The final bell for the day went off, Arlene took her bag and headed for the school park, she needed an open space to get inspired for her new book. She had a lot to write, and she hadn’t read her new book yet. She met Derek on the hallway with his friends, in hurry she waved and continued walking to the park, she had a lot to tell him but it would be rude to interrupt their discussion. When she got to the park, it was almost empty; they were only two students present, a male and female. They were either having a study group time, or they were lovers who came to explore the calm serene of the park, Arlene thought. When she picked a seat, she walked to it through the carpet grass littered with dead brown leaves which made crunch sounds as she stepped on them.
As soon as she got to the seat, she sat down and placed her bag on the round table in front of her, and then she took out her note. The note where she was writing the first draft of her first book which she intended to publish once she was done with writing. She sat for a while starring at the clouds move whilst forming different shapes, she listened to the crickets cricking on the grass, and the trees swaying and dropping a leaf on intervals. When she noticed she wasn’t drawing enough inspiration to write, she closed her book and took out her novel. She had been waiting to read the book, but she was interrupted by unfortunate events the previous night.
Flipping through the first page, she continued to the prologue where the story began. Arlene was too engrossed with the book that she didn’t notice that she had passed a lot of time. The book contained 30 chapters and she had read fifteen chapters at a go. She stopped reading when she heard her stomach rumble, so she closed the book and checked the time on her phone, it was 4 pm already. She turned on her data to check her i*******m feed and the writer’s forum she was on for updates.
Once her connection became stable, she had an inflow of messages, especially from her writer’s forum. Just then she saw two message notifications from i*******m, she quickly checked them. One of the messages was from ‘Cody Yan’. She opened his first; he inquired about her and mentioned how stupid he was for forgetting to ask for her number. She was about to reply him, when the other person sent a photo to her, she exited his chat and rushed to their Dm. She opened the message to see a chat which said.
Hi
I see you
And then a photo of her sitting on the bench in the park was sent, Arlene’s heart palpitated at what she saw. She looked around the park hoping it was the students around that took it, but then they were both gone, and the park was almost full. With other students around, there was no way she could tell who did it, and the picture was taken seconds ago or a minute ago, because she was using her phone in the picture, and her novel was at the spot she left it before checking her socials. She kept looking back to figure out what was happening, but then she couldn’t make anything out of it. The only way to find out would be asking individually, plus the page her no profile picture or posts.
“Hey,” someone said which made Arlene snap out from her mini world of playing Sherlock Holmes.
She looked up to see Cody standing in front of her with her a weird smile and his honey brown eye glistering due to the rays of sun light shone on it.
“I sent you a message, and you didn’t reply. I guessed you’d be here or in your room, I tried my luck and here you are,” he said.
Arlene apologized for airing his message, and then she offered him a seat. He sat opposite her, and kept looking at her as she used her phone without saying a thing. She was so engrossed in her phone to even look at Cody, he felt awkward so he picked up the book on the table.
“So, Mafia Princess huh, read the book a couple of weeks ago. Great book,” he said randomly flipping the pages
“Uh huh....” She replied without looking at him.
“Are you even listening to me?” Cody asked pulling away her phone.
Arlene snapped out when her phone was taken away, and then she stared at him in awe. She prayed he wouldn’t ask her what he had been saying because she didn’t hear a thing, her mind was on the fact that someone was spying on her. What got her curious were their intentions, it couldn’t be the strange ghost that had been monitoring her because it didn’t see m like she could handle a mobile phone, not to talk of being on i*******m.
“You seem hungry,” Cody said to her, because he heard her stomach rumble again, for the third time since he got there.
Arlene felt her face getting heated, she hated the fact her stomach had to make such a loud rumble, she nodded to what Cody said and he offered to buy her a meal. As usual Arlene hesitated because she feared what he would ask for in return, she avoided getting favours from people so she would never be indebted to them. But then Cody kept persuading her and she finally gave in, she checked the time and it was still early enough to leave school and come back before dawn.
She put her book into her back and left with Cody to get his car at the parking lot. Cody drove a BMW which left Arlene wondering if she happened to be the poorest student in their campus. Faith’s apartment was humongous, Derek was from a very wealthy family, and the car which she thought belonged to one of the lecturer’s was Cody’s. Cody opened the door for Arlene then he went over to the driver’s side and they headed for the closest restaurant.
The restaurant was just four streets away from school so Arlene didn’t worry about going back on time, it was even trek able unlike Faith’s house which was about 30 minutes drive. The restaurant didn’t have any special features, it was like every other eatery you could imagine, glass door with security men, see through glass from inside and outside, two long opposite seats with a table in between at every corner, and a counter in front to make an order.
Both Cody and Arlene went over to the counter to make an order, luckily for them there was no line so they were the first in front to and a dark skin lady stepped forward to take their order. They both ordered rice because that was the lightest food available for an evening meal even though it has a whole load of carbohydrate in it. After their orders had been taken, the lady set out to dish their food while Cody sorts for a comfortable spot for them. There was a spot close to the door and right beside it stood the long split unit air conditioner, Cody chose the spot because that was the only favourable place left, it was better than sitting close to the restroom. Arlene was freezing because she had a sleeveless shirt on, but she couldn’t risk sitting close to the toilet, she wandered why they ever thought of placing a sit few meters away from the rest room.
