Lamented Fate

AVERY'S POV

I was only five when my mom and I passed by an accident on the highway. We were walking out of a store when we crossed paths with a man holding a bouquet of red roses in his hands smiling. That man and I caught each other's eyes and he gave me a soft smile. As a very innocent kid, I smiled back while I felt my mom stop walking trying to look at the incident. I waved to him goodbye as he continued walking away from us and vanished through a corner. Curious and unable to see everything, my mom carried me a bit higher to see what was going on.

"What can you see?" My mom asked while struggling to carry me with too many people around.

"I saw that man just now," I replied.

"What do you mean?" My mom was confused at that time so I just pointed to her in the direction where that guy went.

At that time, I had no idea. But now that I had recalled it, the man who I had just seen at that time was the same person who got hit by a car in that intersection. He was not supposed to be holding a bouquet of red roses because his lying body was holding white ones. Though his blood spattered all over those flowers.

When a person beside us heard what I just said, they looked at my mom with criticizing faces so she immediately put me down as we walked rapidly towards the car. I could hear her catching her breath as soon as we got inside the vehicle. She looked back at me who was confused about what I did wrong and waited for her to say something. But she just sighed and turned on the engine. I figured she just wanted to brush it off because she thinks I might have been mistaken. Yet it wasn't that long when the young me proved her wrong.

I was just playing in our backyard when I saw that same man again. But this time his head was covered in blood just like how he was on that road. So I took the towel that was on a bench beside the pool and gave it to him to wipe his face. From my perspective at the time, he received the towel with a smile and cleaned his face. But looking back again, the blood just vanished the moment he smiled at me. He doesn't look dead to me so I dragged him closer to my toys as an invitation for him to play with me.

"Can you really see me?" He asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Yes. Do you still have those flowers with you?" I answered but asked back. My mom had a garden full of different flowers so I was fond of every flower I can't find in my mom's garden.

"It was gone now. I was supposed to give it to someone I love."

"My Dad doesn't give my mom flowers anymore because she's got a bunch of them so he only gives her seedlings now to plant new ones."

I was enjoying his company without realizing what it looked like in my parents' eyes. It took a while for them to notice me talking to myself from the kitchen window. Dad was slowly walking towards me listening to our conversation when I innocently introduced them to each other.

"Bryan this is my dad, Justin." I raised my head to see my dad and he just stood there stunned. He then slowly lifted me carrying me inside the house.

"Goodbye." As I waved to my first ghost friend.

My parents were hesitant to talk to me about the issue before because I was still so young but I could always feel them looking at me oddly during dinner. Maybe they were curious but just couldn't believe a five-year-old girl. Or were they afraid of me?

A few days later, I never got to see Bryan again but I do wait in the backyard for him yet still no sign of him. It wasn't that long when my mom brought me to Daycare and I had a lot of new friends. But it wasn't limited to the living world and yet, I can barely recognize them from each other. I had this favorite friend among the crowd because she always led me to where the teachers kept the best toys. I felt just fine not until when the other kids started pushing me away every time I wanted to play with them.

"You're weird!"

"Toy Thief!"

I couldn't understand why they hated me when I always shared the toys I found even if it meant I would have to sit at the corner as a punishment.

"Don't mind them just play with us!"

And yet I was not alone after all.

I played with the rest of the kids while some of them just stared at me. A few were hiding from the back of our teacher. Her face was obviously frightened just by looking at me. I don't know how, but maybe as a kid, we had this instinct to negative feelings people show us and we just knew something was wrong. So I cried and didn't stop until my parents arrived to pick me up. My eyes were swelling when I sat at the back and just stared from the window. My parents tried to comfort me when we got home but still, nothing got stuck in my mind.

"I was just playing with them!" I cried again as I tried to see what was wrong with what I did and my dad continued to hush me.

