This is a story centered on my late teen years about the strange entity me and my two best friends encountered, for anonymity reasons I (m, 16 at the time) will refer to them as “J” and “K”(both m and 19).
Now for a little backstory on me and my friends, J is my aunt’s second and youngest son, he is older than me but as we share a lot of similarity in both spirit and character myself and J have been really close since we were kids, while K has been his best friend since 3rd grade. So ofc the three of us were closer than brothers, that is also the reason why I had confided in them about my encounters with the supernatural. We all had stories of our own that seemed unexplainable, but mine were a bit wilder. I am not referring to myself as a medium or psychic of any kind, I was simply unfortunate enough to notice the presence of entities that did not belong in this world and sometimes even more so, as these entities also noticed me. Only my two best friends knew of my point of view on my encounters while the others (especially adults) referred to me as an “imaginative kid”. Now back to the main story.
I remember the chain of events quite vividly because after it all transpired I realized, coincidence had no part in it and I seriously began to question the notion of “Fate”. It was the middle of the summer of 2017, I had found a seasonal job as a helper cook in a restaurant to earn a bit of personal income. It was a busy Friday night at the restaurant or more of a busy day I should say, I had taken 3 shifts on that Friday (with my unlimited teenager power) so I could have the weekend to myself and myself and the staff decided to wait until our last customers left to close up even though it was past 12am.
Since we had no more work to do we set up a table (the staff was made out of 5 people) and poured some drinks for ourselves and told the remaining two tables to stay as long as they wanted and to tell us if they needed anything else. While making jokes, and sharing drinks, I overheard an interesting conversation from the table nearest to us, a female customer in her early 40ies was talking to her friends about meeting a medium. In my country we call them “Fallxhore”, which is basically a psychic woman who tells you about your past, present and future, knowledge she gets from befriending “Djinn”(which refers to a wide spectrum of supernatural creatures, some demonic, some mischievous and some benevolent). Considering my childhood I was very interested in said topic, so I listened as she explained to her friends about a curse the medium said was laid on her household by a relative that meant them harm and how to get rid of it.
The work night ended with that and I went home, as I was laying in bed while texting J and K in a messenger group chat, I mentioned the conversation I overheard. J responded with a similar conversation he had once with his mom. My aunt’s immediate family had met with a lot of misfortune since she and her husband got married. The husband was a trader that had taken a lot of money from shop owners to exchange them for goods he would buy in Turkey and the shop owners would sell here in Albania. Unfortunately, he was ambushed by bandits on his way to Albania and all the goods were stolen (there were 4 drivers with 2 huge trucks filled with textile and the kind), apparently the bandits stole the trucks with the goods and left all the drivers beaten up in the middle of the road, so they were left in a lot of debt.
After that, bad fortune followed them everywhere they went, so my aunt turned to a medium for help. The medium told her a horrible curse had been placed on her family, such a curse that made the medium speechless, she said an item was given to my aunt as a gift for her wedding by people that wished her harm and said item contained the terrifying presence of a very evil Djinn. That Djin had made their home his and fed on their pain and sorrow, that item that contained it could never be found as it hid itself in their comfort and memories, but unless it was found and disposed of, even the medium had no power to stop the bad fortune following them.
On that particular weekend I had made plans with J and K, K’s parents were on vacation and we had the house to ourselves, so as stupid teens we decided we would spend the Saturday night together getting high, watching movies and playing games. But before that I would have lunch at my aunt’s house with my cousins and some other guest relatives they had. After eating we all sat around in the living room drinking coffee and talking about the usual stuff you talk about with family members (stupid and embarrassing things the kids did when we were young).
