*CHAPTER 14: THE FiRST SUSPİCİON*

*CHAPTER 14: THE FIRST SUSPICION*

The courtyard of Adnan Menderes University. Noon. The sun is too bright, too fake.

_ÖMER - his voice low, but it cuts through everyone:_

"How did the Monster know that Kerem was going to Aydın?"

_Everyone fell silent. That question was like a cold bucket of water._

_A leaf fell. No one picked it up._

_ÖMER continued, looking at the ground, thinking out loud. He wasn't accusing yet, he was solving a puzzle._

"Remember what Haydarcan and Cenk said before they died. The creature can shapeshift. It can look like any of us."

_FURKAN tensed. His hand went to his pocket, looking for something to hold._

"So... are you saying... Beyza is the monster?"

The name fell like a bomb. Beyza, who was not there, suddenly felt present.

_ÖMER:_

"Is it impossible? Think. Last night at the hotel, I went to Beyza's room. You must've heard it too... that snoring last night. That inhuman, heavy snoring."

_HASAN nodded, his face pale, remembering:_

"Yeah. It was like a truck rumbling, right Buğra? The whole hallway was shaking. I thought it was you, Buğra."

_ÖMER:_

"Exactly. Last night I went to her room to tell her something important about the bus tickets. I don't usually bother people while they're sleeping, but it was urgent. I knocked. Once. Twice. Five times. Hard."

_He demonstrated knocking on the air._

"No matter how much I knocked... she just kept sleeping. Or... the tape kept playing."

_BUĞRA immediately defended her, stepping forward, his fists clenched:_

"Couldn't she just be tired? Come on Ömer, that's bullshit! There are tons of people who sleep heavy! Beyza was walking all day!"

_ERKAN took the floor, his voice trembling, he finally remembered something crucial:_

"When we got home that night... Kerem told us 'Beyza didn't come to school today.' Right? But then... when the lightning struck, me, Kerem, Beyza, Buğra, Aslıhan, Haydarcan, and Cenk hid near the security booth. When I said 'I'm going to Aydın to check', Kerem looked... scared. Like he saw a ghost. And as we were leaving the booth, Beyza touched Kerem's shoulder from behind and whispered something like 'I'm waiting' but I couldn't hear it clearly because of the rain."

_GİZEM slapped her leg, her eyes wide open, like a lightbulb went off in her paranoid mind._

"Right! Right! The monster definitely knew we were coming here! How else would it prepare the trap with Kerem?! I'm 100% sure Beyza is it! Remember yesterday? Who tricked us into going to Aydın by showing us that photo on her phone? Beyza! She must've gone to Aydın last night while we were all asleep and set everything up!"

_ASLIHAN blinked her left eye, a nervous tic, and trembled:_

"But how did it know Kerem was going to Aydın specifically? Why Kerem?"

_GİZEM, now fully in detective mode:_

"Simple. Remember what Erkan just said? When Erkan said he was going to Aydın, Kerem got scared. Something must've happened between them at the booth. The Monster probably tricked him with a message like 'Come to Aydın alone or I will kill Beyza.'"

_ÖMER - cold, piecing it all together:_

"It turned us against each other. It put Kerem in front of the door, tied up, so we'd find him easily. It knew we'd kill him because he was 'cursed'. It knew we were so scared we'd do the killing for it."

_BUĞRA, confused, heart vs mind:_

"But Beyza was at the hotel all last night! The receptionist saw her! How do we know if Beyza was really at the hotel or not?"

_ASLIHAN suddenly remembered, her voice a whisper:_

"Guys... this morning in Beyza's room... I went to borrow shampoo... it was like she was tearing something up quickly and throwing it in the trash. Paper pieces. And when she saw me, she hid her hands behind her back. Her hands were shaking."

_ÖMER - his eyes darkened:_

"A voice recorder. And torn paper. That damn Monster tricked all of us. It left a snoring recorder in the room and went to Aydın."

