Chapter 7: A Giant Tree
1410 Words
Jassem and Ahlem returned to the main hall, and everything was much cleaner and tidier. They found the eighteen others busy talking and looking at their phones, attempting to make phone calls.
"No use. There's no service up here." Menyar seemed anxious.
"That's normal. This place seems completely disconnected from civilization." Youssef sighed. "I wonder when we will get out of here."
"I want to tell you something that happened to my brother and me first." Jassem started speaking, keeping a serious face. "We didn't want to tell anyone about this at first, but now we feel like it might be related to what happened."
Shadi looked away, hardly interested in what Jassem was about to say. He lay on his side on a nearby couch and watched Jassem in silence.
The black-haired continued talking. "When we were on our way to the cinema, we met a strange man. His looks and clothes were regular, but his eyes were shining like stars, grey and hypnotic. His smell was also overwhelming. It smelled like musk, but not really. It was fragrant and… beautiful. He was carrying a strange letter. The letter was addressed to someone called Jibreel. The man had a peculiar behaviour. We were fighting in front of him, and Shadi even insulted him, and he didn't react. He even smiled. In the end, he said something like "the number is complete" and walked away. I tried to chase after him but couldn't find him. For some reason, that made me very anxious." Jassem glanced down at his hands, and they were shaking. "It's like the man was right in front of me, and I couldn't reach him. It was very frustrating, and I could only scream it out."
"Describe the man again." Zain seemed serious for once. "You said he had grey eyes that shine like stars, and everything else was normal. He wore clothes just like us, and he was just like us. He also had a powerful, pleasant smell similar to musk."
Jassem nodded.
"I assume he also spoke our language, not a foreign language," Wassim asked, getting increasingly curious in the matter.
"Indeed, he spoke very fluently. It was as if he spent his whole life in Tunisia." Ja ssem answered.
They all exchanged glances and fell silent.
Fahd smirked. "This is crazy. I had a similar experience. Who's this man?"
"A man… Was he a man?" Ahlem asked, and they all glanced at her. She glanced at Jassem. "You said the man disappeared when you tried to chase after him, but you could still feel his presence."
"Let us not rush to superstitious conclusions." Youssef seemed annoyed. "There must be a logical explanation."
"How did you meet him?" Rahma asked him. "Was it a normal meeting?"
"Wait… So my theory is correct." Jassem interjected. "All twenty of us met a man who looks and behaves the way I described. All of us?"
They all nodded.
"As for how I met him," Youssef continued, "I was running to catch after the bus and ran into him. It can happen to anyone. Indeed, I saw the letter that said "Dear Jibreel", but I thought maybe he's just into some weird fetish," he paused, "I gave him his letter and saw the bus leaving from far away. I got a bit discouraged because I would miss class, but I wasn't that motivated to go anyway. It was no big deal. I looked at the man and asked him who the receiver of the letter was. He said it was the sender that mattered more, and it didn't make sense to me. He smiled and left. When I looked behind me to talk to him more, he was gone."
"See?!" Ahlem sighed. "He can't just disappear!"
"There was a small dark alley next to me. He could have easily gone there. I hate narrow places, so I didn't go to check." Youssef quickly added. "I don't want to jump to conclusions. Stop talking about your ghost stories, please. We're clearly not in the mood for that."
"I assume we all met this man in different places and different times, but the circumstances are the same?" Talal asked, a bit disturbed.
They all nodded.
"While we're at it, I have something I want to share." Shadi stood up. "When the car or whatever was headed my way, there was no driver at first. When I tried to quit, I couldn't. The person who saved me was a blue-haired man. I couldn't see his face, but his voice was gentle and caring. When Jassem came to help me, the man was gone, and the car had a driver. It's as if nothing happened, and I met nobody."
They exchanged confused glances.
"The movie… It wasn't on the homepage of the cinema. Nobody was asking about it." Dina started theorizing. "Nobody knew… about the movie. Only the twenty of us knew!" Her eyes widened. "I asked all of my friends to come with me to watch it, and they said there was no broadcast of the movie, and they thought I was joking."
"Same here." Harun nodded. "I wanted to bring my neighbour, but he said it wasn't true."
"But I was certain that I saw the movie once in the programme," Joud frowned, "And… nobody else did…"
"The announcement for the movie disappeared when…"
Ahlem glanced at Jassem. "When the man met you. Before you got to me, I could still view the announcement on the website, but after you came to meet me, it disappeared. That means… When the man said you're last, there's some number they needed to reach. When they reached it, the announcement disappeared."
"This makes sense to me." Dina nodded.
"Same," Shadi shrugged. "Why not?"
"Yeah, I agree," Youssef added.
"And then… When one of us wanted to bail out of this, he almost got killed as a warning?" Rahma narrowed her eyes. "That's a bit brutal."
"I didn't almost get killed." Shadi objected. "The car wasn't even close. It's just the feeling, that's all. And then… that blue-haired saved me. He didn't threaten me."
"Well, it's the same. That feeling of danger can be considered as a warning, maybe by those who set this… whole charade. I assume if you returned home anyway, nothing would have happened, but you chose to stay. Here you are."
"After we all gathered in the same spot, the man with the white clothes came to tell us where to go. I don't know if you noticed, but that alley we used was completely deserted. I didn't see other humans there. It was just the man with the white clothes who came out of there, and he was so… jaded and… unwelcoming. Not scary, but severe. Very. He was the polar opposite of the other grey-eyed we met."
They nodded.
"After that, we went to get the tickets. We fought amongst ourselves about what we saw. Some saw him as scary, and others said he was very handsome. After that, the masked assistants took us into the cinema room."
"I actually followed them to a small room they entered," Jassem confessed. "Just like the grey-eyed man, they were both gone. There were no doors in that room, so they couldn't have just disappeared. But, the movie was starting, so I went to my seat."
"After all this, the earthquake happened, and here we are…"
Fahd inhaled profoundly and rolled his head backwards, shutting his eyelids. "Man. What is this joke?"
"Don't forget the many supplies this cinema has; food, hygiene products and clothes, and even other random tools like backpacks and flashlights. There is also running water and warm water! It's just like… this place was prepared on purpose." Dina squinted. "And it all started with the announcement on the website and the grey-eyed man."
"With… Dear Jibreel." Jassem lowered his gaze to the floor, clenching his fists. He felt his heart thundering as he exhaled and sat down on the floor, shuddering.
They all followed suit and sat down, their shaking legs no longer able to carry them.
"C-Calm down," Youssef cleared his throat, forcing a smile. "This can't be… anything unusual. These things happen. It's just a bunch of coincidences."
"Coincidences?! You're starting to annoy me, kid." Fahd coldly stared at him. "How can you explain the fact that we're hovering mid-air with your coincidences?"
"We're not hovering mid-air," Shahd informed. "I actually left from the door and held on to it. We're stuck in the middle of a tree trunk. It's a really huge tree, and it's tall too. Much taller than the rest of the forest. I mean, you should have noticed that already."
“A giant tree…” Ahlem whispered.
“We’re… inside of a tree?!”
- Writer