When I turned eight I had already met fifteen dead people at my house. Usually, they come along with my parents' guests and some just appear out of nowhere. There are times that I could identify them to be different but in most cases, I don't. As a kid who isn't as knowledgeable about the spirit world find it hard to even communicate with normal people. So my parents' way of making me avoid having contact with these things whenever we have guests is to keep me occupied with a tablet and headphones. Surprisingly, it worked and as soon as the people left our house my parents would confiscate the gadgets from me. I would then run to my room and play with toys with my"friends".

This ability of mine made my parents decide to homeschool me. I assumed it was for the best because I'd get bullied if I continued to talk to everyone. It would have been more advantageous if I was not that talkative as a child but I'm not. I am very friendly. Yet, as years went by I asked my parents again to confirm why I was homeschooled.

"Because as long as you continue to talk with those things you'll embarrass us." My mom replied harshly.

"Honey, It's not that easy to recognize your abilities. Other people would find you crazy and it's not something we can be proud of. While you still can't identify their difference to the living ones then you'll continue to be homeschooled." My Dad explained it better. I nodded in reply to them and I looked at everyone that was around me.

My friends looked at me with pity because I couldn't even defend myself properly. But is clever enough to make my parents believe I don't see them anymore. I did my best to do so because I badly wanted to go into a proper middle school. This time, I communicated with them by writing on paper and they would just speak. Sometimes I pretend I am playing an online game with other players so they wouldn't suspect a thing.

"I don't know why your parents hated that ability of yours when you have tried your best to behave already when there are people around." One of my ghost friends, Dan asked while I was playing a game.

"I wondered the same thing. However, I do want to figure out more about this. Maybe there's a right reason why I can do it." I replied while my eyes were still on the screen and he was just sitting beside me.

"Aren't you too young for that? Well, If only I had any idea I would tell you. But it hasn't been that long since I got separated from my body and I just needed someone to talk to." I looked at him and smiled.

"There's no such thing as age in this if it is causing this much trouble to me already."

Dan was a teenager whom I haven't figured out yet what caused his death because when he arrived, he was so clean. From what I have learned so far at this age, Ghosts that are not aware that they are dead would have no visible injuries, and those that found out would have the same injuries as their body. But in his case, he knows so well that he is dead. This is the part where I get curious.

I looked him up on the internet, especially on specific social media apps where guys his age would usually hang and I found him. He was surprised to be discovered that fast and as we were scanning through his timeline, we saw a lot of pictures of him and his dog. That's when certain memories of him came back and broke down. I felt bad for him.

"So what happened?" I asked looking at him curling down on my floor and leaning to my closet.

"I committed suicide by overdosing myself. I lost my dog a few days before that and I was not taking it easy because he's my only family. I already lost my parents back when I was younger so I didn't feel like living anymore. But now that I realized it, I had one person who was special to me and I never even got the chance to say goodbye." Dan explained.

I continued scrolling and I saw a picture of him with a girl and his dog. They had a lot of pictures together. I clicked one photo and saw it tagged to the girl's account so I opened it. There I saw a message from her to him. So I read to him while he was crying.

--I know that life hasn't been fair to you my love but I hoped you could have held on a bit longer. I was here with you the whole time and so was my family. I never should have left you that time. I should have just hugged you while you mourn for Rex. I blamed myself for that because there should have never been another important thing than you. But people say, You had enough of the pain. You deserve to feel at peace. And for that, I am willing to let you go even if it pains me. I love you, Dan. Till we meet again. --

As I finished reading, Dan raised his head with a smile and slowly his face was turning bright vanishing in front of me. I winced to the brightness but continued to have a glimpse at him.

"I'll wait for her."

Witnessing that made me feel even more curious. Will he still come back after that? What was that shining thing called? Does every ghost have that certain magic all this time and I didn't know?

I was restless. So I took the rest of my time searching online even though some things seemed to be unbelievable. With that, I limit myself to something I find easy to believe as a ten-year-old while making enough effort to convince my parents to attend school soon because I know that looking through the internet to find these people's identities is not enough and having access to the outside world will be quite an adventure.