Somewhere along the conversation I sort of dissociated and my defocused senses started focusing on something in the room, this strange ornament hanging on the wall along with artful plates and different prayer beads. It was a strange object that resembled a women’s hand bag in miniature, made out of metal, decorated with gems and whatnot and hanging from a chain. As my senses focused on it, everything in sight became obstructed by this cloud of black smoke, leaving only the ornament visible. As it shone in a disturbing glimmer that made me sweat icicles, from it sprung a closed eye, as if the metal had become flesh. As the eye slowly started to open, I found myself in the most discomfort I have felt in my life, under the eye caps a green iris was revealed moving around the eyeball with an insane speed, and all of the sudden it halted, focusing on me was a jade green eye with a moving strange light that seemed to be coming from inside it. I must’ve been so short of breath from that sight that J who was sitting right next to me shook me back to my senses. I mentioned nothing of it to my cousin even though he seemed concerned I just brushed it off telling him I had a very tiresome day yesterday.
Around 6pm we went to K’s house and started rolling (you know what) and preparing the drinks and snacks for the night. We had a great time and I completely forgot about earlier events until some time after 3am, I got up from my couch to go get a bottle of juice from the fridge since it had run out. Making my way through the hall very lazily to the kitchen, I open the fridge door. The kitchen itself was narrow but long with a door on one side and a small window on the other side. As I grab the juice and close the fridge door, I feel my fight or flight instinct triggers from something over the window side.
With a feeling of dread washing over me, I watch as long black curled fingers with extra unnatural joints enter from the lower and left side of the window and grip to the wall. As the top of a head is made visible soon enough a face emerges from the down left corner of the small window. The face was badly disfigured, the nose broken in several places, the eyes open so wide it seemed as if they would pop out any moment, the lips, cut badly and almost nonexistent revealing a wide smile that continued right up to one of its ears as there was a chunk of meat missing from one of the cheeks, in fact there were missing chunks and scars all over it. The skin was black just like its fingers, but that was not its original skin color as it seemed to be completely covered in a black dust, like charcoal dust. Its teeth were yellowish with stains of the same charcoal and the eyes, those same jaded glowing eyes I had seen before, tightly focused on me. That stare paralyzed me, no, I should say such fear ran over me that it made my existence immobile. I could not move, I could not hear, I could not feel and I could not even think. The only thing that remained from me was instinct, as if every cell in my body knew I had to stand my ground and move right at the moment “it” moved. I could not feel my feet touching the ground underneath me or the bottle I was holding in my hand, but I knew, as soon as moved I would lunge at it, that was my only very slim chance of survival, fighting it.
I held its stare for what seemed like days, but it did not move, it just kept staring and smiling. After what seemed like an eternity, I suddenly felt an arm go around my neck, terrified and caught by surprise. I quickly turn with the bottle in my hand raised ready to attack (for some stupid reason), and I see K go like - wow wow mate, calm down. Apparently, I had been grabbing a bottle of juice for the past 2 hours and my friend came to check on me. Now I know what you might say, I was under the influence and I was hallucinating. Nope, I had indulged in a lot of it to the point I was a veteran, but never, had I ever had a hallucination. No matter how hard I went at it worst case, I would laugh, get the munchies or get lazy and go to sleep. But that thing I saw, I know with every fiber of my body, it was real. It took me a while to get a hold of myself, but I did not tell my friends anything, not wanting to spoil their night and they didn’t notice because they thought I was stoned.
Fast forward to almost a week after those events, those memories had washed over my head again and again, becoming more real and terrifying everytime leaving me with many sleepless nights. On this particular night I went to the bathroom at 2:30am and since I saw I had no chance of getting any rest I was just wasting time in the locked bathroom (I have a habit of making up stories or scenarios in my head when I can’t sleep so it’ll take my mind of things, so I was fooling around in front of the mirror in the only place with privacy in my house). Some time passed and I was finally getting drowsy but a strange noise outside shook me awake, my bathroom was a little narrow and very long with the WC on the narrow end and a window (on the 5th and last flor of my building) on the other one. As I turn left from facing the mirror, I start walking towards the window to see what had made the sound I could not quite discern. As I reached the window the urge to pop my head outside of it like I usually do to check the dimly lit street under my building, something made me stop as soon as I put my hands on the window.
