AVE

*fire and water may prevail from time to time, but the human spirit cannot be destroyed*

FLASHBACK

‘I told you that our migration from Crimea would mean nothing and that this curse would haunt us, Bilge, but what did you do, Bilge, instead of listening to me as usual, you went your own way and held on to the idea that this was not a curse but a teaching, that the universe was made up of three separate parts, the first was the land where we lived, the second was the land where we lived, the second was the underworld where the lost souls lived, and the third was the other world. My daughter is dying Bilge, what difference does it make if three realms are one, Bergüzar is dying because of you, she is your daughter too, won’t you say anything?” There was no point in Kün saying these things, Bilge had a responsibility from her ancestors, she could not leave this way of life, she took 4-year-old Bergüzar in her arms and left their one-eyed wooden house in Köyceğiz without saying anything. In fact, she knew what she had to do and although she didn’t want to admit it to herself, her daughter was indeed cursed, cursed by the underworld, but there was no problem, yes, no problem, she knew someone who could solve it. All her neighbors told her was that there was a modern exorcist living in the next village. Wise would find him and return home with this problem solved. He got into the car with a determined expression and put Bergüzar in the back seat. Bergüzar was not sleeping at all, she was crying all the time, she had bruises and scratches all over her body, this could be considered normal for a 4 year old child, but the screams every night, the fact that Bergüzar still could not speak properly and when she did, she only stuttered and said ‘Изге’ and the most obvious and biggest problem, her tendency to want to harm and kill animals, proved that this was not just a 4 year old syndrome. By now it was evening and they had finally arrived in the village, but they still could not find the person they were talking about, and the fact that they had no name or physical characteristics made it even more difficult. Everyone talked about her differently, some said she was a witch with a long nose, some compared her to a goblin with her small stature, some said she looked like she had fallen from heaven. Wise decided to spend the night in a hostel in this village. They would wake up early tomorrow and search better in the daylight and maybe the change of place and weather would be good for Bergüzar. With a crying Bergüzar in her arms, Bilge entered the coffee house she saw on the corner to ask for a hostel. The walls of the coffeehouse were moss green, but due to the cigarette smoke and lack of maintenance inside, they had turned yellow in places and the paint was peeling from the corners. In the coffeehouse, which consisted of about ten tables, the majority of the women playing okey were attracting attention, which was unlike other coffeehouses, but what really caught Bilge’s attention was different: the woman standing at the cash register was looking directly into Bilge’s eyes. Bilge looked behind her a couple of times to make sure, wondering if she was looking at someone behind me. The woman was indeed looking at Bilge. The woman’s gaze absorbed Bilge so much that she did not even realize that Bergüzar, who had been crying for days, had stopped crying. She walked towards the woman to ask where the hostel was. The woman did not break eye contact until the Bilge’s reached her. Bilge asked, “Do you know a place nearby where I can stay with my little daughter? The woman remained silent in the face of Bilge’s question and started walking without saying anything, the only thing she did was to look at Bilge and gesture with her hand to come. Bilge had a strange feeling that this woman was going to take them to more than a hostel, a feeling that made him follow her without question. Bergüzar was still calm and Bilge didn’t know if it was the weather here or if she felt like her mother and was full of curiosity. ‘For whatever reason, I’m happy for us both to find some peace,’ she whispered in Bergüzar’s ear. The woman stopped in front of a small stone cottage house, a vast greenery stretched behind the house and the greenery was colored by citrus trees. It was obvious that this house with a smoking chimney was not a hostel. The woman stood at the door of the house and said, ‘Didn’t you come looking for me? Come in,’ she said in a soothing and soft voice. For the first time Bilge was looking at her intently. She had jet black hair cut short at the level of her ears, her thin lips and slanted green eyes gave her a mysterious air, even her cheeks reddened by the heat were not enough to give this mysterious look a cute air. Bilge didn’t know what to feel, he hugged Bergüzar.

Arjin, covered in blood, ran towards the river in front of the house without looking back, gasping for breath, clutching her tarot cards tightly for the last time so as not to drop them.

