Ghosts

Another night drunk, and this time he didn't have enough money left to call a taxi. It'd been about three months, since Amy had left him, and since then his sober days were falling well below the intoxicated ones. It was the only way Brendon felt something other than his numbness, it was his way of surviving. 

He left the pub in a hurry, restlessly worrying about the bills he had to pay soon. Where would he end up after this? He was on the road of self-destruction.

Brendon pulled his keys out from his pocket as he approached his car, now breaking down. It was broken as long as he, the day she left him, he got into a car accident. Since then the car hadn't been quite the same, and neither had he.

His head was wavering with alcohol, it made him wonder if he should drive home by himself. But he had no option, he had no money, nor any friends to drop him off. He lost everything that night.

But he figured he saw things more clearly when he wasn't sober. He could still see her in the clouds, feel her in the passing breezes, and sometimes she touched him through the rains. 

With her in mind, he sat in the car and turned it on. 

The drive down the street was like most other nights, a drive down memory lane. It was self-inflicted pain, the one he kept prolonging. 

He looked ahead and saw her silhouette, she walked gracefully as always. Her hair swayed with the heartbeat of the sky, the palpitating winds. As he drove in closer, he looked into her eyes, waiting to get lost inside them. He saw little glistening droplets of rain land on her cheeks, descending to the rest of her. But he realized later, these were tears.

His car was approaching dangerously close to the thought of her. What if he just drove into her, maybe her ghost would quit haunting him every moment. So he accelerated forward.

Until he heard a bang. He was in dismay, do ghosts bang against cars like that. He immediately hit the brakes.

He hurried out to approach a still figure lying on the ground, a mere stranger she seemed.

"Oh my goodness...I'm so..sorry...Oh no... What the fuck did I do?" He mumbled as he cursed himself. He dialed the ambulance right away, his eyes on a life besides his own, he was ruining.

Her lips moved slowly, "thank you".

He was appalled, did she not know he was the man to drive into her.

"But I crashed into you. Your life is in danger right now"

"Crash again," she whispered slowly as she closed her eyes.

"Are you crazy?" He didn't know what to do, he wanted to curse her and himself. Was she committing suicide or was this something else. And if she was, then why under his car? He had enough worries in his life.

She was lay silent for some time, and Brendon prayed that she would stay alive. After a few moments, she quietly murmured to him, "life sucks".

"It does, but you're going to be fine..the ambulance is going to be here right now"

"They can't save me."

"Why?"

"The ghosts won't let me go"

"I killed them for you" He answered.. 

The ambulance finally arrived and took her away, and after that the police arrived.

....

He woke up hungover the next morning, in jail. "What the fuck?" he thought. It took him a few moments to recall what might have brought him here.

"Excuse me..how did I get here," he asked bluntly.

"You are exactly where you deserve to be after what you did last night." 

"I was drunk, can you at least tell me what I did? I think I deserve to know" He asked anxiously.

"You crashed into a girl, she's laying on a bed in the hospital because of you. Not only that, you ran away. You left her on the street in the rain!"

"Why would I do that? I swear I wouldn't.. I'm certain I called 911"

"You did call, and that's how we found you. Then you told us she asked for it."

"Oh yeah I remember, she did!"

"Nice try kid." The officer looked irritated.

Brendon tried to the recall the blurry pieces of his drunk night. He remembered crashing into her, she thanked him for it.

"Is she okay?" he asked. Nobody replied.

A few minutes later, the officer came back. He pulled Brendon out of the room, explaining how the strange girl gained consciousness and confessed it was a suicide attempt.

"We're sorry Brendon, it was just the situations, made it seem like a murder attempt.." the officer kept going on with his apologies, but Brendon's mind was fixated on this mysterious girl. Flashbacks of the night before played through his mind, the way she thanked him for crashing into her. 

He hurried to meet here.

When he finally got to the hospital, she was gone.. the only thing left of her was a short letter she had written for him. 

"Thank you for killing my ghosts, I hope you can kill your own."

He tried to think about the ghosts that haunted him, but there were none left.

Twisted Love

It was a warm summer night and I laid my body down on the hot sand beneath me. My friends and I had decided to come to the beach tonight to celebrate my birthday. I didn't really care much for my birthday, it felt like any other day, but the boys insisted.

"Karan...it's your birthday...at least act happy!"

I sighed. I wasn't necessarily sad, but I could find no particular reason to be happy either. Another year had gone by and I still felt the same hatred blocking all four walls around my heart.

My friends of course tried various techniques in cheering me up, coming to the beach was the suggestion of one of my best buddies, Aaron. 

He began to chuckle, "hey Karan look at the girls, I'm sure they could make your day". I laughed it off, but internally hoping that they could. 

