İlk Kısa Hikayem

 

Chapter I

Dream World

The storm finally showed some mercy and abated. The birds were singing, little squirrels were jumping from tree to tree trying to find a quiet place to eat their hard-earned acorn. Any man would be engrossed to watch the animals going out of their nests to celebrate the end of the storm. Except for Recep. He was furiously trying to find a piece of food to subside his panging hunger. As he was rummaging in his kitchen pantry, a jar full of pickles started to descend from the top of the shelf onto the kitchen floor.

Realizing the terrifying outcome of such potential adversity, Recep placed his foot between the jar and the floor just before it fell. It was a decision made only in a split second that saved Recep from a torturing drudge of cleaning the floors. Nevertheless, Recep’s sore foot wasn’t quite happy with the result. As he was dragging himself to get some ice for his aching foot, Recep saw something that made him think about the vivid dream he had had this morning.

He always had vivid dreams where he would be able to fly, wander amidst nature and meet strangers but the last dream he had was quite strange.

He was roaming in the natural park next to his apartment when he saw a man screaming at the top of his lungs. As Recep got closer to him, this stranger’s face became more visible. His reddish eyes were wide open. He was panting and was trying to catch his breath to scream for the last time. His call for help and his desperate stance intrigued Recep.

Recep got really close to him and paid extra attention to understand what was coming out of his mouth. It mostly sounded like gibberish, but Recep could catch one or two words and those were; I don’t know. It had been quite a long time since Recep had had a nightmare. In fact, he couldn’t even remember having a nightmare before. So, he grinned with excitement as he wondered if this would be his first time.

The desperate man didn’t notice him probably because Recep was quietly hovering. So Recep descended to introduce himself. Recep wouldn’t have guessed that the man’s eyes could get any wider and his pitch voice could get any higher. In an attempt to hush the stranger Recep placed his hand on the man's shoulder and solemnly asked

“Why are you screaming?”

The stranger’s eyebrows rose as his mouth slightly opened and he uttered

“Y-you speak?”

Recep’s eyes widened as he tilted his head. Recep wasn’t expecting such a weird response. In his dreams, he would meet a variety of people on a regular basis but they wouldn’t be as hysterical as this stranger. More importantly, they wouldn’t be screaming for help at the top of their lungs. The dream had started quite usual but now it was going in a very adventurous direction Recep thought. While this excited him, the vividness and the strangeness of the dream disturbed him. To satiate his curiosity Recep ignored the stranger’s dull question and asked

“Are you lost?”

The stranger hastily nodded his head with excitement.

 “Y-yes! I don’t know how I got here”

Recep wasn’t surprised. For the last two weeks, he had been encountering lost souls in his dreams and it was getting frustrating. Recep put much thought into them and figured they must be a reflection of his inner problems. But there was a voice in his head telling him that it wasn’t the case. Every encounter raised more questions rather than answering any and this stranger wasn’t any different. Regardless, Recep felt an urge to help this desperate man mostly because he pitied him. He pitied the stranger’s tired reddish puppy-like eyes begging for help.

“It’s okay, no one really knows why or how they are here.”

Recep and the stranger looked at each other. Recep lightly tapped the man’s shoulder and smiled as though to assure him that everything was going to be okay. Recep’s comforting aura calmed the stranger down. The stranger’s mood was starting to change from desperation to gratitude; Recep could see it through his eyes. The stranger let go of his clenching chin relaxing himself. Recep felt like an affectionate father guiding his son. Maybe this is what I need- Recep thought. He was deprived of any affection from his father mostly because he grew up not knowing him. He was raised in an orphan house but he was quite fortunate with his home. It was far away from the city, placed in a village near Ankara. He didn’t have any friends but this didn’t bother him. His home was surrounded by nature. He would occasionally go out to play with the dogs, sheep, and whatnot. His favorites were the ducks, he found them frankly astonishing and funny. Regardless, he always wished to have someone to whom he could blindly trust and someone who was there to guide him. The stranger could be related to this Recep thought and figured small talk might unveil what was beneath this whole thing.

