The Boy in My Closet | k.th

03. Empty Space

The Human

"There's something in my apartment," you huff out while holding back tears of fright. The phone you hold against your ear as you walk down the sidewalk of your street late that Sunday night helps ease your nerves.

"What is it?" Your best friend reacts over the phone. "Where are you now? I'll come to get you."

"I-I don't know what happened. I'm just outside my place," you mutter. "I-I'll just walk to your house."

You hear him sigh across the line. "I'm coming to get you now. Just stay where you are."

Before you have a chance to argue, he ends the call. You do as he says and stay on the side of the darkened sidewalk.

The apartment complex you just came from is illuminated by a few windows with lights on.

One of them, you see, is your own.

Gulping nervously, you stare up into the window where the curtains are parted slightly. It allows you to look inside your bedroom where you were just standing minutes before.

That was until a frighting apparition scared you off.

Had you really seen something?

Or was it just your lifelong fear of ghosts getting the better of you?

You were aware of the death of a boy in that small space, though you never felt alarmed by the finding.

Because there was no such thing as ghosts.

The idea had always made you feel uneasy, nonetheless. You often scared yourself as a child when staring at the shadow of an object in your room at night.

If you looked close enough, you could make yourself believe that a chair or lamp was the body and head of someone standing on the opposite side of your room.

It would scare you in the moment, but those moments never led to anything real.

You shake your head before looking away from the window.

In little time, your friend arrives.

You hop into his dark blue truck, relaxing with a sigh.

"What happened to your finger?" The brunette beside you asks upon seeing your finger still wrapped up in a tissue.

"I was cutting some veggies," is all you say.

"So are you gonna tell me what happened now? You sounded freaked." He asks, the car still in park.

You only groan with the shake of your head that rests on the back of the car seat. You yourself didn't know what you saw.

You shook off the initial fear, but are now left with questions in your head.

"Are you sure it wasn't just your reflection?" He teases.

You frown at him with a dramatic turn of your head. "I was really terrified, give me a break. I swear I saw something in my closet," you emit another long breath. "I don't know, maybe I was imagining things."

"Do you want me to go check it out quick?"

||

The Ghost

"C-can you see me?" He asks, hushed and uncertain in the confined space of the closet.

Her face morphs from confusion to a look of utter terror.

And she runs.

He only stands still in his spot, looking down at his hands, then back at the door she had just sprinted through.

She could see me.

The ghost stands at the edge of the framed door.

... Maybe if she could see me, I could also leave.

He's tried it enough times to know the consequences, but he barely sticks the remaining toe of his bodiless right foot through the door.

He quickly pulls back when the sliver of colored air disappears on the other side.

The outcome was something he expected by now, though the disappointment remains.

Of course he couldn't leave.

The silence is replaced by the front door opening downstairs.

He burrows back in the closet.

Could she be back already?

Or had I scared her off for good?

"Upstairs, you said?" A male's voice grows louder and louder. "Yeah, I'm going up."

A man with brown hair emerges from the steps and cautiously looks around the room.

"What exactly am I looking for again?" He asks with a phone held up to his ear.

Then he's walking towards the closet.

The ghost stays towards the back wall and doesn't try to hide.

Maybe he would be able to see him too.

Back to the wall, he looks at the man who stares right into the closet. He doesn't react as the girl did, and the ghost concludes he's unable to see him.

The male steps inside, moves some clothes around and sighs.

"No ones here, I already told you," the stranger says into the phone. "Just go ahead and stay at my place tonight anyway, I'll be down soon."

The man walks away, and the ghost looks around the room he had been in for so long.

He feels upset.

Because there was this strange part of him that wanted them to be able to see him.

He looks down to his hands that look just as they are said to be:

Lifeless.

Am I really just empty space?