Ghost?

It was in the middle of the night when I woke up suddenly, sweating all over my body and my throat parched. My nightmares might have been affecting me mentally but it never affected me this much before. And it all began with my prior visit to Dr. Swind.

“Have you really forgotten me?” An eerie voice calls out as a toxic chill creeps onto my spine leaving me shuddering. When I turn back I see nothing. Perhaps a figment of my imagination or perhaps, as the doctor said, just something my mind has made up. Even as I try to calm down, my body cannot stop shivering. I do not think I know that voice yet somehow I keep feeling as if I should have known that voice.

Well whatever, it did not matter much so I returned home without pondering much about this incident. In fact I even managed to forget about it. That is until I woke up right now, in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. It is not like I remember what I dream of for me to wake up in this mess. But oddly that voice, which I dismissed as a figment of my imagination, came into my mind without any implication.

I get up from the bed and grope my way through the darkness towards the shelf on one side of my bedroom. My home is small and congested, messy due to my busy lifestyle as a writer of many different topics; that often forces me to leave my room untidy with paper cuttings and journals lying all around the two roomed house. And whatever more remained of free space was occupied with furniture and everyday items that could be used. I did not have a kitchen in this house, unlike the average lower-class bachelor homes- which usually consist of a room and kitchen. Instead since I eat out most of the time and can, by no means cook anything palatable, I turned my kitchen into a study stacked with documents from god knows when and a table that has been left untouched since a long time ago.

It takes a few breathes before I find the shelf and a few more for me to find the jug of water. I drink a bit and splash a bit more on my face, since I am frightened to get out as the sink which is outside my house; constructed there to be shared between other tenants.

“You think a little water can clean your bloody hands,”

“Who is it!” I scream frightened beyond my wits.

Not even a heartbeat, other than my own quaking one, can be heard. I heard it once and I could discharge it as a mind trick. It has been twice now; and my logic cannot help me calm down anymore.

Did I drink too much last night? No, in fact I did not drink at all. Did somebody drug me? Nah I cannot be that paranoid. Impossible! It could not be a real ghost could it? I started renting this place for almost five years now yet I never had any issues before. I just have to wait till tomorrow and I will call for the priest just in case. I have a lot on my plate already with my nightmares and my stressful job- that I will hopefully be able to change soon. I cannot have more disasters befalling me.

I passed the night without any further incidents and soon bought a priest to bless my house of any impurities. The other tenants kept looking at me like I was some weird animal that has lost his sanity thinking that ghosts exist.

“So what is the priest for?” one of the tenant calls out while playing cards with some other tenant on the terrace of the housing complex.

“Say have you heard some odd voices recently?” I ask.

“No,” they reply

One of them points me to come closer.

“I did hear something the last few nights,” he whispers as I bent towards him, “if the sound of the women Jon brings home to play at night with, counts as an odd sound that is.”

People laugh out at his oddly timed joke as another man with a rustic beard, probably Jon himself, slaps him on the back of his head before joining in.

“I think my house is haunted,” I utter out.

They stop and look at me with surprised eyes and a gaping mouth.

“Well then you should make that ghost moan harder so that we can all hear it!”

I leave them at their own devices as their drunken ranting silences out.