In the heart of the old city of Jeddah, where the smell of the sea mixes with the scent of spices and history, and specifically near the old port area, locals tell a story that makes bodies shiver at the mention of the "night."
They call it "The Legend of the Screaming Girl."
It is said that after the clock strikes midnight, and when the moon is hidden behind heavy clouds, a sharp, long scream rises from the direction of the sea. It is not the scream of a frightened person, but the scream of one whose soul has been torn apart, a scream that travels over the waves like an ominous wind.
Old Abu Salem, one of the veterans of the port, says: "It started more than fifty years ago. At that time, a young girl named Zahra disappeared. She was the daughter of one of the sailors, and she used to wait for her father every evening at the edge of the pier. One night, the father returned, but Zahra was not there. All they found was her small shawl stuck to one of the pier's poles, wet with sea salt."
Since that night, the screams haven't stopped. Some say she drowned and her soul is still calling for her father. Others whisper darker tales... tales of a betrayal that occurred in the shadow of the old warehouses, and a secret that the sea buried in its depths but refused to let go.
Many young men tried to prove the falseness of the legend. They went with their flashlights and cameras, challenging the darkness. But those who returned — if they returned — were never the same. They speak of a white shadow flickering between the containers, and eyes that glow like embers in the pitch blackness, and a chill that hits the heart before the body.
One of the residents of the "Al-Balad" neighborhood tells of an encounter he had ten years ago: "I was walking late near the coast. The air was still, and the sea was like a black mirror. Suddenly, I heard a whisper... as if someone was breathing behind my neck. I turned and saw nothing. Then came the scream. It was so close that my ears rang. I didn't wait to see anything; I ran until I reached the lighted street. Since then, I don't approach the sea after sunset."
Is it just an echo of the wind in the old corridors? Or is it a psychological phenomenon that residents inherited? Or is Zahra still standing at the edge of the pier, waiting for a ship that will never arrive?
No one knows for sure. But one thing is certain: if you find yourself near the port of Jeddah at night, and you hear a sound like a distant sob... don't follow it. Just walk away quickly, and don't look back.
The End.
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