A Ghost Love Story

Chapter 3: A Puzzling Story

“Arrgghh!!”…

Great, it’s morning again. The big rays of the sun are clearly striking through my messy room. I know I’m a ghost, but I still hate the sunshine.

I then started the day by cleaning my room. Well, technically, it’s not my room, but this is an abandoned part of the school, and nobody bothers to come inside there, so I decided to make this my official room. In fact, nobody even walks near these halls. And plus, I like being alone, it makes me think freely. But I have to admit sometimes it does get a little lonely. That is why at times I do walk around the school.

But recently, walking around the school property hasn’t been such a good idea. As I said,, I am quite clumsy. I tend to stumble on random objects, causing some unwanted events that eventually freak out every student who sees them. Now, the old rumors about a ghost inside the school that was once almost forgotten have become famous again. But seriously, I mean no harm. And I didn’t mean to freak everyone out. It’s just that the chairs and tables love to bully me. I am not that clumsy. I mean, literally, I am not thaaaaaaat clumsy.

I let out a huge sigh as I was halfway done finishing my dirty room.

“I’m tired. I’ll finish this later,” – I said to Mr. Scruffy. My ever so silent, tiny, brown teddy bear.

I went to check myself in the mirror. Yes, I can see my reflection on the mirror. And yes, it is not impossible for a ghost to look at himself in the mirror.

I see myself in the mirror, and I am a mess. My hair doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of gravity. My shirt is dusty all over. There are still some visible bloodstains on my old uniform. Wow, I haven’t seen myself in a while. Well, maybe because there wasn’t any necessary reason for me to look at myself in the mirror for these past decades since nobody but myself could see me. But for some reason, I wanted to look good today. I don’t know why…..

So I rummaged through my room to look for a comb and some spare clothes or uniforms. Many students tend to leave their belongings around the school, so I pick them up and store them in my room. Who knows? They could be useful someday. And that day is today.

“Maybe I should take a bath?” – I asked my teddy bear.

“Wait, can a ghost take a bath?” – I thought to myself.

“Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out” – I said.

I went out to walk towards the school’s swimming pool. I hummed a song while on my way there. It’s a song that I kept on hearing from the students recently. It has a nice melody and is very catchy.

Though it’s a different language, I can’t really understand it. I think the title is Q & A by Seventeen? I’m not so sure I just heard it randomly from a group of girls gossiping. Anyway, here I am in front of the school’s large swimming pool. I looked around to see if there was anyone around. It’s still early, so I’m sure there still aren’t any students around, but sometimes the school janitor is already around the school at this time.

“There’s nobody here, Scruffy,” I said to my teddy bear. I put him down together with the spare uniform that I picked up. I then jumped into the pool.

Funny... I can swim and feel the soft sweeping of water through my fingers. But something is missing. I can’t feel the warmth or coldness you usually feel when in the water. I guess this is another one of the disadvantages of being a lifeless being. A handsome lifeless being rather...xD

I just absentmindedly floated across the pool. With both my eyes closed, my thoughts wandered through the water. Memories flashed one by one. It was a very nice feeling to start my day with. Or so I thought.

.

.

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As my thoughts continued to wander, an image came flashing in the middle of my beautiful reminiscing. A beautiful flower, or is it a butterfly? Came across my imagination. The image seemed blurry at first. Soon, it felt as if I was walking near it. I can feel my feet sweeping through the green, grassy meadow. The scent of flowers around was as if it were spring. It suddenly became quite realistic. Suddenly, the image became clearer and clearer. It was then an image of a girl. A very beautiful girl. She slowly looked at me. Eyes filled with innocence. Her beautiful black hair swayed gracefully through the wind. As she finally looked into my eyes, so did I. Only then did I realize that the magnificent beauty was standing in front of me. Looking at me, eye to eye, was her. The student whom I barely saw last time. What was her name again? I think it was Grace. Well, if it really was her name, it’s beautiful. I think it fits her perfectly. So perfect indeed…

Memories of that very afternoon came to me, too. But suddenly, the image again became blurry. It’s as if something pulled me away from her. Whatever it was, it was dark.

All of a sudden, the beautiful meadow where we were both standing slowly began to fade. And so did she. I raised my hand to reach her, to see her again, even just a glimpse of her once more. But the darkness continued to grow. I was being pulled away from that very beautiful image of her. It was painful. It felt as if my heart was being torn apart. Finally, the pulling came to a stop.

I now lay in the middle of complete darkness. I stared blankly into nothingness... Trying to recollect my thoughts, I stood up slowly. Suddenly, a piercing image came before me. It was me, lying lifeless on the ground. Blood spilled everywhere. Suddenly, my eyes opened. He stood up now, looking straight at me. Right into my soul and beyond . . . He then pushed his right hand into his chest. Blood spilled everywhere. I was too shocked to move. I was stiff. He then removed his hand, slowly facing it to mine as if he would show me something. I stood there, shocked and unable to move. In his hand, he held my heart. But it was still beating. Very slowly. I did not know how to react to what I saw. We stood there, both in silence.

“Can you see...”

