Watch Out!

Flashback

It all started a year before, when her unending quest of finding trails of primitive life led her to Middle East. She was looking for something exciting in her life. A year after she found it, but in a very unpleasant way.

Sophie Norman was a very ordinary girl. There was nothing in particular exciting about her life. She had troubles in school as a  child and also in life as a person. Being little chubby with braces on teeth, was not much of a thing. It was severe lack of communication skills that made her a desirable target for the bullies. Her stutter became worse. She started hated school and her grades went down and down. Her mother was mild schizophrenic and father an alcoholic. After their divorce, none was fit for her custody. It was her aunt Becky that came to her rescue. Aunt Becky was the sweetest person she had ever met. She was about to turn 11 and aunt Beckie was in her early forties. Somehow both bonded so well that Sophie felt that she is her fairy-God-mother sent down by the heavens. Aunt Beckie had lost her daughter in an accident. She would have been just of Sophie’s age by now. So , she found  her daughter in Sophie. Slowly, Sophie started expressing herself more confidently. Her stutter disappeared. She had all in herself, but just needed someone to make her believe in herself. Aunt Beckie did just that.

Sophie loved to read. From fairytales she moved to romantic novels and also found interest in history. So, she decided to major in history. Early civilizations intrigued her and she wanted to earn a doctorate in the study of Mesopotamian Civilization. She was joined by similar history lovers in University. She became a part of the group of five friends, who romanticized the study of dry history. Joe was Sophie’s best friend.

It was that weekend of movie night, when all gathered at Joe’s house. After the movie somehow the discussion went towards the spooky encounters that one has experienced. Clark came up with the story of his uncle who once encountered a live Satanic ritual. The details were quite gory but none believed it. Clark went on to defense his uncle story and claimed to provide them the location, which according to his uncle is somewhere in the war torn Iraq’s northeast.

‘’ if you don’t believe, I will prove it’’. Clark challenged

Then all of a sudden everyone decided to visit Middle East’s precarious land during their summer vacations. They were aware of the risk and possible family’s objection ,but to see the Man’s earliest inhabited land was a greater  charm.

Unfortunately, Sophie could not join them. Aunt Beckie got seriously sick and she decided to stay. Aunt Beckie did tell her that it is not necessary and she can join her friends , but she refused. She decided to join them later.  Aunt Beckie’s condition worsened and it took her a month to fully recover. She was not in contant contact with any of them during this time. It was only a fifteen days later when they got back from their trip that she heard their accounts of journey. To her surprise, they did complete the challenge and visited Iraq and Turkey. They did not mention much about Clark's uncle’s alleged experience of secret cult in the hills. But when Joe joined her for a summer’s project, Sophie could not help poking her.

“ So, you did beat Clark? Huh?”. She asked.

“ Beat Clark?”. Joe looked surprised.

“I mean obviously he did not prove his Uncle’s veracity, right?” She probed Joe.

“ No , he did..Don’t look at me like that..it is..  just none of us want  to talk about it”.

“Talk about it? What do you mean? Spit it out , now Joe!”

“ Alright then! We did search that area 2 days before concluding our journey. It is a place in Sanjar mountains.  Clark’s uncle sent us the exact coordinates, but still it took us more than a day to actually find the place. There  is a nomad tribe around that area right now, probably some refugees are also camped there. The tribe warned us to stay away from that place. They said that black shadows inhabit that place.”

“ oh! That sure sounds scary! So what did you find there?”

“Nothing! We were all so pissed off for some reason when we entered the location. Taft you know, knows Arabic and he was really convinced that there was something seriously wrong with the area. It could have been IS, Taliban or CIA’s intelligence unit ‘s hiding place and they tried to scare people away. Who knows? But anyway, we did search the area for an hour or two until we find those bones, clean white bones, outside a natural cave. Bones were of a large animal, and our tacit supposition of a human sacrifice there, pissed us off. We dashed off! That’s all for you little curious bee!”

And that was the end of their discussion on that topic. But it was the first night when Sophie had a nightmare in years, after moving into Aunt Becky’s house. It was the consistency of dream that disturbed her. She would see those white bones wrapped in a red cloth. She would often see herself standing next to a cave. And then there was this boy with a mole on his check, close to his pink lips. She saw him more than thrice in those cave dreams, everytime failing to get a clear glimpse of him. She thought, may be she is overdoing it with imagination. She should stop reading horror and romance genre immediately. And she did that! But for better or worse, fate had decided something else for that girl!