The night was peaceful. No honking cars, no neighbouring aunties screaming at their kids to study, no drunk individuals singing Bollywood songs like they had no care in the world. The bustling and robust city was asleep, and everything was strangely quiet.

Ayesha could almost feel the wind on her face, but then, spirits don't exactly feel things like that.

She stood on the rooftop, wondering if she should drag her human-self up here sometimes. Enjoy the cool nighttime wind once in a while.

But the charm was long gone. She no longer romanticized night skies and rooftops, which was once her ideal venue for a date. Now, it was just an everyday thing. More like every night.

As her human body snored softly in her tiny bedroom, Ayesha's spirit was stuck in middleworld or hell or whatever is that they called the spiritual realm. Every time she closed her eyes to sleep, they would open up the very next second. Only now, she found herself devoid of her physical form. It was like something pushed her spirit out of her body the moment she fell into slumber.

It was fun at first, she wouldn't lie. Being able to wander around at night without anyone seeing her. She could sneak into places and walk around lonely streets without any fear. But not being able to touch or feel material things can only be fun for so long.

She sighed. Between battling college during the day and spiritual awakening at night, Ayesha felt perpetually drained of every ounce of energy in her body. She could never sleep because her spirit was always awake. Oh, how she wished all this would end.

It made her think about how it all started in the first place. She didn't have a damn clue. Her spirit had been doing this ever since she could remember. As a young girl, she thought this was something everyone could do. That it was normal. Until she learned it the hard way that it wasn't.

Maybe telling a chatterbox of a classmate about how she could get out of her body at night and become invisible to everyone wasn't her brightest idea. The entire class called her a freak for weeks. They either thought that she was stupid or were too scared to be friends with her. Childhood had been pretty lonely like that.

So Ayesha hid her secret from everyone. No one knew. Not her parents, not the few friends she made along the way, no one. They would call her weird and wouldn't understand any of it. Somewhere, deep inside, she wasn't ready to accept the truth too. That she was weird. A freak.

From her hindsight, Ayesha felt something move. She turned around immediately, greeted with the sight of same old messy terrace. Making sure that no one was around, she returned to watching the empty streets and the endless cityscapes.

Suddenly, someone started banging the rooftop door, and Ayesha jumped, startled by noise.

The horror movies I watched last night are not helping. She thought.

Cautiously, she moved towards the door, looking out for any movements or sounds.

Bang. Bang.

If Ayesha could run away, she would. She crossed her fingers and started chanting the Hanuman Chalisa, hoping it was not another spirit. It was quite ironic considering her current state, but her nani's TV shows were starting to grow on her.

The door flung open and was almost immediately slammed shut by someone. The sounds of them moaning filled the air.

"Just get the damn button!" A very feminine but desperate voice caught her attention.

Squinting her eyes in the darkness, she realised that it wasn't one, but two people. In an extremely heated make out session. She grimaced.

They passed right through her, their senses completely clouded by lust. Not that they could see her, otherwise.

Well, someone has action in their lives.

It wasn't until the feminine moans started sounding familiar. Of course, the voice was familiar. She heard it everyday coming from the adjacent flat through the walls of her room during her Carnatic music classes.

It was Aradhna. Her neighbor and nemesis. The topper, the ideal kid, the carnatic music prodigy; the most diligent and decent child any parent could ask for. Ayesha wasn't too fond of her. It wasn't like she was compared to the pompous and so-fake-sweet-that-she-could-give-someone-diabetes neighbor every other day of her life. From good grades to pretty face, she had it all. And romance too now, apparently.

Ayesha just stared at the scene before her, the angel's fall from decency. Would it be bad if Ayesha felt overjoyed to see her arch nemesis engaging in a scandalous rendezvous with a some random dude from the boy's PG next street?

An illicit affair before marriage. Aradhna's religious and equally pompous parents would have a heart attack.

