"You made me a bath"? Said the father, with a pleasant sense of curiosity
Everything stopped. I forgot to empty out the bathtub from last night! How many people noticed when everyone was helping these two move and just decided not to say anything?
"How the hell am I supposed to fix this situation? If they think a homeless man is living in their walls? They'll call the police and move far, far away!! Or worse, what if the figure out a ghost lives here, they'll either move out or hire some bullshit exorcist so they don't have to."
The feeling in my chest turned from a summer day into a still winter as the fear those words left me with caressed my heart like a cold uncaring hand.
The girl stopped to make sense of her father's answer.
"No" uttered the daughter said with a hint of concern. "Why would I get a bath ready for you? Adults can do that themselves."
"Shit" thought the frozen spirit
"You think it was a ghost?" The girl's dad jokingly said not realizing the irony of his own joke.
The winter gripped harder onto my heavy heart dragging it deeper to the floor.
What is this feeling? Fear? No, something more.
This feeling is familiar but still has a sense of unfamiliarity. It's something I haven't experienced many times before. It's a feeling of hopelessness, a sense of impending doom. And I know exactly where I last felt it five years ago.
"Don't joke like that." she said, nearly instinctually, struggling to maintain her composure
It was silent for a few seconds, like they both had an understanding and I was being left out.
"I'm sorry Au"
"Sorry? For what? It's fine, I don't mind."
More silence, but that silence felt fake. I could tell that a conversation was being held in this room but yet I couldn't be a part of it.
"In all honesty," said the man, ending this false silence "the renovators were probably just checking the water and forgot to drain the bathtub, just empty it and you'll be fine."
"And also, thank you for telling me, I would've hated to refill the water just because it got cold."
"Oh, well thank you, I appreciate it."
She walked out before any more words could be said.
The outside world was just now getting dark, the skies were turning from a gorgeous mixture of orange and pink, into an elegant dark blue. The outside night was beautiful, but the walls of this house separated us from that, leaving only a heavy feeling in a sea of gray.
The next day I woke up on what I believed was the softest couch in the world, And the last thing I could remember was sitting down, after that everything went dark. I tried to get up but my body was still tired, and I couldn't move
I thought about the father and his daughter. that heaviness I felt last night was still there. It had died down, it was subtle, but it was there. And I was certain it'd been there long before last night and that I had simply failed to notice it.
I woke up on what I believed was the softest couch in the world, And the last thing I could remember was sitting down, after that everything went dark
"Have they been living like this before this? If so, for how long?"
"What caused it, what at first felt like a father and his daughter happy about their new home, now feels like two strangers connected by blood."
"Au"
YOU ARE READING
Dead Dawn
ParanormalKazumi Haruki lost his life at a young age. Yet he remained in this world as a ghost, and for the next five years he roamed his hometown waiting for something to happen until one day; A grieving father and his curious daughter buy, renovate, and mov...
