Trapped in the village
1000 Words
The rooms were assigned as follows:
Lynn with Rose.
Katie with Melda.
Dima with Haya.
Qais with Jawad.
Oliver with Matthew.
Each of them chose their roommate and dispersed through the wooden corridors—
all except Sam…
He remained standing where he was.
Miral approached him, a faint smile forming on his face despite the exhaustion.
“Would you mind if we shared the same room?”
Sam glanced to his right, then behind him, as if making sure the question was truly meant for him.
“No… I don’t mind.
But I do have one small request…
I don’t like noise.”
Miral let out a light laugh.
“That’s exactly why I chose you.
I can’t stand noise either.”
Then he gently placed his arm around Sam’s shoulder and said in a warm, teasing tone:
“Come on… I doubt you’re more miserable than I am.”
And for the first time since he had woken up on that island,
Sam felt
that perhaps he wasn’t alone here after all…
While everyone else was lost in a deep slumber,
Melda remained awake.
She stared at the wooden ceiling,
counting the cracks as if trying to escape her thoughts.
What did Rose mean by her words?
And what had I done to make her look at me that way… so threatening?
She breathed slowly,
but the anxiety refused to leave her chest.
Turning onto her side,
she looked at Katie, sleeping peacefully.
In a barely audible whisper, she murmured,
“I hope you’re different…
I don’t have the strength for more betrayal.”
Then she closed her eyes, hoping that when she opened them,
she would be back in her home.
In the morning,
the air was unusually cold,
and the fog brushed against the house windows as if it were spying on those inside.
Outside,
an old man stood, his back hunched,
his hands clasped behind him—
in one of them, a cane tapping against the ground in a slow… steady rhythm.
He muttered incomprehensible words,
humming in a low, unsettling voice.
Suddenly, a girl’s scream pierced the air:
“Qaiiiis! Dimaaa! There’s… I see an old man outside!”
Everyone rushed toward the window,
their breaths colliding against the glass.
Qais inhaled slowly, trying to steady himself.
“We don’t know his story… I’ll go out and see what this is about.
Lock the doors well—and no one goes outside.”
Dima stepped forward.
“I’m coming with you.”
He turned to her, his eyes sharp, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“No. Please. I’ll see what’s going on and come back.”
But her stubbornness was stronger than his warning.
The moment he opened the door and stepped out,
she followed him with quick steps,
closing the door behind her with a heavy, lingering silence…
Outside,
the tapping of the cane suddenly stopped.
Qais approached the old man cautiously,
his voice striving to remain steady.
“Sir… may we speak for a moment?”
The cane did not strike the ground again.
The old man turned—slowly, very slowly—
and looked at him for a long time… without uttering a single word.
A sharp stab of unease ran through Qais,
yet he took another step forward.
“Can you tell us… why we’re here?”
At last, the old man’s lips moved,
his voice calm in a deeply unsettling way:
“I don’t know, my boy…
Shouldn’t I be the one asking?
What are you doing in my village?”
Qais’s face hardened,
his features turning rigid.
“Your village?!
We were asleep in our own homes…
We woke up and found ourselves here!
We don’t know how, or why.
And you… you’re the first person we’ve seen since we arrived.”
A heavy silence fell between them.
The wind passed through the trees,
and the cane shifted in the old man’s hand…
yet his eyes remained fixed on Qais.
The old man lowered his head slightly,
as if summoning a distant memory,
then slowly lifted it again and said:
“Listen to me, my son…
Many long years ago,
this village pulsed with life.
The fields were green,
and children filled the alleys with laughter…
The laughter would quiet only at night,
when sleep finally overcame them.”
He paused for a moment,
then struck the ground with his cane.
“Now look… what do you see
Qais turned slowly around him.
At first, he noticed nothing…
Then his heart began to pound faster.
The trees were not as he remembered.
No sea…
No scent of salt…
No trace of the wooden house.
Before him stood cracked stone houses,
shattered windows,
and narrow, silent streets
as though time had stopped there years ago.
His eyes widened.
He whispered to himself,
“Wait… weren’t we on an island?
Where… where are we?”
He began turning in circles,
glancing right and left,
his breathing quickening.
He ran a few steps—
then suddenly cried out, his voice strangled with panic:
“Where in heaven’s name am I?!”
As for the old man…
he did not move.
He simply watched him
like someone who knows the truth
and has no intention of revealing it all.
Qais ran back,
his breaths broken and uneven,
his eyes wide with terror..as if he had seen the unbelievable.
Dima rushed after him, shouting,
“Qais! What’s happening?!”
He grabbed her shoulders tightly, his voice trembling.
“We’re not on the island… the place has changed! Everything has changed
The old man was still standing there.
He lowered his head slightly and spoke in a quiet voice:
“I don’t know, my son…
I was away from the village on distant work,
and when I returned…
I was told it had turned upside down overnight.”
He fell silent for a moment,
then continued:
“The trees withered,
the waters dried up,
and the people vanished…
No one remained alive.”
- Writer
