Night of Terror

Mr. Idris and her daughter looked at each other again. He then turned to me.

"Uh... Look..." he seemed a bit stressful. "I will have to show you something. Come with me."

I could not understand anything so far, but in a futile attempt to do so, I followed him. Sena followed me silently.

Mr. Idris went upstairs and stopped in front of a moderately-sized window. The window was facing the mountain that was adjacent to Yuvakaya. Since this bookstore was located at the northern outskirts of the town, there was no other building between us and the mountain itself. Only a dark line of long trees were blocking some of the view.

"Look high up, please." Mr. Idris said. "Not exactly towards the summit, but a little down, like to the point where the snow cover ends."

In the pitch black view, I could barely make out the end of the snow cover.

"What am I looking for, exactly?" I asked.

"You will see, hopefully, in a couple of minutes or so."

"Do I have to look for minutes?" I asked. "And what do I need to see even?"

"You will know when you see it." Mr. Idris gave quite an unsatisfactory answer to my question.

I decided to play along and look out towards the higher parts of the mountain. My only hope was that whatever they were trying to show me could explain at least a few things.

After a while, I averted my gaze from the dark mountain and started watching the stars instead.

"There it is!" Sena said. I looked back to the mountain, but couldn't spot anything noticable.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You missed it!?" Sena asked with frusturation. "No matter..." she sighed. "I am su- THERE IT IS, AGAIN!"

I looked at the mountain again, and this time, I was quick enough.

There was a yellow-tinted light coming from somewhere near the top of the mountain. It was changing intensity and wobbling around a bit, like someone was trying to hold a powerful flashlight towards the town from up there.

"So... What is THAT?" I asked.

"Well..." Mr. Idris started speaking. "That is a warning sign for our town, Yuvakaya. If you see that light towards the end of the day, you should never go out in the dark... until the sun rises again in the morning."

To me, that sounded like some lie people would tell to their little children.

"A warning for what?" I asked.

"If that light appears and you go out in the dark, there is a chance that you will not make it to your destination." Mr. Idris explained.

"Because?" I kept asking for more information.

"Because... Because..." he repeated a few times. "No one knows exactly what happens, but people get lost. Not in the means of travelling to the wrong place... They just disappear, and they are never found again."

"Huh?"

"I know how crazy it sounds, but this is how it is." Mr. Idris said. "That light barely appears once a month or so. However, if you are not careful that night and you miss the light, or if you are brave enough to-"

"Stupid enough to." Sena interrupted.

"...stupid enough to go out that night, bad things may happen to you." Mr. Idris completed his sentence.

"This sounds outright stupid." I said. "How does no one know anything about that? Do these people die or what!?"

"No one knows." Mr. Idris said. "But it seems like people in the streets are safe as long as they are in luminous areas, and are being watched by other people. The problem is... The town gets really dark. No matter how many lamps we use... If the Moon is not bright in the sky, it is always dangerously dark."

"Dangerously dark." Sena repeated.

"I've heard stories of people walking in crowds to avoid an ill fate, but the number of people decreasing when they pass through the dark streets." Mr. Idris said.

"What is this, a horror game?" I asked.

"I wish it was." Sena said.

"Look, I am having a hard time understanding." I said. "The story itself sounds like an urban legend; but even if it is true, what the people are doing is insane as well! You have street lights, flashlights... To hell with it, everyone has cell phones now!"

"Nothing works that night." Mr. Idris said. "If you see the mountain's light, and the Moon isn't high up in the sky, you have no other source of light."

"Also, that light..." I said. "Where exactly does it come from? Who lights it up?"

"We simply don't know." Mr. Idris said. "A lot of people attempted to climb the mountain. Most of them actually DID climb the mountain, but no one found anything."

"Did anyone climb the mountain while the light was on?" I asked.

"That's another story." Mr. Idris said. "Two people did, but they never came back. A few more climbers went after them in the morning, but they couldn't find them. They didn't even find corpses or anything..."

I sighed.

"I see..." I said, thoughtfully. "But still, I am having some hard time believing in all this. If I didn't see that mysterious light myself, I would think that you were just messing with me. Well, to be honest, actually, I still think that you might just be messing with me..."

"I can see your confusion, but it is just too dangerous to be unaware of that." Mr. Idris said. "Now, you tell me, your aunt lives here, right?"

"Yes. She has been living here for at least... 7 years." I said.

"And she didn't tell you about this when you came here?" he asked me.

"Now that I think of it, she said something along the lines of 'Don't hang out for long after it gets dark.', but I never thought much of it." I said.

"Maybe she thought it would be too absurd to start off by telling urban legends, eh?" Mr. Idris said. "You could think that she was crazy for really believing in such thing."

I looked down.

"You would, wouldn't you?" Mr. Idris asked.

"Yeah, I would think that she was crazy." I replied.

Suddenly, I heard some woman yelling loudly in the streets. The window facing the street was on the other side of the house. We all ran to see what was going on. Even if we were not late to rush to the other window, it was pitch black outside, and we could not really see anything.

"It didn't sound like it was too far away." I said. "We can help her, whoever she is!"

Mr. Idris held me by my shoulder.

"No." he said. "If this is what we think it is... Just no. In fact, I think it would be better for you if you just stay here tonight. If she survived for 7 years, your aunt would be smart enough to not look for you in the streets."

Sena nodded silently, agreeing with his father.

"Though, I must add... All those years, this is the first time I've ever heard anyone screaming during the 'Night of Terror'. People usually disappear without giving any signs."

"Maybe she didn't diasppear, and it was simply something else?" I asked.

"Let's hope so."