"When were you planning to tell me this?"
The counsellor was silent. "Khalil, even I just find out about it…"
"Lies!"
But the moment Khalil looked in her eyes; he knew that she was telling the truth. Khalil sighed. He should not have vented his anger at her when they"re doing this together. But he was too shocked. Seeing the love of his life after so long was one thing - that alone could make his heart drop. But this other one was really unexpected to him.
"It can"t be that you"ve never seen its figure all this while?" asked Khalil, his tone softer.
"He talks about it all the time. But I myself never b.u.mped into it. It"s only recently. Maybe it"s because he"s purposely evading me," explained the counsellor.
"It knows," said Khalil. "He knows that he"s dead. You said that these things usually don"t know."
"Usually. Some do know. Sentient ghosts," the counsellor spoke the last two words as if Khalil should understand what she meant.
Looking at Khalil"s face that was unsatisfied with the explanation, she continued, "This kind of ghost knows what happened to it. It knows what happened when it was alive and is bound to a specific place."
"Bound? So it means that it has to be here even if it doesn"t want to?"
"Not necessarily. Maybe it really wants it."
"But why would anyone want that?"
"Khalil sighed. Thinking about it gain, it"s not weird for the other ghost to want to stay here. But the counsellor herself said that this type of ghost knows what happened when it was still alive. So this ghost definitely remembered the tragedy. So it can"t be that its desire to be here was still strong that it didn"t want to proceed to the next stage of life (or death)?
"These sentient ghosts… what can they do?" asked Khalil.
"What do you mean?"
"Let"s say that it really wants something and would do anything to get it. What can it do? I mean, towards living people."
The counselor was quiet. She stared at Khalil deeply. Khalil averted his gaze.
"Did it threaten you?"
"If yes, is it dangerous?"
The counsellor"s face immediately lost its colour. "Not physically."
"That"s good, right?"
The counsellor shook her head slowly. "No. That"s worse."
"This thing can"t kill me, right? What"s worse than that?"
"He can kill your sanity."
Khalil let out a laugh. He didn"t know why but it suddenly felt like he was acting in a psychothriller drama. Maybe this could be a material for his next film. Funny, funny. It"s too funny it"s killing me.
"I"m serious, Khalil."
"My sanity is long gone. He can"t kill what never was," replied Khalil, confident.
"Whatever. But I feel it"s better if we hasten the show," the counsellor"s voice was a bit panicked.
"The sentient ghost… what should we do about it?"
"What can we do?" the counsellor asked back.
"Eh! Don"t you want to help it?"
"If it chooses to stay, what can we do to help it?"
"I know that you don"t care much about this other one. You never even like it, right? But once upon a time, it was my friend. I still want to help it," said Khalil.
"How do you want to help it? He doesn"t want to go, do you understand?!" The counsellor"s voice was high like she was scolding an undisciplined student. Even when Khalil was in school, he was never treated like that.
"I can persuade it," Khalil insisted.
"Really? You just told me that it threatened you!"
"If you"re in its place, you would threaten me too," replied Khalil. "The reality is… you, me, it… are all the same. We want to be accompanied by the same person. And thinking about it again, between the three of us… it is the most deserving one to be with the person that we love, right? At least they"re in the same world…"
"Don"t try to rationalise this, Khalil. You"ll become crazy," advised the counsellor with a long and heavy sigh.
Khalil smiled. "I told you already. I"m already crazy."
Khalil brought Jeremy out for dinner that night. The counsellor didn"t follow them - Khalil wanted to talk with that kid alone. Khalil brought him to the lakeside - the place where there used to be a restaurant but was now a hipster café.
"How"s it going with training?"
Jeremy was silent. His face showed he had a guilty conscience. Don"t tell me he got mad just because I asked that? Too sensitive!
"Actually… two people quit," Jeremy started.
Khalil had expected this but was still disappointed. "Why?"
"They can"t stand it. We were often disturbed during training."
Khalil slightly nodded. "Was it bad?"
"It is for those who weren"t used to it. Sometimes the thing would play with the door, the lights. Even the technical people were disturbed. There was that one time during rehearsal, Azman went up the rail above the stage, waiting for the cue to let down the prop - and he felt something breathing behind him. He turned around but saw no one. Suddenly, on the prop rope he was holding on… there was…
"There was what?"
"Blood."
Even I would be scared, though Khalil. But he kept quiet. What could be done - the story that would be staged was even related to dead people. Obviously, they would be haunted.
"Was it Azman who quitted?"
"That"s the weird thing. Azman was still cool. The one who quit was that Qaseh! With her friend, Poji."
Heh! Wanting to become a famous actress she says! This is just a school-level theatre and she quits. You"ll become a magazine celebrity at most, dear Qaseh!
"What character do that Poji plays?"
"Oh, Poji is just Qaseh"s stylist."
The water in Khalil"s mouth nearly sprayed out from hearing Jeremy"s statement. Pui! She even has a stylist!
"So now you don"t have a heroine?" asked Khalil.
Jeremy nodded with his surrendering face. "Lina?" Khalil suggested.
It was Jeremy"s turn to spray water. The problem was that Khalil only nearly did it. This Jeremy really did it! Khalil"s shirt was now drenched with Milo. Jeremy was flabbergasted, quickly getting tissues and wiped Khalil"s shirt.
"Sorry, brother! Sorry, sorry!"
Khalil took the tissue from Jeremy"s hand and wiped his shirt himself. This guy might just get excited touching Khalil"s chest - it"s not that great but he"s Jeremy"s dearest brother Khalil.
"Why? She can"t do it?"
"You sure are joking. Lina is not interested in acting," replied Jeremy.
"Not interested doesn"t mean she doesn"t know how to."
"You can teach those who don"t know. For those who are not interested, can you force her?"
His sentence suddenly has quality tonight.
"You"re desperate, right? Persuade her," suggested Khalil. "Besides, the performance date is this Friday."
Jeremy looked at Khalil with his mouth hanging open. "What did you say?"
Khalil sighed. "If I tell you to stage the show this Friday… can you?"
The opened position of the jaw was still unchanged. "Today is Tuesday," that"s all he said.
"I know."
"Friday minus Tuesday, three days."
"Hmm, that"s right."
"… Are you crazy?! There"s no way I can make it!"
"This is not my suggestion but your counsellor," said Khalil.
Jeremy started shaking his head like someone accepting a devil into their body, or if not, like someone watching a rock concert (there"s not much difference between the two). "No… that can"t do. I don"t even have a heroine!"
"That"s why I"m telling you to just recruit Lina…"
"Why are we being so hasty anyway? It"s just next Friday. Be a bit patient. Don"t tell me you want me to sacrifice the quality of my work of art? Come one, brother. Only an artist can understand another artist."
Ah… he"s at it now.
"Yeah, I understand. But what about your heroine?"
Jeremy seemed like he met a dead end, but Khalil knew he was contemplating his suggestion to recruit Lina.
"As long as it"s not later than next Friday," reminded Khalil.
"I can do that. I"ll do my best."
Khalil actually didn"t want to overly pressure Jeremy. What Jeremy said was right - Khalil was the last person who would rush to process of an art.
Khalil didn"t know that his mind would change in a while.
This seems like a good stop. I’ll hold posting until I finish translating the epilogue so that you guys can just read the rest until the end without much suspense.
Hope you had a good read. Till next time.