The Shadow Covenant: The Story of Saleh

Written by: Ismail Al-Ali

From the moment I left the house, I felt that he was watching me, and I was afraid of his gaze and the words he uttered, which seemed strange and disturbing to me. He was talking about my "companion," but I wasn't sure if he meant my soul mate, the one who always accompanies me. Saleh seemed to have turned into a different person, isolated, withdrawn, barely eating. He became even more isolated in his final days, never leaving his bedroom, sitting in the dark after turning off the lights. We often heard him talking to someone inside the room.

When we entered and turned on the light, he would become angry and shout, "There's no one with me, what's wrong with you?! Get out and turn off the lights!" I confronted him once and told him that I would tell my father that he had entered the cemetery, but he denied it and said that he was just walking and did not enter it. My mother began to suspect something was wrong with him and asked me about the day I accompanied him. I reassured her and said that everything was normal, that he was walking along the path as usual, and I didn't want to scare her with the cemetery story.

But Saleh's condition continued to deteriorate, until we began to lose him for days on end. One day, my mother said to him: "My son, I want to marry you off." He hesitated at first, but she kept persuading him until he agreed. On the day he agreed to the marriage, he did not leave his room or go to the cemetery, but at midnight, strange events began to occur in the house.

We were sitting in the living room when we heard shouting coming from his room. It sounded like someone was beating him, and there were loud crashing noises coming from inside. We went upstairs and tried to open the door, but it was locked tight, and Saleh was screaming at the top of his lungs: "By God, I will not marry! I will not marry!" My father kept kicking the door until he opened it. We went in to find Saleh lying on the floor, unconscious, with signs of severe beating on his body. The room was completely empty except for him.

My father splashed water on his face until he regained consciousness, and when he opened his eyes, they were red as if he had been crying for a long time. He ignored us all, then turned to my mother and shouted at her: "You are the reason! You are going to ruin me! By God, I will never marry, and if you bring up the subject again, I will kill you!" My mother was shocked by his words, for he had always been kind to her and loved her dearly. He was her firstborn and closest to her heart, so how could he say such a thing to her? Her eyes filled with tears and she left the room, while Saleh stared after her until she was gone.

My uncle was unable to communicate directly with that man, as he lived in the mountains, isolated from people, one of those who choose solitude and are feared by all. We took Saleh by force, after tying him up, as he resisted us with frightening ferocity, shouting, cursing and threatening us all the way, promising to hurt us one by one if we did not let him go.

We arrived at the mountain man's house, and as soon as he opened the door, Saleh stared at him and began to curse him, saying, "You cannot defeat me. I am stronger than all of you." The man shook his head and said, "Take him away today, keep him tied up, and bring him back to me tomorrow. I know how to deal with him."

We rented an apartment near the mountain and stayed there that night. Salih kept screaming and threatening, trying to break free from his restraints, until he passed out. On that fateful night, we all dreamt of the frightening woman walking through the corridors of our house, and each of us saw her kill us in our dreams in ways more gruesome than the last.

At dawn, we prayed and went to the man. We took him into a dark room with no windows or furniture, just a mat on the floor and a piece of cloth soaked in water. The man said: "I want to be alone with him. No one is to enter, no matter what sounds you hear." We sat at the door of the room, listening to Saleh shouting and challenging the man, as if to say, "If you are who you claim to be, face me alone."

The man was reading verses from the Qur'an, then muttering incomprehensible words. After fifteen minutes, he came out sweating profusely, as if he had just emerged from battle, and said to my father: "Your son is in love with a jinn, but she is no ordinary jinn. She is a queen of the jinn, named So-and-so. She is very powerful and rules over an entire clan. She has married him, and they have made a covenant. If the covenant is broken, she will slaughter him."

He said he needed a week of treatment, but he needed someone to stay with him during the session, and no one was able to do that except me, as my father and uncle are elderly. We entered the room, and my brother was tied up, sleeping on his stomach. The man said, "No matter what you feel or hear, do not open your eyes, or you will live your whole life in torment."

I closed my eyes, holding my brother, afraid of what would happen. The man began to read, wiping Salih's face with water. He screamed and cursed, his body burning hot, as if I were holding a piece of red-hot iron. I listened to the man's words, even though I wet myself out of sheer fear.

Then Saleh fell to the ground, motionless, and silence prevailed. I called out to the man, but heard no response. He said to me, "Open your eyes." When I opened them, I saw Saleh lying there, his eyes open as if he were completely paralysed, and the man's face covered in sweat and bruises.

Saleh spoke, but in a strange voice, and said, "Shame on you, you want to separate me from my husband, my beloved." Then he addressed me: "Abdullah, if you love your brother, let me live with him. His happiness is with me, not with anyone else." I remained silent, paralysed with fear.

The man said to the fairy, "This is not your right. You must leave him alone. He is not your slave." Saleh began to scream, then lost consciousness again. The man splashed water on his face, and he woke up cursing and swearing, then his strength failed him. The man put black paint in his mouth and nose, and Saleh screamed in pain, then fainted again.

The man said, "It's over, don't be afraid, leave him here and go to your father." I went out, my face distorted with fatigue, my clothes wet with fear. My father asked me, "What's wrong with you?" I couldn't answer. The man said, "Take your son and bring him back to me tomorrow after dawn prayer, tied up. Whatever happens, don't listen to him and don't be afraid."

We returned to the flat, and I was exhausted. My uncle decided to go to sleep, while I went to take a shower. As I was washing my hair, the bathroom lights went out, and I saw a black shadow in the corner and heard a woman's voice saying, "You're the one who led them to us." She approached me, and I couldn't speak, but I screamed. My father and uncle came in and took me out of the bathroom, naked, my body shaking with fear.

I told them, "I won't be going with you tomorrow. I'm staying here." My father said, "Fine, we'll all sleep in one room tonight, and hopefully God will make it go well." My father slept, and my uncle tossed and turned, but I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the shadow I had seen in the bathroom, until I imagined that Saleh was staring at me and smiling.

At midnight, plates began to break in the kitchen. My father and uncle got up, and my father began to read the Qur'an while my uncle trembled. We heard a knock on the door. Saleh was asleep and didn't notice anything, while we froze in our places, not knowing what to do. I looked at Saleh and found him opening his eyes and smiling at me.

This continued until dawn, then we took Saleh to the man. He welcomed us confidently, as if he knew what had happened, even though we hadn't told him anything. He repeated what he had done the day before, putting black dye in Saleh's mouth and nose, and said, "Everything is fine, come back tomorrow."

The next day, the same thing happened again, but this time the man began speaking in a strange language, not Arabic, and even stranger, Saleh responded in the same language. The treatment continued for a week, and on the seventh day, the man said, "Your son has recovered. I have left him, and I will not harm him anymore."

We returned home, and Saleh returned to his normal self, but he does not remember anything that happened.

This is our story, and the moral of it is that one should not underestimate these matters, for it is not necessary to see jinn with your own eyes to believe in their existence. They are mentioned in the Qur'an, and their harm is well known, so do not mock their world, and do not harm them, lest they harm you. These words are addressed to everyone, especially those adventurers who risk their lives and drag their families with them to destruction.