It was like a dream to me. I stood outside the company building, staring dully at the guards who had been assigned to escort me out.
Having worked at the company for three years, I knew all of them: James, Sid, Dickson.
We had made jokes and played cards several times in the past, but now our history had no meaning.
They stood behind the glass door, quietly observing me, their expressions cold. If I dared to step into the building, I could be sure of a serious beating.
My gaze lost, I turned from the building and began walking.
"What do I do now?"
I looked down at the box which contained my personal items. Emotions I could not process rushed through me as I remembered the scenes back in the manager's office.
With a single sentence, no remorse attached, I was fired. All the effort I had put in over the past years meant nothing.
Remembering how I had begged for mercy, falling to my knees, I felt disgusted, but truly, I needed that job.
Barely making it past college, my qualifications barely made it to being the least.
I didn't want to, but while I moved, I looked back, my eyes stinging as I hoped someone might be calling me back.
There was no one behind me, and navigating my way through the city, I left its noise and sat myself on a bench at the park. While I basked in the relative silence, the sound of laughter and happy discussions floated around.
I stared at the tree above me for a while, then brought my hands over my face and let out a muffled scream.
When my hands came down, my head fell to the side and I froze, my eyes moving as I stared at the thing sitting beside me.
Wearing a long blue gown, it had the face of a beautiful woman, her black hair shiny, but below her head was a thick green serpent's body. The body sat coiled on the bench, rising several meters into the air, the gown hanging high above the massive length.
"You should go to a temple."
Despite the height of the creature's head, it heard me clearly and, with surprise in its eyes, turned down to look at me.
"You can see me!!"
"Yes."
It remained silent for some seconds, and quickly tears formed in its eyes, loneliness and sadness filling its gaze.
What was beside me was not a ghoul, at least not yet; they were called ghosts.
While ghouls were souls which had become contaminated and transformed into evil spirits, ghosts were those still at the half-line.
The creature beside me might not yet be a threat, but it was only a matter of time before she became a blood-hungry existence.
Typically, no one could see ghosts. Hunters needed to wait for them to evolve into ghouls before hunting, but me, I could see everything. Reminded of my capabilities, I looked away from the creature, staring back at the sky as memories of the far past came to my head.
At one point, I had been regarded as a genius, able to see evil spirits before any of my peers. Everyone thought I would be a great hunter. Sadly, when I turned eighteen, I still couldn't detect a hint of essence; my celestial core remained unformed, like the majority of people on the planet, the dream of being a hunter was forever lost to me.
"That boy over there... he's my son. Could you help me talk to him?"
I glanced back to the creature at my side, layering a hard glare on it.
"If I talk to him, do you promise to go to a temple?"
Immediately, rejection flashed in the creature's eyes, her expression turning to one of revolt.
"Never. I'm not leaving my son."
Within, I sighed in defeat.
The ghost beside me wasn't the first of her kind I had encountered. Around the world, several governments had launched intense awareness campaigns, begging people to seek the afterlife when they died, but you know how humans can be.
Some deluded, some emotional; no one wanted to die a second time. They ignored the temples which had been built to facilitate their salvation, loitering around until they became existences that had to be put down.
I wasn't scared of the creature beside me, until ghosts fully transformed into ghouls, they could not interact with the physical realm on any level.
"What do you want to tell him? Make it short."
The ghost's face lit up with a smile at my words and, after thinking, she quickly relayed her intentions to me.
Leaving my position on the bench, I approached a blond kid no older than five idly kicking a ball around. Squatting beside him, I spoke the heartfelt words of his mother. When I returned to the bench, I picked up my box and turned to leave.
"Thank you," I heard from behind.
"You're welcome."
"When next will you come here?"
"I won't be coming."
Without turning back, I departed. There was no point in informing the authorities, they would arrive, fail to detect the ghost, and once more I would be labeled a nuisance to society.
I could only hope the woman would be quickly put down when she finished her transformation.
Headed back home, much of my nerves relaxed as I stepped into my room. My life still sucked, but at least I had a roof over my head.
I moved like a drone before collapsing on my bed, lying down for several minutes, pondering the next step to take, then sat up.
"I really need a release."
Undoing my belt, I stood and turned toward my computer, thinking up search terms, then paused, staring at the pieces on the floor.
"That's true. She destroyed it last night."
Without hesitation, I exited my room, stomping as I made my way to my landlady's door.
Knock!! Knock!!
I waited after the first two strikes and, after a while, hit the door again, but this time harder.
Sounds came from behind, the rectangular frame was soon pulled open, my landlady stepping out with a cigarette between her lips and a disgustingly annoyed expression on her face.
'Ehh, maybe I came at the wrong time.' I silently thought.
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"No, you're being a bother. What is it?" she snapped.
The difference between the woman I was currently with and the person I had seen the previous night was like day and night.
The grace with which she moved previously, the alluring expression on her face, save for the cigarette, all that was gone.
Ciara instead had on a large brown gown, her hair covered with a bonnet. She startlingly looked like the middle-aged woman I had always assumed her to be, not the hot female I saw the previous day.
"You fixed my wall and floor, but how about my table and computer?"
"Huh?"
Ciara's annoyed expression fell, her head cocking in confusion. It was a jarring sight.
"Your fight with the ghoul the previous night... it destroyed my table and computer," I reminded the woman.
"You remember that?"
"Shouldn't I?"
"No."
Ciara's head slowly straightened, her eyes narrowed, and an invisible pressure suddenly birthed from her and pressed down on my shoulders.
"Come inside."