The Jinn Bride | True Horror Story

True Horror Story | Summary: A friend’s terrifying transformation before his wedding and his tragic end. Does this horror story, set in Manisa, tell of the curse of a jinn love affair?

Those were the years I went to Istanbul to work, with many plans swirling in my head. With the business degree I got a few years prior, I managed, albeit with difficulty, to find a job at a private bank. For the first few months, I lived a bachelor’s life in a rented apartment alone, but increasing expenses made it hard to make ends meet. This situation meant I needed to control my excessive spending.

There was a guy named Murat working with me at the same bank. He was around my age and a very good person. Whenever I had minor crises, he would lend me money, saying, “Don’t rush, pay me back whenever you can.” Murat also lived in a rented place like me. One day, when I was short on cash, Murat suggested we live together. “This way, we can cut the rent cost in half.” I was very happy to hear this. He also knew how to do housework, whereas I mostly ate out, except on rare occasions. I accepted his offer. That weekend, Murat and I started living together.

Months passed, and we got quite used to each other. We were like two brothers in the same house. Towards the end of spring, Murat mentioned his wedding was in the middle of summer. “Semih, I’m going to take my annual leave early and go to my hometown. You must come for the wedding too. I’ll show you around our area,” he said. I was very happy about this and replied, “Of course, brother.”

When Murat took his leave and returned to his hometown, I went to my family’s place. After staying with my family for a short while, I bought my ticket to Manisa, Murat’s hometown. As soon as I entered the city center early in the morning, I called Murat. I told him where I was. Half an hour later, he arrived in his car. His face was quite cheerful. “What’s up, is this joy because you’re getting married?” I asked. He gave a shy smile and said, “No, brother, I’m happy to see you. Welcome.” After shaking hands, he asked if I had had breakfast. Thinking of my empty stomach since yesterday, I said, “Sure.” After the meal, I asked Murat about the place he lived. His family lived in a village quite far from the city center. They also had a house in the city but spent the summer months in the village. Before going to the village, we stopped by their city house. Murat took a few items from the house.

After hours of travel, we finally left the asphalt and entered a dirt road. I thought we were close, but when Murat said, “Hold on, we still have half an hour,” I started thinking we had crossed the border. As Murat said, half an hour later, we saw the village situated on a flat area. Murat said, “These are the lands where I grew up.” Slowing down the car, we drove between the houses. We stopped in front of a three-story house with a garden. At the gate, next to the doghouse, an old man was feeding the dog. Hearing the car sound, he stopped what he was doing and turned towards us. Looking at me, he said, “Welcome, son.” Murat intervened and introduced us. “This is my father, İbrahim,” he said. Then turning to his father, “And this is my friend Semih, whom I told you about.” After the brief introduction, we entered the house. Inside, I met Murat’s older sister and mother. They all seemed like good people.

After dinner, the fatigue from the journey made me sleepy. When Murat’s mother showed me the empty room they had prepared for me and said I could go to bed early, I immediately went to the room. I changed my clothes and lay down on the bed. I woke up in the morning to sounds from outside. I say morning, but when I checked the time, it was almost 12 noon. I had slept so soundly that no one wanted to wake me up. When Murat’s sister saw me, she said, “Good morning, I’ll prepare your breakfast right away.” I replied, “I wish you had woken me up, it’ll be a bother,” and went out to the courtyard.

Outside, Murat and his father were talking to a few men. They were calculating what needed to be done and bought for the wedding preparations. When he saw me, he said, “Good morning, did you sleep well?” I nodded and asked when the wedding was. The wedding was in 4 days. Leaving the men at the courtyard entrance, I looked at the doghouse. Inside lay a black and white, quite adorable dog. When I whistled, it came out and started playing with me. Its collar said Paşa. After playing with Paşa, I had my breakfast.

After breakfast, Murat and I took the car and toured the village. Murat also showed me the place where the wedding would be held. The wedding area was quite flat and spacious. In the middle section, there were a few trees no taller than 5 meters. Then I asked Murat about the girl he was going to marry. Her name was Meryem. She lived with her family in a village near Murat’s. After talking for a long time, I noticed Murat constantly rubbing his chest. Although it didn’t catch my attention at first, I later asked if he was okay. Murat replied quite confidently, “I’m fine, sometimes there’s a pain, but it passes.” I grinned at him and said, “Take care of yourself until the wedding day, champ.” We both laughed and got into the car.

