The Apparition || Bad Omens || Noah Sebastian

Chapter one

That night, he dreamed of her. Her features lingered in his mind as if he had known her his entire life. But she appeared spectral, shrouded in a white glow that unsettled him. It felt like a nightmare. He tried to flee, but she was always behind him. He was in a forest, the branches of the trees swaying in a silent dance, accompanied by the wind. The breeze caressed his face, carrying with it a ghostly message.

“Help me.”

He felt it incessantly, like a hammer relentlessly striking a wall. That word, almost a sigh, echoed in his skull, an unending reverberation of despair. Until a force held him in place and the voice shouted, “Why won’t you listen to me?”

Noah jolted awake, a trickle of sweat sending a shiver down his spine. Since he had returned from that dreadful night, he hadn’t been able to sleep soundly. He kept waking up, and every time he closed his eyes, the girl’s face appeared in his mind, white and still like a corpse that refused to be forgotten.

He heard a rustle, a light movement in the room. He stiffened, holding his breath. There couldn’t be anyone, right? Yet... something was off. He thought he saw a shadow move just outside his peripheral vision, an indistinct shape that vanished every time he tried to focus on it. “I’m going crazy,” he thought, pressing a hand to his throbbing forehead.

His heart raced, and the room seemed to constrict around him. He stood up, trying to shake off the anxiety. But as he turned towards the mirror, he saw her. Reflected behind him, standing by the door.

It was her. The girl from the concert.

Noah’s eyes widened, a strangled cry dying in his throat. It couldn’t be real. Yet her figure stood there, pale, her black hair cascading over her shoulders like a waterfall of ink. She wore the clothes from the concert, dirtied by dust, and her eyes, hollow and lifeless, bore into him with a chilling intensity.

“What... what the hell?” Noah stammered, backing away until he bumped into the wall.

The girl said nothing. She remained there, motionless, like a shadow. Then, slowly, she raised a hand and pointed a finger at him. There was no anger in her gesture, but a kind of silent desperation. It was as if she was trying to tell him something, but couldn’t speak.

Noah pressed his hands to his temples, hoping that the vision would disappear. “You’re not real,” he murmured, closing his eyes. When he opened them again, the room was empty.

His breath gradually returned to normal, but the terror clung to him like a second skin. He tried to convince himself it was merely his imagination, a product of trauma. But deep down, he knew there was something more.

The news of the girl’s death, a certain Ruby Grant, twenty-five years old, had made headlines everywhere. The causes were still unclear, but there were rumors of a heart attack or sudden illness. The police were eager to classify the case as an “accidental death,” but the family insisted on an autopsy, so they would have to wait for the results from the hospital. Noah's heart skipped a beat when he saw the face that had terrified him in the darkness of his room, now smiling in a photo that newspapers had obtained from the girl’s social media profiles.

Noah was sitting at the kitchen table, his computer in front of him. He couldn't stop reading articles about Ruby, as if by doing so he could bring her back to life.

Nick walked past him and saw the picture on the screen. "You can't stop thinking about her either, can you?"

Noah nodded, leaving out the part where he saw her everywhere he went, like a shadow that had attached itself to him.

"Maybe it’s like everyone says: these things happen. It was only a matter of time."

"That doesn't really comfort me, to be honest," Noah said, looking him in the eye. They were both terribly exhausted, between the rehearsals and that looming presence in their lives.

Ruby.

In the articles, she was described as a beautiful girl who had been taken from the world too soon. She had graduated with top honors and taught at an elementary school. She was the pride of her parents, who were described as unable to speak a single sentence without breaking down in tears.

Ruby wasn’t just a teacher. The school where she worked was in a rough neighborhood, and often families needed concrete help.

Ruby was always the first to step forward. Her colleagues remembered her with fondness and melancholy.

That beautiful girl had been one of their fans. She had trusted them, and as a result, she had died right before their eyes. That was something Noah couldn’t forgive himself for.

In the days that followed, Noah tried to ignore what he had seen, throwing himself into work and attempting to distract himself. But every time he found himself alone, he felt that presence near him. Sometimes he saw her reflected in a mirror; other times, he caught a glimpse of her for a moment at the edges of his vision. She was everywhere, silent, constant, like a ghost refusing to vanish.

The true breaking point came during a rehearsal session with the band. While they were playing, Noah lost the thread of the song, distracted by a reflection in the studio's glass. Ruby was there, standing near the amplifiers, as motionless as ever. No one else seemed to notice her, not even his friends. Noah abruptly stopped, throwing the microphone to the floor, the metallic clang filling the room.

“What’s wrong with you?” Nick asked, confused, but Noah couldn’t respond. His gaze remained fixed on her. And this time, he felt in the air the same plea for help that he had heard in his dreams.

“Help me,” the wind whispered.

Noah turned pale. Ruby stared at him; her lips remained still, but the sound seemed to reach directly into his head, bypassing the air.

“Help me, please,” she repeated.