“What’s your name?” Recep asked with a slight smile and in a calm voice

“Ahmet,” he said as his voice cracked. He coughed in an attempt to recover his breath and uttered again “My name is Ahmet”

“Nice to meet you, Ahmet,” said Recep with a comforting smile as though nothing was unusual.

Even Recep found his calm stance against this encounter to be unusual. However, he didn’t think much about it. He had become accustomed to having this sort of dream. In fact, he thought everyone could watch themselves sleep and fly in their dreams. It was his only friend, Şafak, in the orphan house who told him about the strangeness of his dreams. Recep never knew why he was different and was able to control his dreams. Sometimes, he wondered how it would be to be able to sleep without having a dream. It was as though he had two separate lives. In his dream life, he would fly and see the earth from above. He loved the landscape but his true love lay amidst the woods. He had this implacable love towards nature. On his way to nature, he would see souls either in the city or in nature. He loved meeting them they always had been a company to him. They didn’t really react too much and didn’t talk but it made Recep not feel alone. For the last couple of weeks, however, he had met with souls that reacted to Recep and in some cases even talked to him. He initially was surprised by it and tried to talk back but they instantly disappeared, so he didn’t have much hope for Ahmet. Nevertheless, he wanted to take this chance and talk to him as much as possible.

At this point, they were both standing still. Ahmet was directly looking at Recep’s eyes which made the whole interaction a bit awkward for Recep. In an attempt to evade Ahmet’s fierce gaze, Recep proposed

“Let’s walk a bit, shall we?

Ahmet directed his fierce gaze to the path in front of them and obeyed Recep’s proposition

As they were ambling on that path leading to the woods Recep asked

“How long have you been here?”

Ahmet was paused in the face of such a question. It was as though he was genuinely surprised. He tilted his head to the left and raised one of his eyebrows while scratching his chin.

“I actually don’t know; now that I think about it feels like a lot but…” He paused and sighed. “It must not be that much”

Recep was surprised by the way Ahmet talked. It was as though he was talking to a real person not a mere reflection of his consciousness. However, he didn’t want to break the act solely because every time he talked about his awareness of dreaming people in his dreams disappeared. So, he acted disregarding that this was all a dream.

“I know that feeling,” Recep said while nodding with a slight smile. “It happens quite often around here. Time passes before you know it”

Ahmet nervously laughed and kept walking without saying a word.

To break the silence and out of curiosity Recep asked

“Do you feel better now?”

Ahmet looked at Recep and with a slight smile nodded and said “Yes I do, In fact, I do feel a lot better. I don’t know why I felt that way.” Ahmet paused, looked at his feet, and continued. “I guess I went too far away and got scared.”

 Recep's eyes slightly widened as he turned his head to Ahmet. “What do you mean you went too far away?”

“Forget about it. I don’t really encounter people like you. They don’t usually talk.” Ahmet paused a bit and continued with a casual tone “How do you do the flying thing? Do I have to jump or...?”

“No... just think about flying? I don’t know, it just happens.” Recep stopped walking turned his whole body to Ahmet and said in confusion “Wait, what do you mean they don’t talk?”

“I was talking nonsense, just forget about it,” said Ahmet and grabbed Recep’s forearm and lightly dragged him.

Recep was utterly confused but didn’t want to insist on questioning Ahmet. It was one of the most interesting dreams he had had and he didn’t want to expel the most interesting part from it. So, he continued walking but couldn’t stop himself from looking at Ahmet. In the meantime, Ahmet was clinching his face and he continued to do so until he became red and sighed heavily.

“All right, what do you mean just think about it? I am thinking about it. Do you see me flying?..” Ahmet said while pointing his tiptoe “You really have to teach me this flying thing,” he said and lightly hit Recep’s shoulder.

