Miss Vengeance

Prologue

Eda Yildiz had just seen the floor be swooped off her feet. Her world was collapsing as she crumbled down with nothing but her brother's arms around her, desperately trying to hold his dear sister and give her physical (and emotional) support. She never thought it was humanly possible to feel this intensity of pain. Her brother says something to the cops at the door, and they leave. After he closes the door, he helps his sister get back on her feet. She feels like all the strength in her body had just evaporated, so he carried her to her room and put a crying Eda in her bed. She wasn't calming down, instead she kept babbling disconnected words and sobbing uncontrollably. After bringing her a tranquilizer, he sat on the floor near her bed and caressed her hair, whispering repeatedly "we'll be alright", until she fell asleep.

Morning comes again, but the pain of their loss hadn't left anyway. Eda wakes up, still recalling flashes of the previous night. At first she thought it was simply a bad dream, a nightmare that was too real. But as she made her way from her room to the kitchen, she didn't hear the cheerful laughter of her dad, or the noise from the tv news. She also didn't smell her mom's menemen* (scrambled eggs) being cooked for their breakfast, or her yelling for her youngest son Yiğit to wake up. Instead, she heard a disquieting silence and she felt the house empty. Her parents didn't come back home. It wasn't a nightmare, then. The flashes of the previous night, the cops knocking, her brother holding her as she fell to the floor, it was all real. Her mind became a blur after she heard what the cops had to say, but now she was slowly coming back to her senses. Not accepting it, no, she would never accept what happened. But she knew she needed to pull herself together and act like an adult, especially since she was not alone. She still had her brother, her baby brother who needed her and she would be strong for them. She had a lot to do today, things to do when you become orphan. She recalled one of the cops telling her brother they'd need to go to the police department today, and the funeral... The funeral. Her heart shrunk with the thought, but she was quickly snapped out of it with a knock on the front door. Again. As she opened the door, her grandmother, who she hadn't seen in a long time, stormed right in, spewing instructions to her aunt, whom she also hadn't seen in a long time.
— How did you guys find this address?
— Don't worry about anything, dear. We'll take care of you and Yiğit. And the funeral is being planned too. – the old woman said, ignoring Eda's question.
How could her grandmother be so calm at times like this? That's something she couldn't understand.

After getting ready, Eda left for the Police department. Her brother insisted to go with her, but she and her aunt had convinced him to stay home. She also learned the funeral would happen later on today, so she would meet them at the cemetery. Throughout the way from her house to the police, she couldn't stop the flooding thoughts about how the past 24 hours had been. She went from having everything to having nothing, she went from feeling her soul could burst in happiness to feeling like her soul was ripped out of her body. As she arrived at the PD, she shook all of those thoughts away.

"We are considering it to be murder." This sentence was echoing in Eda's mind throughout the route from the PD to the cemetery. The cops had said there was a chance, a considerable chance, that her parent's death was planned. She couldn't bare the thought, an assassination? Who would want to murder her parents? And for what? They've never done anything to anyone, never messed with anyone, no debt to anyone, nothing. They were clean, honest and kind, for God's sake. She wiped a tear as she parked her car, and walked towards her brother and her aunt standing on the old and creaky front gate.

The Yildiz children were holding onto each other as two coffins were slowly being lowered. The priest was talking but Eda was not listening. She wasn't feeling any emotion or aware of her surroundings, she was just there. Unable to process what was happening, trying to catch up to the story of her life and how she's gotten to that point. She had her eyes fixed on the floor, frozen. Her brother pinched her when it was all over but she didn't move, she didn't feel it. When she woke up from that trance, people were starting to leave. They'd go to her house now. She asked to stay alone with her parents' graves for a little. The tears started to roll again, as she remembered the last day she had with her precious parents. The last day she was happy. Yesterday. It really felt longer than 1 day.

Flashback
It was a lovely Sunday for the Yildiz clan, it was Mr. and Mrs. Yildiz 25th anniversary. The small family of 4 had cooked a wonderful lunch and sat around the kitchen table, with the two Yildiz siblings Eda (24) and Yiğit (20) curiously waiting for their parents to start telling old stories about the day they met. It was a tradition. Good food and great laugh with the stories that often had different point of views, depending on which parent was telling. Hearing her parents tell the tales of how they fell in love was simply magical to Eda, as she dreamed of one day finding a love like theirs for herself. And her parents would be so happy for her on their wedding day. And she would have children and tell them the tales of how she fell in love with their father, just like her parents have.
Later that day, Mr. and Mrs. Yildiz had a dinner date, to celebrate in a more intimate way another year together. The children, of course, gave all their support and told them to not worry about coming home early, cause they could take care of themselves. Eda was wowed seeing her mother's outfit for the night. "Wow, dressed to kill dad, huh?" and the older woman laughed. The living room was about to be turned into a catwalk, as the oldest daughter announces her mother like she was a supermodel. The youngest whistles seeing his mother glow, and the father smiled as he said how lucky he was to have such beautiful family. Mr. and Mrs. Yildiz kissed their children goodbye and left, happy.
It was around 11pm when they heard a knock on the front door, and Eda even joked with her brother that their parents were probably so drunk they couldn't find the keys. When she opened the door however, she found two cops standing there. "Ms. Yildiz?", the thought of seeing two cops in her door was scary. "That's me. Is something wrong, sir?", she saw one of the cops hesitant as they see Yiğit coming behind her. "We've been informed about a homicide at Istiklal Street", the cop pauses. "The identification of the victims has led to this address", at this point, Eda had lost her voice. She held onto her brother's arms, as he exclaimed "NE?" a couple of times hoping he'd heard it wrong. "We're sorry, our condolences", the other cop says, clearly upset to be giving such news. "No. No. It can't be. No!" Eda felt the oxygen being taken away from her, she couldn't breathe anymore. She stared from the cops to her brother a couple of times, shaking her head in an attempt to wake up from such nightmare. Yiğit tried to calm her down and ask for more information to the cops, but they said that was all they had for now. They'd need to go to the Police in the morning to identify their parents' bodies. And that was it for Eda. She collapsed on the floor, sobbing in her brother's arms as the deliverers of the worst news of their lives left. Yiğit, as frightened and devastated as Eda, kept his sorrow in to give his older sister the support she was needing. And there they were, sitting on the floor in front of the now closed door, hugging and and wondering, with tears in their eyes, what would they do now.

Eda was sitting on the side of her parents' grave, asking God for guidance. She was lost. She was convinced she couldn't do this without her parents here, she was afraid of failing. Suddenly, a feeling of hope embraces her like a cold breeze. She stops crying and wipe her tears. It was a sense of protection, and that was when she knew: her parents were watching over her. They would be always there, with her, in spirit, guiding her every move. "It's not fair that you're no longer here," she murmurs, tears threatening to come back. She looks up to the sky, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. As she opens her eyes again, she straightens her posture, feeling something had just changed inside of her. Determination. "This won't end here", she murmurs, feeling the anger boiling her blood. She stands up and, as she feels a cold breeze against her skin, her words cut the silence sharply:
— I'll raise hell, but I'll make justice for you, Asli and Mehmet Yildiz.