This all started after I’d enrolled at school. It was an international school, but much of the resources and funding were lost after a war ravaged the country. Luckily, my friend group all happened to be in the same class. The near-legendary group consisted of me and four boys, Jason, Fahad, Todd, and Levi. Bear with me, this will be a long story. Even at a young age, we always felt our school was slightly off. There was always this strange atmosphere in the class. Every single class had the chairs arranged in a square position, with a large outer square and inner square. Whenever a student strayed or changed the arrangements they were viciously scolded, and when asked would wither get a fearful “I can’t tell you” or an agressive dismissal, dependent on the teacher.
Every few months, students or teachers would vanish from the school, and even though the official reasons were cited as “moving schools”, the people who disappeared would have never brought it up in the days leading up to the incidents. Due to the situation, recovering from war, the government just couldn’t be bothered to investigate some random school because they just had so many things to focus on
There were several rules that didn’t make sense to us, including “don’t use the bathroom for longer than a lesson’s time”, “don’t look into the mirror for too long”, “always close the door when you walk in” and “don’t turn off the lights one by one”. Every Tuesday the head of our school, Mr. Tarek would lumber into our classroom and waste the first hour of the day explaining the rules we’ve heard for the umpteenth time.
He appeared to be advanced in age, and walked like he was about to collapse at any moment. His knees rattled with each step, almost like he was on the bare stumps of his feet. His eyes had an odd glare to them, and he constantly spoke like he was about to have a stroke. Nobody seemed to like the man, teachers and students alike but we were always forced to listen to him ramble about his unnecessarily restrictive and random rules.
On a particularly cold Tuesday in fourth grade, Jason overheard a conversation during recess, and decided to relay the information behind us.
“Behind the school is a large compound that appeared to be abandoned,” he began. “I’ve heard there are urban legends surrounding this place” Todd and Levi were both new to the culture, and were willing to hear him out. Fahad was the more religious kid in the group, and did not seem enthusiastic.
“Oh don’t worry,” Todd told him with a slight shove, picking up on the expression of discomfort. “It’ll be a short trip.”
I was indifferent. As we had just begun to enter our teen years, we had concerned ourself with “building our legacy.” Fahad would eventually give in to the pressure, as being perceived as a coward in your group at age 11 was not something he was willing to let pass. I did not feel this was the best idea for a trip but at the same time we were curious, and had just begun to develop our angst rebellious adventurous teen personality.
“Thursday,” he finally said
At sunset, we gathered at the closed school gates, hiding behind bricks and rubble to prevent being caught by the remaining staff. Of course, I was armed with an essay of excuses in case our plan went sour. We confirmed that all the facilities in school were empty, we made our next move. We advanced towards the left flank of the school, our backs pressed flat against the brick wall so that we wouldn’t be spotted out in the monotonous sandy landscape.
“This is the place,” said Jason, gesturing at what seemed like a village that a construction company had forgotten about. Most of the buildings were incomplete, the roads were unpaved roads, and windows with no glass. There were about ten buildings and only four had doors. Todd, consumed by his desire to be manly was the first to step in. Fahad was next, followed by Jason then me and finally Levi. The first thing I felt was the atmosphere being incredibly uncomfortable. I felt a great unease the second we were in.
“It doesn’t feel…right,” Levi finally spoke. Even without a response, it felt as if each of us acknowledged his claim, as at this point the discomfort was constricting. No one dared speak as we found our way using the poor excuse of a road. We went to the first building that had a door. Levi reached his hand out to open the door, but was interrupted by Todd who ran into the damn thing with his shoulder. The door burst open, and he landed violently, casting a cloud of dust into our faces. Fahad coughed profusely as he accidentally inhaled a gust of the stuff. Jason walked in and I followed through. We were greeted by a completely unfurnished room, save for a collapsed bed frame and a cooler with empty cans.
“Someone’s been here before, huh?” Jason said. Todd got up onto his feet, kicking his legs out to shake off all the dust on them. Levi looked behind the staircase, revealing graffiti spelling out an Arabic word on the wall. Though I could understand the language, it was written so crudely that the word could barely be deciphered. Fahad pushed me aside, squinting though his glasses to make out what was written
“Al-ma-ta-hee?“ he barely said out loud.