Recep without looking at Ahmet said, “There is no way to teach it, it just happens”.

It was at this precise time that; a loud noise came from the deep into the woods. It sounded like a tree falling apart from its roots. Recep and Ahmet looked at each other with disbelief and shock.

Ahmet “Did you also?”

Recep “Yes”

So, they went to investigate. Recep thought, without a doubt this is the most interesting dream I’ve ever had. I hope I don’t wake up.

They walked through the woods and as they were walking Ahmet insistently asked Recep to teach him to fly. At some point in their journey to the woods, Recep gave in and tried to make Ahmet fly. Ahmet hovered for a split second but fell horribly. However, Ahmet was happy with the results and bragged about how much potential to fly he had throughout the way.

Then they heard another strange noise. Recep couldn’t even guess from where the noise must be coming. So, not knowing what it was, they followed the noise and it was this time they saw a very shiny object coming directly at them from the sky.

Recep in an attempt to save himself and Ahmet from getting crashed by it grabbed Ahmet and hastily flew away from the object. Ahmet clung himself to Recep’s neck while screaming again at the top of his lungs. Recep at a split-second saw Ahmet’s scared eyes and found this utterly funny. Having flown for about ten miles without even looking back Recep dropped Ahmet onto the floor and sighed heavily.

“What the actual fuck was that!?” Recep said while panting.

“I don’t know man but you really got to teach to fly, it looks so cool”

 “I said it thousands of times It can’t be….” It was at this moment, Ahmet and Recep heard that noise again but in a higher tone. The object had followed them here and was even faster than the last time. Recep hugged Ahmet and told him to embrace, but it was in vain. It was going to crash into them. So, they embraced. The closer the object got the shiner and whiter everything became. It was inches away Recep heard

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”

 

Chapter II

The City of

The unfortunate builder was spending the years in solitude without any contact. The hope he had was running out, and desperation was starting to grasp his soul. He tried to redo calculations millions of times and every time something different came. He wondered whether the juries and guardians were actually correct. It was his peculiar and unique case that gave him hope yet at the same time deprived him of it. He didn’t feel much regret. He would’ve done it again if he were given the chance. Nevertheless, would he have done anything differently?

It was a time of desperation in which he made the decision, the decision to disobey The Book of Rules. The builder resented that book. It was a book that had guided their race for millions of years. Allegedly it carried the most sacred traces of their ancestors and their secret knowledge. The builders to whom the ability to create is bestowed were to take the book as a guideline. Yet only the juries had possession of the book.

            There were four classes in the city; the Guardians, the Juries, the Builders, and the Craftsmen. The Guardians were the brute force of the city, they were expected to carry out the Juries orders and eliminate any uprising against them. The craftsmen were the hard workers that processed the energy the builders provided with their universes. The wisest and the most intelligent them all were the juries. While they were responsible for keeping the order of the city and its welfare their most significant importance consisted in their heavy burden as teachers of the Builders. The Builders were the vital element of the city. They were selected amongst the craftsmen and raised by the wisest juries to become builders. Their only mission was to build eggs (what the hell even is that). They laid eggs in the form of universes that expanded and shrunk into very dense matters eventually giving birth to the energy or the materials the city needed.

The builders were raised knowing that they were obligated to follow The Book of Rules. No builder ever dared to question it, except for Zerayah. Zereyah was a bit different from the other builders. He was regarded as weaker and less intelligent mostly because he had problems understanding The Book of Rules. He posed questions that were unheard of which made him an outcast. He miserably failed to create his universe and was laughed at and mocked by his peers.

He always regarded The Book of Rules as a restriction for their power and potential. He strived for ways to challenge it and prove how much the juries were incorrect. His controversial image among the builders portrayed him as bizarre and this reinforced his alienation. His despairing attempts to create his universe only made things worse and made his rebellious stance more prominent.