When we returned home, the sun was about to set. We teased Paşa at the door and went inside. The household had set the table and was waiting for us. We immediately sat down at the table. After dinner, Uncle İbrahim was outside the house, smoking his cigarette on one hand and making arrangements for the wedding on the phone with the other. At one point, Murat’s friends from the village came over. In a group of five, we went to the shore of a small lake. They had brought supplies with them. We set up a nice table for ourselves amidst the car headlights. Chatting away, the time passed midnight. Without prolonging it further, everyone returned home.

When Murat and I entered the house, everyone was asleep. Without making much noise, we went upstairs. While climbing the stairs, Murat was holding his chest again. We wished each other good night and went to our rooms. Slightly tipsy, I fell asleep as soon as I lay down.

I woke up to Paşa’s barking. He was barking so much he almost never stopped. After a while, I got annoyed. I got out of bed and turned on the light. I looked down from the window. The dog was barking like crazy, its head turned towards the house. He was pulling his leash so hard it almost snapped. I tapped on the window to silence Paşa, but to no avail. But this time, sounds coming from the next room prevented me from sleeping. Next to me was Murat’s room. Muffled sounds similar to Murat’s voice were coming. At first, I thought Murat was snoring. But his recent habit of constantly putting his hand on his chest made me suspicious. Bad thoughts started coming to my mind. Was he having a seizure?

I immediately got out of bed and went into the corridor. The intensity of the sounds I had just heard had increased. It sounded like someone was choking Murat. As I approached his room, I saw pale lights coming from under the door. I put my hand on the doorknob and quickly opened it. When I opened the door, there was no trace of the light from before. I couldn’t see Murat clearly. When I turned on the light, Murat was lying on his back on the bed. His bloodshot eyes were staring at the ceiling as if they were about to pop out. Without understanding what was happening, I went to him and said, “Murat, what happened? Are you okay?” He didn’t answer. He was still breathing rapidly and staring at the ceiling. When I put my hand on his shoulder, he suddenly turned his head and looked at me. He said something I couldn’t quite understand and started shouting. As he shouted, an unbearable stench came from his mouth. Unable to stand it anymore, I shouted, “Uncle İbrahim!”

Hearing my voice, the household members came to Murat’s room within seconds. They too were trying to understand what was going on. Uncle İbrahim turned to me and asked, “What happened?” I explained what had occurred. His mother and sister were crying, constantly asking Murat questions, waiting for an answer from him. Just then, Murat took a deep breath and let it all out. In fear, everyone started shaking Murat, but when we checked, his breathing was normal. Then he suddenly woke up and said, “Mom?” Hearing Murat’s voice relieved everyone. “What happened? Why are you crying?” he asked. The Murat from minutes ago was gone, replaced by the boy we knew. Seeing me at his bedside too, he sat up. He was drenched in sweat. He looked at us with strange, sleepy eyes, trying to understand what was happening. When no one spoke, I said I heard snoring sounds and came to his room fearing something had happened to him. Murat said he was fine and wanted to sleep. Uncle İbrahim said, “Okay, let’s sleep now, we’ll talk about everything in the morning.”

I left the room and went to my own. I was still trying to comprehend what I had just seen. What Murat said to me, the way his red eyes looked like they were popping out of their sockets, had a shocking effect on me. I tried to sleep, though it was difficult. As I fell asleep, the sound of the morning adhan came from outside.

I woke up early in the morning, having slept fitfully anyway. I immediately went downstairs. The events of the night had affected the whole house. Everyone looked glum. Murat’s mother looked at me and asked, “Hasn’t Murat woken up?” I said I hadn’t checked. I went upstairs again to call Murat. As I approached Murat’s door in the corridor, I felt my breathing and heartbeat quicken. Then I scolded myself internally, “He’s your friend, don’t think such absurd things.” When I reached the door, I knocked. No response. I knocked again and said, “Murat, are you awake, brother?” Still no sound. My heart was pounding in my throat, my nerves were frayed. I quickly opened the door and went inside. Murat wasn’t in his bed. When I turned my head to the right, I saw Murat standing right at the entrance of the door, looking at me with a strange expression. I went out into the corridor and shouted angrily, “What the hell are you doing, you psycho?!” Hearing my shout, Uncle İbrahim also came upstairs. Murat went to his father and said he couldn’t sleep all night, so he wanted to sleep a bit. Although Uncle İbrahim asked Murat if he would have breakfast, Murat didn’t answer the question, entered his room, turned towards me, and closed the door. I couldn’t understand Murat’s actions.

