Supernatural thriller | Rising fashion influencer Rhea is gearing up for her runway debut, but her perfect world is upended when she finds herself haunted by a ghostly doppelganger.
*****
Twenty-four-year-old Rhea Patel has it all-the career in fash...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The gradual beeping sound chimed in my ears and ricocheted from invisible objects in the dark void surrounding me. I turned to run from the approaching ghostly form that had overtaken the beautiful naked body of the man I once loved, but before I could take a proper step, he had my forearm in his grip.
"You can't have me," I growled. "I was never yours to begin with and that's not changing now." I pulled my arm from his hold, the dark red blood on his palms acting in my favor. Even though he tried digging the tips of his fingers into my flesh, the pain didn't stop me from evading him.
I ran forward through the spacious blackness, following the vague beeping in the distance. I knew where the sound was leading me and had the urge to do nothing more than get there. A feeling in my gut told me once I reached the hospital room where my body lay, I would be safe even if respite would be brief.
Finally, the pinprick of light grew larger the closer I got and lit up the familiar scene. This time, my unconscious body wasn't alone in the bright hospital room.
The thinning red hair of the woman who stood over my body ushered in that sense of comfort I knew would meet me here. Her hair in a beat bun. Her broad shoulders resembled mine although they slumped with grief, and even so, I wanted to bury myself within those arms and rest on the nurturing shoulder.
"Mom?" I called. "Mama, it's me."
Of course, she didn't turn around. She couldn't hear me. She probably had no idea I was nearby, witnessing her eyes well up with tears and her lips tremble as she tried to get words out. "I'm so sorry, baby. I won't sleep until I do all that I can to find the person who just left you on the side of the road."
"What? No." I shook my head, trying to step foot over the threshold and enter the room. For some reason, no matter how much I walked or moved forward, the room evaded me, keeping me at arm's length. "No. A car didn't do that to me. It was Nolan, Mom. Nolan is at fault. He did this."
Why did her words seem so much like a goodbye?
She placed her warm hand on the forearm of my body, and I melded into her warmth, the softness of her fingers, the pressure of her grip. Tears blurred my vision as they fell over my lids like water from a broken dam.
I brought my arm up to confirm that I had indeed sensed her touch and was startled to see her standing at the bedside through my flesh. How could I forget I was fading and fast?
The light went out leaving me in darkness. "No!" I screamed, not ready to let the vision go. Only my sobs and sniffles were heard. The disappointment that darkness and not her arms enveloped me settled in. "Mama," I cried. "Don't leave me, Mama."
Suddenly, a feeling I had yet to experience washed over me. Defeat. I didn't want to do this anymore. I couldn't stand the fog, the dark, the loneliness. Maybe I fought so hard for nothing. Maybe Nolan was right, and all my efforts were pointless. Fate had a plan and that plan had been put in motion and there was nothing I could do about it.