In his last attempt to create his universe and perpetuate his lineage, he tried something different. He committed the unspeakable sin. He broke the most important rule and transferred some of his soul to his offspring. The process almost devoured his soul and left him as a sheer vestige but a small portion of his soul remained. At first, it all seemed the same as the other attempts, but then something unique and unheard-of occurred. Chaos was born within the universe. Zerayah’s soul gave birth to an enormous explosion.

The juries saw Chaos as a flaw that would doom Zereyah’s universe to an inevitable end. They left the universe to be untouched and Zereyah to watch it fall apart. Zereyah’s scattered soul mourned and mourned. One day, however, a part of Zereyah’s soul found itself a shell in his universe. Initially, Zereyah didn’t even notice it. As time passed, Zereyah’s soul grew and gave birth to life on a planet. Zereyah’s joy didn’t last much, the juries noticed the abnormality and sent out a guardian to find and exterminate Zereyah’s remaining soul in his universe. It only took a couple of millions of years for the guardian to find the soul.

            In the battle between Zereyah and the guardian, humans were born that resembled both sides of the war. With the beginning of the 21sth century, Zereyah’s soul started to fade away. The humans started to become the guardian’s puppets sworn to destroy Zereyah.

This deprived Zerayah of hope. He felt the gradual loss every day. He sensed the people giving in to the guardian’s compelling grasp. It was the time when Zereyah realized the guardian’s ultimate plan that he decided to commit the second biggest sin. The guardian was poisoning  Zereyah’s offspring with greed which will turn the people against each other and nature. Zereyah decided to sacrifice the last piece of his soul to stand against the guardian.

        The last piece of Zereyah would find the most appropriate soul and guide it in the battle of the Guardian. So, on one unfortunate and sad day, Zereyah did the unthinkable and his soul started its journey. It didn’t take much time to find a suitable candidate. It was shining among the people, so Zereyah’s soul hastily followed it.

Chapter III

The Assemble

What a dream Recep thought as he was tending his sore foot with some ice. His gaze was fixed on the ice slowly melting and gradually getting smaller and smaller. He shook his head and found it best to resume his journey to find food. Cereal would suffice, he thought as he grabbed the milk he recently bought. The smell of spoiled milk hit him very hard. He was disgusted and cursed his bad luck. His panging hunger was driving him crazy which forced him to find a loaf of bread, roughly slice in half, and put whatever sitting on the kitchen counter. Those who managed to latch on the bread were given the honor to be eaten by him as he brought to sandwich-like thing near his mouth and more than half of the toppings fell onto the floor. Survival of the fittest Recep thought as he ambled towards the sofa.

Recep had a small single house with a small garden. It was a very compact house with a roof and a single floor. Recep found it best to use the roof as his bedroom, mostly because the small circular window looked at the woods, and Recep found comfort in them. It was the trees, the animals, the fresh air, and the mysterious essence that intrigued and kept Recep busy in his childhood. So, it wasn’t a surprise that he chose this house.

The first few bites subsided his hunger and started to fill his strangely empty stomach. As he was munching on his terrible-looking and tasting sandwich he couldn’t stop finding himself spaced out. The vividness of the dream was still disturbing him. He giggled as he thought about Ahmet’s face as the shiny object was coming onto them.

He shivered as he thought about the shining object coming towards time. He was morbidly curious to find what was that object and what all that dream meant. He gathered his gaze and reached for the remote control. He wanted some distraction, some escape from the dream.

He switched channels until he found his favorite one, Kanal 06. He liked the news guy that spoke fast and always seemed excited. It wasn’t the news that intrigued Recep’s attention, it was the guy’s passion which he transferred into the news. Recep put his feet onto the coffee table in front of the sofa and tried his utmost effort to relax. He closed his eyes and attempted to clear his mind. His endeavored struggle was in vain, the images kept popping in front of his eyes.