“What does that mean?” Todd asked, brushing the dust off his shirt
“Almatahee?” Jason asked. “I think that means the labyrinths”. Both me and Fahad nodded in approval. Levi had already made his way up the stairs, and in an effort to keep the group together Fahad urged us to climb up. The room was unfurnished like the one before it, and this time the air grew *heavy*. We looked at the wall, and this time there were crude drawings. Jason began examining them and began to grow uneasy. One drawing showed a larger stick figure holding a smaller stick figure above its head, one drawing showed and axe and one of a cube. There were Arabic statements scribbled accros the wall. I worked with Fahad to decipher them.
“I’m assuming these are describing their actions” Levi said, shattering the silence.
“These statements are saying bad things,” Fahad whispered. “They look like curses and upside down prayers.” He continued
“What does that imply?” Todd asked. Though I would’ve just dismissed the scribbles as an edgy teen wanting to rebel against the system with his declarations of blasphemy in a since abandoned space, I found the specific-ness of some of these phrases to have a much darker connotation, especially combined with the images.
“We have no business being here,” said Fahad, rubbing one of the texts with his hand. The fresh paint rubbed off onto his fingers.
“There have been people here,” said Jason, “that paint would take up to a day to dry fully.” Sunset soon turned to nightfall and the lights in the distant city were soon our only means of vision. This was before phones with flashlights were commonplace, and thus we relied on their faint illumination. We stepped outside the “abandoned” house.
“Look at that big house over there,” said Levi, pointing at a silhouette of what seemed to be the largest house in the compound. The dirt road running through the middle of the town seemed to lead to it. We could barely make out the details of the structure, and when we got there the door was jammed with an intricate collection of chains, planks, and locks.
“The hell is this,” whispered Todd. On the left side on the door were items strewn across the length of the wall. Random clothes, water-damaged books, and tools. I saw a slight glimmer reflecting from the distant lights and when I inspected it I noticed it was a weapon. I gripped the tool from what I assumed was its handle, only to be startled by the sharp pain of the metal edge digging into the palm of my hand. I winced audibly, and the sound of the metal striking the bare ground echoed through the dead silent compound.
“What happened,” whispered Fahad. The place had gone so quiet that even the murmurs of my friends were fully audible.
“I think I hurt myself,” I said. I reach out and grabbed the tool, this time making sure I gripped the handle. I felt a leathery knob, and I took ahold of it, raising the tool of the ground. At this point, the light seemed to get suddenly a bit brighter, and I identified the tool. It was a large, heavy knife about the length of my forearm
“Knife…” I managed to say
“What’s that for,” asked Levi, mostly to himself. I brought the knife close to my eyes. There was a brass-brown mottling spread across the knife, almost like a liquid had been poured on it, and a fresh shining red edge. I looked down onto the palm of my hand. There was a shallow, but noticeable cut. We wanted to explore further, but in every single one of us was a deep feeling prevented us from taking any more steps forwards.
“Why would someone lock up the door like this? Nobody lives here! What’s behind all this rubbish?” muttered Fahad
“And why so close to our school too?” Jason added. We stood for a moment, unable to decide what our next move would be. The atmosphere felt dreadening, and we knew we had no business being here. Our early teenage curiosity overwhelmed us and no we found ourselves in an abandoned compound. Even then, the feeling of discomfort and agitation way exceeded that of what the situation needed, or maybe it was just my mind playing tricks. As I looked around, I saw something. Something simple, something arbitrary in literally any context, something so simple and nondescript, but the fact it happened here, the fact it would only give us more questions, the fact it was completely uncalled and unexpected meant that this sight would forever be etched into my very skull, forever haunting my fifth grade.
One of the rooms, visible through the frameless windows on the furthers the house to the left had its lights on. At this point, I could literally feel my heart plunging. The back of my head went numb with chills. This wasn’t supposed to happen, there were no light switches, no electricity, no life. I looked at my friends who all shared my same expression of fear. Without verbally communicating, we all got the cue to get out of here. Todd led the retreat, following the same dirt road that ran across the compound. The sound of the pebbles crunching under our feet was deafening, and not one of us dare utter a word.
We felt that every second spent longer in the place made us closer and closer to being doomed. The march to gates of the compound may have taken us two minutes at most, but combined with the beads of sweat freezing in the cold night, the skyrocketing heart rate, the shared fear amongst the group and the witnessing of something that simply shouldn’t be made this short walk drag out to what felt like hours of torment. I could’ve sworn that I heard a sixth pair of footsteps behind us.
