Told from Mahoba's Point of View

I saw Mimo running out of the jetty. She had frozen for a moment as she recognised me. Why? She had no reason to be afraid of Lina!

I have looked into the memory of this dead girl. I have to know everything about her. For, I'm her now. I've to play her part well.

I've seen that she was infatuated with this boy, Ruy. I've also seen how she hated Mimo for stealing him away from her. But there has been doubt, too; doubt that perhaps Ruy was actually infatuated with Mimo!

I've laughed in my mind. A cute love triangle!

Then I checked myself. Perhaps, the love triangle was not so cute at all? Or, why should there be so much hatred?

I try to shake off the feeling of gloom that had accumulated inside my chest. I can't bring myself to accept what I had seen there. I can't see my Ruhan with someone else. What is she doing? Is it really possible that she had forgotten everything? How am I supposed to remind her about it?

I look around the room. This girl, Lina, was quite clumsy after all. The room is in a kind of mess. Slowly I tidy it up, finding everything I need to know there. I'm in the body of a teenage girl, so there's a lot of things I need to get myself accustomed with in order to look convincing.

As I check out the collection of dresses, clothes and underwear in the wardrobe, I can't help but smile. What a twist of fate! They had told me not to hold on to her soul. But here I am, following her to the world of humans, trapping myself inside the body of a dead girl!

Laughing inwardly I resume the job at hand.

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It's been the dead of night.

I roll in my bed. I can't sleep.

I feel feverish. Memories of what happened in the evening keeps coming back to me. I flip them; twirl them around my fingers; pick up bits of them and put them in my mouth. The taste of my first kiss still lingers on my lips and my tongue. Wet lips, warm tongue, first blood. Yes, first blood!

Startled, I sit up. What is it that makes me so restless? Am I in love? No! Not yet, I think?

I search deep in my heart. But no warm memory comes up. His face has never cheered me up. His voice has never enchanted me enough.

Instead, he has always made me feel cranky and hateful.

How come that I don't love him, but crave for his warm touch?

I shudder as I remember how I loved the taste of his blood in my mouth. The tang of iron mixed with a sickly sweet sticky flavour!

How I would love to bury my teeth in his soft lips and drink in that heady smell of his blood!

A strange sound brings me back from my reverie. A sound of voices, speaking in a hushed tone, muffled, subdued!

I jump out of my bed. Where is it coming from?

Not from outside, I think? My senses are too strong. I know for sure that this sound is coming from inside the house; from the room immediately below me. It's coming from Nana's room!

I rush out of my room and fly downstairs. My feet barely touches the carpeted floor, making the sounds of only a muffled tread.

Silently, I push open the door and enter her room. She lies there so still, her face turned towards the ceiling, her eyes closed, the soft lines crisscrossing her face showing that she is in deep slumber!

Round her bed so many people stand and gaze at her! People with vague, dark bodies, looking as if they have been curved out of mist and shadows!

I know them at once. They are spirits from Hell! They have come to show the departing soul its way towards the Twilight zone; towards the eternal river flowing through it!

I can't let Nana go yet! I can't let her die and leave me all alone!

I fling myself at her; hold her tight in my arms and snarl back at them in blind rage. An unfamiliar sound hits my ears. Sound of a beast growling; low, yet ominous!

The shadows step back. Slowly they start to fade away; merge with the faint moonlight coming through the window.

I feel my heart pounding, hammering against my ribcage; my brain feverish, burning hot. Heat pours out every pore of my body. Something long asleep within my heart slowly awakens.

I hear voices of people. My uncles and aunts. The servants and maids. My howling has awakened them.

They rush in and find me sobbing, holding Nana's body in my arms.

"Mimo! What's happened?" My eldest uncle says as he tries to drag me back from her.

I sober up immediately and release Nana from my arms. I step back from the bed. "She is ill. Very ill," I say, still sobbing.

He checks her pulse. She is still sleeping, unhindered by all the commotion around her.

They start to argue over what is to be done. I slowly come away from there and stand in the verandah looking at the back courtyard. The faint light of early dawn shows in the eastern sky. From the trees lining the courtyard crows start to caw incessantly. A new day is dawning slowly.

The ambulance arrives. I listen to its wailing as it turns round the corner of our street and comes towards our front door.

Everyone is busy now. People arrive with stretcher and take Nana to the ambulance. My two uncles board the ambulance and sit by her. 

The ambulance leaves, leaving only the trail of its wail behind.

I stare into the sky where shades of pink and purple have started to show by now.

Will she ever come back to me?