Aleyah rubbed her eyes repeatedly then moved to sit herself in the empty place next to the man. She bit her nails, unable to take her eyes off the road and the several red lights that hindered their journey. The man felt like he had to say something but he didn't know what to say.
The sound of sobbing filled the car, the driver repeatedly turned around and reminded the woman to be patient. Tried to make her believe that her mother would be fine, but his words didn't calm the woman down. However, this made Aleyah muffle her tears.
For the remainder of the journey, the woman did not stop shedding tears even though her mouth was not grimacing. The man was also silent and he let the woman stay in his taxi. He felt that was the best thing he could do to make Aleyah calm down.
"The road ahead is congested. I suggest taking the left lane." the man said to the taxi driver and then showed his cell phone screen to that driver. He looked the other way when Aleyah looked at him full of surprise. It was the look of someone who was grateful. But there's nothing to be thankful for, he just wanted to go home quickly. This wasn't a favor, nor did he pity her. He did that purely because he really wanted to get rid of the woman from his taxi as quickly as possible, that's all.
"Thank you," Aleyah whispered hoarsely. The man didn't answer her, of course not. But he still had difficulty diverting his attention from Aleyah. The woman rubbed her eyes repeatedly and bit her nails non-stop. OK, maybe it was true that he was worried and sorry for this woman.
Her mother was dying, which must have really saddened her. This made him remember his adoptive father, would he react the same as this woman when that old man died? He couldn't answer it. He couldn't even imagine what he would be like.
Aleyah sat up straight and held the doorknob as they entered the hospital grounds. The woman ran out of the taxi quickly. The driver shouted at her to pay but the woman was too far away.
"It's okay sir, I'll pay." said the man calmly, "Now take me to the Crystal hotel."
The driver cleared his throat then drove the vehicle. "How come she leaves without paying after making a fuss? It could be that the reason her mother was dying was just an excuse, nowadays there are lots of fraudsters running around. Don't be too trusting, sir." the driver said on the way.
The man knitted his eyebrows, "I didn't expect you to be the first person to say something like that. It turns out that your calming words towards that woman were just an act, I can clearly see who is the fraud here." he replied until the driver couldn't speak.
The man looked out the window, he could still see the woman from a distance. Aleyah was very careless, she managed to fall over a garden stone. The man was almost shocked, what was wrong with that woman, it was too hard to forget her first impression. Then his foot stepped on something. The man picked up a pair of round glasses that were cracked and broken. This must be that woman belongs.
The latest news, Aleyah lost her mother. She also didn't get to see her mother's last moments and yes, she was fired from her job. She lost everything.
Currently the woman is at the cemetery. Hugged by her sister who was crying non-stop. Meanwhile Aleyah was frozen without emotion in the midst of many people praying. She couldn't think about what she would do after her mother died.
Her mother has cancer and diagnosed that she won't have a long time to live. She thought she would be ready but apparently she wasn't, never was. She didn't want this day to come.
"Everything is gonna be okay Lucy, pull yourself together. We've made a promise, no tears at mom's funeral. We have to be strong for pap, remember?"
Lucy, her little sister nodded several times. And then she ran over the old man that was standing while wiping his tears. Lucy went into her father's arms, just like the youngest child usually does.
Aleyah is standing still, unable to move as she sees something strange from the distance. She removes her glasses and rubs her eyes. She put the lens back on and the black thing was still there. She was standing in the middle of the cemetery field while the strange object was at the end of the cemetery. Aleyah didn't feel threatened or afraid yet because the distance between them was quite large. Her courage faded when that black shadow appeared with another of it, now the black things increased in number. From three to five then increased to seven and ten. They are all standing in one line, circling the cemetery, or perhaps they circled her.
Aleyah looked around her, they didn't seem surprised or afraid. They were busy praying or comforting each other, no one was talking about the black shadow. She poked the shoulder of the person next to her and then that person got her ear closer to Aleyah.
Aleyah asked, "Do you see that black thing beside the Cambodia tree?" and then pointing at where she saw that strange thing with her jaw so that the person looks to her right.
The person narrowed her eyes, and then Aleyah pointed her index finger. "It is right there, they are all staring at us. Can't you see it?" she asked in frustration. It is really hard to not look at them but why can this person not see it?
"I mean, how come you're not seeing it? It's right there." Aleyah said, trying to make the person look back at the direction she was pointing. But the person looked at her strangely.
"Oh dear," said the person with sad eyes and then she suddenly gave Aleyah a hug. "I'm sorry for your lost dear." she continued, patting Aleyah's back.
Aleyah keeps staring at those black things. Then she looked at the people around her once again. Could it be that she's the only one who can see them? No. Impossible, she blames her eyes for these irregularities.
"You see strange things because you miss your mother."
"No, no, I'm okay," Aleyah said to the person, he didn't want to cause people to think strange things about him. He calmed the guy down before he started feeling sorry for himself any more.
Aleyah's focus returned to them, the black shadows surrounding her from a distance. The shadow was shaped like a human but it was not clear what their facial features were like except for a pair of red eyes which were now staring at her for a long time. Aleyah tried to rub her eyes once again. Now the shadow's body began to change shape like thick burning smoke. They could float, seeing that almost made her scream hysterically.
Now they fluttered above her head like flies swarming a fruit. It was not uncommon for one of them to fly close to her and whisper to her in a shrill voice. As they flew at her one by one, it felt like she was being forcefully pulled out of her body and then dragged into a whirlwind that could destroy her. Her head started to feel very heavy and painful as the pieces of stranger events began to appear in her mind. It is similar to having a vision. As if she was watching a fragment of someone else's life. More precisely, the fragments when they were dying, before they died.
There is a swedish looking man who was being pointed at by a gun. He was shot mercilessly without being allowed to speak his last words. Then there was another man who lay dying with a knife in his chest. He held the leg of the person who apparently killed him and expected the person to let go but ended up dying without forgiveness. Then there was a teenager who was killed by a man with a scorpion tattoo, the teenager had his throat slashed and died in front of his mother.
Aleyah started to burst into tears. All of this started to feel real in her mind. This is strange. This is not just a vision, she could feel their pain and the last words that all of them were saying brought pain in her heart.
They started laughing when Aleyah collapsed and covered her ears. She looked around him once again, no one other than herself saw the shadow or heard what they were all saying. The shrill voice pierced her ears and disappeared, only to be replaced by someone else's voice. As if they were talking to her one by one.
Aleyah hit her ears repeatedly but the faint, shrill sound never left her. The sounds rose and fell as if her head was being dipped and lifted from a puddle of water. She couldn't stop it.
Lucy approached her, "What's wrong? Your ears will hurt if you hit them like this, stop it!. What's wrong?" she asked frantically, trying to stop Aleyah from hurting herself.
The sounds got louder, Aleyah opened her eyes and couldn't blink when she stared at a teenage boy floating right in front of her eyes. Of the many shadows, there is one that is the deepest black and seems like the strongest. That shadow turned out to be the spirit of this teenage boy. The black shadows revealed their human forms, they were exactly the same as she had seen in her vision.
Not long after that, the teenager boy turned into a black shadow again and penetrated her body like an arrow shot. Aleyah fainted and the ring she was holding fell to the ground. The ring glowed red like a ruby and then its shine disappeared as quickly as it left Aleyah's hand.