During his desperate struggle with meditating, Recep heard something strange, something so strange that it made his eyes open as though a bolt of lightning struck him. The news guy was talking about a glowing asteroid that hit the earth but disappeared. It was reported by a bunch of farmers who sworn that it was aliens. Recep’s favorite news guy didn’t seem to be believing them as he ended the news by saying Will those farmers find the attention they are looking for? That’s the real mystery!

           It took a good minute for Recep to make the connection. This must be a coincidence, that sort of stuff always happens he thought as he scratched his chin. However, he couldn’t stop the urge to google the alleged Asteroid Aliens. He found an interview with one of the farmers. According to them, it happened during nighttime and it happened in the blink of an eye. The interviewer subtly mocks them and asks numerous questions but one of the farmers’ replies interested Recep.

           According to a Farmer, Muğarrem, the Alien Astreod did more than simply hitting the surface. It moved horizontally and hit the surface. It was shinner than anything he had ever seen he added lastly.

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Recep started to think about the possibility that the shiny object might be more familiar than it should be. The half-eaten sandwich dropped out of his hands onto the floor, the fillings scattered all around the place.

            Recep was examining the tomato dropped on his foot. He found the red juices and the yellow seeds inside those juices as utterly interesting. He stretched his index finger to it in an attempt to touch it. How wet is it I wonder? Recep thought as his index finger got closer and closer. He was zoned out but the doorbell woke him up.

            Recep shook his head and got up to drag himself to the front door. His mind was busy as his feet took him closer and closer to the door. He grabbed the doorknob and turned it over to open the door. It wasn’t his habit to open the door without looking through the “delik” but at that point, he could’ve been murdered or robbed for all he cared.

           The door opened heavily, Recep sensed the fresh air coming out of the narrow opening of the door. In a brief moment, the time was frozen for Recep. The fresh air hitting his face reminded him that it had been all a dream and he shouldn’t be obsessing over it. This brief refreshing moment allowed him to take a big breath and relax before the door unveiled who was on the other side.

           …

           a familiar voice came before the sight of him, “Hel-lo, I am looking for Recep Karayel”

           It cannot be him Recep thought but this stuttering and timid voice was too familiar. It was in fact him. Recep welcomed Ahmet with disbelief and an open mouth. Ahmet, on the other hand, wasn’t as surprised as Recep was. Rather, he was excited. Without waiting for an invitation to come inside, Ahmet found it appropriate to sweep past Recep and sat on the sofa.

“What is all this mass, Recep?” Ahmet said jokily directing his gaze onto the poor cheese and roughly sliced tomatoes on the floor. 

Recep slowly closed the door while trying to process what was happening. He slowly walked towards Ahmet and instinctively sit on the sofa Ahmet was tapping and beckoning Recep.

Ahmet and Recep went into a very long conversation. It was almost morning when Ahmet came and the moon was in the sky shining as it had never before as I Ahmet finished talking.

“But how do you know all this and I don’t?” Recep feebly asked as his hand rested on his waist.

“Oh, that was the part I-I was s-supposed to t-t-tell you in advance. My fault” said Ahmet with a timid tone and turned his gaze to the traditional Turkish carpets on the floor.

“When you hugged me and told me to embrace, your soul saved me from getting crushed. So I was able to talk to Zereyah.” Ahmet said with a big stupid smile on his face.

“So my soul got crushed by *Zereyah*?”

“Obviously,” Ahmet said still wearing the stupid smile showing all his teeth to immediately realize what he had just said and add “But it didn’t do anything to your soul, it simply throw you back to your body.”

“And Zereyah is a God..? and he will help me guide humanity in the battle of what?” Recep asked as he got up from the sofa and started to pace up and down.

“Well… technically he didn’t say that he is a *God* but I think yeah, he is,” Ahmet said as he put his feet on the coffee table and relaxed.

“And the battle?” Recep paused and asked while scratching the back of his head.

