*CHAPTER 17: ESCAPE FROM DEATH*

*CHAPTER 17: ESCAPE FROM DEATH - EXTENDED*
_A deep, unnatural silence had fallen over the class. It wasn't the silence of peace, of library. It was the silence after a bomb explodes, ears ringing, lungs full of dust, brain refusing to process._
_Buğra and Abdülkadir's bodies were still lying on the cold concrete ground, motionless, face down. Dust on their clothes, on their hair. One leg bent weird. No one was moving to help. No one dared to breathe, because breathing might trigger next trap. Everyone was waiting for the next nightmare to begin, frozen like deer in headlights._
_Then a muffled, broken voice tore through the air, cracking._
_Simge - her voice was trembling so hard she could barely speak, tears already streaming down her cheeks, dust mixing with tears making mud, crawling towards Buğra on knees:_ "Buğra... Abdülkadir... are you okay? Please, say something... Buğra, please..."
_No answer came. Only the wind, which shouldn't exist in this dead city, but wind came, cold wind carrying pine smell._
_Then the ground itself seemed to groan. Not metaphor, real groan, concrete cracking._
_The century-old pine tree next to the university - a tree that had been there for a hundred years, trunk thick as a car, roots deep as building, plaque on it says "1912" - shuddered. Its roots cracked the pavement with a deafening CRACK, pavement lifting like paper, tiles flying. It rose into the air as if ripped from its roots by an invisible giant hand, soil falling off roots like blood, tons of soil. For a few terrifying seconds, it defied gravity, hanging in the sky, 15 meters tall, casting a massive shadow over the entire class, blotting out crimson sun._
_Then... it fell. Slow at first, then fast, like falling god._
"GET DOWN! GET DOWN! TREE!"
_Screams. Not human screams, animal screams. A cloud of dust and soil exploded. The sound of a thousand breaking branches like bones snapping, like spine snapping, so loud ears hurt. Tree slammed onto concrete where class was standing 0.5 seconds ago. If Simge didn't shout, 5 would be dead._
_Aslıhan collapsed to her knees right under fallen branches, her hands over her head, glasses broken, sobbing uncontrollably, snot, tears:_
_ASLIHAN:_ "It's starting again... it's starting again... we're going to die here! We're all going to die! The statue, the pole, now tree! We're cursed! We're all cursed!"
_Mehmet, his face red with pure panic and rage, survival instinct kicking in, brain switching to caveman, gritted his teeth so hard jaw cracked. He grabbed a sharp, heavy stone from the ground, concrete piece, his knuckles white, looking at Simge and Beyza, because they are sealed? No, he forgot who is sealed, everyone suspect:_
_MEHMET - roaring, spitting:_ "Let's kill them! Before they kill us! Let's kill the sealed ones! Kill them all! Stone them! If they die, curse dies!"
_No one knew who "them" was anymore. Sealed? Beyza? Kerem? Everyone? The word "them" became empty._
*On The Roof - 20 meters above*
_Ahmet was watching everything from the slightly sloped, mossy tile roof of the university, old Adnan Menderes University roof, tiles loose. He had returned to his true form. Not student Ahmet, not victim Ahmet. His long black cloak swayed violently in the wind, even though no wind down there, wind only for him. His face pale, eyes black, no white. In his right pocket, his old metal watch, his father's watch, showed 12:56, but for some reason, the hour and minute hands weren't moving at all, stuck, ticking but not moving. Time was frozen for him. He was outside time._
_Inner Voice - Ahmet - calm, cold, like narrator of nature documentary watching ants kill each other:_
_"Just as I predicted. Humans are nothing but scumbags wearing a mask of kindness when they feel safe. 'We are friends', 'we love each other', 'we are class'... Lies. Sweet lies you tell to sleep at night. But when they smell death... When death breathes down their necks, when they see tree falling, when they see friend dead... The masks fall. Like cheap makeup in rain. Morality collapses like that tree. Their true faces are revealed. And their true face is ugly. Ugly and scared. Exactly like those who laughed at my letter in corridor. Exactly like Beyza when she said 'disgusting'. Same face. Same fear."_
_He smiled. But there was no joy in his smile. There was disappointment, and something like sadness that he wanted to prove wrong but couldn't._
_AHMET - whispering to wind:_ "Show me you are different. Just once. Show me one human who doesn't turn."
---
_As the thick dust cloud slowly cleared, coughing echoing everywhere, 12 people coughing, Simge still on ground holding Buğra's hand, Ömer stepped forward. While everyone was on the ground shaking, on knees, he was standing, legs shaking but standing. His eyes were burning with a different kind of anger. Not panic. Pure, focused rage, detective rage._
_ÖMER - voice loud, breaking silence:_ "You bastard Monster! This is your plan, isn't it? To turn us against each other! You don't have power to kill us directly so you make us kill each other! Show yourself, coward! Show yourself if you are man!"
_Gizem frowned, wiping dust from her face, her analytical mind, always analytical, trying to catch up, glasses dusty:_
_GIZEM:_ "What do you mean? What plan? Ömer what are you talking about?"
_Ömer clenched his fist so hard his nails drew blood, 4 crescent moons in palm:_
_ÖMER:_ "Why do you think that piece of trash doesn't kill us directly? Why doesn't he just seal us all at once and instead plays with us one by one like toys? Like cat plays with mouse? Why does he leave us alive after statue, after tree?"