When we finally and painstakingly reach the gates that served as our escaped from this God forsaken compound, our legs broke out into a sprint. We ran, we ran beyond what our 11-year old bodies could handle, our shock and adrenaline exceeded the frosty dryness in our exhausted hearts and the agonising heat in our sore legs. We split up, sprinting back into our homes. I barged into my house and ran up the stairs, taking them four steps at a time. I launched myself into my room, slammed my door, turned off all the lights and feigned sleep for what remained of the night.
I did not utter a single word all night, and I tossed in bed for the next eight hours, my brain full of thoughts and refusing to shut off. When the rays of the sunlight finally peeked from the horizon I was warmly greeted by a throbbing migraine headache and adamant exhausted legs that refused to hold up my body. Having to keep the events of the past night hidden from my parents was a burden I could barely lift. The weekend and even later the first two days of school were uneventful, how we whenever I slept my brain kept reminding me of what I saw
The rusty knife, the thick atmosphere, and that god damn illuminated room. In a place where it just shouldn’t have been. A place where nothing should have been
*Almatahee*
It was another Tuesday, and we were in class. I could hear Levi groan as the door was knocked. Interrupting our lesson was the head teacher again painstakingly lumbering to the front of the class, careful not to disrupt our absurd table arrangements.
“Greetings, students.” He said in his slurred voice. His malicious gaze pierced through us in particular. “A few days ago, some of our curious peers decided to explore the abandoned compound behind the school”
I felt a wave of shock overwhelm me. I had to nearly physically restrain myself from getting up from my chair and yelling at how he found out. I had literally seen him walk back home. I looked around, and Jason, Fahad and Levi all suppressed their shock. Todd held his head up, feigning toughness but the dread was visible behind his eyes. The head teacher paused for a moment.
“I have not identified anyone, and there will be no repercussions this time. Do be aware that if any of you were to perform such a stunt, the consequences will be severe.”
“And why are you so adamant about not letting the people go there? It’s not school property anyways,” called out Todd, with a negligible sense of self-awareness. The head teacher cocked his head and shot him a gaze that Todd would bring up later.
“You see kid,” the head teacher began. “The compound is abandoned and nobody has been there for years. The risk of injury and falling rubble is great, and if you get injured there won’t be anyone to help.” Todd was unsatisfied with the answer and had to hold back other questions that would end up exposing the culprits. The head teacher began rambling about the weird rules we’ve heard for the umpteenth time, “don’t knock on the doors four times,” “don’t look at the clock with one eye closed,” “take off your shoes before entering the staff room”. He kept on going and going before a new rule embedded a new fear in all of our souls.
“If a student goes missing, do not speak of it,”
Fahad opened his mouth as if he was about to speak but stopped himself.
“Well, that concludes today’s meeting,” said the head teacher, promptly leaving the room. Class went on as usual, with the occasional overheard conversation about the incident of the compound. After the class was dismissed, we gathered behind the school.
“How the hell did he find out? He wasn’t even in school” muttered Todd, pacing back and forth. Fahad swore up and down about how the school was somehow in on this, Jason was cursing, Levi began talking with Todd about the whole situation and I just didn’t know what to say.
“Remember how I asked the the damn head of the school about the compound? When he turned to look at me, I could literally see flames in his eyes.”
By the next week, they had installed security cameras on all directions facing the “compound”, or as we now know what it was called,
*Almatahee*
Three years later, what we saw on our trip was a memory lodged in the back of our heads, obscured by time. Days at school went on as usual and we were in the eight grade now. My friend group had gone on a camping trip, and as we sat around the fire, the mundane conversations shifted into one about the supernatural
“I never got what was the big deal about jinn,” said Todd. “I hear lots of stories and urban legends surrounding them.”
“Jinn,” I told him “are supposed to be entities that sort of exist on a “different plane” if that’s how you word it. They can see us and are around us, but we can’t see them. They aren’t exclusively evil. Like people, jinn can be good, or malevolent.”
“Do you guys believe in them,” asked Levi
“There are a lot of tales and urban legends surrounding these folk,” Fahad said. Over the years he had went full Steve Irwin, talking nonstop about animals and always held the worn out field guide of birds on all his adventures. He’d even developed a plausible Australian accent and you’d always come back from the beach him with random bird names. To this day I don’t know what a “parasitic jaeger” or “western marsh harrier” is.
