# The Manuscript
I slowly opened my eyes.
The room was still the same.
The white walls were beginning to yellow. The ceiling light flickered softly. The small table beside the bed. Even the ticking clock, which had sounded all this time like someone counting down.
And yet, something had changed.
Me.
For several seconds, I simply lay there staring at the ceiling, trying to remember what had just happened.
That woman.
That voice.
And the last sentence that kept circling through my mind.
Now it's your turn to remember everything.
I swallowed.
My hand moved unconsciously toward my head. A stabbing pain came from behind my eyes, but this time I didn't try to drive it away.
I let it come.
One by one.
Small fragments began to surface.
A hallway.
A school uniform.
The sound of a bell.
The laughter of several people.
Then a girl standing at the end of the hallway.
I couldn't see her face.
And yet, somehow, I knew she was waiting for me.
“I know you...” I whispered.
My heart began beating faster.
The image vanished before it could become whole.
I closed my eyes again.
This time, I didn't chase the shadow. I simply waited.
And a few seconds later, another memory came.
A classroom.
I was sitting in the very back.
Someone was sitting beside me.
Someone who kept talking to me even though I never answered.
“If I'm ever gone someday, will you remember me?”
The voice was so clear.
I opened my eyes.
My breath caught in my throat.
I knew that voice.
I was certain of it.
But I didn't know who it belonged to.
“Who are you?”
There was no answer.
I got up from the bed.
My legs trembled slightly when my feet touched the floor. I walked to the table and looked at the things scattered across it.
A book.
A pen.
And a photograph whose existence I hadn't noticed before.
My hand stopped.
The photo showed a group of female students in front of a school building.
I recognized the place.
My school.
But one thing made my chest tighten.
Among all the faces in the photo, I found myself.
I was standing in the middle.
Smiling.
So different from the person I was now.
And right beside me...
There was a girl.
Her face had been deliberately crossed out with black ink.
I brought the photo closer to my face.
Whoever had done it hadn't merely crossed out the girl's face.
The name written beneath her photo had been erased too.
I rubbed the area with my thumb.
The ink had already dried.
But a little of the writing was still legible.
“Is...”
I fell silent.
Is?
Ismi?
Isra?
Ismail?
The name felt unfamiliar, yet also like something that had once been very close to me.
Suddenly, my head began throbbing again.
The photo slipped from my hand.
And another memory slammed into my mind.
I was running.
The school hallway seemed endless.
Someone was running ahead of me.
A girl.
Her hair streamed in the wind.
“Come on!”
She turned to look at me.
This time, I almost saw her face.
Almost.
But before I could see it clearly, a loud sound came from behind.
BANG!
I jolted.
My eyes opened again.
The photo was lying on the floor.
The bedroom door was open.
I stared toward it.
There was no one there.
Only a long, dark hallway.
But the sound of footsteps came from far away.
Slowly.
One.
Two.
Three.
Coming closer.
I stood frozen.
The footsteps stopped right outside the door.
Then a woman's voice spoke.
“So you've started remembering.”
I didn't answer.
The voice came again.
“You shouldn't remember it.”
I picked up the photo from the floor.
“Who are you?”
Silence.
Then someone chuckled.
It wasn't a happy laugh.
It sounded more like someone who had just realized that a secret they'd hidden all this time was beginning to come out.
“You really forgot, didn't you?”
I stared at the door.
“Forgot what?”
“About her.”
My heart began pounding again.
“Who?”
“Your friend.”
I tightened my grip on the photo.
“I don't have a friend like that.”
The moment the words left my mouth, the voice behind the door answered,
“That’s what makes everything easier.”
I took a step back.
“What do you mean?”
“If you remember her,” she said, “you'll also remember what happened that night.”
That night.
Those two words made my entire body turn cold.
I didn't know which night she meant.
But somewhere deep inside me, it was as if I already knew the answer.
An image appeared in my mind.
Rain.
The empty schoolyard.
The dead corridor lights.
And that girl.
She stood in the rain, staring at me.
This time, I could see her face.
I knew her.
I truly knew her.
Her lips moved, forming a sentence.
Don't trust anyone.
I fell silent.
Then the memory changed.
I saw myself standing in front of her.
We were arguing.
She was crying.
I was shouting.
And then...
Darkness.
I opened my eyes with a deep breath.
The photo trembled in my hand.
“No...” I whispered.
I was beginning to remember her.
Not everything.
Not yet.
But enough to realize one thing.
The mysterious woman who had been appearing before me all this time wasn't trying to frighten me.
She was trying to make me remember.
And maybe...
maybe all this time, I had been wrong about who my enemy was.
I looked at the photo again.
On the part where the girl's face had been crossed out with black ink, something that hadn't been there before was now visible.
A small message.
As if it had emerged from beneath the ink.
Three words.
I'M STILL HERE.
My hand went still.
Then the bedroom light went out.
In the darkness, a whisper sounded right behind my ear.
“Now you remember my name.”
I didn't dare move.
“Don't look behind you.”
Tears suddenly began streaming down my face for no reason I could understand.
Because that voice...
was the same voice from my memory.
The voice of the girl who had once asked me whether I would remember her.
And for the first time, I finally remembered her name.
“Is—”
Before I could finish speaking, the voice whispered once more.
“Don't say my name.”
Then everything fell silent again.