Ghost Vaticinators || Part 2

Contd  from Part 1 Ghost Vacitinators

Part 2

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My mouth opens into a big “O” with the largest possible diameter as soon as I heard what my neighbors said. I was flabbergasted. The second truth wasn’t that stringent as the first one was. What? MY fiancé has lived here, how he can lie to me. Why is he lying to me? What’s the truth? Several question marks started revolving in my head. I started thinking of exorcising the house but then thought not to, since I didn’t want mike to know that I know about him. So, I thought I’ll run away.

As darkness started engulfing the beautiful Seattle evening, I pre-planned my exit. I couldn’t sleep although I pretended well. Soon Mike was asleep. I got up on my toes. The only noise I could hear was of the crickets. I took my handbag, which I filled with just the necessary documents I would need beforehand only. I scarcely opened the door, when the pivots creaked. With trembling hands I managed to open the door slightly. I saw someone. Someone or Something, I wasn’t sure. I saw the specters. It was the twin-like girl but with no deformities unlike other times and mike’s poltergeist. I saw the girl carrying the same handbag, the one I was holding. She wore my dress and she was looking exactly like me. I freaked, and closed my mouth with both my hands as I breathed heavily. I saw mike’s apparition interrogating the girl where she was going. When unable to answer he slapped hard and took her outside by hair and banged her head against the wall. She was crying out loud for help but no one came. Just as I paced behind them to see what happened next, I heard footsteps behind me. Before I could turn back, the ghosts disappeared and Mike asked “where are you going?” I turned back, perplexed I couldn’t think of a reason and before I could make one, he slapped me. He grabbed my hair and dragged me outside and banged my head against the wall, I cried for help, but all in vain. I saw mike he was mad, his eyes turned red. I was bleeding and told him I was going to visit my parents as I got a call in the afternoon. He simpered and said “you’ll never leave this place”. I ran and bolted the door from inside, tied a scarf around the wound on my head which eventually developed a bump. I tried to maintain my composure and somehow fell asleep trying to connect the dots.

Morning rays entered my room through the window and I woke. I heard knocks on my door. It was mike asking me to open the door. He was iterating what was wrong with me as if he didn’t know. He mentioned he was worried about me as he saw blood on the front door. Bemused, I opened the door. He took me in his arms and was crying. I asked if he remember last night, but he didn’t. He took me to the hospital where I got a couple of stitches and the nurse drugged me. Upon gaining consciousness I saw my parents standing near the foot of my bed. I asked mike how they got here, Mike answered that I was going to them last night so he called them here instead. I was certain he was lying before, that he didn’t remember anything. He remembered my reason, hence the night too. Soon mike left and I was too scared to tell my parents anything. I asked them to leave as well.  I wanted some time to think. As I sat clueless on my bed, I overheard some voices. It was mike, and I was not certain whether the rest two voices were of my neighbors. All I could hear was that I am useless as I had a scar on my head now, and that I should be killed before I become some sort of danger to their community. As I heard, my hackles rose. With tears in my eyes I lied on the hospital bed.

I know I saw the ghosts direct the same scene last night before it happened. Everything happened exactly the same way as I saw them act. It occurred to me, were the ghosts trying to tell me something? Were they helping me? What if they predict everything before it happens? were they trying to foretell my future? I was sure Mike had no idea about them and I remember the first time I entered the third room, I saw the ghosts’ enact mike killing my parents and me. Will that happen in the exact same way if I stay? Before I could connect more dots I saw the twin-like girl floating in my hospital ward, mouthing the words, “come”. I got up, for now I know I am not scared of the dead but the living. I followed her. The hospital seemed quite. She took me to the mortuary and she pointed to a body. I saw it was of a young girl, and as I slowly removed the shroud ,I noticed her nerves were cut. The ghoul transformed into that girl. I cried, as I got that mike tricked her just like he tricked me to come with him and killed her. Shortly, the room was filled with several ghouls, all young girls floating few inches above the ground, pointing to their respective bodies. It was vivid that Mike and the people of this town tricked and killed them too. But still I had one question unanswered, why was he doing this? I heard footsteps and I ducked down, the apparition vanished. I saw a part of some crumbled sheets below her body. I pulled them out. Soon the footsteps were not audible. I read the sheets only to corroborate that the girl’s name was Arienne and she was from Seattle. She was “married” to Mike. On the other sheets there were caricatures and strange figures drawn which I couldn’t figure out. I took the papers with me to my ward.

As soon as I got home from the hospital I scanned those papers and searched on internet what the caricatures/figures meant, and found that they were used in Voodoo, to stop the process of aging. Mike has been performing the same to remain young forever. It was also clearly mentioned that the protocols involved the sacrifice of a young girl who does not have any scar or marks of wound on her body; it was to satisfy the pagan God/devil or something. Everything fell into places. I solved the mystery, but just one problem, how will “I” escape? Mike and the whole town had made several such sacrifices and God only knows Mike’s real age. If what the ghosts predicted was true then I will die just the way they showed in that third room. I thought if I throw away that dress, the knife in which the ghouls showed I’ll die I will never face it because I know the future will change if I change the environment/situation. I burnt the dress in the backyard. I locked the third room and buried the keys along with the knife. And I asked my parents to leave town as soon as possible. I didn’t wait for mike or the night to fall. I hurried out, but I saw mike standing at the front door. He looked irksome, and asked, “So are you leaving?” I started taking backward steps and looked at my neighbors with great hope. They didn’t react. Mike had a knife. A different one. I ran inside the house and came escaped through the back door. I took a train to San Francisco and left the place without turning back, but wondered what happened inside.

It’s been few months since “Mike episode” was over, which I buried in the past until one day my neighbors showed up. I was scared as to why they were here. But it was a relief when they hugged me and told me that Mike’s dead as he was not able to sacrifice a girl in time and that Mike was a voodoo performer. They also told me that the night I escaped, Mike was caught up in an illusion created by the ghosts just the way I was confused when I first saw them. The girl apparition morphed into me and in a rage without noticing much Mike followed her instead of me and since he was occupied for some time it was enough for me to run away. I realized, the town never supported mike, but they were too scared to take any action. The last truth they told me was that the girl ghoul I used to see, the one which helped me was their daughter who fell in love with mike only to meet her utter death. I smiled innocuously for I was lucky to survive.