Todd leaned in closer to the fire, his face warped with hear blur as Fahad continued
“jinn can manifest themselves in the form of people and animals convincingly.” I added. Fahad turned to face me, and nodded.
“However,” he said, “it is convincing, but not perfect. My dad told me that jinn can never take on the form of something one hundred percent. There will always be something off about it. For example, my grandma kept chickens, and she once told us a story about how the jinn took the form of one. It looked like the rest, but one leg was much shorter than the other and its neck was bent at an unnatural angle. It never clucked. My father always told me that when jinn take over the form of a human they will always have feet resembling that of ungulates and a strange colour in their eyes. This can be hidden by shoes and glasses but having such a foot shape can make walking a challenge. And their voice is slurred, almost as if they are humans trying to mimic the calls of other animals”
“So do you believe in all of this?” Todd repeated Levi’s question
“I wasn’t so certain at first. Of course, it’s established in my religion but I never believed the whole shapeshifting thing and I thought what my dad and grandpa said was some hot garbage. That was, until a camping trip last year. I remember not being able to sleep, then my dad walked into my trailer. He went to check on me so I partially closed my eyes. I noticed his gait to be extremely unstable, and one of his arms was stiffly extended in front of him. I swear…” Fahad said, raising his arm and raising his index finger
I swearI could hear the clocking of hooves against the metal ground of the trailed and when “my dad” leaned to look at me, I could barely make out the obscure patterns on his eyes. The next morning I asked my dad if he had checked on me at *any* point throughout the night, but he vehemently denied anything and my mum who was in the same trailer as him affirmed his claims.”
“And do they just exist, or do they interact with people,” asked Todd.
“I’m not an expert in the religion, but I have heard from my friends…” Jason chimed in offering insight “that for the most part, jinn usually leave humans alone and will only interact when they are provoked. However, humans can talk to them, or use them for their own benefit, which is seen as prohibited by the Muslims. Some people use recitations to subdue and control them or make offerings to them, however I am uncertain of this as I am not a Muslim myself,” said Jason.
“In extreme cases jinn can possess people, make them go irrational, clueless or even mad, again when provoked. Of course I’m not expecting you to believe the whole concept but I am basing this off what I’ve heard from others and my parents. Some say you anger them if you look at yourself naked for too long in the mirror, or forget to close the bathroom door behind you.”
“My uncle would always scold us when we threw rocks in the desert back in our childhood as he said we could hit and provoke one”
Nothing much happened following this gathering. Our camping trip went uninterrupted, neither by jinn or beasts of the deserts. This was the last time we would have such a gathering. We would graduate 2 years later and go on to live our lives. I found a part time job at the aquarium store, Levi and Jason both pursued college, Todd began his sports career and Fahad, well, did what he does best.
I had finished my day at the aquarium store and had begun to head out. It was a Thursday, the last day before the weekend. Though I did love my job, I was enthusiastic for the week to end so I can finally acquire some rest. I unlocked my car, and drove to the nearest gas station. As I filled my car up with gas, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I ordered a single turkey sandwich and as it was being heated I checked the message. It was from our school group chat.
Todd: Remember Almaty?
*Fahoodie1852 is typing…*
Fahad: don’t you mean Almatahee?
*Tjones98 is typing*
Todd: yeah that place
Todd: remember when we went there?
*Jxc.h is typing*
Jason: yeah
Jason: why are you asking about it?
*Lev_42 is typing*
Levi: oh damn I almost forgot about that place
*Tjones98 is typing*
Todd: I don’t know man, I just feel we have to go there again
Todd: it’s been so long
I began typing quickly, so immersed in conversation that I nearly missed the Turkey sandwich delivered to me
Me: You kidding me? I don’t think this place even exists anymore
*Fahoodie1852 is typing…*
Fahad: it’s still worth a go honestly
*Lev_42 is typing*
Levi: yeah man, let’s just put a lid on this mystery
Levi’s message really got to me. I remember how Fahad kept swearing that the school we went to had something to do with this. Almatahee, an arbitrary word was the very same thing that corrupted our childhoods, that brought forth so many questions, all of whom were addressed with answers that bore more questions. This could be our only chance, as our friend group had already begun to reach its waning days, and if the last thing we could do together is to finally quell the bubbling questions that plagued our school days, then so be it.