“Oh yeah, the battle with the guardians”

“So there is more than one guardian? Shit this just keeps coming”

“Calm down, Zereyah told me that you will know what to do when the time comes,” Ahmed said while reaching for the orange juice on the table.

“Did he?” Recep said as he chuckled and fasten his pace.

Recep kept silent. He was still in disbelief, finding it hard to process.

To break the disturbing silence Ahmet continued “I was going to come sooner but did you know that? there are five more Recep Karayels in Ankara? I had spent last two days looking for you. This place was my last hope”.

Recep uttered “Yeah.. sure..” but realized what just Ahmet said.

“Two days?!” Recep said as his eyes grew bigger and his body tilted forward.

“What do you mean two days” Recep continued as his voice grew higher.

Recep did not wait for an answer. He hastily grabbed his phone sitting on the kitchen counter to see that it had passed two days. That meant he slept for two days straight. This explains why I drank two gallons of water and my avid hunger.

           “This place is hard to find, it's even a miracle that I have found this place in two days,” Ahmet said in an attempt to defend himself.

Recep looked at him as his eyebrows lowered and drawn together in the shape of a V.

Ahmet instantly changed his gaze to the window looking outside. Recep stopped walking to sit on the sofa.

They both spaced out for a while and eventually, Recep asked; So when will this battle take place?

“There will be a sign” Ahmet as he saw a very shiny light through the window

 

 

 

Chapter IV

The Latent Death

It had been a long time since I committed the unspeakable sin. The juries decided to imprison me and let me suffer in this small pit. I didn’t quite know what happened to my soul. Had it faded away and died? I overheard some guardians talking, a guardian sent to chase away and find the last piece of my soul to kill.

The funny thing was, I didn’t t even feel my soul living. As I was building the universe, I decided to give up some part of my soul to it. I thought I had miss calculated it. I had transferred more than I needed to and a big explosion happened. I was immediately thrown to the prison to rot in it. When I had gained consciousness, I realized that I had lost contact with my soul.

 I spent a very long time stuck in a small pit, contemplating on what could’ve done. In one of the regular, pitiful moments of my imprisonment, the wardens guarding my cell left without saying a single word. I gathered all my strength to catch a glimpse of the outside.

There wasn’t any guardian in sight which gave me hope and encouraged me to leave this desperate pit. I slowly and surely climbed my way up. It felt like times in which I was able to fly were ancient. Now, I was merely crawling, dragging the rest of my soul of out this torturing chamber.

I got out to see massive chaos slithering among the city. The workers had stopped working, the juries were silent and the guardians, the protectors of the city were gone. Where would they go? I asked myself as I crawled towards one of my oldest friend Orayoh’s place to get some answers.

Physically, the city remained intact but I grew sad as I felt the city’s withering soul. It was as though it was dying. The paths I had roamed before didn’t have the same comforting and loving aura they had before. It seemed like the city was losing its colors and its life.

The sympathy I had outgrown the sadness and I felt an unbreakable connection with the city. It was as though only the city could understand my pain, how my power diminished and how I became almost like a destitute reptile crawling around.

I thought about staying low but figured; something much more significant was going on. So, I without hiding but discreetly crept towards Orayoh’s place. He greeted me with compassion just like how I greeted the withering city.

I was exhausted and used almost all my power in the attempt to find him. I fell unconscious in the trusted arms of an old friend.

I woke up to see him watching and listening to the city. I didn’t make a sound, the conversation we were about to have was not going to be a conversation I would like to have. So, I waited. As Orayoh was listening and watching the city, his aura got angrier and angrier gradually becoming angry enough for me to decide to intervene. I deliberately moved to make my presence sensed.

He came near me, I could sense his morbid curiosity. He asked whether I was doing okay. I did not answer, instead, I crawled nearer to him showing how pitiful and pathetic I had become.

