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DIVINE PERSPECTIVE
As the first leaves of autumn slowly drifted onto the damp, rain-scented earth, the compass of fate began to turn.
Harun pushed himself not to look back as he walked toward the old Opel car. The secrets he held were slowly becoming too much for him; the more he struggled to escape the quagmire he was stuck in, the more he drowned.
When the car door slowly opened and then slammed shut, Harun took a nervous breath.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to come to my door! I don't want you in my neighborhood!" Even though he lowered his voice so no one would hear, the nervous tension that had taken hold of his body was putting pressure on his bones, urging him to get out.
The man in front of him smiled disgustingly, folded his arms, leaned against the hood of the car, and crossed one leg over the other. "Are you ashamed of your partner now, Mr. Harun? Or does no one know about your new friends yet?" The insidious implication beneath his words squeezed Harun's soul, but he couldn't speak; his only desire was to run away from everything. "What is it now? Why did you call me at the crack of dawn?" When the man stood right in front of him, the only thing dripping from his threatening gaze was fearlessness. He wasn't afraid of him or the one holding his leash.
"There's a new job, the boss wants you to take care of it." When the man slammed his palms twice on the hood, Harun's gaze fell on the worn hood of the white car. "I told him I wouldn't be working this week, let him give the job to someone else. I'm not here today." In response to his objection, Adam's face didn't move an inch, but a few seconds later, a mocking smile lit up every inch of his face. "You take these jobs too lightly, king. We don't turn back or refuse orders when we feel like it. Whatever the boss wants, it gets done right then and there." He continued in an even harsher tone. "Are you sick? You'll do it! Are you dying? You'll do it! No excuses! No leniency!" Harun began to look around with a troubled look.
He still couldn't figure out how he'd gotten himself into this mess. He shouldn't have gotten involved with these people; now he couldn't escape his troubles. "Okay, okay, shut up. I'll do it." With a harsh swallow, he was subjected to the man's disgusting, triumphant grin. "Good choice, partner." He hated him. He hated having to put up with him.
"Get used to it...what exactly do you expect me to get used to? There's a child in that trunk!"
The man stared expressionlessly at Harun's face for a few seconds. "Yes? I put the child there, and you're going to take him to the address I gave you. We've done this dozens of times before, have you forgotten?"
It took him a moment to swallow, to comprehend what he had heard.
Just a few minutes ago, he and his wife had been making plans to have a child. Now... now he was going to transport a small child lying motionless in the trunk of a car, his hands and feet bound with rope. "I... I..."
"What? There's no turning back now, king, did you forget? You made a deal, and the boss trusted you. You can't back out of the deal now." He was right; it was too late now. He couldn't turn back.
He got out of the trunk, walked to the front of the car, opened the door, and sat down in the seat. He crossed his arms and sat up straight, staring ahead. A few seconds later, Adam sat down in the driver's seat with a triumphant smile on his face. "Oh, I almost forgot. The boss has a birthday present for you." Harun glanced at the man indifferently. "I'm not that interested," he said and looked back down. As he watched the empty street, the only thought in his mind was to go straight home. "Come on, king, you might like it. Is it worth upsetting the boss?"
Harun impatiently opened the box in the man's hand, first bringing it close to his ear and shaking it quickly. The box was covered in pink paper and had a ribbon with purple and white stars around it. "Could there be a bomb inside?" he said, but there wasn't even a hint of humor in his voice. "I don't think so, he wouldn't try to kill his newest and favorite employee." Taking note of the seriousness on the man's face, he slowly untied the ribbon and opened the box.
The sight he saw shocked him for the second time today.
He had never seen any weapon other than his brother's gun in his life. "What is this?" he whispered involuntarily. The man frowned and pointed to the weapon, saying, "A gun." More accurately, it didn't resemble an ordinary gun. Snake motifs starting from the body of the gun extended to the very tip of the barrel, and each pattern looked as if it had been painstakingly crafted, making it look quite heavy and intimidating. Unlike normal guns, the trigger guard was not oval but indented and protruding. It was clearly a work of special craftsmanship. "The boss had it made for you. I wish I could say there's nothing else like it in the world, but unfortunately, there is one more like this gun, and now one belongs to you." Although there was a hidden implication in his voice, Harun tried to ignore it. Because he couldn't comprehend what was happening right now. Where did this gift come from?
"This was completely unnecessary." He grabbed the gift box and threw it at the man. "What, are you afraid your wife will get angry?" The man laughed mockingly as he caught the box and started the car. Harun leaned back with a grumpy grunt and began to watch the road ahead with displeasure.
He felt an indescribable uneasiness inside.
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DEVA
It was 6:00 p.m., and as I carried the birthday cake I had spent the last four hours preparing to the table, one ear was at the door, but there was no movement, nor any sound from Harun. It had been eight hours and seventeen minutes since he left the kitchen to talk on the phone, and eight hours and ten minutes since he left the house.
I glanced at the dining table one last time; the candles in the candlesticks at either end of the table were slowly melting and about to go out.
The food on the table had already grown cold, and it had long since grown dark outside.
The curiosity that was beginning to stir in my cells slowly took hold of my mind.
Where was he?
When the bell suddenly rang, I jumped up and ran to the door. Before opening it, I adjusted the red dress that reached my knees and smoothed my wavy red hair. I opened the door with a smile on my face.
But my husband wasn't there. Instead, his brother, Emre, was standing there. He was wearing a police uniform and had a gun on his belt. It took me a while to notice the police cars behind him. I couldn't understand what was going on. When I looked at Emre as if to ask, it seemed like it was taking him a while to get the words out. "Deva," he said hesitantly. He averted his eyes and kept swallowing and biting his lips. "You need to come with us, for a while." I was trying to make sense of it all, but my brain seemed to have shut down. "My brother, my brother... has passed away." It was as if I couldn't hear the words coming out of his mouth. The words he spoke didn't register in my memory; they seemed to go in one ear and out the other.
What did it mean to pass away?
When my heart suddenly felt crushed by an immense force, I found myself at the doorstep, collapsing to the ground, my body and eyes losing their strength as my eyes gently closed.
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The cold that took hold of my body was so intense that it felt like I had been placed in a coffin and thrown to the bottom of the ocean, and as I sank deeper, each violent wave of the ocean hammered nails into my skin. Every second, the hand squeezing my throat tightened its grip, cutting off my breath. I couldn't breathe, nor could I rid my system of this disgusting feeling that had taken over my body.
My heart hadn't been beating for the last three days; for the last three days, I had felt like I was in a small coffin. I was trying to escape from the rubble that had collapsed on me, but I couldn't find the strength within myself.
"How, how could this be?" The words forced their way out of my mouth, but they didn't reach my ears or my body.
When I entered the autopsy room at Emre's direction, I involuntarily gripped his arm, which was a few inches away from me, even tighter. This couldn't be real. The one lying there... The one lying there wasn't my husband.
Everything was a nightmare, this was a nightmare.