Living with a Ghost

Long before she knew, Alice found herself stuck in an empty house. She wanted to but somehow could not get herself gout of the place.

It was a huge house and thus there were all sorts of things for her to wonder at. Every morning she woke up she would water the plants and talk to them and play until dawn fell.

She was alone yet did not feel so lonely as she thought of herself to be free. That she could do anything she wanted and call everything to be her.

She did not remember what the place was or how she ended up there, but still, she had a feeling of home lingering somewhere deep in those rustic vacant walls.

There was yet one room, which she was terrified to open, it gave her horrible thoughts and scare her like nightmares. Hidden there was a secret she never wanted to know.

Then one evening unexpectedly came a young man. He had an elegance about him and walked as if he could conquer the world. Feeling reserved and bashful she hid for a while and the man did not seem to notice it.

But after some time out of curiosity, she came out to talk and addressed herself. At first, he got startled but soon calmed down,

“You must be the caretaker here,” he said,

“I do take care of things in the house,” she replied

“That’s great, I thought I might have to live all alone here.”

“Why yes, being alone is quite uninteresting.” “What brings you here Mr.?”

“You can call me Steven. I now own this place.”

“What great news you bring, I always wanted to know who I belonged to.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Ah, don’t be alarmed. I belong to this place and this place belongs to you. Now you can do the math Mr. Steven.”

“Right, did you live here all alone? For how long miss?”

“It’s Alice, and I don’t remember how long I have been here.”

“That’s strange. I thought people called this place haunted and never came near it.”

“Oh, that might be right. There is but one room which I never dared to enter. As it wouldn’t let me sleep at night.”

“And which one would that be?”

An intriguingly brave smirk ran around her face and she asked if he dared to walk to the room with her. Being equally curious he agreed and they both paced towards a mystery.

Assured that someone was beside her, Alice opened the door to that room, and there hung a huge picture of her dated 1910–1933.

She remembered she had died at a young age and reminisced at the memory of her death. It was not pleasant and that’s what terrified her but now that she had finally realized, there was one thing she ought to do.

Her companion was conscious but out of his senses, she assured him not harm as after all these years all she wanted was for someone to have the memory of her.

She guided him to a diary in which there was an essence of her, told him to read it, and possibly not forget. She affirmed as soon as he left the room, he would never see her again. And took a promise to read the legacy she was leaving.

Agreeing to her wish he descended down the hall. Holding the diary as he walked and taking in everything that happened. He would never have imagined something like that to happen and yet wished for it long before he arrived.

As he started reading, the whole night went by. He was fascinated by her character yet saddened by the cruelty she had endured. How her dreams and hopes were crushed to the point where she took her life.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope you liked the story.

I am Nidhi, and I wish, you look forward to more such stories.

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