazy. Families will burn this city down. You want to be responsible?"

---

_The phone rang, loud in a dark, cool bedroom with curtains closed._

_DIRECTOR MEHMET_ jolted awake from his afternoon nap, sweating, heart attack feeling.

"Hello? What? Who? Speak!"

_SENIOR POLICE:_ "Director. It's urgent. You need to come. Çınar Square. Now. Don't bring driver, come alone."

_DIRECTOR:_ Still sleepy, pants on chair: "What happened? A robbery? A bomb? Tell me!"

_The police officer's voice dropped, looking at the door to make sure bank manager's secretary didn't listen, whispering:_

"Sir... the footage came out. The two kids from 11/C. But... but there are paranormal things in it. Things we can't explain. Things that shouldn't be on camera."

_2 seconds of dead silence on the phone. Only AC humming._

_DIRECTOR'S_ voice turned to ice, all sleep gone, sitting up straight: "What paranormal crap? Are you high on duty? Are you drunk? Speak properly, officer! What did you see?!"

_POLICE:_ "Can't talk about it on the phone, sir. It's not safe. Phones are tapped. Should we inform the Governor too? And the Prosecutor? This is bigger than us."

_DIRECTOR:_ "I'll be there in 10 minutes. No one talks. No one enters that room. Seal the room. Lock the door. Turn off internet. I'll call the Prosecutor myself. Nobody sees that footage. Do you understand? Nobody. If one journalist sees it, your career is over. Mine too."

_The phone hung up with a beep._

_As the Director jumped out of bed, putting his pants on backwards, zipping wrong, only one thing was on his mind: 11/C. Those damned kids again. This case will end my career, my pension, everything. Since they went missing, my phone never stops._

---

_10 minutes later. Sirens off, black cars._

_The Governor, the Prosecutor, the Director. All three walked into the bank, faces stone, surrounded by bodyguards in sunglasses. The crowd parted like Red Sea. Whispers._

_Outside: journalists had already arrived like sharks smelling blood. 4 channels, 10 phones, microphones, cameras, shouting, pushing._

_JOURNALIST 1:_ "Sir, Governor! What did the security cameras show? Is it true they teleported? Is it ghosts? Aliens? Is it FETÖ? Is it true they appeared out of thin air?"

_GOVERNOR_ turned to the mics. Practiced smile. Face like stone, voice like a father scolding children, but calm:

"Don't believe these baseless theories, my dear citizens. There are no ghosts, no aliens. Don't be fooled by social media provocateurs.

This is the work of ill-intentioned people trying to rile up the public and damage our city's peace and tourism.

We have a professional, cold-blooded serial killer as our prime suspect. A very clever one who knows camera blind spots. We will catch them very soon. Trust your state. Go home."

_JOURNALIST 2:_ "But sir, 2 bodies from 11/C appeared at once out of thin air. Witnesses say 1 second. Isn't that abnormal? How do you explain 1 frame?"

_GOVERNOR:_ "As I said before. This is a serial killer's act. A very clever one. He left them there to scare you. He used a trick. Smoke bomb. We found smoke residue. Our job is to bring him to justice. That's all. No more questions. Disperse."

_The three pushed through the crowd and went inside. The bank shutters closed with a loud RATTLE, locking journalists out._

_Security room. Small, hot, smells of cigarettes and fear. Monitor on. AC broken._

_Time: 12:40:59. Empty. Sun. Then bodies. Governor watched it once. Just once. His hand gripped chair._

_GOVERNOR_ whispered: "No way... This is impossible... This is..."

_PROSECUTOR:_ His hand shaking, closing the laptop fast, as if image would infect him: "Governor. This footage must not reach the media. Not ever. If it does, the country will be in chaos. People will think it's judgment day. Mosques will be full, markets empty."

_03:18 AM. Police Headquarters. Interrogation room, no windows._

_The room was pitch black. Only the monitor was on, showing that 1 frame again and again on loop. That tall shadow._

_GOVERNOR:_ "How many people saw it? Tell me the truth. Don't lie to me. How many?"