A heavy silence. Buğra looked down. He wanted to believe Beyza, but the evidence was too much.

_GİZEM - asks the question no one dared to ask:_

"My real question isn't that. Why doesn't this creature just kill us directly? It can teleport, it can become anyone. Why play these stupid games? Or why doesn't it just seal all of us right away and be done with it?"

_SİMGE - who had been silent the whole time, hugging her knees, finally spoke. Her voice was dead calm:_

"Entertainment. If it sealed all of us at once, we wouldn't kill each other. Because everyone would be cursed, no one would be 'clean'. But now... one of us is cursed, one of us is clean. So we turn on each other. That's more fun for it."

_ÖMER nodded slowly._

"That seems like the most logical theory. It doesn't want bodies. It wants us to destroy each other."

_ASLIHAN trembled, tears coming:_

"A psychopath. A complete, sadistic psychopath."

_HASAN looked at Mehmet, who had been unusually quiet, staring at the ground._

"Mehmet, why are you so quiet? You usually have a theory."

_MEHMET was thinking, his brows furrowed. He spoke slowly:_

"I was just thinking... The first person to claim the sealed ones were cursed was Beyza. Remember? In the classroom? She said 'Maybe the sealed ones bring the paranormal events.' Then, after she planted that idea in our heads... Beyza was also the one who stood against killing Kerem the most. She cried, she screamed 'Don't kill him!'"

_FURKAN's eyes widened, his mouth open:_

"So she pretended to be against killing him... to gain our trust? So we would think 'Oh Beyza is so innocent, so kind, she can't be the monster'?"

_MEHMET:_

"Looks like it. The perfect disguise."

_ÖMER - in a firm, final voice that left no room for doubt:_

"If the creature is Beyza, she's waiting for us inside the university right now. Because she knows we'll go in looking for clues. She's waiting."

_Right then, a soft, innocent girl's voice came from right behind them. Too close._

_BEYZA:_

"Guys? What are you talking about? I was looking for you everywhere..."

_Everyone jumped. Spun around._

_BUĞRA's face instantly relaxed, pure relief:_

"Beyza! Oh my god, Beyza! Where were you?!"

_ÖMER jumped in front of her, arm out, blocking Buğra. His face was stone._

"Stop Buğra! Don't forget you're talking to someone suspected of being the creature! Don't touch her!"

_BEYZA was shocked. Her eyes filled with tears instantly. She looked so small, so fragile._

"What do you mean Ömer? What creature? What are you talking about? I just went to get water..."

_ÖMER - cold, merciless, because he was scared:_

"Drop the innocent girl act. We know you went to Aydın last night."

_BEYZA started crying, real tears, shoulders shaking:_

"What creature? What Aydın? What are you talking about Ömer? You're scaring me!"

_BUĞRA stepped in front of Beyza, shielding her with his body, glaring at Ömer:_

"Ömer, don't go too hard on her. Look at her, she's already scared to death! Enough!"

_ÖMER shouted, pointing at her:_

"This girl is the monster! The devil! She's trying to turn us against each other! Wipe off those crocodile tears! Where were you last night, huh?!"

_Right then, the air behind them darkened. Not like a cloud. Like someone turned off the sun._

_The temperature dropped 10 degrees in a second._

_SCREAMS FILLED THE AIR. Everyone spun around._

_A BLACK FIGURE APPEARED. Taller than any of them. Its cloak touching the ground. No face, just a void. And a seal burning red on its forehead._

_ASLIHAN fell to her knees, hands clasped together, begging:_

"Please don't hurt us! I beg you! We didn't do anything!"

_Beyza clung to Buğra's arm so tight her nails drew blood. She was truly terrified._

_THE MONSTER - It looked at Buğra and Beyza hugging. Its voice was hoarse, like two voices at once, one old, one young._

"It’s true what they say... people wag their tails for whoever holds their leash. Even when the leash is made of lies."