The Ghost of Al Qudra Lakes

After a long flight from New Zeeland, on a fine morning, I got a message on my messenger. I never bother replying strangers, especially not at 2 a.m., but this stranger was interesting. He was a photographer from a photography group I was a part of. I was surprised he contacted me, so I became curious to see what he wanted since I never had the nerves to post any of my pictures on the group. After a bit of small talk, I was asked to join for a shoot for Milky Way in the desert. Politely, I refused since I was busy with studies – my favorite thing to do those days.

After a few days, at the same time, the photographer messaged me again. This time he had another proposition. I was very intrigued by his request and without thinking much, I said yes. Few jokes were exchanged here and there about his interesting request, but his replies remained professional and positive. After a brief background check so I know I am safe, I felt content to accept his invitation.Around 8 p.m. the same day, I prepared for the fantastic shoot that sounded more like a plan of suicide than a photoshoot since it was pretty late at night and I wasn’t aware of where we were going for the shoot. I packed my makeup, a white dress, a scarf and got going. I didn’t really know the place or what he had in mind for the shoot but I didn’t care about that. I had checked his profile and pictures, and I knew he will have some great ideas. Obviously, it didn’t even come across my mind what was going to happen.We met around 9 p.m. and began driving to our destination. I saw the Global Village pass by but we didn’t stop and went further in the dark in an extremely remote area. The farther we went, the darker it got, and the street lights began to disappear to the point there were no lights at all. At one point I heard him say, “We are almost there”. Trying to be funny, I confidently replied, “You know if you want to kill me, you might as well just do it here, no need to go so far in the deep”. To be honest I was kind of terrified.I am pretty sure he realized that I was scared, so he tried comforting by telling me that I will find flamingos, deers and many other fascinating animals and birds at our destination. Ironically, someone once told me you also find these animals and other fascinating things in heaven. I hoped he wasn’t planning to send me to the heaven already. While having the darkest thoughts in my mind and asking myself what is wrong with me and why did I get into this, he finally parked the car. I looked outside the window, but couldn’t see anything. It was pitch-dark. I felt I was about to enter a spooky murder scene.He got out of the car and started installing his equipment while I did my makeup and changed into the white dress. All this time, I thought if I should I pin my location to someone? Am I safe?All ready in a white dress, I got out of the car. I couldn’t see a thing. I could hear him talk, but I couldn’t see him. This was going to be an amazing shoot in the dark; he was probably trying to make fun of me and here I was falling for his prank, I thought.We finally started the shoot. I could hear him say, “Lift your hands symmetrically and at the same time all the way up.”  What an obedient loser I was, I thought while smiling and pretending to be interested. After a few shots with my hands up and down, as if I was some lunatic woman, he finally called me to show what he did. The result was not bad, and I got more intrigued and happy, so I wanted to give the perfect facial expressions too, now that I understood what he needed.We played for a few hours practicing the walks and flying arms and some Statue of Liberty kind poses. He made me do all those weird poses, but I didn’t hesitate thanks to the confidence and trust he was giving me. With all the flashes and posing, I felt I had lost my eyesight. With my right hand up in the air, holding my cell phone above my head with the torch on, I tried looking around but I could not see anything to my right, left or behind.I knew the lake was behind me, just few steps away but I didn’t know what was in it. While keeping the fantastic pose and feeling the pain in all my muscles, from a distance, I heard a very weird sound. The sound was getting closer and faster towards me. It was getting louder and it seemed as if the wind will blow forcefully through me. I could feel the tension on the back of my neck quickly running down my spine as if something will grab me from my behind. A sharp loud scream, which was held strongly from the beginning of our trip, escaped from the top of my lungs. The scream was so loud that even the photographer got shivers. I quickly grabbed my long dress and start running frantically towards the bushes. Now you probably wonder why I didn’t run towards him. Well I didn’t know him; in the back of my head I was thinking that he could be a murderer. When I looked behind while running and jumping around madly, I almost laughed at myself. Two beautiful black and white swans were playing and flying around the lake.I let my dress down and returned to my Statue of Liberty position, thinking what a fool I made of myself. We decided to stop because my forehead was so tense that it turned my face into a frown.It is hard to control yourself in unknown situations and something as beautiful and harmless as swans in the darkness can terrify the strongest people. I was happy we were done with the shoot even though I had kind of grasped the concept of it by then, but I had embarrassed myself miserably by the end of it.Take a look at some photos from the shoot. If these don’t let me through Paris Fashion Week, what will?