The Truth Behind Ghosts

In Jay's viewpoint...

The next day, I sat on the floor alone in Alfie's room. Alfie had gone to school already. As my eyes stared at the computer, I strolled down on the 'Ghost Hunting' webpage on the screen and kept on complaining.

"Strong ghosts have the ability to talk, summon weapons and excellent in battling skills, ghosts follow their host's desires and reflect what they want in their hearts, ghosts can kill both ghosts and humans, ghosts can.......Argh! There is a lot of different information about ghosts but there is nothing explaining about how ghosts can touch humans!" I mumbled.

"Argh....there is nothing useful here." After hours of searching, I couldn't find anything useful. Sigh.....if there is only someone I can ask to......wait. All of the sudden, an idea popped out in my head, I carried a plastic bag and went downstairs to the street to search for my ghost friend.

"Ah ha! There it is." I said as I found an enormous black snake at the street corner. He was hugging a lightening post as usual, he looked larger and fatter than the last time I saw him. Every time I looked at him, I often wondered why he always stayed in significant places. Is it because he loves the sunshine? Or is it because he loves to hug? Although I didn't really understand Snakey's behaviors, I ignored the questions in my head and went closer towards the snake, waving a hand, saying.

"Yo. Snakey. Do you want some biscuits?" I opened my bag and got out a box of biscuits inside. Holding the box up high, I continued to talk to Snakey. "This is a gift for helping me to touch objects. Although I don't know why I can touch objects now, but I believe I can touch objects is triggered by you. So, here's a gift." I opened the biscuit box, a delicious scent fluttering in the air, Snakey sensed it and quickly crawled down from the lightening post. He lent his head close and sniffed at the biscuits, moving his head left and right like a little toddler and wondering what the biscuits tasted like. I supposed Snakey hadn't eaten any biscuits before, if he did, his eyes wouldn't be beaming. Soon, Snakey couldn't resist his hunger and swallowed one biscuit into his mouth. He then swallowed another and another. As more biscuits he consumed, his eyes glowed even brighter.

"Hissss....!" Snakey cried happily and shoveled another few biscuits into his mouth, he seemed really enjoying my gift.

"Ha-ha! Don't eat so fast!" I suggested. Watching Snakey, I nearly forgot why I came here.

"Ah yes, Snakey. I came here to ask you something. Do you know how to touch humans?"I asked.

".......hissss? Humans?" Snakey stopped eating and gazed at me.

"Yeah, humans. Have you got a clue?"

"Hiss.....why you want to touch humans?" said Snakey.

"Why? Well, I guess I want to be stronger......" I said as I lowered my voice with eyes darken.

"Actually, Snakey. You know what? I'm desperate.....my host was bullied by other classmates in school. I really want to teach those bullies a lesson and make them regret what they did. But if I did that, my host may be in a worse condition. I had already given him a lot of problems, I don't want to give him more......." On that day, if I didn't go to school, other people wouldn't know about Alfie's ability. Alfie got hurt is all because of me. I raised my voice and continued.

"Snakey, I can't stand myself not doing anything. I am not sure what I should do in solving the bullying. So, I want to start by solving my own problem first. If I can touch humans, I can do more things and perhaps I can help my host more." I made a quick smile, it was bitter through. Perhaps we were both ghosts, Snakey seemed to understand my sorrows, he tapped my shoulders lightly with his head and tried to comfort me.

" I don't really understand.....but.......hiss....." He said, his head rubbed my face gently, he sure had slim skin.

"....Snakey....are you comforting me? Thanks...." I patted his forehead, unlike human, it was cold, colder than I thought.

"There is one way to touch humans...hiss...." Snakey whispered to me softly. My shoulders shook a little, I went back with hope again.

"Really?! What is it?" I asked excitedly.

"We come from wishes........If our host have a stronger wish, we will become stronger."

"I know that too. In fact, I tried out it already. I ask my host to wish harder but it is not working." I explained.

"Just wish is not enough......"

"Not enough? What do you mean?"

"We need negative emotions as we come from the wishes made by negative emotions....."

"Negative emotions.....?" What does he mean....negative emotions?

"Yes, negative emotions....hiss..." The snake stood up still and firm, the surrounding aura from him changed, being more petrifying and cold. When I first saw him, he was like.......an innocent child, purer than any child perhaps, but now his eyes were sharpen. I wondered what he was going to say.

"Anger.....sadness....hatred......they are all negative emotions....."

"When the host..........release their negative emotions...........and made a wish at the same time, they will release wakan from their body.........Ghosts will absorb the host's wakan and eventually grow stronger. Absorbing wakan is like you are eating food, like humans........For example, a host is being bullied by other people, he hates those people and makes a wish to hope for those bullies to die. At the same time, the wakan in their body will increase and leak out from their body while we, ghosts will absorb the wakan that are leaked out."

"....what.....the...heck are you saying.......?" His words froze me, I had no idea of what he was talking about.

"Jay.....want to be strong, right? If you want to be stronger, you need your host to cry or express any negative emotions more often...........I don't really understand how to do it in the first place, but recently I kind of understand how to do it. Because of this, I got stronger and was able to speak more fluently. To say it simply, all you have to do is to whisper at their ears and tell them to hate someone."

".....what.....?" I don't understand.

"Hmmm.....in your case. Your host is being bullied by other people......I guess you can tell him to hate those people and make a wish to hope for those bullies to die. If that's not enough, you can try to convince him to commit murder to kill those bullies." He explained. Snakey happened to be amazed by his own suggestions and spoke confidently in joy.

"You see, Jay. Allowing hosts to commit serious crimes is the most effective way for ghosts to be stronger. Of course, convincing someone to kill another person is always hard. If you are really in a rush in gaining power, perhaps you can start from convincing your host to suicide?" He suggested seriously, with eyes beaming.

"....suicide....? Are you telling me that I should ask my host to die?" I quired.

"Yes. When a host commits suicide, he shows negative emotions and gives us lots of wakan, which makes us become stronger. Isn't this what Jay wants?" He asked.

"Of course NOT!" I will never want Alfie to die! If I tell Alfie to die, what is the difference of killing him?" I screamed angrily.

"Alfie? Jay has feelings with your host? Well, if you don't want to kill him, you can try to be worsening his life such as allowing him to be isolated by the community. The harsher your host's life is, the more stronger you are. This method is kind of nice, actually, because you can have a permanent wakan production machine----"

"HUH? DON'T BE KIDDING! Alfie is NOT A MACHINE!" I screamed even louder.

But Snakey felt puzzled and questioned, "I don't understand....why are you angry? Host is simply a tool."

I was speechless.

".........don't you have a heart?" I asked him.

"Heart? I'm a ghost. Ghosts don't have hearts." He replied calmly, he mistaken me from asking whether ghosts had a physical heart that could beat, of course, I understood the other way.

"........."

I lowered my head and remained silent, my hair hid my eyes. Biting my lips tightly, I tried to calm myself down. Eventually, I looked up at him and made a smile.

Even if it was fake.

"Snakey.....thanks for telling me so much valuable information....." I thanked him, feeling a bit guilty that I yelled at him earlier. He was not wrong. We were just in a different perspective. He would do anything in order to live while I couldn't. I took one step back and kept a distance from him.

"I'm sorry.......I thought we can be friends."

I spoke to him for the last time and......

I ran.

I didn't know why I ran. But at that moment, I wanted to stay away from him as far as possible. It was like an instinct. I wasn't afraid of him or what he said. It's just.......I felt if I stayed there much longer, soon enough, I would be saying the same thing as him one day.

And that would be the last thing I want to do.