"I died because of my boyfriend.
And then I watched my body crawl back to him."
----
Drip...!
Drip...!!
Drip...!!!
That sound again.
Like the world counting the seconds I had left to regret.
The bathroom smelled of iron and something almost peaceful. Blood slid down my wrist, slow and steady, pooling on the white tile. It didn't even hurt anymore. Just a soft warmth leaving me.
I thought dying would be loud..screams, sirens, chaos.
But it was quiet.
And I liked that quiet.
I stared at the crimson puddle forming near the drain. It was beautiful in a sick way like rose petals scattered in apology.
My phone kept buzzing.
Ruan.
Of course.
Even now, he couldn't stop calling.
He'd call, I'd answer, he'd apologize, and then he'd break me again tomorrow.
That was our rhythm.
Our own kind of torture.
"F*** you, Ruan," I whispered, my voice shaky but calm.
And I let go.
---
It wasn't dramatic.
No flashbacks. No angels. Just the sound of dripping slowing down until… nothing.
Then silence.
I should've been gone.
But when I opened my eyes, I was still there.
Still in the same damn bathroom.
Except… my body was lying on the floor.
And I wasn't inside it anymore.
My breath hitched but I wasn't breathing. I touched the wall, and my fingers went through it. The air felt thick, heavy, but also weightless.
And there I was watching my own body like it belonged to someone else.
For a second, I laughed.
It was bitter, strange, broken.
"Guess I finally did it," I murmured. "Finally free, huh?"
Free from his shouting.
Free from his drunken slaps disguised as accidents.
Free from hearing 'My Maya' when I begged him to say my name right.
Morana. Not Maya.
Never Maya.
---
The door slammed open.
"Morana!"
His voice.
Even in death, I couldn't escape him.
Ruan stumbled in, half-drunk, shirt untucked, eyes red and wild.
He froze when he saw the blood. Then dropped the bottle he was holding. It shattered,spilling cheap whiskey across the floor.
He fell to his knees beside my body.
"Morana… baby, no, no, no. What the f*** did you do?"
He grabbed my shoulders, shaking me like that could undo everything.
Tears fell from his eyes...big, dramatic ones, the kind that always came when it was too late.
"I was just drunk, okay? You know I didn't mean it! I always say stupid sh*t when I drink!"
Yeah. Like calling me another woman's name.
Like confessing to cheating, then laughing about it the next day.
I wanted to yell, Too late!
But my voice… didn't exist.
I tried to shove him, to hit him, to do something.
Nothing happened.
I just stood there, invisible, watching him beg the corpse he made to come back.
---
Then… it did.
At first, I thought I was imagining it.
A twitch in my finger.
A small jerk of my shoulder.
Bodies do weird things after death, right?
But then my chest rose.
A breath.
My eyelids fluttered open.
Ruan's eyes widened.
"M-Morana?"
My lips.. her lips...curved into a soft smile.
"Ruan…"
I stepped back, cold. The voice was mine, but the way she said his name...
it was too sweet, too soft. I never sounded like that.
He gasped, sobbing harder. "You...you're alive! You scared me half to death!"
He hugged her tight, trembling, whispering promises I'd heard a hundred times before.
"I'll quit drinking. I'll treat you right. I'll marry you, I swear, I'll..."
And the thing inside my body… hugged him back.
My hands. My skin.
But not me.
---
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to tear the world apart.
But all I could do was watch.
She smiled up at him...loving, gentle. Her eyes didn't have my sadness.
They had… something else. Something calm. Almost too calm.
He cupped her face. "My Maya…"
There it was.
That damn name.
Even now. Even with me dead.
He whispered it like a prayer, the way he always did after drinking too much
forgetting who he was with, mixing up the names like I was nothing more than a body to fill the space she left.
The worst part?
She didn't react.
Didn't correct him.
Didn't pull away.
Didn't slap him like I used to.
She just smiled.
Like she liked it.
"Whatever you want, Ruan…" she murmured.
And I swear my soul cracked.
---
He pulled her closer, kissing her like a man trying to erase his guilt with touch.
Her fingers trailed down his back.