But there was nothing she could do about it. Almost immediately, her joy of spreading malicious rumors died down. Who would believe Ayesha if she revealed Aradhna's story that she witnessed as a spirit?

They would send her to therapy. For questioning Aradhna's character, not for the spirit part.

She sighed. Things will never change. Her life had always been this way. Overshadowed, outcasted, and misunderstood.

Leaving Aradhna to her business, Ayesha made her way to the door and passed through, not sparing the couple another glance. She could just pass through material objects if she wanted to.

Seeing Aradhna made her question her life. She had no aim, no motivation. Everyday was just the same old struggle of going to college, catching up with a few classmates, completing assignments and then wandering inside her home all night.

Nani was doing everything she could to make Ayesha happy. But she felt like she was a burden. Nani deserved a much better life, hanging out with friends, going on evening walks and kitty parties. But here she was, missing out everything good in life for someone as useless as her. Tears welled up in her eyes. She shouldn't be imposing on her grandmother this way. She shouldn't have survived then.

Ayesha was merely floating down the stairs at this point, lost in her thoughts to notice anything. She looked down in shame when she saw them. Black tendrils of smoke coiling around her feet.

She screamed and jumped away from the tendrils, looking to see where they were coming from. The tendrils led upto a dark shadow that began manifesting in the corner. This was unlike anything she had ever seen before.

The lights near the staircase started flickering until it all went out. The dark shadow grew in size as more tendrils made their way out to her.

Fear consumed her senses. Ayesha found herself screaming and running down the stairs that seemed to never end. Her voice rang in her ears but to others, her screams would remain unheard. She was helpless.

The dark shadow followed her, catching up to her quickly. Maybe this was it. This was the end. Tears rolled down her eyes as death loomed in front of her vision. This was the worst possible way to die.

She could see the emergency exit to the fourth floor. Almost there. A few more steps and she could run into her home. This is why she hated leaving the safety of home. And the one time she decided to do it, she was going to get herself killed.

Her hands reached forward and pulled the door handle so she rushed down the corridor towards her home. But the tendrils were too quick. They grabbed her spirit, twisting painfully around her limbs and lifting her off the floor.

Pain. She had never felt anything as a spirit before, let alone pain. The tendrils seemed to burn through her hands leaving black scars in their wake.

Ayesha screamed as hard as she could and tried to fight back the slithering threads pulling at her which was in vain. Darkness spread all throughout the corridor until it was pitch black.

Then it began.

Distorted whispers and voices filled the air. Some screaming, some crying, some laughing. All different her sounding the same. She heard a distant evil cackle which seemed to get closer to her with every second. Ayesha's body went still. She had never felt fear like this since then. It was happening again.

The pain and the memories flooded her mind as her spirit went numb. The tendrils dragged her towards the dark shadow. She couldn't fight back anymore. This was it.

Ding. She caught the sound of the elevator doors opening.

The bright LEDs from the elevator pierced her vision as she noticed a faint figure step out. As if on cue, the dark shadow vanished and the lights in the corridor returned to normal. Without the tendrils holding her, Ayesha fell to the ground, devoid of all energy.

The figure walked towards her as she wearily lifted her head get a clear look. At first she saw black polished shoes, then neatly pressed black trousers and a black shirt that fit so well, she would've drooled if not for this situation she was in.

The figure kneeled down as firm fingers lifted her face. An amused expression adorned chiseled features as his lips tilted up into a light smirk. Curiosity swimmed in those black eyes that stared down at her.

"Trying to escape, are we now?"

°°°°°°°°°

Word count: 1570

Phew, first chapter done. It's been SO SO SOOOO LONG since I've written on Wattpad and this story has been in my head for months. It feels so good to finally begin because this story is exactly what I've wanted from a book. So I hope all you E2L fanatics enjoy this supernatural romance and meanwhile, I'll get started on the next chapter.

Caution: This is the first rough draft so it'll have spelling and grammar errors. I'll be correcting them but I just had to get this chapter out of my system.

See you soon!

♥︎Pears