The Dare

The Dreaded Tour and First Signs of Human Kindness

"Your results are in and it's all good news, Miss Lauser," the doctor shut the door behind him. "Really? Are you sure?" I asked from where I was sitting on the examination table. His bald head nodded. "Everything's working perfectly; you're as healthy as a horse." "Really......?" My gaze started to scroll downwards. So it isn't something wrong with me after all? Well, I mean something is most certainly wrong but it has nothing to do with my mental or physical health.

The doctor sat down on his stool and reviewed my chart again. "Yep. With the expectation of low blood pressure, I can't find anything abnormal." "And nothing came up on the CAT scan?" "No, your brain is just fine." "I see...... Well, I guess that's good." "It is good! Doesn't it feel nice to have a clean bill of health?" "Yeah......." My eyes wandered into nowhere a second time. It wasn't bad, but I was running out of options. That left the possibility that I was really seeing.......

The stupid jerk was still in my room when I got home. He was sitting on my windowsill gazing out, only bothering to look over at the sound of the door slamming. I didn't even greet him, just through my bag down and fell face first onto my bed. "What's the verdict?" "I'm not crazy," I muttered through the cushioning. "I'd get a second opinion if I were you," he flashed his enraging cocky smirk. "There's nothing wrong with me," I said, pushing myself up a little. "Which means that you're not a hallucination." "Now do you believe I'm a ghost?" I thought for a minute. I guess that was the only explanation left........ still, I wasn't thrilled about my new-found ability.

"What if I don't want to see the undead?" "Nothing you can do about it now." "How long is this supposed to be? A year? A lifetime?" "Mmmmmm," he thought it over for a second. "A lifetime, I think." Ugh, no! "Would you just get over it already? You can't change it so might as well stop worrying about it." This man! He just didn't get it. Seeing the undead meant that I had no choice but to see him! And even if I did move, there'd likely be ghosts there too. This is so unfair! What did I ever do to deserve this?

But I knew he was right; that's what ate at me. I'd already been down to the front desk to argue for over an hour about changing rooms, which they refused. I looked into hostels but didn't have the money for that. Until I figured out how to get arid of this "ghost-vision", it looked like we'd be roommates. Unless....... "Are you sure you want to stay here?" I tried to reason again. "Do we really have to go over this again?" His golden eyes rolled. "You're a ghost; you can go and live anywhere you want, for free! Why would you choose to live here of all places? Like, I get its new but it's kinda small." "I don't have to tell you anything; I'm here cause I wanna be. Got that?" Ugh, I let out a heavy sigh. He's impossible; utterly impossible. I bet he's staying just to annoy me. The jerk!

By then, I had had enough. I wasn't some puppet he could push and pull around like that. It was my turn to take control of the situation, no matter how menial. "You know something," I shot him a harsh glare. "I still don't believe this." "Huh? What are you on about?" He yawned, I think deliberately to irritate me. "I haven't believed in ghosts in years, and I don't believe it now." "What do you mean you don't believe it?" This caught his attention. Got him! I smirked inwardly. "How can you not believe it? There's a real-life ghost standing right in front of you." "If I believed every illusion in front of me, I wouldn't be in masters. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not stupid." "Obviously you are," he retorted viciously. "You wouldn't be able to see the trees in the forest." "That's mean!" "Not believing in me is mean! How you got into university, I'll never understand."

I stood up off my bed, not taking my glare off his. "Oh yeah? Well if I'm so dumb and you're so sure ghosts exist, why don't you prove it?" "Huh?" His eyebrow cocked in confusion. "Prove it; prove to me that ghosts are real. Show me another ghost who I can't doubt is dead and I'll believe you." "Really?" To my surprise, a mischievous grin leered across his face. I immediately regretted this decision while he seemed to actually enjoy it.