I was surprised as he talked to me. With the same voice as mine, only you could sense the sadness in his tone.

“It is still beating . . . Quite slowly as you can see. . .” – he continued to speak to me.

“That is if you could see. . .”

I was puzzled by what he said but took the courage to speak up.

“W-what are you trying to say?” – I asked him, with a voice full of eagerness to know the answer.

He smiled.

“Yes indeed. . . You are a poor.blind.young.man” – he said in a very straight manner. As if he was emphasizing every word he was saying.

I was more confused with what he said. Suddenly, his smile faded and became a frown. His face showed complete sadness and loneliness, which reminded me exactly of my situation before. Perhaps even until now. He then started to lift his left hand slowly . . . I then watched his every movement. He touched the pendant on his necklace. I, too, touched mine. Slowly, he opened the pendant, but as it became more open, the image became blurry again. Suddenly, a swarm of butterflies came out of the pendant, which blocked my view of him. There were too many butterflies. All with different colored wings. It seemed quite beautiful to look at, but I was focused on getting the answer to my question a while ago.

“Hey!” – I shouted, and the butterflies started to fly away, still in a group. But as they flew away, so did the image of my old self.

There was nothing.

I am again standing in the middle of darkness, with nothing in sight. I then looked at my necklace. The only thing I cherished the most. It was my mother’s gift to me. I looked at the pendant. It was always a plain circle pendant. I then tried to open it. Why haven’t I tried opening it before? I couldn’t remember. I tried to pry it open, but it was as if it was screwed shut.

“Do not even think about it . . .” – A deep, dark voice echoed through the room.

I was startled and felt a presence of fear seep through my bones. A laugh then echoed in the darkness. Everything seemed creepy. I don’t know why, but I felt very scared. There was nothing but darkness. Without thinking, I instantly ran. Running and running in the middle of nowhere, my legs continued. To where I am going? I don’t know. I don’t even know why I’m running in the first place.

I continued to run. I soon came to a stop as I heard a familiar sound. It was the sound of a heart beating very slowly. I looked around. All was black. My gaze soon fell to the ground. Then I saw a heart beating very slowly. I continued to look at it, examining it. It looked familiar. I kneeled down to take a closer look. I was shocked. It was the same heart my old self was holding a while ago.

Suddenly, blood came pouring down from it. Soon, I was standing in a pool of blood. I then ran again. To wherever my legs would take me, as long as it was far from this unknown place. I continued to run. I can slowly feel my legs getting tired. Soon, I was catching my breath. Suddenly, it felt as if all of my legs were getting wet. I looked down only to see the pool of blood getting higher. It was soon getting very hard to run. The blood is now above my waist. I still tried to lift every inch of myself. Soon, the blood reached my neck. I struggled but was determined to get away. Before I knew it, blood was everywhere. It has covered all of me. I then struggled to swim upwards. Hoping to get some air. I swam and swam. My arms were getting tired. Slowly, I finally reached the top.

“Ahhhh!” – I took a deep breath and looked around the surroundings.

I was in the school’s swimming pool. I continued to examine my surroundings, making sure that I was really inside the school. I couldn’t quite understand what had happened. With my confused thoughts, I got out of the water. I grabbed some spare clothes while my head was filled with many puzzling thoughts.

But all my thinking came to a halt when I heard a loud scream. I looked in the direction where I heard the scream, and it was the school janitor lying down near the door. It looked as if he had slipped and fallen on the floor. On his face, you could tell that he was full of fear and also in shock. With his wobbly legs, he tried to stand and run outside the door.

“No, Wait!” – I tried to shout to call him back, but he was already gone.

I sighed and sat down.

“I am so not a scary ghost, I am like legit the opposite of the word “Frightening”…Why was he so afraid in the first place?” – I murmured to myself.

I looked at my reflection in the pool. Then I realized that I was only wearing blue soccer shorts. They belonged to one of the soccer students in the school who left the shorts in my room and never returned to get them back. So I kept them. Finders Keepers, you know☺.

I went to get a shirt when, suddenly, I thought to myself. It was the first time I wore clothing different from mine. Maybe when I’m wearing them, it appears as if they were floating. Just like when I’m holding other random objects. It looks like they’re floating to the human eye.

“Ughhh…I’m so stupid.” – I said to myself as I hit my head lightly. I then took my same old uniform and wore it.

“Oh men, what a bummer. So I can’t wear other clothes aside from these old ragged clothes of mine?” – I looked at Mr. Scruffy.

“Well, this sucks.” – I mumbled to myself. But still, I made a smile, keeping my positive attitude. But I can’t help but think about the image I saw a while ago. Was it a dream? Wait can ghost have dreams? I could not understand the scene I saw no matter how hard I try. Deciphering every image was like putting a million pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together.

“Ughh…..I’m too stupid for these things. I’m gonna go back to my room and figure this out next time. Let’s go, Mr. Scruffy.” – I grabbed him and skipped happily on the way back to my room. Trying my best to forget what I just witnessed a few seconds ago. Plus, I still have to wash my clothes.

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“Such a blind young man.” An echo of a masculine voice filled the room where the young man had just come from.

“So blind indeed . . . “