He knew me well enough to get straight to the point and asked why. I couldn’t have come up with an answer that wouldn’t tell the truth. As I was building the universe, a very convincing voice pushed me harder and harder. I had had a very powerful urge to put something more than sheer power.

I wasn’t convincing, I knew that. Orayoh despite being my friend saw me as an angry kid that had been bullied and wanted to prove everyone wrong. I always had had a rebellious heart but this was more than that. Nevertheless, I stood silent not because I knew regardless of what I say Orayoh wouldn’t believe it but because I had nothing else to say.  even I did not know why.

Instead, I asked the question I was afraid of asking: What was happening to the city?

He sighed a long breath, slowly turned his gaze upwards, and started talking.

As I was crawling through the city, I had heard rumors talking about a universe defying the rules of the book and the Guardians had something to do with it. But such rumors were coming out of regular workers who could’ve been daydreaming. However, when Orayoh told me that, I had to believe him.

All the guardians assembled for one mission and that mission was centralized on one universe. More importantly, that universe was mine.

I was in utter shock but Orayoh kept going:

Apparently, initially, a guardian was sent to investigate my universe and find my soul. It took a bit of a guardian’s time to find my soul. Having found it, the juries ordered that guardian to eliminate it.

They lost contact with that guardian, so they sent another one to find out what happened. Then another one. Three of the guardians were killed.

The guardians were regarded to be the most sacred parts of the city. According to the myth, many guardians sacrificed their lives at the birth of the city. In fact, the juries made the first page of the book of the rules be memorized by the builders. I without a surprise failed to do so but I do remember the first line of it,

The guardians whose deaths gave birth to you

 

REFLECTION

 

Balance of Good and Evil

The story takes place in the 21st century where industrialization and modernization have a drastic impact on the individual. In the story, I focused on the protagonists’ sympathy for nature because I will(not yet) portray nature to be the sole provider of good morality. Greed, lying and other concepts that are regarded as immoral stem from the guardians’ attempt to kill Zereyah’s soul. This allows me to have a controversial scope to what moral and immoral is because the guardians’ attempt to corrupt earth is essential for life. 

To put it in other words, Zereyah’s soul wasn’t never enough to give life. The universes created by the other Builders only provided energy or material for the city. However, the clash of morality and immorality gave birth to the chaos which created life. Thereby, the guardians’ attempt to kill Zereyah’s soul and end the life is actually what gives life to people. Provided that we didn’t have greed, we wouldn’t strive for survival. There wouldn’t be natural selection nor survival of the fittest. Life requires morality and immorality all together.  There were brutal wars in which numberless people died but after every war, there was grief and compassion.

The battle between Zereyah and Guardian resembles the battle between good and evil. For good to exist, evil is needed. However, modernization and industrialization disrupt the balance and it is this precise reason why Zereyah intervenes and sacrifices the last piece of his soul.

Fatalism

The Book of the Rules is written by some rebellious soul similar to Zereyah. The rules in it are ambiguous and open to interpretation making it vulnerable to corruption. The fundamental aim of the book is to restore the welfare of the city. It had been done for numberless of times by souls like Zereyah and Zereyah is no end to it.

There were also people like Recep who had immense spiritual power. Gandhi, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Descartes incredibly figured out that every individual carries the traces of god and many more. Through this repetition, I tried to portray a loop showing that every scenario will end with the same result.

Literary Devices

I tried my utmost effort to implement the technic “show rather than tell” which is basically portraying an image in the readers' eyes rather than telling the reader what to think. I divided the story into four chapters so far to make time and place differences more obvious in the readers' eyes.

I always started with a normal scene then proceeded into fantasy to increase the flow and to highlight the differences.

I attempted to create suspense at the end of every chapter. I sometimes tried to diffuse the suspense by focusing on irrelevant things to make the reader read more. (I depicted a scene where Recep is focused on a slice of tomato, this scene is supposed to give the reader idea that Recep’s mind is so busy that he is constantly spaced out but it also is a distraction from what is really happening.)