INTRODUCTION

Arjin looked at the Korkut family. They were at her grandfather’s funeral, their grandmother had died of a heart attack years ago. Their grandfather had spent the years after his wife’s death in prosperity, going from lover to lover. Arjin sighed and thought, ′At this rate, my mother will end up no differently, I don’t understand why my father cheats on her all the time and she still doesn’t leave′. Their mother was epileptic and the worse things got between her and their father, the more she relapsed, yet she would not leave, citing her children as an excuse, and the real reason, according to Arjin, was that she was afraid of what people would say about her, and although she, like her husband, presented a forward-thinking and self-sufficient image, in fact, unlike her husband, she was a very traditional and religious nurse who was afraid of both people and mystical phenomena, while her husband was a real estate agent who managed to make himself the most right and the most logical in every situation. Arjin couldn’t understand how her parents had managed to get together and get married, as if they were bound by some divine force, there was no other explanation. Her brother approached Arjin with slow steps, wearing a red hoodie even though it was a funeral. Arjin said, ′I think my brother became Chinese without us realizing it′ and laughed to himself. He didn’t laugh to himself, he was met with the shameful looks of the people at the funeral and he turned to his brother without paying any attention. Her brother was a 24 year old man who couldn’t hold down a job even though he had graduated from university two years ago - really couldn’t hold down a job, neither the economics department he had graduated from, nor his father’s real estate office, nor the jobs at home_, and he was constantly grumpy because his girlfriend had left him and gone abroad. Typical Taurus, I’m definitely not going to follow his example, Arjin thought. As soon as her grandfather’s lifeless body met the earth, it started to rain, and with the excuse of the rain, the funeral was slowly dispersing. None of her grandfather’s lovers were at the funeral. ‘What a surprise,’ Arjin said, this time not hiding her smile. ‘The summer rain will end quickly anyway, I can stay here a little longer,’ she added to herself. It was the middle of June and Arjin’s exams were over and her first year at university was almost over. He was studying in Yalova with her family. She was startled by her father’s voice, he always had a harsh and sarcastic voice, he had to be the best person to use these two contrasts together, his voice complemented his chiseled chin, thin lips and lush black hair. We need to have a family meeting about the will, you better get here as fast as you can, he said with a half grin, did I add that my father was a smart ass, Arjin thought and was called back to the house, past her grandfather’s grave, her grandfather ironically wanted to be buried at the foot of her grandmother’s grave in the backyard of his house in the Dalyan. The house was a two-story summer house, but her grandfather and grandmother had settled here permanently after their retirement. On the lower floor of the house was a living room with burgundy walls and nothing but a cream-colored armchair and a magnificent fireplace that Arjin had never seen lit, and a white kitchen where he still remembered the smell of his grandmother’s famous cinnamon cookies, There was a small bathroom and her grandparents’ bedroom, which was filled with withered plants, as if to signify that her grandparents were dead. Like every bedroom in the house, this room had a handmade nightmare trap on the headboard, which her grandmother made herself and also custom sewed and sold to customers who wanted one. The upstairs was built for them by their grandparents and consisted of three bedrooms and a bathroom. There was a small dressing room in the master bedroom, the room was mostly cream colored like the living room couches, the room was decorated in cream color like the living room armchairs, the room was decorated with leafy knick-knacks and dark green curtains, this room was for her parents, the second room had a balcony, the only balcony in the house was located in this room, the balcony overlooked the beautiful river in front of the house, this was where Koycegiz lake and Dalyan river connected, it should have been nice to take your coffee and watch the sunrise here, but this room belonged to her brother and she didn’t even think that her brother was using the balcony. It was a slightly gloomy room, the walls were off-white and the furniture was made of dark wood, but what really completed the gloomy atmosphere were the three inlaid swords hanging on the wall where the bed was. The last room belonged to Arjin, the furniture was gray wood and the headboard was lilac, the same color as the curtains. On the wall opposite his bed was a full-length bookcase, and as he examined it, Arjin was glad he had this room to himself. Inside the bookcase was a library of world history books, atlases, encyclopedias, and travel books kept by his grandparents; both his grandfather and grandmother were history teachers, and although his grandmother had left