The Haunted


Part 1. In Dreams – 1010 words

Through the fluttering curtains that frame his window, he stares, transfixed at the shadows that shift into different shapes as they mould into one in a lazy dance beneath the hazy glow of the moon. Somewhere in the far corners of his mind, he can hear his doctor's disapproving voice, scolding him for letting the draft in, but he easily pushes it away, letting sleep take him away.

Narumi transitions into the world of dreams almost the instant his eyes close. His consciousness is seized and is thrown into a surreal world, filled with a myriad of colours. Moving pictures seem to attack him all at once and yet the chaos it inspires proves to be soothing. He watches his past catch up with him. He sees his future come to a grinding halt. He stays in limbo, a halfway house for all persons whose sanity is already one step out the door.

In this static, yet strangely threatening place, Narumi finds that he cannot escape, for a familiar voice pervades his blissful cocoon. It is sweet, melodic and yet ever so distant. It stands as a painful reminder of his first and only love, now lost to death. He thinks of her constantly. She is impossible to forget. She is there when he sleeps. She is there in every waking moment of his life. For almost a year now, he has existed with her and it is her voice that calls to him.

In gentleness. In earnest. In agony.

In this world, his emotions are relentlessly bittersweet, so much that he could taste them in his mouth. It makes him wonder whether the eternally changing scene around him and the soothing voice in his ear are really part of a dream, or if he is wide awake and keening. He feels his senses move in and out of wakefulness, like a sleep-drugged mind fighting off the medication.

The vividness of the colourful waves blinds him. His saliva fails to rid his mouth of the strange taste. The murky air around him causes goosebumps on his skin. He is convulsing in his sleep and that's when he knows she has trapped him again.

"Narumi…"

The voice of his love rings in his head with a chilling clarity he cannot explain. It has followed him again to the waking world, as it always does. The guilt returns and the questions begin pouring in, lining themselves up, then crashing together to obliterate his reason.

Why had he not been there sooner?

Could he have stopped it?

Had he truly wanted to save her?

The voice in his head is laughing now. She taunts him, even as his senses skyrocket towards insanity. His world view warps against his will. Something inside him changes. He is no longer the man he once was. The whereabouts of that person is unknown to him. He'd left him stranded— alone in a forgotten place, while the rest of him followed that haunting voice. It was always calling and he was weak against it.

"Narumi…"

He hears her screams, her frightening pleas for help.

Why had he not gone back?

Why had he turned away?

There was fire where he stood. The flash and burn was tangible on his back. He could see everything. He could hear her in the room. Her high pitched cries and tortured face. He betrayed her and he didn't know what to do because he survived.

Why had he been so selfish?

He had left her to die, fearing for his own life.

Had self-preservation really mattered more to him than the one he loved?

He had turned away without a backward glance.

How could he have walked away if he had loved her that much?

When the questions bring him successfully to the brink of madness, the view around him shifts again. All of a sudden, the mystic scene twists and morphs into a place that he recognises. He is standing on the remains of a white ceramic vase. A desperate woman is kneeling in front of him, sobbing as though her heart was breaking. The shards are piercing her knees.

"Narumi!"

The voice calls out to him, pained and desperate.

"Don't leave me!"

The screams echo in the confines of his mind. He is tortured by the sight of his lover burning to ashes. He wishes his mind could be torched as well. He sees her expression before she expires. He sees the agonising mix of despair and betrayal as though she knew all along that he would do this. The next scream he hears is his own.

"Narumi."

She is gone but the shrieking continues in his head. Sometimes he thinks it's over. Sometimes he thinks she would have wanted him to live on. But when he remembers that last piercing glare, he knows that he is lying to himself. All the decisions he had ever made concerning her resulted to disaster. She was destroyed by his treacherous actions. He was self-destructing as a tragic consequence.

"Narumi…"

The voice speaks directly in his ear. A cold kiss is planted on his cheek. Narumi is jolted from his restless sleep. He snaps up on the bed, disturbed by the loud noise that had come from his bedroom window. He sees a familiar form.

Perched on the windowsill is a woman in a white sundress, the thin material of which barely covers her knees. Scars are visible just beneath the hem as she kicks her legs against the wall. Her long brown hair frames her small, pale face and her features have an unhealthy pallor. Her dull amber eyes are focused on the bed, chilling the person occupying it to the bone.

She wears a malevolent smile. "My Narumi…"

At the sight of her, Narumi doubles over. As if he wasn't insane or delirious enough, he passes out, back into the world of dreams to relive his endless nightmare.


Somewhere far away, there was music.

And the music never grew faint.

Somewhere far away, there was laughter.

But the laughter faded away.