THE GHOST GIRL

1

Half bottle vodka and thirty minutes of thinking later I was convinced that it was best to end my life. Everything around me ceased to make sense. I was drowned in my misery and had pretty much lost everything I was proud of possessing. There I stood staggering with a rope in my hand and gazing at the ceiling.

I tied the rope tightly to the ceiling and made a perfect loop in which I was about to hang my head. I got down the stool on which I was standing till now to take a look at the death wire I made for myself. Tears rolled down my cheek, I closed my eyes and remembered how the girl I loved cheated on me, how I left my college in the middle for which I worked my ass off, how everything got ruined in a second from picture perfect.

"Hanging? Trust me, very bad idea!"

I heard a girl's voice. I suddenly opened my eyes and looked around. There seemed to be no one. It was me all alone at my flat in the middle of the night. Was I too drunk? I was convinced that I was hallucinating. I left that thought and focused on my suicide mission. I climbed the stool again and held the loop in my hand; I couldn't bear to look at it. Who would have believed if someone said five months ago that I would end my life like this? Didn't I just have it all for a moment?! My cheeks burned when red hot tears flowed down my eyes. I closed my eyes and was about to put the loop on my head when I heard her again.

"Oh! So you decided then. Trust me you are going to writhe in pain and wish you didn't do that. It's going to crush your neck and block your throat and you would feel the oxygen draining out of your body not to mention a broken neck due to the pressure and the bliss of going through a post-mortem which would make you wish you were dead." She said it all in one breath and paused may be to breathe.

I opened my eyes again just to find out I was all alone in my dark bedroom. "Hallucination" I muttered to myself.

"Nope. You are not imagining things, I am real, totally!" she said.

"Then why can't I see you?" I asked looking at the empty room. "Umm... I am sort of a ghost, you can't just see me like that alright?" she said cautiously as though not to scare me.

"Pffftt! Yeah right! Ghost! Dude we live in the twenty first century and give me some respect and stop making up lame jokes like this! I know I am hallucinating!" I said almost frustrated because my suicide mission just got interrupted because my brain fancied some hallucinations! Damn!

"No I am not making up any story, if you don't believe me I can show myself to you. But at first you should get off the stool and go stand in front of a mirror." She said.

"Yeah right! Listen I am not interested in whatever you are playing with me and I don't really want to see you, what I want is to just end my life and get over with it. I have suffered enough, I just can't take it anymore, and I am done!" I almost broke down at that and the next thing I knew, I got off the stool and went and sat on the floor to cry.

"Don't cry? It's gonna be fine. And I am not really good at making people stop crying but I could show you myself if you stop crying! How about that?" she said with enthusiasm which didn't cure my tears, I reached for the bottle of vodka from which I was drinking to have some more hoping that this hallucination might stop or maybe I'll hallucinate something else. I looked at the clock, it showed 2 am. Then I looked at the rope and imagined myself hanging there.

"Hey! Just walk to the mirror naa?! And will you stop looking at that rope? Hanging yourself there is not going to get your life to a better place. I've been there, I am there actually. But before I say anything I need you to believe I am real, so would you Mr. Rohan Nair care to go stand in front of the mirror?" she said.

"Why in front of the mirror? Can't you just show yourself from here? I have had my share of horror movies and from what I reckon ghosts can't be seen in mirrors." I replied in shaky and unclear voice.

"Oh! Screw the movies, they never show the real thing. Well let me tell you I can't show myself out other than in mirrors or cameras. And yes I can appear in front of people on Halloween and on Fridays the 13th. But that too only if He approves of it, we have to submit our reasons and wait for the approval but leave all that, go stand in front of the mirror now" she ordered.

"Wait! He? Who is this he?" I asked as I struggled to get up.

"God off course! I am working under him until he grants me permission to access heaven... or hell. Well anything would do, I just want to get the hell out of this life." She said gloomily.

I staggered toward the mirror; the only light in the room was from the bulb lit outside my window. My eyelids felt heavy as I had drunk too much. I struggled to open my eyes, but anyway asked her to show herself to me.

"So are you ready Rohan?" she asked excitedly, the voice came from behind me and I for once knew it's high time to quit drinking.

Suddenly there was the formation of smoke, I turned back to see no smoke whatsoever behind me, I turned to the mirror and there! There were legs forming slowly from the smoke, then a peach dress began to form, slowly hands came and then heavy heat curled hair began to hang down from nowhere, and then came the neck and a very beautiful face of a young girl hardly nineteen. "Hello! I am Nivika!" she introduced.

"What the fuck!" I blurted out.

I hit my head on the ground and passed out!