In a flash, something from above me falls right in front of my face and hits the ground outside of my building with a loud thump, I hear whatever it was break. I was having a wtf was that moment and leaned over my window, got my head out and looked down to see what had just fallen. I shit you not, a brick, more exactly, two broken halves of a brick were laying on the ground at the foot of my building right under the streetlight. Caught off guard by the whole incident as I was trying to understand it, I foolishly looked up towards the roof to see why the brick had fallen. As I turn my body upwards with my head outside the window to see I find myself face to face with the embodiment of terror itself.
The same face I had seen from my friend’s kitchen window was now centimeters away from my own face. As I stood frozen again, holding its stare, I could make out the shape of its full body. Black skinny limbs with extra pairs of joints were stretched above the walls outside my window, fingers dug into brick holding it to the wall and a thick, almost reptilian tail arched above its back. There, motionless as I stare into its eyes, I can see lights and shadows moving around inside the green pools of its irises. It snickers and while doing so slowly opens its mouth still fixed in a grin, a black long red tongue covered in warts touches my cheek and is dragged from my cheek to my forehead, licking my eyeball that did not dare close. At that moment a jolt of adrenaline washes over me and I push the wall and ground with all my might lunging myself to the bathroom floor, facing the window, awaiting my doom, I slowly stand up. Movement on my right picks my attention as I slowly turn my head I see the monster on the wall and I jump back, only to realize, it was the mirror. I look at my own reflection terrified, I had not noticed but my face had contorted itself in a terrifying expression. Without the scars or the disfigured nose, my face resembled the monster, stuck in an ear to ear grin with bulging eyes. As I look into my own green eyes, I see no light or shadows move through my irises and my face starts to relax. Scared but completely drained I run to my room, scared to look at the window I jump in my bunk bed thinking about the moment 5 minutes ago when i almost died, as I try to process whatever happened my conscience starts to fade and I basically faint into sleep from exhaustion.
The next morning I decide that was the last straw (I had found myself face to face with a lot of entities but never have I had a brick thrown to my head by one) and text my friends to tell them we should talk, than evening me J and K sit at a cafe and I tell them everything. As I begin to explain what happened they think I’m joking and start to laugh but quickly quiet down after they hear my tone. My voice quivering and my eyes watering from the vivid memories. After I’m done talking they both make the connection with the time and the state in which they found me and shook me back to my feet. As I have confided other instances of supernatural encounters with them and they’ve seen some of them with their own eyes, they both undoubtedly believe me.
K asks in a lower tone- what are we gonna do? J says he’ll take that thing (referring to the ornament in his house) off the wall and throw it in the garbage, I interrupt - no, we don’t know if that will stop it or if that object its the actual container of this entity. J - ok, ill just ask my mom where she got it from. We decided J would go to his house pretending he knew nothing of the object and ignoring it (as to not provoke the entity within), the next day he would ask my aunt while she was going to work in the morning (while they were both outside the house) if she remembered where that ornament came from.
So the next morning J texts in the group chat, his mom told him that she had gotten it as a gift for her birthday a few years ago, but he mentioned that his mom reacted strangely after he asked, almost like she was emotionlessly repeating lines she was reading somewhere. J said he would not drop it and keep asking throughout the day. I started searching the web for anything around the topic, anything I could find to help dispose of that object or the entity attached to it. Reading some of the dumbest shit online, a memory pops into my head, of that woman on the table next to me talking about what the medium said she had to do to remove the curse. Right there and then it all made sense, I had my answer, I remembered what she said vividly, cover the vessel with salt to trap the Djinn within that space, burn it, to weaken it, destroy it to force it out and wash it out in flowing water to remove the Djinn.
Excited because I can finally see a way to end this I call J. He picks up and before I can say anything says - I think it has influence over her. When I ask about what he meant by that, he continues to explain that he went to deliver lunch to his mom at her work and casually mentioned the trinket again. He said she got upset and said she didn’t know what he was talking about and remembered no such object. She said she had gotten it as a birthday gift this morning, but now she was contradicting herself. J- ill ask her again, I’ll catch her on the way home, why did u call anyway? I reminded him of the story I had overheard. Salt it, burn it, destroy it, wash it I said, doesn’t hurt to try does it? We agreed it was at least something resembling a plan, we would talk about it with K and decide on what to do this evening at the same cafe we always meet. I finish my shift at the restaurant and come home at around 4 pm, I decide to take a nap since I won’t be able to sleep tonight anyway.
