Aika - Ghosted By The One Who’s Supposed To Get Rid Of Ghosts

Days passed.

At first, I told myself it was normal.

Caleb was busy. He always had been. His life moved on schedules I didn’t fully understand, shaped by bells, prayers, obligations, people who needed him constantly. Mine had learned how to make room. How to wait quietly without asking questions. How not to reach out first.

So I waited. I stayed at my parents’ house longer than I planned. It felt easier to disappear into familiar walls than return to Izu with my heart still too loud. I helped Mama cook meals she insisted were unnecessary. I folded laundry that didn’t need folding. Watered plants. Let myself disappear into usefulness.

I sat beside Papa while he slept, counting the steady rise and fall of his chest like it was a promise the world hadn’t broken yet. He slept more these days. Longer hours. But the doctors said that was normal. Healing took time. Rest was good.

So I rested too, or at least pretended to.

I didn’t check my phone often. Well, I tried not too. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I was expecting too much. Like a little high school girl who was in love. Every time my screen lit up, my heart jumped with anticipation and embarrassment all at once. And every time, it wasn’t him.

No ‘’Are you okay?’’, No ‘‘Did I cross a line?’’, No ‘’I’m sorry’’, No ‘’I meant what I said’’… Nothing.

I told myself not to spiral. I told myself this was exactly what should happen when you want someone who belongs to something bigger than you. Someone with rules. Someone with vows. Someone whose life had been mapped long before you ever stepped into it. Still, it hurt.

On the fourth day, Mama asked casually, ‘Have you heard yet from that nice church man?’

‘He’s probably busy,’ I said quickly.

She pressed her lips close, definitely unconvinced, but she didn’t press. Papa squeezed my hand once when he was awake. A small, grounding gesture that said more than words ever could. They both liked him, but didn’t want to meddle. They both trusted me to make the right decision, as they always did.

On the sixth night, my phone buzzed. My heart reacted before my mind caught up.

Caleb T.

For some reason, seeing his name made me feel anxious. I stared at the screen for a full second before opening the message.

‘’Please don’t come back to Izu yet.’’

That was it. No explanation. No softness. No ‘‘I’ll explain soon’’. Just a neat and controlled sentence. A line drawn quietly between us.

I stared at it until the words blurred.

I hate to admit it, but I was more affected than I thought I’d be. At first it made me sad. Disappointed to think that it was just me thinking there was something real between us. After thinking some more about it, my feelings warped into anger.

Who did he think he was, telling me where I could and couldn’t exist? After everything he’d said. After everything he hadn’t finished saying. After being a part of my family like that and then vanishing. I even stopped him from confessing. Only for him to try it again the next day. After I kissed… sigh…

I  managed to calmly locked my phone and set it face-down on the table, like it might burn. Right before the urge to hurl it across the room. I remembered my sleeping parents who’s got nothing to do with this. My parents whom Caleb got so much along with. My anger couldn’t last, remembering just the effect of his presence around my family. Me.

Hmmm… Something feels deeply wrong. Caleb never left me alone… always spawning wherever I was…. For him to say this so abruptly….

I don’t know why I did it. Instinct, maybe? Or habit? Or the part of me that had learned long ago that silence usually meant damage control had already begun.

I picked my phone up again. I told myself I was just curious. Just checking, just in case. I searched my name and only old news came up. Good… So he wasn’t repulsed by me or my…

I opened a new browser. Typed his name. Izu. Church. The first thing I saw was his face. Cropped too close, framed by harsh lighting. Familiar and wrong all at once.

PRIEST CAUGHT IN SCANDALOUS ROOFTOP ENCOUNTER

The words punched the air out of my lungs. The headline burned into my eyes.

I scrolled. Photos loaded agonisingly slowly. One by one, a rooftop, a rain-dark concrete. A man’s arms around a woman. Protective, if you knew the truth. Possessive, if you wanted a story. All depended on how you wanted to read it.

I scrolled again. Another incriminating angle.

A man pinning a woman against a wall. Bodies too close. Heads bowed. Intimacy implied, magnified, and distorted.

The comments were already multiplying.

‘’Disgusting”

‘‘So much for vows”

‘‘Hypocrite”

‘’Guess priests are just men after all”

‘‘Who’s the girl?’

‘’Lucky her”

‘’Isn’t he the bet for becoming the youngest bishop?’’

‘’She knew what she was doing”

I stared at the screen with utter disgust. The woman’s face was never clear. Always blocked by an arm. A shadow. Or the angle wasn’t good.

Me. It was me.

They hadn’t tagged me. They didn’t know who I was. Not yet. But they knew him, and they were tearing him apart with the same hunger I remembered all too well.

My hands started to shake.

I sat there with my phone glowing in my lap, heart racing between guilt and fear and grief.

So that was why… Not because he didn’t care. But because he was trying to protect me… Or maybe protect himself.

I didn’t know which thought hurt more.

If I stayed away, the story would remain unfinished. A mystery woman. A faceless temptation. Something people could speculate about endlessly without consequence.

If I went back… I closed my eyes.

I had run before. I knew how that ended. I also knew what it felt like to be left standing alone in the fire while others saved themselves.

I thought of the way he had looked at me in the chapel. His voice. The way he had stopped himself. The way he had kissed my hand like it was something sacred.

‘‘I won’t lie to you about what’s in my heart.’’

My heart pulled in opposite directions, stretched thin between longing and anger. I wanted to see him. I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to stand beside him. I wanted to disappear so he wouldn’t bleed because of me.

Aika… you’ve been here before. Think.

All I knew was that whatever choice I made next would not be quiet.

And it would change everything.