‘I was in the middle of my slumber when a voice, quite disturbing, reached my ears. It felt so torturesome, that I did nothing but get up quickly and bothered.

When I woke up, I found the room in the same orchestration as I left it before I snoozed off. My journal was lying open on my honey walnut table with an ink pen placed on top of it. It was left open because I had to rush towards the window which was allowing the big blows of air into my house, displacing everything I acquired through my struggle over the past few years.

I picked up “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” then, from the shelf beside me, and went straight to my bed. It was so intriguing, that I finished half in one go and didn’t realize when my presence went on pause.

So, there I was, with the book lying on my chest, my rose-gold spectacles on my nose, and all my belongings were in place, no blow of air could even dare to come near them.

But, this voice…it sounded quite familiar. I heard it before, in fact, many times. Even yesterday. I tried to follow its rhythm and realized it was coming from under my blanket. I quickly took it off, and there the culprit stood.

‘Peek-a-boo!

For a moment, I could not speak. I never witnessed anything like that before.

‘Jeez, what kind of a peek-a-boo was that?’

‘Ouch, did it hurt to see me back baby?’

‘Hurt? It is a surprise for starters, and surely a disgusting one.’

‘Ahh, well, that’s a relief!’

‘Relief my…how come are you still alive? I left no trace of your existence, weren’t you drowned already?’

‘Ugh, it still hurts in here, that moment, how did you not feel a thing before committing such an act? It breaks my heart whenever those memories come back flashing. How could you do that to me? How could you?’

She sounded more dramatic than how she generally sounded or the rest of her kind, and honestly, it irritated me even more. But, I rather chose to not react and make it a big deal!

‘Seriously?’, was the most I could speak in my response.

‘What seriously, you? You took my life, have at least some shame left in you! Aren’t you a human? Don’t you “feel” things?’

‘Feel? Hah, well! You must have thought about that before you decided to suck my blood! Didn’t you feel a thing then?’

‘Ah, what a treat it was!’

‘See! Where are your feelings now?’

‘You took my life, for God’s sake, don’t compare your sin with mine!’

‘How are you so sure I wasn’t going to die because of your cruelty, the everyday torture? I still forgave you, not once, not twice, but all the time, and yet, you never felt an ounce of sympathy for me, you never seemed even a slightly bothered. Why else will you continue making me suffer like that? I still don’t regret my decision, thank you for reminding me of all this. Ever since I killed you, my heart was burning in repentance, even my friends once laughed at me when I told them about my agony towards myself after killing you, but now it feels just fine. I even arranged my bed in such a way as to hold myself from going through this whole drama in my life ever again. Now if you will excuse me, I have a life to live, unlike you of course, so, you rather leave now!’

I could not believe how I said all that. It felt like a huge weight from my chest was lifted. This killing had filled me with a sort of guilt I should not have had in the first place. I cursed myself for this deed and where was I wrong anyway? Anyone in my place will end up doing so, especially with an experience similar to what I had to go through.

‘You know what? I know I tortured you, in fact, you were not even the first one in my life. I never liked to do it if you believe me. It was my mother who I watched doing all this with anyone she ever came across. I just became like her. I saw how she took so much pleasure in torturing men, and I wanted that pleasure too. Maybe it was my genes, but somewhere I took pleasure in your pains. But since, now I’m no more alive, I, to my surprise too, also feel your pain and agony towards me. I don’t know how but I really understand your pain. I’m sorry, really really sorry!’

It was indeed strange to hear those words. 

‘It’s okay, we’re even now!’

‘Hm’, she replied.

I was waiting for her to leave.

I was waiting.

I was still waiting.

I almost lost my patience and turned towards her to ask her to leave when, she said, ‘Can I just stay here for one night?’

‘What? Why?’, I asked, quite concerned, for myself.

‘It’s just that when I was coming here, I thought that this fight would continue till morning, and so I booked an early morning train. But since you’re so good with words, we sorted things much earlier than my expected time, and now I have nowhere to go.’

‘What, are you kiddin’? You’re a ghost for ghost’s sake, I mean, for God’s sake.’

‘So? How does that matter? We also have our world.’

‘You were always in the air when you were alive, now you want a train? Seriously?’

‘Rules are different in ghosts world.’

‘What rules?’

‘I can’t tell you that, they are ghosts world’s secrets, c’mon.’

‘Aha, I don’t care about those rules, I have nothing to do with it. I have to get up in 3 hours, so…leave, now!’, I spoke quite loudly.

There was dead silence in the room for a couple of minutes which made me a little calmer. She got up and was about to leave when my heart melted, again.

‘Alright! Stay for the night! But leave before I come back from my morning walk.’

‘Thank you, you’re so kind, like always!’

‘It’s okay. Sleep wherever you wish to, but not this bed.’

‘Can I sleep there?’, she pointed at the couch that was right there on the right side of my bed.

‘Mm, yeah, you can!’

We both settled on our respective beds. I rearranged my blanket, untied the knots of my mosquito canopy, and sat there for a while thinking,

‘How strange this world is. I never imagined I would ever confront my past. It was painful to even think about it. It doesn’t matter who was wrong, or who was right, or who did what, what matters is whether you have cleared all hindrances from your path or not, whether you’ve mended what was broken. In a way, I’m quite happy that she came. Until today, I was dying in repentance, but now, she has emancipated my soul for which I will always be grateful to her.’

‘Listen, do you mosquitoes have names too?’

‘Of course!’

‘What’s yours, I’m sorry I didn’t ask before?’

‘Sucketta.’

‘Sucketta? Like blood sucketta? Haha! Ah..well..fits you perfectly’ I grinned.

Her body was half the size of my tooth, yet I could see her smiling. I wondered, ‘how I ended up crushing such a tiny little soul between my palms’ and thought I was too hard on her. I only hope her soul rested well in the ghost world.

I switched off the lamps, and there we were, resting our souls and their remorse, to sleep.

***The End***

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