Uncle İbrahim and I went downstairs together. At breakfast, Murat’s mother and father constantly asked me questions. They wanted me to recount the previous night. I told them everything that happened in minute detail. I said Murat seemed normal when we returned home, and in my opinion, he became like this after the incident during the night. Uncle İbrahim was very upset that his son had become like this just a few days before the wedding. He kept asking me to talk to Murat and find out what was wrong with him. I told Uncle İbrahim I would do whatever it takes to bring Murat back to his old self.

Murat didn’t even come out of his room for lunch that day. I spent the day outside with Paşa. In the evening, Uncle İbrahim came home. He said he had completed all the wedding preparations. Immediately after, he asked about Murat’s condition. His mother said he had been in his room all day. His father got angry, saying, “Who are we doing all this for? What happened to this boy?” and entered the house. Murat’s mother asked me to check on Murat too. I entered the house and went upstairs. I went to the door and called out, “Murat brother, aren’t you going to eat?” Murat said he wasn’t hungry. “You haven’t eaten anything since yesterday, how can you not be hungry?” I asked. He didn’t answer. Just as I turned to go downstairs, the door opened. Inside, there was that pale light again. I started getting tense again, I could feel my legs trembling. When I reached the door, I looked inside the room. Murat was sitting on the bed, bringing spoonfuls of a black, grainy, mushy substance from a wooden bowl in front of him to his mouth. What I saw started to nauseate me. He ate and ate, while laughing and saying something in a strange language to someone on the opposite side of the room. I approached the door and shouted, “Murat, what are you doing?!” Murat suddenly stopped laughing, turned his head towards me, and shouted in a strange voice, “Can’t you see? He’s eating!” With his shout, the door slammed shut violently in my face.

My legs, barely able to hold me up from fear, moved with difficulty down the stairs. When I reached the bottom, I almost fell, but Uncle İbrahim saw me. They immediately laid me down on the nearby sofa. I couldn’t speak for a short while. As I started to come around, I tried to explain what I had seen. Upon this, Uncle İbrahim went upstairs. Upstairs, shouts of “Open this damn door! Open the door! I swear I’ll break it down!” echoed. A few minutes later, Uncle İbrahim came downstairs again. His skin was flushed red with anger, his lips purple. “He locked the door!” he said.

No one spoke during dinner. Everyone was trying to understand what was happening to Murat. At the end of the meal, they asked me questions about what I saw in Murat’s room in the evening. Murat’s mother didn’t want to believe what I said, asking me each time if I was sure while I recounted. What I saw today had affected me quite a bit too. I could no longer see Murat as my old friend. I wanted the wedding to be over and done with as soon as possible so I could return to my family.

After dinner, Uncle İbrahim went up to Murat’s room again. Murat hadn’t opened the door again. Late at night, when everyone retired to their rooms, I reluctantly went up to mine. I closed and locked the door. After all I had seen, I was scared, although I tried not to show it to the family. I lay down on the bed and tried to sleep. I couldn’t sleep because I hadn’t turned off the light. I got up and turned off the light. I lay down on the bed again. At one point, I thought I heard deep conversation sounds. The sounds were coming from Murat’s room. It seemed like Murat was talking to someone. When his conversation ended, Paşa started barking again. I was about to go crazy. I got up again and turned on the light. When I looked down, Paşa was lunging here and there, unable to stay still. It was as if he had seen a strange animal. While watching Paşa, the light in my room went out. I let go of the curtain and looked into the room. I immediately turned the light back on in one swift move. As I wondered what to do, the sound of conversations next door grew louder, and Paşa barked even more.

I thought it would be right to leave the room and wake up Uncle İbrahim and the others. When I left my room, Murat’s room door was open. That light was there again in the distance. Without looking that way, I walked towards the room where Uncle İbrahim and the others were staying. Just as I was about to knock on the door, I heard a voice behind me say “Semih.” The owner of the voice was my very familiar friend, Murat. He was right behind me. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. With every exhale, a foul odor spread. My heart was practically stopping. Gathering my courage, I wanted to touch Uncle İbrahim’s door without turning around, to wake them up, but my hand wouldn’t move. Finally, I pulled myself together and slowly started to turn around. The first thing I saw when I turned around was the fire reflected in Murat’s eyes. I wanted to ask a question, but my tongue wouldn’t work. I thought to myself, “Murat, don’t hurt me.” Murat must have understood this because he replied, “Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.” Then he turned his back to me and headed towards his room. “Come, let me introduce you to my wife,” he said.

