Time Of Our Lives

A New Beginning

Hi, my name is Jamyang Tenzin and I am an 18 year old High School graduate. I lived an ambitionless life and I am in the midst of choosing my major for college. My grades were good so I had many options to choose but I lacked the ambition. I decided to take a year's gap in order to decide my future; this led to my parents to send me to Thimphu to look after their old convenience store and their apartment building. It's been a week since I moved here.The work was pretty mundane and boring at times but I had noticed a few strange noises around the building.

I could hear a voice singing classic songs and flower petals in random places around the building premises. As the new land- lord I received these complaints from the tenants as well, apparently this had been taking place for about a year now and the tenants were all fed up now. As there was a school near the area, I concluded the disturbances to be caused by students so I hung up some security cameras in the morning.

As I left my house, I felt guilty staring at the altar as I never once tended to it. I was not the most religious person and I didn't have much belief in spirituality, as the saying goes, 'Seeing is believing .'

I have a specific routine I follow every day without fail. I wake up at 5 am and I go for a short run around the neighbourhood and I conclude it by taking a cold shower. At exactly 8 am, I head for the convenience store after eating a bowl of plain cereal for I despise sweet things. I close the shop and return home at 6 pm and take time to clean the building and its premises which would usually take an hour or two. I then eat salad for dinner at 8 pm and sleep at 10 pm.

That day I returned home and again found petals lying over the stairs and floor. Frustratingly I went to check the security cameras. As I opened the door, a storm blew by and rain fell hard. I quickly brought my clothes back inside and changed into something warm.

I checked the security footage and saw a girl bringing in the petals and decorating the stairs. I tried to enhance the footage to see her face clearly but failed. Suddenly she stopped and stared at the camera, I was spooked and it felt as if she was staring into my eyes. She proceeded to look at the camera for hours and seemingly disappeared in front of the camera.

I was disturbed by this, I.I.I.I.... could not explain or think rationally for a minute. I snapped out of it and sent the footage in the group chat of tenants to find out about the girl in the footage. "Hey kid, there is none in the footage'', said the old man in apartment B4. "Are you ok, bro?'' asked the man in apartment D1. ''What..... Wha....?? How??'', I thought hysterically. How could I see the girl while no one could see her in the footage? Was it a hallucination? This didn't make sense at all. I have not eaten a balanced meal in a while. Can this be the reason?"

I quickly cooked some rice and Kewa datsi for curry and placed a large leaf of lettuce on the plate. As I was about to eat, I heard a faint sound from the bathroom that sounded like a song. My heart raced in fear and anxiety and sweat dripped from my skin. I nervously grabbed a knife and headed for the bathroom creeping as quietly as possible and as I neared the bathroom, I heard the song more clearly, it was a classical Bhutanese movie soundtrack.

I slowly opened the bathroom door and saw a girl floating in the air. With a rush of adrenaline I stormed out of the bathroom and ran outside in the rain. Outside at the parking area I slipped and fell unconscious.

After what seemed like hours I woke up in my friend's house in the same building. The clock read 7pm. I was left in utter confusion. My friend KuenzangThinley, who was a freelance photographer asked me. "Are you fine man?", "I guess so" , I said still dazed. "How did you manage to text me while you were unconscious? Did someone text me through your phone?", asked Kuenzang. "What? You got a text from me? Pass me my phone." I quickly opened my phone and there I saw, someone had sent a message through my phone to Kuenzang. The text said, "Come home, ASAP". I came home as fast as I can, after that message you did not respond so I was worried. Bro, you got lucky. Someone might have seen you and texted me." That made no sense to me, snapping out of my daze I quickly remembered about the encounter in my bathroom.I broke into cold sweat.

"Then again why didn't they just call the ambulance or just help you themselves, well it is what it is,"said Kuenzang optimistically. "Hey man, are you alright?You are sweating a lot." "I am fine, don't worry about me," I said as I left his flat. This made no sense, what is happening to me? What was the thing I saw? There was no explanation. I entered my flat with caution, there was nothing there. I sneaked into the bathroom and peeked inside. Luckily there was nothing there. I quickly changed my clothes and went to check the camera footage. I checked the footage of camera 5.It looked over the parking lot, and I searched for the footage in which I fell.

In the footage I slipped and fell hard on my face(luckily I had a thick skull),my body laid on the ground in the rain. I waited and then I saw, the girl. The same girl whom I saw in the footage earlier. She picked up my phone and used it. Who was she? Where did she come from? And why am I the only one who can see her? I was perplexed. I was curious. I want to see her once again. I started to leave notes in my house and in the building hallway.

For a week, I didn't see any signs of her. The flowers stopped showing up and the night time singing came to an end. I felt agitated as I have not seen any signs of her, and I was just exhausted. I came home late again and lazily walked up the stairs. As I walked up the stairs I heard it, the same voice singing the classic songs. I ran up the stairs with vigour, I had to see her again. I reached the roof of the building and once again, I saw nothing up there. As I walked back down with utter defeat, from behind I heard. "Why did you follow me? What do you want?"