"Get up bro and go talk to a girl...you're a master when it comes to girls..too bad you forgot all that after that last witch you came across." Again I sighed thinking of that "last witch", she was certainly a lovely witch. But the thought of her loveliness only gave birth to hate. A year had gone by since she had left me and Kavya seemed to have move on...of course she had, she was after all the one who thought I was heartless. 

I finally had to succumb to the pressure of my friends and find a girl to speak to. I pulled my buried body out of the sand, it felt as if I pulled my corpse out of a coffin. 

Her hair was being blown behind by the force of the breeze and her dress also flared in accordance to the breeze. Her smile lit up my heart erasing the hate that once dwelled there. I wanted to speak to her but I had no words, I think I had lost all my confidence to my previous love. 

I reached forth my arm and suddenly grabbed her long flowing hair, holding it tightly in my grasp. She turned around immediately feeling something tugging at her.

"What the hell is wrong with you?," she said pulling her hair away from me.

"I love your hair...you're just gorgeous," I could see my friends snickering at a distance remembering how much better I once was in approaching girls.

"Congratulations then, love it. Now get lost!" 

"I want to keep it...but for that I'll have to take you with me princess" I questioned my own ability at this.

"Excuse me? Seriously!" Her eyes were brimming of hate...I felt as though I was looking into myself for a moment. This was the same hate I felt for Kavya.

"What's your name?" I asked

"It's not your business," she began to walk away trying to run away from me. I could feel her fear...it was just like my own. I feared falling in love.

"My name is Karan!" I yelled at her...seeing a billion faces turning towards us. But my call when unanswered and she drove away in her car.

I returned back to my friends where an awkward vibe had emerged, it seemed as though they regretted ever asking me to approach a girl.

"I'm going to find that girl again," they all glared at me and sighed in disbelief.

"Come on man, let's just go.

.....

A few weeks later, I was elated to see her long tresses again. She was at the gym and her hair bounced up and down as she ran on the treadmill. I decided again to be a maniac and grab her hair. In the moment's confusion and by the restraint of her captured hair, she slipped, and I caught her.

"Let go of me! What's your problem man? I'm going to involve the police if you don't stop harassing me!"

"But I'm in love with you...your beautiful eyes..your long hair..aaah."

"Come with me," she pulled me towards her bag and together we rushed out of the gym onto the busy street. After rummaging through her things for a while, she pulled out a pair of scissors.

"You like me so much right? You like my hair the most...here you can have it," she passed me the scissors, "here cut as much as you want", my jaw dropped, "why are you so shocked, feel free!". Her eyes raged with hate and it seemed like she would soon stab me with the scissors in her hand. 

"Look Miss...I didn't mean it"

"No no, why not? My name is Meera..do you want my address too?" she said all of this while snatching the scissors away from me and into her own hands...She flummoxed me to a point I could not understand. Yet she also shocked me.

She took the scissors in her own hands and suddenly chopped off all the hair resting loosely beneath her hairtie. She picked it up and passed it to me.

"Here you go! Do you want anything else or can I leave now?" I had no words to say to her, instead I stared at the hair I held in my hands as she rushed away. I didn't know if I hated her for cutting off the beautiful hair or if I loved the hate that she possessed in the first place. She had something different to her.

"I hate you," she screamed while she turned the corner, I replied with a whisper of "I love you."

.....

I wasn't decent after that incident though, I became even more shameless. I grew in love with her hate, her power, her courage, she was like my mirror. I searched her up on Facebook and Googled anything I could find. Meera was a mystery I wanted to solve...I wanted her to hate me. And of course, I did find her.

The next she I saw her, she flaunted around in a beautiful bob cut. I wasn't any less though, I had shaved off my hair in tribute to my love, Meera.

She didn't recognize me. 

"Meera, can you not recognize Karan with his hair gone? I still recognize you!," this was the first time she laughed at something I had said. 

"Did you really?," she chuckled.

"Anything for you baby...you did it for me too," I smiled back, "I loved your hair and you gave it, now you ask me for what you want"

She smiled back at me, "I'll let you know soon". I pulled her body towards me and placed my lips on hers, she looked up at me in hatred, but she didn't stop me. A few moments later she slowly pulled herself away from me.

"I know what I want from you," her lips curved into a smile, but her eyes still showing hate, "I want to hate you forever."

I pulled her close to me again and began kissing her.

....

The following day I knocked on her door and she opened the door. 

"You wanted to hate me forever right?" She smiled in approval, "well there's only one way you could do that...you already hate me, let's just make it forever."

 I pulled out a ring and didn't bother to propose, I forced the ring onto her finger and embraced her. She looked at me in shock, her eyes full of love and full of hate. She didn't know how to feel, I didn't know how to feel either. 

"You didn't even bother to ask for my yes or no?"

"I didn't want you to fall in love with me."

"I would have hated you for asking." She smiled.

Written for Chuck Wendig's Flash Fiction Challenge: Twisted Love

(P.S - inspired by a few people, a TV series, and the prompt - all squashed together. Hopefully it worked)