Me: alright, what’s the plan then?
*Fahoodie1852 is typing…*
Fahad: I’ve got two trailers, one will be our storage and one will be our residence. Four mattresses and I will keep guard.
Me: Who’ll take care of the food and beverages?
*Fahoodie1852 is typing…*
Fahad: bring what you like. I will slaughter 4 sandgrouses and a couple hares for our fire
*Jxc.h is typing*
Jason: I’ve got a cooler, I can buy juice from the supermarket. Any of you want any beers?
Me: keep it for you and your friends if they’d like.
*Lev_42 is typing*
Levi: what about me?
*Fahoodie1852 is typing…*
Fahad: I need you to bring whatever weapons you may find. Cleavers, knives, hammers, whatever. We won’t run this time
*Tjones98 is typing*
Todd: Thursday, just like last time. We’ll meet at 10 at the northern market. Deal?
*Fahoodie1852 is typing…*
Fahad: Deal.
*Lev_42 is typing*
Levi: Deal.
*Jxc.h is typing*
Jason: Deal.
Me: Deal.
6 days later. I woke up and took the day off, got in my car and drove to the northern market like Todd had instructed us too. I could feel my heart beat in anticipation knowing I was about to meet my friends for the first time in *years*. I dressed up in my worn-out black Adidas tracksuit that had endured years’ worth of adventures
My hands firmly gripped the steering while, and I tried my best to remain concentrated on the road as my vision blurred with adrenaline. Several cars flew past me at speeds that clearly ignored the thirty five speeding signs that had been erected on the road. We may not have drunk drivers, but these reckless gentlemen served as the replacement. Eventually, through thirty seven minutes of roads, speeding drivers, and growing tension, I had finally made it to the northern market. The reunion would not be one of warmth, nor cold, but rather a bitter one as we had grouped together one last time for the sole reason of answering the question that haunted our thoughts throughout the cumulative years. I dismounted from the car and headed to the two people who had arrived before me: Fahad and Todd
Fahad was dressed in an olive-green t-shirt under a sleeveless tan-coloured mahraja jacket, shielding his core from the piercing wind and black tracksuit pants. Todd wore the classic plain tight-fitting shirt against a pair of denim pants.
“So,” Fahad began, shaking my hand so firmly I could feel my fingers crunch. I stifled a laugher as I had forgotten about his accent. It just didn’t fit right on him, almost like he was being dubbed. “What do you think of Todd’s idea to gather us together one last time.” The subject of the question stood behind Fahad staring at me, his arms folded, head raised, with a proud smile.
“We’ll let’s just say I didn’t come here for nothing!” I exclaimed. Hearing the voices after my friends after so many years instilled a sense of warmth and happiness that comforted my nerves. Levi walked out of the store clutching two oranges. He had a heavy coat on
“So, are we ready?” He shouted, trying to rally up a sense of confidence within us. Soon, a familiar figure approached us on his skateboard. It was Jason. He was arguably the most well-dressed with a pair of jeans, a white shirt with an image of Stewart griffon riding a camel and a black jacket with two yellow bands at the cuff of each sleeve and a bright yellow “P” on the heart of it.
“I see we’ve all come here.” He sneered. “Shall we discuss our plan now?”
Fahad gestured with his open hand at two trailers hooked together.
“Like I said, one of these trailers will accommodate our food, drinks, and refreshments while the other one will have our mattresses and weapons.”
“As you can see,” said Todd, “we are touring the markets pouring out our wallets for this,”
“It’s always better to be more ready than you have to than less” Jason added.
“I’m the only one with the four wheeler here,” I said. “Fahad, link your trailers to my car so we can drive there.”
As he linked the hooks, I worked with Todd to fill up the water coolers. He insisted that he carry them to the truck to show off his “manliness” as he had begun to call it. All of us were indifferent to his antics but after all he was the biggest guy in the group and if you were, you wouldn’t want to pass up any opportunity to show off your place, right?
By early afternoon, we had completed the several exhausting tasks. Now, we would dive head-first into the cavernous jaws of the beast. A beast we couldn’t see, hear, or detect, but one we could feel. Fahad climbed onto my car, even after all those years the path that led to our childhood school was still fresh in his memory. I climbed onto the front seat while Jason, Todd, and Levi reclined in the back seat. Fahad started the engine. Though his work with the gear was lacklustre, once the car was on the road it got going.