My name is Nour. I consider myself one of those people who have a part in their name. I am 23 years old, live in Giza, and am so beautiful that I let brides chase me while I was almost on my way to try to win my father's love.
My remarks could be interpreted as arrogance, although I am far from it. But I am sure that this was not arrogance at all, but there is another reason why even a naive child would not believe it.
There was not a day I left without people visiting us wanting to marry me for their son, and every time I refused. I saw the bride and groom more than I saw my family, because the ridiculous tradition must go. They went out to the groom with juice and his family to see me even if he did not agree, then they called my father and told him there was no part.
Perhaps this topic was boring until it happened.
Four months ago, a woman named Zainab visited us. She was in her sixties, dressed in black. She wanted to propose to me for her son. She was almost the first to visit us without her son, who said at the time that he was working in Europe. If I got approval, I would marry him and after a while, he would fall in love with me. He would marry and travel with her. It was almost the most ridiculous way I could imagine for a marriage. My father refused without even giving me a chance to show him a picture. He said, "We don't have girls for the wedding, otherwise she could even drink juice." I walked out that day with a broken heart. Two days later, we were surprised by her again. The same six, with the same clothes and rough features. At the door, my father said the same sentence as before, and she wasn't afraid. "We don't have girls for us to marry." Strangely, she didn't want to. It wasn't until a week later that I was surprised to find out that she was visiting us for the third time. Faced with her intense insistence on entering, my father couldn't erase her. I came in and insisted on seeing her, so I left. But strangely, she remained silent... for a long time. Suddenly, Turin asked for a picture of her son, and with her insistent insistence, I couldn't refuse. It was a paper photo of someone who looked very familiar, with a pin at the top. She grabbed the photo and violently snatched it away from me. I stripped off my clothes and screamed at her like a madman. "Get out! If your son is the last man in the world, you won't marry him. He'll disgust us in our condition, Sheikha. Stop!" She took the bloodied photo for me, then spoke to my father with a stern expression and finally spoke.
"Your daughter wrote to my son, and nothing in the world can change that."
She said that ridiculous phrase and left without apologizing.
I will never forget that night. I slept well and woke up thirsty before dawn. Then I was surprised to find my balcony door open, with a stranger standing in it, with only his back to the ground visible.
I screamed at that moment, but no one heard me. I couldn't even move from my house in shock. The biggest shock came when he turned around and prayed. The same person in the picture... the son from the same grandmother, a stranger... He approached me and whispered in a voice I'd heard for several hours, and I wasn't mistaken about his age.
His mother's voice was like Danny's.
She wrote to me, "Nothing in the world can change that."
He said it and disappeared as if he'd never been there in the first place, leaving me to try to figure out what had happened for a few minutes. Then I ran to my father to tell him what had happened. I'm sure I'd locked the balcony door before going to sleep, and when my father came with me to see what had happened, I was surprised to find it was indeed locked. He then explained to me that these were just preparations... especially since we live on the fifth floor, and it's impossible for anyone to reach that height without a ladder and enter through the door, which is impossible because it's guaranteed to be securely locked. I'm sure this happened... not just delusions or hallucinations, but I had to get over it that night after I looked like a monster in front of them.
The strange thing is that this happened again and again on a night like this, and then a few days later... until my mother decided to sleep with me to see if it really happened. I insisted on going with him in our old time in Giza, and he started asking about these six. Somehow, one of our neighbors, Rabie, knew about this from my father's description and gave him his address. Although he warned us more than once about these six and that this was not normal, my father wasn't surprised by all this and decided to go with me to her.
Her house was deserted and her appearance was very strange... frightening... but she was very friendly with us and welcomed us with open arms. This was all before she talked about her son...
His name is Marwan... a graduate engineer... and he died five years ago in a traffic accident.
A few days before his death, I promised him I would marry the most beautiful girl in the area, but he died and left me sad... and my promise!
I heard her and went crazy. These six couldn't be normal. I couldn't imagine that she would want to marry me to a dead person. I screamed at her. "I hope you don't die too, that you free us from our trap, and that you end your madness with your son, not with me." I said this unconsciously before spitting at my father with her usual calm, creepy whisper. "My son is not dead. His spirit lives among us and with us to this day. My son is married to your daughter!" She said this, and the same image came out. She started spitting at it with a wide smile and consulted me. I almost saw it and was surprised. It was the same image, but the strangest thing was that her son wasn't alone. I was with him. Admittedly, I was very terrified because my legs weren’t carrying anything, but I pretended otherwise, and approached her calmly, and in a moment I quickly snatched the picture from her hand and ran towards the door, with my father behind me, but the door didn’t open at that time despite our best attempts.. All this was a rule without her not moving.. until she suddenly got up from her place and slowly started approaching us.. Her appearance remained ugly, and her skin started to fall off... In other words, she was turning into a monster, and every step she took towards us was literally killing us with terror... She stood holding the picture with both hands. I was ready to leave her.. and my father stood in front of me waiting for death to fall on him before it reached me, but at least he wanted to be the first wall to block in front of his family because she was
His long life began to approach a certain point. Suddenly, the sound of police cars filled the place, and within moments, the door was broken down. Law enforcement officers surrounded the place and assaulted the six of them. A source from our neighbors came to reassure us. "I couldn't stop you from leaving after you insisted, but I had to intervene. No one entered this place and left, except you." He said it, and we all left. Before we could do anything, that picture burned to the ground. We walked, and then everything returned to normal. The number of people who proposed to me after that was likely very large, but I was firm in my decision. Anyone who attempts to marry a deceased person cannot return their passport afterward.
