There is a dead man at the edge of my bed.
I know he is dead because he has a knife in the side of his throat, lodged in it like an axe in a tree. The red liquid trickles down his body, staining his fancy white shirt, but he doesn't seem to notice at all, too busy staring at me with a strange expression, one I can't decipher.
I push myself up so I'm resting on my elbows, as my conscious shifts from the state of sleep I had been in, into reality, but the man doesn't leave, like he should.
A staring contest ensues, one where I attempt to convince myself that I'm dreaming, because it's impossible, for a man with a knife in his neck to be standing there, and not bleeding out on the ground. It's a dream. I'm dreaming, that's the only explanation.
"Hello." He greets me with a chipper wave, and I scream.
"Meiqi?!" I hear a voice call from my parents room - which is directly across from mine. My father, the protective man he is, leaps into action, and I can hear his footsteps echoing through the hall as he runs out of his room and into mine, flinging the door open. "What happened? What is it?"
The man with the knife in his neck is still standing there, and turns to look at my father, tilting his head to the side. Though he says nothing, simply staring at him.
My father doesn't so much as glance in the man's direction. It's like he isn't even there.
Except he is, because as I blink rapidly, he doesn't disappear, he doesn't leave. If anything, he gets clearer and clearer with every passing second, evident that he really is in my room with me, his blood dripping onto my floor.
"Mei?" He prompts when I say nothing. "What happened?"
"You can't see…" My voice trails off, as I glance between the man and my father.
"Can't see what, dear?"
"Nothing…" I shake my head, as if to shake the man out of my thoughts, as if to shake him away from reality. But the man remains stationed there, a pleasant smile on his lips as his eyes flicker between my father and I, as though he's watching a simple conversation pass by. "I just…nothing."
"Right…" If my father believes me, he shows no sign of it, giving me an awkward nod. "Well, it's best you're up now. We're off to the train station soon - if I can rouse your sister from her bed, that is."
"Cho won't get up again?" I frown, avoiding looking at the man and his neck-knife. When my dad nods again, I sigh, pushing myself out of my bed and onto my feet. "Do you need me to help? She usually listens to me."
He shakes his head. "No, no, you just focus on getting packed and dressed. Your mother and I will take care of Cho. She'll be okay, don't you worry your little head about her."
The smile my father wears sends a jolt of anxiety through me, not because it's fake, but because it's real, and if he's really smiling, then that means he truly cannot see the man in my room. It means he can't see the fact that here is a literal man in my room with a knife in his neck, bleeding on my floor while smiling like everything is fine and dandy!
Everything is certainly not fine and dandy!
When my father leaves, I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, as I turn my attention back to Knife-Neck, as I have now nicknamed him. Hopefully, the nickname won't have a need to stick around for long, because if all goes well, this is a one time hallucination and I'll go back to normal soon.
"Who are you?" I ask Knife-Neck, and his strange smile grows.
"I'm Jackson. Jackson Langfield. And you?" He has a weird accent, I notice. He's Scottish, like us, but it's almost…outdated, just like the weird, old-timey clothes he's wearing. It's almost like he doesn't quite belong in 1995.
Is he a ghost? No, ghosts are transparent, and this man is most certainly not…besides, if he was a ghost, my father would've been able to see him.
"I'm Meiqi." I answer, glancing around, like the answer to why he's here may be hidden in my bookshelf. When nothing comes out to explain his presence to me, I continue speaking to him, feeling oddly strange about it, because once again, he has a knife in his neck. "Er…what are you doing in my room?"
"Ah, yes, I'm avoiding my wife." He answers, his tone as casual as one may be if you were discussing the weather. "You haven't seen her around, have you?"
"Er, no, I haven't…"
"Lucky you." Jackson Knife-Neck Langfield laughs, causing the knife to bounce up and down from where it's lodged just a couple inches below his right ear. "She's furious with me at the moment. All I did was shag her sister a couple times, and here she goes, saying she's going to make me wish I had never been born. Honestly, women are quite ridiculous sometimes. Wouldn't you say, Meiqi?"
I simply blink, not sure how to respond to him, because, for the last time, there is a knife in his neck. He is bleeding out on my floor, and is speaking to me like nothing is amiss.
When I don't respond, Jackson Knife-Neck Langfield tilts his head to the side. "Are you quite alright, Meiqi?"
The man with the knife in his neck is asking if I'm alright. I probably would laugh, if the concept wasn't so bloody horrible. "Yes, yes. I just need to…pack. For school."
"Ah, school. I don't miss those days, not one bit. My teacher used to wack me on the back of my hands with a ruler for mouthing off, but in reality, what I had to say was obviously far more important than the nonsense she was teaching. Stuff about the earth being round - gibberish, really."
"Indeed…"
I begin to pack my trunk, feeling the eyes of Jackson Knife-Neck Langfield on me as I do, burning into me and sending a shiver down my spine. When I finish throwing everything into my trunk, I turn back to look at him, giving him one last forced smile. "I have to go now."
"Yes, I ought to go as well. My wife will be looking for me, and if she finds me, she might try and stab me again. Bloody nutcase, that woman."
Oh Merlin. He truly doesn't know he's dead.