Ghost

She drifted away on the breeze, translucent skirts streaming behind her. Just ahead, a couple got down from the taxi and paid their fare. The woman's greying hair was loosely tied back in a braid and the man held her arm gingerly, as if afraid that she might fall and shatter like glass. The man still looked young, probably in his early thirties with dark brown hair and an air of permanent sorrow about him even when carrying the most beautiful bouquet of billy buttons and daisies with the odd lily or two sticking out. She went a little closer to this odd couple. Perhaps a little too close. The woman turned and looked at her straight in the face and she froze. But she looked away a second later as the young man gently led her away from the taxi. The couple hurried away through the gates of the cemetery that lay open on rusty hinges and she followed them inside. The woman seemed to know the way by heart, treading carefully among the gravestones and angel statues with surprising ease. The man lagged behind, as if reluctant to venture any further from where he was standing. They reached a gravestone at last, a relatively new one compared to the others since the moss hadn't grown very much on the headstone yet. The man finally let go of the old lady's arm and crouched down low, one hand brushing away clinging ivy and moss from the headstone. His touch was so very gentle that it made her sad for some reason. Drops of water fell on the headstone as he worked and she looked skyward, expecting rain. The sky was clear, only a few dark clouds gathered in a distance, too far for any rain. She stood closer to him and realized he was crying. Silent tears that dripped into the bouquet as he worked. She reached a white hand towards his cheek just as a tear fell and passed right through her hand. The memories flashed through her with blinding speed. Her name was Ingrid. That man she had been standing next to in the cemetery was her fiance, Caleb. That old lady was her mother. That grave they were standing at, was hers. She looked down, almost disbelievingly, at the name engraved on the headstone. The car that slammed into her. The feeling of falling off the bridge. The regret. The pain. The words that wouldn't come. She couldn't stop it all. She screamed. The sky seemed to echo with her pain, the trees swaying violently in a wind she could not feel. Even Caleb and her mother looked around, spooked by the sudden movement of everything around them. She could not cry. Couldn't even say goodbye as the pair walked away hurriedly, back into the living world that she would never be a part of again.

~Rei Shiori