Moments later, two waiters arrived with their order and placed it on the table together with the bill, Arlene reached for her purse to get out her credit card because even though Cody offered to take her out for dinner, she still felt uneasy allowing him pay her bills. Cody beat her to it, because before she could find her purse and then credit card in her bag, the waiter with the pos had already swiped his card in and out. She quietly slipped her credit card inside and stared at her food for a while. The sweet aroma from the meal in front of her pierced through her nostrils, and the air conditioner close by amplified the smell. She couldn’t wait to start eating but she had to wait for Cody who was on a call, and as soon as he got off the call, she picked up her spoon.
She filled her spoon little by little because she had to comport herself in public although she was hungry. Arlene was never a finish your food before your meat person but then she didn’t know how to act in front of Cody, she longed to pick up her meat with her bare hands and devour it while she took a spoon from her food, but then she couldn’t because he wouldn’t stop watching her eat. She didn’t know he made her feel weird or if he was doing it on purpose but after a while she totally forgot how to chew properly. She found herself struggling to chew each tiny grain of rice, it felt like he could see through her mouth and he would notice when she chewed wrongly.
“Please stop!” She voiced out to Cody when she swallowed a huge amount of half chewed rice.
Cody looked at her in awe because he didn’t know what she was talking about; he admired her table manners, from the way she picked her cutlery, to the way she cut through the plate of food down to how she chewed. When Arlene realized how embarrassing what she said was, she dusted her mouth with the napkin on her tray, and mumbled an almost silent sorry before she excused herself. She left to the restroom and let out silent screams, she didn’t understand why she was so shy in front of Cody, it was like she lost total control whenever he was around.
CODY IS AN ACCQUAINTANCE, MY SENIOR IN SCHOOL, HE IS GREAT IN ARTS AND I DON’T HAVE FEELINGS FOR HIM, she mumbled while pacing up and down in the bathroom. She felt the need to wash her face so she turned on the tap and leaned towards the sink with her face close to the tap and allowed the cold water from the tap run on her face. While she washed her face, she heard the sound of a can been kicked down. She looked beneath her hands to the side of the trash can which was by the left, and there she spotted a pair of familiar shoes. It was the strange ghost girl who wouldn’t stop appearing to her, she quickly turned the tap off and stood up right to face the girl, but then she saw something in the mirror again. When she looked at the mirror, she saw a lady with grey hairs and black eyes, when I say black I mean black, there was no difference between her sclera, pupil or iris, everything was just black. She wore exactly the same cloak the strange girl was putting on but this time hers was had two colors, the right side was red and the left black but it had the same symbol by the left. Arlene wanted to scream but she couldn’t because her body stiffened out of shock. What shocked her more was when the lady passed her hands through the mirror in a bid to reach out to her, she felt her inner self fighting hard to move but then what was happening to her was similar to that of sleep paralysis. She could hear herself calling out for help but there was no one to help her because only she could hear her voice, as soon as the woman got close enough the door to the rest room opened and Cody walked in. The lady in the mirror retreated and when Arlene saw Cody she passed out almost crashing on the floor before Cody jumped in and rescued her from the floor. Cody couldn’t stop himself from panicking, he couldn’t tell what had just happened, he looked over and saw her glasses beside her, it must have fallen from when she fainted and he couldn’t save it because he had her to save first.
Cody lifted her up by himself and beckoned on the people around for help, a young girl wearing a plaid skirt and a sweat shirt with high knee boots seated in the restaurant got up immediately to help him. She searched for his keys in his pocket and then she helped him open the door while he fit Arlene into the back sit. He begged the lady to go with him because this was his first time handling a patient and he knew nothing about saving lives, this wasn’t a theatre to show his prowess. The lady joined him to the hospital and on the way while he drove he peered at the rear view mirror to know if she would cough or sneeze. He felt his heart pounding and he couldn’t help but wonder what put her in that situation, was she asthmatic he thought, because that would be a reasonable explanation, or a sicklar perhaps.
“Don’t bother yourself so much, some things happen for strange reasons we can’t explain.” The lady said.
Cody was too occupied to read meaning to whatever she said, his mind was on getting Arlene to the hospital and he prayed she wouldn’t die. When they finally got to the hospital, he parked his car carelessly very close to the door of the hospital building, and then he carried Arlene out of the car, and rushed her to the reception. When he got there, the nurses took her from him and placed her on a stretcher before wheeling her into a vacant room. Cody walked in after them feeling a bit relieved, he sat down on the bench inside the room and before he could snap his finger a doctor walked in.
The doctor examined Arlene; he did the normal doctor stuffs, examining her eye, checking of temperature, monitoring heart beat and the rest of them. After that he informed Cody that she fainted out of shock, and she would wake up in a few minutes time so it wasn’t such an emergency. He advised Cody to make sure she got a lot of rest because that was what she needed most and not drugs, after that he left the room. Cody watched Arlene closely immediately the doctor left, it had been a rough night and he couldn’t wait for her to wake up so everything would be over. Just as the doctor had predicted, Arlene let out a disturbing cough minutes later and she called out to Cody for water. He took the water that was provided for her by the hospital then he opened it making sure he heard the seal break to show it wasn’t a refill before he handed it to her.
Arlene’s memory was a little jazzed so she couldn’t remember exactly what happened, so she asked Cody how she ended up in the hospital. He narrated everything that happened including the kind lady who helped him take her to the hospital, but she left before he could properly thank her. Arlene got curious about the lady so she asked for a description, even though it may sound off or he may interpret it in another way but she didn’t care, she just wanted to know about the lady. From the description Cody gave it appeared that Arlene was helped by the strange ghost girl.