_POLICE:_ Counting with fingers, scared, sweating: "Me, the young officer, the bank manager... and you all. 6 people, sir. Only 6. And the security guard but he didn't see monitor, only bodies."

_PROSECUTOR_ took notes, his pen scratching loud: "6 people. Too many. 6 is too many. 2 is too many."

_GOVERNOR_ looked at everyone in the dark room, one by one, his eyes glowing from the monitor light, like a devil himself.

"6 people will stay silent. Like graves. Like you are already dead. Anyone who talks... anyone who leaks one photo, one frame, one whisper to his wife... will be declared a traitor to the nation and an enemy of the state. FETÖ. I will personally make sure you never work again. Your kids won't go to school. Understand?"

_Silence. Everyone nodded fast. Young officer cried silently._

_He took the USB stick that had the backup. Smashed it on the table with a heavy glass ashtray, again and again, and threw broken pieces in the trash, poured tea on it. CRACK - Vrrr - sssss._

_Then he stood up, fixed his tie, smiled again._

_GOVERNOR:_ "In a few days we'll say we caught the killer in a conflict outside the city, near Honaz mountain, and closed the file. Heroic police work. Medal.

We're still following the trail of the missing students. We'll pay generous compensation to the families. 50k each. The case is closed. People want closure, not truth."

_PROSECUTOR:_ Nodding fast: "We'll tell the media it was a serial killer, Governor. State secret. National security. No one questions national security."

_GOVERNOR:_ With a cold, tired smile: "Tomorrow we'll raise gas and tomato prices a little, 2 lira, and also make Bahçefener champions with a fixed match against Saryer. 3-2 comeback. Everyone will talk about that. They love football and hate expensive tomatoes. No one will even think of 11/C anymore. Trust me. I've done this 20 years."

---

_PROSECUTOR_, worried, whispering after everyone left, only two of them left:

"Sir... if we do this cover-up, we will lose the people's vote in the next election... They will say we hid truth..."

_GOVERNOR_, with a cold expression, looking out the window at the empty, sleeping city that has no idea:

"Don't worry. Tomorrow we'll show 1980s-1990s Turkey on every television channel. All day. Black and white.

Back then, you couldn't even find gasoline or tomatoes. Queues for miles. No internet. No phones. People were poor and sad.

But look at now. Gasoline everywhere. Tomatoes everywhere. We have everything. Roads, bridges.

We brought abundance and prosperity to this country. They will thank us. They will kiss our hands."

_The room fell silent. The monitor turned off. The shadow frame burned in their retinas even after off._

__PROSECUTOR_:_

"So, sir, what are we going to do about the SarayGalata faction? They are bound to make a lot of noise about this. They have newspapers."

_GOVERNOR_ with a mocking smile, counting money in his head, opening safe:

"We'll slip 10-20 million euros into their pockets. Quietly. In a black bag. They won't make a sound. Money is sweet. Everyone has a price. Even opposition has a price. Especially opposition."

_The lights went out completely. The city outside continued to eat ice cream._

---

_3 DAYS LATER_

_TV, loud in every cafe, every barber shop: FLASH! 11/C SERIAL KILLER KILLED IN ARMED CONFLICT! JUSTICE SERVED! HERO POLICE!_

_TV, next hour: GOVERNOR'S OFFICE: SEARCH FOR OTHER MISSING STUDENTS CONTINUES WITH FULL SPEED - STATE WITH FAMILIES_

_Ticker at bottom, small, fast: COMPENSATION OF 50,000 TL PAID TO FAMILIES OF DECEASED STUDENTS - GOVERNOR'S KINDNESS_

_Twitter trended for 2 days. #11C #CinarMeydani #HaydarcanCenk_

_Then - on day 3 - new trend, bought: BAHÇEFENER CHAMPIONS! 3-2 COMEBACK! REFEREE SCANDAL! VAR!_

_No one asked about 11/C after that. No one remembered the 1 frame shadow._

_Except 11 kids in a cheap hotel in Denizli who knew the truth: the bodies didn't come from Honaz mountain. They came from somewhere else. Somewhere with no sky._

_[END OF CHAPTER 6]_