Their bodies pressed together, slow, desperate, almost tender.
I froze. Watching.
It felt like watching a horror film you couldn't look away from.
The rhythm of their movement echoed through the room...soft, wet, terrible.
My own body, tangled with the man who drove me to die.
My blood still drying on the floor beneath them.
My soul trembled.
"Stop," I whispered. "Please, just..stop."
But they didn't hear.
And when his mouth brushed her neck,the same spot he used to bite when he was drunk and apologizing..
something inside me screamed.
I remembered every moment I had begged him to stop calling me Maya mid-argument.
How he'd pin me to the bed, slurring, "I didn't mean her name, baby, you know it's you."
And then kiss me like that made it okay.
Now the creature wearing my skin let him do it.
Let him call her that name.
Let him touch her like I was never there.
---
Drip...
Drip...
Drip...!!!
I looked down..the blood was gone.
Completely gone.
No stain. No razor. No trace I ever died.
Even the cut on her wrist… healed.
Perfect. Untouched.
I wanted to vomit, but ghosts don't get that mercy.
Ruan sighed against her skin, whispering, "You're warm again, Mora… I thought I lost you."
She smiled. "You didn't."
Her voice was too calm. Too sure.
Her eyes lifted and met mine.
Cold...Dark...
Knowing...
My breath..if I had one...hitched.
She looked straight at me.
Right through me.
And her smile widened slow, deliberate, wrong.
Then her lips moved.
Three silent words.
"You shouldn't watch."
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
He didn't notice.
But she did.
Her gaze lingered on me, like a predator studying prey.
Then she turned back to him, whispering something soft against his neck.
He laughed weakly. "You're acting different… softer."
She smiled. "Maybe you're finally seeing me right."
I wanted to claw my ears shut.
This wasn't right.
None of it.
I took a step forward, and the air itself pulled me back..like invisible hands shoving me away.
My scream came out silent.
The room shimmered. Shadows moved where light should be.
And under the hum of the broken bulb, I heard a laugh.
Mine.
But not mine.
---
When I blinked, it was morning.
The sun peeked through the window.
They were asleep on the couch ..
Ruan's arm around her, her face on his chest.
Peaceful.
Like they'd just survived a storm.
No blood.
No blade.
No proof I'd ever existed.
And me..?
standing in the corner like an afterthought, invisible, unwanted, watching my body live my life better than I ever could.
For a second, I thought maybe I'd imagined everything.
Maybe I hadn't died. Maybe this was some sick nightmare after another fight.
Then she moved.
Her fingers brushed his hair back, tender, gentle.
She smiled.
That same soft smile.
Too calm. Too practiced. Too perfect.
He stirred in his sleep and whispered, "My Maya…"
The name cut through me like a blade.
And she..whatever she was..didn't even blink.
She just tilted her head, tracing her fingers down his chest like the name meant nothing at all.
I stared.
My body. My voice. My skin.
Doing everything I used to, but without pain. Without hesitation.
Something inside me cracked.
Not anger.
Not jealousy.
Something colder.
Because in the sunlight, she didn't look like me anymore.
Her shadow didn't match the shape of her body.
And for just a moment, when the light hit her eyes....
they turned black.
Completely black.
I stepped back.
The air felt heavier, thick, like breathing through smoke.
The window rattled once, though there was no wind.
Then she looked straight at me.
Right at the space where my soul stood.
Her lips curled up.
Slow. Deliberate.
Too knowing.
And then..so quietly I almost missed it..
she whispered something.
I didn't hear it.
But Ruan flinched in his sleep.
Her hand tightened around him.
The room dimmed, even though sunlight still poured in.
And I realized something was wrong
terribly wrong.
The light on the floor… was red.
It wasn't sunlight.
It was blood.
Thin streaks of it seeping from under the couch..
crawling toward me.
I tried to move, but my feet..my soul...felt heavy, pulled down, sinking into the crimson reflection.
Then she turned her head, smiled that impossible smile again, and mouthed words I couldn't ignore this time:
"Told you...You shouldn't watch."
The room shuddered.
The sound of breathing changed.
And before I could blink...
everything went black.