As I drift to sleep I open my eyes and I find myself in a strange place. I was in the middle of a street in a city overrun by the roots and decay, the sun was out but no ray of light hit my face. There was this mist that outlined everything the eye could see, and ghastly figures moved in those streets unbothered by the objects in their way. Strange creatures of different shapes and sizes were scattered around town, some following certain ghastly figures around, some fighting with each other and some just standing fixed in their places like living statues just gazing around.
As I tried to hide myself from sight in an empty building corner, I noticed, or should I say realized something. Those ghostly figures were people and cars moving around, the ruins outlined with misty illusions resembled my town, no it was my town, or at least a parallel version of it. I had heard tales from my grandparents about the realm of the Djinn, intertwined with our own but unseen by normal people. The Djinn would seamlessly manipulate certain courses of events to fit their liking, helping people, pulling pranks or putting them in a life threatening situation. It all made sense somehow, even though it didn’t. How was I in the realm of the Djinn that no mortal could see and no mortal would dare tread upon?
I slap myself trying to wake up, but to no effect. I hear slow steps behind me, and I quickly turn my head, terrified one of those creatures had finally noticed me. Slowly walking through the gap between buildings behind me, I see a figure I recognize. A large black shadowy dog/wolf (I could not tell as its body was made entirely of shadows) with gleaming red eyes stands a few meters away from me. This spectral canine would walk parallel with me while the night fell ever since I was a kid. I don’t remember when I first noticed its presence, but as far as I can remember I could make out its shape and the red gleam of its eyes following me in the corner of my eye, walking with me, but I knew it meant no harm to me. I had always viewed it as a protector and it is perhaps because of its presence that I adore dogs and wolves. It opens its mouth and a growling raspy voice comes out - you shouldn’t be here, you should never venture this far. I had so many questions to ask but the only thing that came out was - I don’t know how I got here but I do know I have to get out, will you help me? The specter points its head towards the lightless sun. The light will be your guide - it says. The enemy you face is a tough one, but you are on the right path, look at the sun and feel its warmth. Only mortals can feel that warmth and it, will take you back where you belong. I lower my head in a gesture of gratitude and turn towards the sun, I close my eyes and imagine what a ray of light would feel like in my face.
As I feel the warmth of the light, I open my eyes to find myself back in my room. I call K and tell him to meet me at the entrance of the forest on the outskirts of the town and to bring a bag of salt with him, as soon as I close that call J calls me. He explains he asked his mom about it again and she told a completely different story this time. My aunt had said that her husband had taken that ornament as a souvenir from Turkey the first time he went there. J explained that when he got home, he rushed towards that object and ripped it off the wall, his mom became hysterical at the sight of that. He said she was almost begging him not to take it away, but when he asked why, she could not answer, she looked dumbfounded and speechless. I told him where we were meeting and to be careful on the way. As I made my way there, I filled a small empty bottle of water with gasoline at a gas station and bought a box of matches.
I arrive at the location to see K waiting for me there with a bag of salt in one hand, a flashlight in the other and rosary beads with a cross hanging from his neck. I give him a strange look. What? He says, it can’t hurt can it. (K is an orthodox Christian while me and J are Muslim by inheritance, but tbh none of the three of us is too big of a believer) soon after I met K we noticed J coming from a distance. As he gets closer, we notice how fatigued his complexion was, walking as if it took all he had just to throw the next step, his right hand clasping something tightly while a chain hung from his hand to his knee. Me and K were both concerned and asked with the same voice - are you ok. No, J responded and opened his hand to show us the ornament.
