18th August 1978

9:00 P.M

My eyes snapped open. I found myself lying on a couch, a blanket over my body. My head ached a bit. With a groan, I sat up, then looked around with bleary eyes, confusion beginning to fill me.

It seemed to be a closed cabin of sorts. Old, the floorboards and the white-washed walls screamed old. To my right was a sepia photo showing three rows of policemen in crisp, dark uniforms, smiling at me. Ahead was a rack full of trophies, all secured behind a pane.

A door stood at one corner to my right. Through the small square pane on the door, I could see that a lady in uniform was standing outside the room, her back facing the door. Noticing her, I got up and parted my lips to call her when a voice spoke softly, "Don't.”

My head whipped towards my left. The ghost sat on top of a small cabinet on the wall, dangling her legs playfully. I'd have screamed right away but strange memories began flashing through my mind. I could recall talking to her before dashing home. And then, there were officers, and...and blood and…

Chills ran down my spine. Oh my God, no!

"Look, not right now—" she started but I jolted up in horror. My breathing escalated and beads of cold sweat began forming on my brow. I strode towards the door, about to scream and make a scene when she clucked her tongue and my body fell limp on the floor.

Well, just my body.

Not that I had realized though. Not until I had marched towards the door and begun to yank the handle open and noticed my hand passing right through it.

Horror washed over me. I screamed and staggered back, only to feel a tingling sensation at the back of my legs. I looked over my shoulder. My head was jutting out of my calves. It took me a moment to realize that I was staring at my own body and that my calves had moved straight through it.

A shudder ran down my spine. What on earth had she done?!

"I turned you into a ghost." She shrugged nonchalantly.

Her words didn't register immediately. I gave her a long look, then stared at my hands. They were translucent and misty but fully capable of feeling things around me. I looked up at her in fear.

"Follow me." She hopped down and hovered past me. I frowned but decided to follow her anyway.

We both hovered through the door and right through the lady standing guard in front of it, her sudden body warmth making me shiver at the odd sensation. I looked over my shoulder. She kept staring ahead as if she couldn't see us.

The ghost began to lead me to what I'd assume was the lobby. A grandfather clock stood beside the entrance, its hour hand pointing at nine. Many men and women sauntered in and out but no one had the slightest clue about us. I could see a guard yawning brazenly as he scratched his ankle. Someone across the room was spouting curses at their captain, careful not to be too loud.

She turned left and lead me to a wide corridor. Many panels were jutting out of the doors on either side, their templates embossed in gold and displaying several designations. I followed her through one such door.

Inside sat Mr Jeriff and Mr Nicholson, conversing with the captain. However, their faces were far from tense. They were happily chatting, a biscuit at hand and a cup of tea in the other. My eyes widened in disbelief.

"See that?" the ghost said, "You figured out Lisa hadn't died so they drugged you and erased your memories of her. The last thing you want to do is stay here. They will either send you to a relative or an orphanage and bury your case files beneath the rest.”

My jaw dropped. The sight of their smiling faces suddenly shed new light on whatever had happened. Things began to make a lot more sense. The first time we had filed a complaint, I had given the police a head to toe description of those two, and yet, despite the police patrolling an entire neighbourhood, they hadn't been caught. It was possible that they had seen them patrolling and bailed, and then abducted me the next day to question how I had found out about them, but it didn't explain why they had barged into our house before seven-fifteen tonight. The minute I had informed the police of the burglary, these two knew. They instantly received intel from someone within the department and attacked the house before seven-fifteen. But of course, a commotion ensued like it had when they had attacked our house in the beginning and a cautious neighbour informed the police. The officers ended up arriving earlier than the two had anticipated and thus, Jeriff and Nicholson were apprehended.

And now, they'll be released, thanks to this old fox.

"Someone influential is behind it."  She looked at me coolly. "What will you do now?”

I wasn't listening to her anymore. The longer I watched them, the more it grew apparent to me how vile and corrupt humans could be. My rage began to consume my senses, so much that what was once my vapoury body had now begun to recede from their premise, out of their door and out of the corridor. My body was suddenly erupting into mists as I sped back into the lobby faster and faster. My peripheral vision began to blur and finally, a jolt of electricity coursed through me as I slammed into my fallen body and sat up straight on the floor.

Before I knew it, I was dashing out of the station, hot tears streaming down my eyes and marring my face with streaks of kohl. I didn't know where but I wanted to get the hell out of there. I rushed out to the streets, ignoring the waning hustle of the crowd. People had begun to shut their shops and wrap up for the day. No one apparently had the time to notice a girl bawling her eyes out as she dashed past them. Their ignorance fuelled my rage further, and I finally rounded up to a corner and threw myself in the stinking pile of barrels in a dark alley. 

The policemen sped past it on my pursuit, unaware. I kept sitting there, arms around my knees, breathing erratically. It reeked of alcohol in here. The alley was so narrow, it could hardly accommodate the girth of a full-grown man. Finding solitude as the much-needed incentive to vent, I burst into shaky sobs, leaning my head against the brick wall behind me.

Newspaper clippings fluttered on the wall across where I sat. Missing people, obituaries, to-let advertisements... Here too, rows and rows of Nathan's happy face kept staring back at me. Dead on sixteenth of November, nineteen seventy-seven. It made me wonder if he had felt as helpless as I was feeling.

His death had been so strange that it was hard to label it as a murder. His body had been recovered by the side of a pool. No marks, no bruises, no signs of attack. He'd drowned, they claimed, but his parents countered it with the fact that he knew how to swim.

"There you are!" a familiar voice boomed but I made no attempt to stir. The ghost floated over to me and hovered in silence. Her presence made me irritated. "Pitying me?" I quipped.

"I am here to help you."

"Don't lie to me! You simply watched when they killed me."

"I revived you too," she said, earning a sidelong glance from me. She seemed perplexed. "I don't know why I am here. Ghosts are attracted to the living only when they feel a strong connection to them. It's safe to say that I won't be leaving until you solve your problem."

"And how do I do that? Befriend the captain?" I scoffed cynically. "Yeah, let's do that. You turn back time for me to befriend that fat-ass. Maybe he'll have mercy on my family and spare us."

"I'm not so sure about that," she said worriedly, not getting my sarcasm at all. "but I do have an idea. You moved in here a year ago, am I correct? You need to find a way to keep your parents from moving here."

I stared at her blankly. "You can do that?"

"Of course."

"Then do it," I crawled forward, staring at her hopefully. "Take me back by one year."

Her eyes darkened for a flicker of a second. "There is a price for that though."

"Name it. I'm willing to do anything at this point!"

Her eyes moved towards a metal staircase at the end of the alley. It was attached to the opposite wall and lead up to the terrace of the construction. "Jump from there."

"What?"

"Jump," she murmured, her pools of icy blue eyes watching me coldly. "You need to die to go back in time.”