history teaching after a while to take up healing and mediumship, his grandfather had been a teacher until he was made to retire. If we ignore the sword and the vase-like trophy symbols that were everywhere in the house, the house was a warm house that reflected the atmosphere of a sweet old couple, it was clearly lived in. Considering that his grandmother was a psychic, the cups and swords were like a funny reference to tarot cards, and since his mother believed in supernatural powers, she was both afraid of staying in this house because of his grandmother’s presence and admired his grandmother. Arjin must have inherited his fascination with the supernatural from his mother. This time he was distracted from his thoughts by his mother’s voice, who, with her white skin and slender body, looked like porcelain that could break at any moment, hiding her eyes full of fear behind her straight shoulders and strong gaze. She took one last look at her grandfather’s rain-soaked grave and saw her grandfather lying at the foot of her grandmother’s grave, as if he had been very close to her in life. I’m coming mom, he shouted as he entered the house. At the family meeting, there was a different voice from every head. His grandfather wanted them to spend the summer vacation here as a will, in fact, it would be a bit polite to say that he wanted it, he said exactly the following: ′My son Alaz Korkut, his wife Bergüzar Aziz Korkut, their elder son Mustafa Korkut and their younger daughter Arjin Korkut will live in this house for 3 months and 3 days from the day I die, but if they fulfill this condition, I will leave them all my assets, if they do not accept this condition, everything belonging to my assets, including the house in Yalova where they live now, will be sold and the money obtained will be burned.′ Arjin would learn much later that the reason for this was to make them understand their grandfather. What an absurd statement, why three months and three days, as evidenced by the fact that there were three of every accessory in the house, they were either too obsessed with the number three or it had to mean something really important, although since he wanted all that money to be burned instead of donated, this must have been another obsession, because nothing else could be expected from someone of this mindset. His mother was struggling that we can’t stay here, ′You don’t understand, I feel like this place is jinxed, it’s always been jinxed, I know bad things will happen to us′. His brother’s problem was completely different, he had already made plans for the summer under the title of making his ex jealous with his friends, ′Although I don’t agree with my mother’s usual madness, she is right, we can’t stay here in this village for 3 months, and there is not even such a thing as conditional inheritance in Turkish inheritance law,′ he grinned knowingly, he, like their father, saw mystical events as complete nonsense. Please, not 3 months, 3 months and 3 days, brother, please don’t make a mistake, Arjin said in the most sarcastic voice possible, he was fed up with his brother acting like he was five years old. To be honest, Arjin didn’t really want to stay here either, even if he had no other plans. He didn’t say it so that his brother and father wouldn’t make fun of him too, but he felt, just like his mother, that this house would not be good for the Korkut family. His father was adamant that they would honor the will, he didn’t care if it was in accordance with the law or not, his real estate business was going badly anyway, he had no intention of losing his home or his inheritance just for a summer of fun, he couldn’t take any chances. With a posture as if she was a prisoner of fate, their mother said, ”Come on, everyone, go to bed. I’ll call Gül mom tomorrow for the rest of our belongings in Yalova. Gül was the woman who raised their mother. Their mother’s parents had died in a house fire when she was four years old. There were many mysteries in their mother’s past, such as where her father’s grave was, but not her mother’s grave, how the fire started, and how she survived at the age of four. No matter how hard she pushed Gül, Gül never talked about these things, which was probably another mystery. The clock struck midnight and you could see in their eyes how tired and thoughtful they all were. Their mother was holding their father’s hand as if she wanted to show her support, as if she didn’t need support herself, and her brother was complaining about the lack of reception... ′Wait a minute, I’m pretty sure you got reception today,′ Arjin said. Her mother added, ’I knew it, I knew something bad was going to happen, you don’t listen to me. ‘Oh you and your imagination, we are in a village, of course it won’t work,’ his brother replied as if he hadn’t been the one complaining just a moment ago. It would have been incomplete if he hadn’t said something, Arjin wondered if his brother really thought that way or if he was just acting like that to get into their father’s good graces. Their father, on the other hand, only laughed a small, condescending laugh. When their father said ′I’m going to bed, you can continue living in your fantasy world, I give you permission′, the sound of ′KÜT