I do not know what came over me but with a sense of urgency I quickly took it out of his hand and held it tight in mine, but J was not that surprised by my action, he seemed relieved even. I had a feeling in my gut that I should’ve been the one to hold it, that the others would be in a lot more danger than me, that they couldn’t handle it. As we made our way through the woods towards the river J was telling us how broken his mother had seemed after he took it off the wall. J - when I left she was sitting on the ground crying, and that thing, that thing made terrible thoughts cross in my head while I was holding it. It had me thinking, thoughts so dark I cannot even explain, things I have never thought throughout my whole life, how are you even walking with that in your hand? I assured him I was fine even though I wasn’t. My whole right arm had gone numb, I could not feel my hand holding that object, so I just kept squeezing as hard as I could.
It also influenced my thoughts, I could feel it. Anytime K and J would even walk close to my hand, I would take it away, as if any of those two would just take it from me and run away. It made me doubt their loyalty anytime they asked to take it off my hand for a bit, it was also making me rethink this whole ordeal. Was what we were doing right, if it was, would it even work, would it just make things worse. On the corner of my eye through the woods, I notice the shadowy shape of a canine. You are on the right path, I whisper to myself. As the sunlight slowly starts to become a deep red and the silence settles in, I notice something. The forest was strange, it felt unnatural. Almost as if the trees and creatures did not want us there, the woods that had always put my mind at ease seemed unwelcoming, spiteful even.
After about a 30 min walk we reached the riverside, and without wasting much time I set that ornament on a big flat rock near the river. I look at my right hand that had been holding it just to see it covered in black charcoal mixed with sweat, I fill that same hand with salt and start pouring it in a circle around that thing. K and J decided to open YouTube videos, one with a priest singing the Bible and one with an imam (Muslim priest) singing the Quran, thinking we needed all the help we could get, I did not object. After closing the circle of salt on the ground around the stone above which the ornament stood, I pour the remainder of the salt on the object. J opens the bottle of gasoline and starts pouring it above the ornament, as salt and gasoline start mixing up over it, we hear a low hiss come from it. He stops pouring so the dripping gasoline wouldn’t touch the closed circle of salt on the ground. K gets one match out of the matchbox and strikes it against the box, it breaks, he gets two of them together and lights them up. A random gust of wind puts out the flame, we hear the forest getting loud, violent almost, as if it was contesting the volume of the phone speakers playing the verses of the Bible and Quran. I grab the matchbox out of his hand, get a bunch of matches together and light them up, again the flame extinguishes as if the matches themselve did not want to burn. We look at each other with a “no fucking way this is happening” look on our faces.
Give them here, J says. I hand him the matchbox and he pulls all of them together and strikes them against the box, as soon as the matches light up he covers them with his hands burning them in the process (You could see it in his face that he was hurting). J throws the matches towards the ornament and a flash and loud whoosh lights it on fire (as it usually happens when you put gasoline on fire). The low hissing sound becomes louder and louder, as it turns from a hiss to a loud screech it mixes together with the violent noises the forest is making. The noise was so loud you could barely hear your own thoughts. At this point we were covering our ears and barely standing on our feet, K grabs a huge rock and throws it on top of the fire. The screech turned into a scream that lasted only a split second before a shockwave knocked all three of us on our asses. The forest goes completely silent, as we lay on the ground we notice smoke coming from the two huge rocks mashed together. As we stand up, we watch in terror as a cloud of green and black smoke starts to form above the rocks. Shapes of faces in torment start forming and moving within the smoke cloud, as if trying to escape it. With a rush of adrenaline I quickly enter the ring of salt, grab the rocks and throw them in the river. The river stream quickly slithering through the treeline into the horizon, took that object with it. When we could no longer see it I noticed the woods sounded normal again, as the sun finally started setting we looked at each other with relief and started making our way back home.
Some years have passed and my aunt’s family misfortune seems to have stopped. She vaguely remembers that day as the day I, J and K took something she can’t even remember from her home to burn it in the woods. She can’t remember what it was, or her own reaction when we took it, she just thinks it was a silly kind of game we all played. But sometimes now and then, the memories of that even come up when the three of us are having a conversation and I can feel the hair at the back of my neck rising up. We all make jokes about it together since it has long passed, but I can tell, it has left a scar on us. It was an experience no one has to go through and I wish that no one does, but if they do, I hope they have a pair of friends like J and K.