For the past few days, I've been learning how to do astral projection through a tutorial on Youtube. I don't know why my life has been so annoying lately. I feel like dying, but I'm also afraid of death itself. I've tried all sorts of medications to relieve my mental illness, but they've had no effect on me. Fortunately, I found a video about astral projection on my YouTube homepage. I finally decided that instead of dying, I'd rather do astral projection, after all, it would also be fun... I guess.

The next day, I tried to do my usual activities. For the first time, I went out of my room and cleaned up my room that was already full of drink bottles and food waste. Because the video tutorial I watched last night required people who wanted to do astral projection to sleep early. So, I had to drain my energy during the day and not take a nap.

As I was about to walk out of my apartment room, someone suddenly tapped me on the shoulder. I was startled and reflexively jumped.

"Geez, you think I'm the devil? How come you freaked out when you saw my face?" it was Yasuo. He was my friend from middle school, I never remembered that he lived in the same apartment as me.

"Ah... Sorry, I didn't hear you earlier," I replied while scratching the back of my neck that wasn't itchy

"That's okay. Anyway, I just saw you again after a long time. How are you, bro?"

"Well... A lot of things have been going on lately. I've just been slacking around here."

"Oh, I see," suddenly, Andy put on a serious face and brought his face closer to mine.

"Do you know what's been going on lately?" Yasuo whispered the question to me.

"No, you know that I just got out today."

"The occupant of the corner room was found dead by suicide a week ago," I was shocked. My heart was suddenly racing, and cold sweat began to pour out. How could I not have known about this? I didn't even hear any sirens in my room.

"Girl, around 25 years old. But I'm not sure because I don't know her. Just that the residents here say so," Yasuo then patted my shoulder again.

"Alright, I'll go first. Don't be too alone in your room, let's have coffee together sometime. You still like cigarettes, right?" he then smiled at me. Then he walked down the stairs while waving his hand at me.

I stared at him blankly. I was so scared to death that I probably looked like a living corpse because my face was completely pale by now.

In the past few weeks, I've always thought about how to kill myself, but I always canceled it because I was afraid of death. But that fear became even more intense when I heard the news from Andy earlier. I really don't want to die.

***

The day had turned into night, I was ready to do astral projection tonight. I've changed my clothes into loose clothes, and some other preparations that must be done before doing astral projection. It was time for me to relax my whole body, and close my eyes.

After a while, I was able to close my eyes. However, I heard the sound of crying in the distance. I opened my eyes and tried to get up. Then I began to realize that I couldn't move my body.

"Oh my gosh, what's going on? Have I entered the sleep paralysis phase?" my eyes automatically looked at a figure in the corner of my room. Suddenly I was shocked and tried to rebel so that I could move.

"Oh my God, move, move, move!" I tried to shout and my voice really didn't come out at all. The figure suddenly woke up.

Oh shit, it seems like it has noticed my figure, I thought to myself.

Shortly after that, the figure began to move toward me. I rebelled even more, but no matter how hard I rebelled, I couldn't move my body.

The figure brought her long hair closer to my face. The figure kept moving, I could feel her hair on my face. I closed my eyes with all my might, but for some reason my eyes opened on their own. My eyes were wide open. I was shocked beyond belief. The face of that figure was heartbreaking, she was crying and her tears fell right on my face.

I woke up from my sleep, my body could move again. But it was already morning. I don't know how much time I had passed after experiencing sleep paralysis. However, the face of that figure crying was heartbreaking. I've never been this emotional in my life. But somehow I cried after remembering the face of that figure last night.

***

Day has turned into night again. I felt like a zombie all day! I couldn't sleep at all during the day. My head feels like it's going to explode.

I kept remembering the face of the ghost yesterday, I've never felt this much heartache. It felt the same as when I lost my family forever.

And finally the night came back. Even though it felt like I had just passed that long night. But I was already faced with night time again. I wish I could do my Astral Projection in peace.

I then closed my eyes that had been spinning around on this broken pillow. And I was finally able to fall asleep.

***

The crying sound came back. I blinked my eyes.

In the corner of the room, I could see the figure of the woman who bothered me last night.

I realized that I could move now, unlike last night.

Then I stood up from my bed. My eyes widened when I saw myself fast asleep on a dusty kapok mattress.

So, did my Astral Projection work?

Then I turned my gaze to the corner of the room where the ghostly figure of the woman from last night stood. She just smiled at me.

"S-who are you? W-what do you want?" I said to the woman with a stammer. Without realizing it, my body had also been trembling.

The woman then smiled her beautiful smile under the moonlight.

"My name is Anya, I'm the resident of the corner room that your friend told me about yesterday afternoon."

Suddenly I was shocked. I fell into a sitting position. My eyes widened, my legs went limp. Even though I was now a spirit, I could still feel cold sweat starting to pour down my face area.

"I'm sorry that I disturbed you yesterday and made it difficult for you to sleep," the woman grabbed my wrist.

"Can... you listen to my story first?" she said in a hoarse voice like she was about to cry.

"W-well. Tell me about it, A-Anya," I stammered.

The woman smiled, then began to pull my wrist and we began to fly slowly through the sky.

"I... have been the breadwinner of my family since I was in high school," the woman began to tell me about herself. I looked at her and listened to her words. I could see that her face was getting sad and her eyes were starting to tear up.

"I kept working and didn't have time to think about playing. I didn't have any friends at school, because all I did was study and work. Even until I graduated, the friends I had could be counted on my fingers. They all left me too after they found their own way. Until finally, my mother fell ill and needed a lot of money for treatment. Until finally, I was accepted as an employee of a well-known company in this city. At first, I was happy to be accepted to work at the company because I expected my salary to exceed what I thought it would be. But it turned out that I had been cheated all along. I worked for almost two years but my salary was only sixty-four dollars for two months," the woman began to shed tears.

"Then, I started to tell the company's crimes to an anonymous forum on the internet. Not long after I posted my post. Suddenly, a large, well-dressed man barged into my apartment," the woman said in a whimpering voice.

"That man... choked me..." the woman stopped speaking for a moment. She was holding back the sound of her sobs and it broke my heart.

"T-then... I started to run out of breath. And soon I realized that I was dead. I could see my own body being hung with a rope by that man. It was as if I had committed suicide. It wasn't long before he left my hanging body," the woman began to cry and wiped away a single tear that fell down her cheek.

"Can you help me find that man?"