I couldn’t fully understand what Murat said. Although I didn’t want to follow him, I walked. When I reached the door of the room, the inside was very different from the last time I saw it. Thick black curtains on the windows, red writing and embroidered walls, and again that disgusting smell… Murat slowly sat down on his bed. He raised his hand towards me and said, “Come.” I entered the room. My hair stood on end. I didn’t want to get close to Murat because I was afraid he would harm me. “Do you want to see my wife?” he asked. I couldn’t answer. In a louder and deeper voice, he shouted, “Do you want to?!” My tongue was tied, I couldn’t speak. With difficulty, haltingly, stuttering, I said “Yes.” Murat raised his finger and pointed to the large wardrobe opposite. When he raised his finger, there were black smudges on his fingertips. I couldn’t see anything where he pointed, but on the table next to the bed, in the wooden bowl I saw yesterday, were bloody and hairy pieces of meat.

I was walking towards the wardrobe. My feet were out of my control. I reached my hand towards the large wardrobe door. As I slowly opened the door, a cold beam of light spread from the wardrobe into the room. The light increased as I opened it further. I tried to close my eyes to avoid looking at the light in the wardrobe, but somehow my eyes wanted to open. Unable to resist anymore, I opened my eyes. In the wardrobe, a woman wearing a wedding dress was dismembering an animal in her lap with a knife. As she dismembered the animal, blood dripped onto the wedding dress. I lifted my eyes and looked at the woman’s face. Her eyes were blank white as if they weren’t there. She had stopped her work and was looking at me. Seeing that I was looking at her, I turned my eyes back to the animal in her lap. The animal had a collar around its neck, and on the collar was written Paşa.

When I opened my eyes, I heard Uncle İbrahim shouting. They had found me unconscious at the entrance of my room door. As soon as I got up from the floor, I went downstairs and out into the courtyard. I went to Paşa’s kennel and checked on Paşa. The animal wasn’t in the kennel. I turned to Uncle İbrahim and said, “They killed Paşa!” Uncle İbrahim asked, “What killing, son? Who killed him?” I pulled myself together and sat down on one of the chairs. I asked Uncle İbrahim to call his wife, saying I would tell them everything that had happened to me. After Murat’s mother and sister arrived, I recounted everything I experienced last night down to the smallest detail. While recounting, I glanced upstairs at one point and saw Murat looking at me from behind the curtain, saying something behind the glass.

When Uncle İbrahim heard about the veiled woman in Murat’s room and what she did to Paşa, he quickly entered the house. We followed him from behind. When he reached Murat’s room door, he started pounding on it, kicking it. Since the door was locked, he kept forcing it, trying to open it. Shortly after, Murat opened the door. Uncle İbrahim went inside and started beating Murat. “What the hell did you do?! What is your wife doing in your room?!” he muttered, beating Murat at the same time. When Murat’s mother opened the wardrobe, she started screaming at what she saw. The woman couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed to the floor. When Uncle İbrahim looked into the wardrobe, he took Paşa’s riddled and blood-soaked pelt and left the room. Murat, meanwhile, was sitting strangely on the bed, muttering odd sentences to himself, laughing occasionally.

I didn’t have the strength to endure these events any longer. I left the room and went to my own. I took my bag from under the bed and packed all my belongings. Neither my friendship with Murat, nor the wedding, nor the people in the house mattered to me anymore. I wanted to leave this village as soon as possible. I packed my bag and changed my clothes. I quietly opened the door of the room and went out into the corridor. I didn’t want to be seen by anyone. I was hesitant about whether to take one last look at Murat’s room. I went up to Murat’s door. Just as I was about to knock, I changed my mind. I quickly walked towards the stairs. I had just stepped onto the first step when a sound came. As soon as I heard the sound, my heart started racing again. When I turned around, Murat was leaning against his room door, looking at me. Something black like tears was flowing from his eyes. His face was much paler than usual. I stepped back up the step I had descended. Then Murat took a step towards me and said, “It’s all my fault.” I didn’t understand what he meant. Even though I said, “I’m leaving, Murat,” he hadn’t heard me. An arm emerged from inside the room, grabbed Murat by the wrist, and pulled him into the room. When Murat re-entered his room, the door slammed shut violently.