_GIZEM:_ "Why? Why would he do that? Maybe he can't kill? Maybe seals need time?"
_ÖMER:_ "Because his purpose is not to kill. It's to have fun. To watch. To enjoy our circus."
_The class froze. That word "fun" was more terrifying than "kill". To be killed is human. To be toy is humiliating._
_İREM whispered quietly, her voice almost inaudible, hugging herself, knees to chest:_ "To have fun? We're... we're just a game to him? Like... like entertainment?"
_ÖMER - pacing now, in front of fallen tree, stepping over branches:_ "Think about it! What would happen if he sealed all of us at once? We'd all be like plague victims. We wouldn't even touch each other. We would just run away from each other, scatter. Game over fast. No fun. But now... we suspect each other. We are afraid of each other. We are fighting. We are ready to kill our own friends! We just tried to kill Buğra! That's exactly what the Monster wants. He is feeding on this! Our fear is his food!"
_Ömer narrowed his eyes, his gaze suddenly locking onto the spot where Beyza had been standing before tree fell, Beyza who disappeared for a second in dust:_
_ÖMER:_ "Also... isn't it strange that the Monster appeared right after we all started suspecting Beyza? After we started shouting at her? Timing too perfect. Like someone watching and saying 'now is time'."
_FURKAN jumped in, his voice cracking, remembering Beyza's strange behavior in hotel:_ "Then why did he take Beyza's form? Why not someone else? Why her? Why the nicest girl?"
_ÖMER - pointing finger at Furkan like lawyer:_ "The most loved girl in our class. Buğra's girlfriend. The sweetest one. The person who would arouse the least suspicion. If you want to hide a knife, you hide it in a bouquet of flowers. If you want to hide monster, you hide it in Beyza."
_A heavy silence. Everyone looked at Beyza, who was standing at edge, dusty, eyes wide, shaking head "no no it's not me"._
_Ömer continued, his voice getting faster, faster, like he is solving puzzle while running:_
_ÖMER:_ "Isn't it strange, the accidents that have happened so far? A roof tile, a lightning, a statue, a power pole, a tree, a window glass fell on us and nothing happened to any of us except for small scratches. A tree that should crush skull only scratches! If he really wanted us dead, we would be dead. That tree would have crushed our skulls! That bus will crush! He is not trying to kill! He is trying to make us believe!"
_GIZEM, putting her index finger on her chin, her eyes widening as she finally understood, Sherlock moment:_
"So you mean... his aim is not to kill us, but to make us believe the sealed ones are cursed and make us turn on each other? He wants us to do the killing for him? He wants us to become murderers like Haydarcan and Cenk case?"
_HASAN let out a nervous, hysterical laugh, trying to break the tension, because Ömer sounds too smart, too anime:_ "Bro... you've watched too much Ayanokoji. Classroom of the Elite? Bro chill."
_ERKAN added, just as pale, trying to joke:_ "Or Aizen. Sosuke Aizen. You've been watching Bleach."
_Ömer ignored them. He was staring at the ground where the tree had fallen, his mind racing, connecting 1256, seals, hotel writings._
_ÖMER - quiet now, serious:_ "Yes, and the sealed ones are not cursed at all, it just allows him to shapeshift. That's it. Seal is not curse, it's key. He marks, then he can become them."
_GIZEM:_ "How can you be so sure? Maybe he can do these paranormal events through the sealed people. Maybe they ARE cursed and he is using them as a remote control! Like voodoo! Maybe sealed are bomb!"
_Immediately after Gizem finished her words, as if answering her, as if Monster heard and said "oh you think remote control? Let me show remote control"._
_The old, rusted bus that the class used to get here, the blue Denizli-Aydın bus, which was standing silently at the entrance of the university, its engine dead, doors open, no driver, cold for hours... suddenly ROARED to life on its own. VROOOOM! Black smoke from exhaust._
_Headlights blinding, turning on by themselves, high beam._
_HASAN screamed, pointing:_ "IT'S MOVING! BUS MOVING! NO DRIVER!"
_The class scattered left and right in pure, animal panic, screaming, falling over each other, over tree branches. The bus accelerated insanely fast, with no driver, tires screeching, heading straight for İrem, who was at edge, slow._
_İREM froze. Her legs gave out, trauma freeze, eyes wide in headlights like deer._
_EVERYONE:_ "IREM, RUN! RUN! IREM!"
_Although İrem tried to run away out of breath, her shoes slipping on the dust and pine needles, she couldn't escape. The sound of screeching tires and a dull, sickening thud echoed across empty campus. THUD. Not loud, dull, like bag dropping. Bus hit her, carried her 2 meters, then stopped as suddenly as it started, engine dead again._
_Then, silence again. Thicker silence._
_Then, a very dense, ice-cold fog suddenly appeared around them out of nowhere, from ground, from trees, from bus exhaust, in seconds, no one could see anyone. 1 meter visibility. You couldn't see your own hand. Fog cold, wet, smelling of iron._
_Inside the fog, something... something with very long, thin, backwards-bending legs, like a spider's legs, like 3 meters long each, pale white, suddenly appeared right behind the class, silhouette huge, then disappeared in fog, fast._
_Someone, or something, breathed right next to Aslıhan's ear, cold breath, whispering in reverse Turkish, and Aslıhan fainted, falling into fog, eyes white._
_End of chapter..._