Chapter Text
Is the moon beautiful? What sort of question was that?
Gulf immediately closed his eyes and his mind repeated over and over again: it's not real. It's not real. It's all in your head. It can't be real.
He took a deep breath, then a second, and then a third.
I am going to open my eyes and nothing will be there, he thought, but just before he could, he heard the song once again. So without opening his eyes, Gulf grabbed the closest thing to him and switched on the lights.
The song had stopped and nothing was there.
He laughed to himself and blamed it all on the lack of sleep and exhaustion. It was all in your head, he said to himself, nothing to worry about. The next day, it had all seemed unreal and unbelievable. He had woken up late, but he felt significantly better. No aches, no fever, and no weird transparent person/ghost/demon?
He went for a jog, had a hearty late lunch/early dinner, he called his mom, and invited Mild over to play a couple of games. He didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, but as it got closer to the night, he started to get antsy.
Mild had already left, so he decided to take a quick shower before grabbing some snacks and putting a movie on. He fell asleep midway into the movie.
23:59
The cold woke him up. Without getting out of bed, he turned to the other side to grab his forgotten blue blanket from the floor. The goosebumps appeared in his legs, then up to his arms, until he felt every hair in his body stand up. This time, he heard the humming, it started soft and slow and it became clearer and deeper within seconds. Gulf was able to identify the song right away.
Moon river, wider than a mile...Wherever you are going, I am going your way...moon river and me.
Gulf felt no fear. This time, instead of closing his eyes, he turned them towards the translucent figure sitting at his window.
It was a man, of that he was sure. He looked about his height, with dark brown hair, and with a slight bigger built than himself. The figure was looking out towards the sky, just like he had seen last night. Gulf couldn't see his face clearly, but he looked to be about his age.
The man was coming to the end of the song. This should be the part where he starts running out the room, or at least that is what the logical side of his brain told him to do. But his body did not move.
“I watched the movie when I was young. My favorite part was this song”
“I agree,” Gulf replied quietly after a minute or two “the song and the cat were my favorite from the movie.”
Gulf could see the man’s side profile from where he sat on his bed. He saw the corner of the man’s mouth lift a little.
“But if you are here to discuss that movie, I am sorry to say that I fell asleep for the majority of it,” Gulf continued.
The man’s smile widened and he turned away from the window to fully face Gulf and ask, “you don’t like movies, do you?”
“No, I don’t” he replied, “I tend to fall asleep to them”
The man smiled fully at Gulf now, showing teeth and all, he asked “you are also not scared of ghosts, are you?”
He should feel scared. He should be nervous or at least worry at the fact that a person was inside his apartment, alone with him. Instead, Gulf simply felt awake and curious. He leaned his back against the wall, fully sitting down, and crossed his arms before asking, “is that what you are?”
The smile lessened just a bit, “I don’t know exactly what I am, but that is my best guess.”
“If that’s true, what is a ghost doing in a stranger’s room in the middle of the night?”
The man turned his body so as to fully face Gulf and replied, “I should be asking you, why you chose to live in what used to be my apartment”
“You used to live here?” he asked, “So the neighbors were right, this place is haunted”
“Now that you know, shouldn’t you be running, screaming, or at least crying?”
“I don’t normally cry and I rarely scream” Gulf said, “but I would like to further discuss this situation. Tell me, have you been watching me sleep all this time?”
The man laughed.
“It is not funny sir. Are you here all the time? Have you been stalking me? Have you seen everything I do?” now Gulf was starting to worry. A hundred questions started flashing through his head. Do I snore at night? What if he has watched me sleep? Do I eat my food loudly? Has he seen me naked? Has he been in the room when I...
“Shouldn't we start with one question at a time Gulf?” that question did not calm him at all.
“You know my name?”
“Finally, an easy question. Yes” the man replied “I heard it the first time you walked the apartment with the landlord. I see it daily in your mail and documents and I also hear it every time your family and friends come to visit.”
That statement definitely did not calm him at all. Gulf’s heart started to accelerate and his breathing started to get uneven. The man has been here since the beginning? He has seen every little thing? He has seen me .
The ghost must have noticed, because he stood up from the window and moved slowly to the bed in order to sit in front of Gulf. “Hey, hey, you are okay. Take a deep breath for me, can you do that?”
Gulf nodded. “Close your eyes and take a nice, deep breath and slowly let it out. Breathe with me” the man said just before he started humming Moon River once again.
After closing his eyes and listening to the soft humming, Gulf started to relax a little. He started to open his eyes, but he felt the touch of a hand softly lay across them, preventing him from seeing again. The humming was very slow, almost as if the person wanted to drag on the song as much as he could. However, as soon as he finished he started humming it once again.
The hand on his face started to push gently against him. Pushing him to lay back down on his bed. As soon as his head settled against his pillow, Gulf no longer felt the hand on his eyes. Instead, he felt the weight of someone sitting beside him and a light touch against his right hand. He had no more strength nor energy to open his eyes, even less to stand up. With the weight next to him and the soft humming in the room, Gulf lost consciousness and fell asleep.