At that moment, I decided that Murat had completely lost his mind and that I needed to leave this house before I lost mine too. When I went downstairs, no one was around. I immediately went out into the courtyard and started walking quickly. As I passed Paşa’s kennel, the things I saw at night came to mind. I turned back one last time and looked at the house. There was that strange flashing light in Murat’s room, and Murat’s cries mixed with weeping could be clearly heard from outside. I turned my steps towards the road and quickly went to the village square. When I saw one of the children from the lakeside, I said I needed to go to the city center. When the child asked where I was going so close to the wedding, I said I was going to buy something from the city and come back. He told me to wave down passing cars to get to the center.

As evening approached, I went down to the city, went to the terminal, and bought a ticket to Istanbul. I arrived in Istanbul around noon. As soon as I got off the bus, I threw myself into a taxi and went home. I packed up all my belongings at home. After what I had experienced, I couldn’t stay in the same house with Murat. I didn’t even stay in that house the day I left. I stayed in a hotel until I found a new rental apartment. Although it was far from the bank where I worked, I rented the new apartment I found. On the evening of the day I rented it, I moved my belongings and settled in.

Days passed after my return to Istanbul. Every day I waited for Murat to walk through the bank door, wondering if the wedding had happened and what kind of reaction he would give me for moving out without telling him. But none of what I thought happened.

Years passed. I was now married and a father of two. After getting married, I quit my job in Istanbul and was now a bank branch manager in Izmir. My wife’s parents were from Manisa. During the summer when we took our annual leave, we went to visit them. When I saw the name of Murat’s district on the traffic sign, I suddenly felt detached from the environment and felt like I was reliving what happened years ago. While experiencing these feelings, my wife’s warning saved me from an accident at the last moment. The thought of finding out what happened to Murat constantly lingered in my mind.

First, we went to our destination with the children and my wife. A day later, I told my wife that a very close friend of mine lived nearby and that I needed to visit him briefly, and left them. As I got closer to Murat’s village, my breathing quickened inside the car. Although I tried to control myself, I couldn’t stop my heart from pounding violently. The passing years had changed the village considerably, new houses had been built. Although I knew the area, I found the location of Murat’s house with difficulty. While I expected to see a three-story house, I found a two-story house under construction at the same spot. Outside, 3-4 workers were loading dismantled molds onto a truck. I approached them and said, “May your work be easy.” After a brief chat, I got to the point, but none of them knew anything about Murat or Uncle İbrahim. They called a man from inside the construction site and said, “He would know better.” The person they called was the boy I had asked years ago how to get to the city center from the village. He had changed quite a bit. I recognized him, but he didn’t recognize me. After greeting him too, I said I was looking for Murat. The man’s face suddenly fell. He looked down at the ground and said, “You don’t know, do you?” I asked, “What don’t I know?” The man pointed to a place where we could sit. After sitting down, he said, “Murat is dead.”

When I first heard it, there was silence between us for a few seconds. Then I pulled myself together and asked, “How did he die?” He began to explain: “It was years ago, the night before Murat’s wedding day. According to Shepherd Ahmet, Murat got up at night while his father, mother, and sister were asleep in their rooms, poured gasoline all over the house from the barn to the top floor, and set it on fire. The fire was so huge that by the time the villagers noticed it, the house had collapsed and turned to ashes. Initially, we thought it was a normal fire and assumed Murat had died with his family. But a week after the fire, the village children found a pitch-black human corpse by the lake shore. I was among the first to go see it. The corpse’s eyes were gouged out, its tongue cut off. In its arms was something resembling a baby but with an inhuman face. We immediately called the gendarmerie. A few days later, they said the corpse belonged to Murat. No one understood how such a thing could have happened to Murat. A few days after the funeral, some rumors started circulating in the village. The rumor was this: Apparently, Murat had a romantic relationship with a female jinn in his childhood and had only told his cousin about it. Indeed, the source of this rumor was Murat’s cousin. When Murat reached marriageable age, this entity supposedly took Murat captive and didn’t allow him to marry another woman. But no one could understand why Murat burned down the house and killed his family. We thought the strange baby we found in his arms might have been Murat’s child with that jinn woman.”

When the man finished explaining, I tried to piece together the events I had experienced in my mind. After a few questions, I said goodbye to the man and drove back to my wife. While returning to Istanbul, I thought about what I had experienced years ago and how a person I loved had ended up like this.

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