The Search for Freedom

"Goddammit! What are you doing here? Are you watching me sleep? Can you get out of my face? You ugly woman?" I scowled. I sprang from my bed, donned my pink sneakers, and went towards the window. I opened it and let the sunlight enter the room.

That day was so bad because I had not slept well, and then I was irritated that when I woke up, the first woman I saw was the old woman who cheated me. She was wearing long black pants and a leather coat, the same as the clothes she was wearing the first time I saw her. Her ugly face seemed to have changed a lot. Some of the veins on her face, which seemed like snakes and wanted to bite me, were gone.

There was one more thing that I realized about her. She wasn't too ugly at all, and her eyes were mauve, which turned me curious because we had the same eyes. However, it would never cross my mind that we had a connection to each other just because of that. I wasn't bragging, but I didn't want to have any connection with that ugly woman, because she was so cruel.

"What kind of demon are you that after what you did you still have the courage to show your face again?" I exclaimed.

The old woman was sitting on my bed, seeming stuck in her position as she stared at my pillow. Maybe she was watching me sleep all night, but I knew she would not show her face to me if she did not need anything.

It seemed like she was out of consciousness or she was sleeping soundly. Was she a crazy woman who watched me even in my sleep? Maybe she had been watching me all her life and she also knew everything about me. I never expected that there was a woman like her who could not mind her own business. She could not even change her clothes, but she still had time to irritate me. What a brazen, huge hussy!

I went back towards her and, because I was so mad, I could not control myself to slap her face, but I had failed my take one. I tried it again to see if it was real, and I realized that it was weird because she seemed like a demon I could not touch. My hand was just passing through her face. Maybe I was crazy that I could see her but not touch her. What an ugly ghost she was.

I noticed her eyes were both closed. I didn't know what to do or how to wake her up, because I couldn't touch her. So I decided to shout in her ear, though it seemed like the work of an insane girl, because it was just the air where I wanted to shout and not her ear.

"Hey, freaky old woman, what are you doing inside my room?" I exclaimed.

It seemed that she was affected by my shout, as she suddenly opened one of her eyes and looked at me. I was thinking if she would ask me if it was already morning and if what she was doing was in my bedroom, but I was wrong. "Kaila! How dare you disrespect someone who's older than you? Have you forgotten the sins you have committed that you're making yourself clean in front of me?" She scolded me in an annoyed manner.

How could she scold me like that without even thinking if I was the one who was being sinful between us? I really wanted to kick her out of the world so that she could do no wrong and her foolery would end there.

I wasn't perplexed any longer if she already knew my name. The curse seemed to be active again, and I could not control myself from outrage to fight the old woman, a ghost or demon: she was despicable, inexplicable, wicked and immoral. I didn't know who she was; she might be already dead; it might be her spirit which I could see and talk with. It was horrendous, but there was nothing that could stop or defeat the outrage I felt for her.

"How dare you say that after you have destroyed my whole life? You're a heartless demon!" I tried to lower my voice so that nobody could hear me, but it was uncontrollable. Even my tears were falling without my awareness. Though I was mad, I thought that maybe she still had a little concern about me when she reminded me to respect an older woman like her; she also reminded me of the sins I had committed, though it wasn't me who did them, but the curse that came from her.

I knew there was only one person I had killed during the time when the curse was not controlling my body. He was the zombie boy whom I didn't want to remember anymore. It wasn't even me who had wanted to kill that boy, but himself. I would not have killed him if the pinkish cloud had not brought me there, to the place where he died.

The freaky old spirit was the one who was making herself clean in my front, though there were a lot of cruel things she did, not only to me, but also to the four people that I had killed. She was so heartless that whatever I would do, she would not recognize her mistakes.

"Calm down, Kaila, and don't cry. I did not come here to fight you. Instead, I'm going to help you get rid of that curse." Her face seemed worried, but I wouldn't believe her facial expression because it could be fake.

Though I didn't want to talk to or see that demon again, I also could not deny the fact that I needed her help for my freedom. I knew that she knew many things about me, and she might not have meant to put the curse on me. I was experiencing a dilemma; a girl versus herself. Maybe I needed to calm myself first and think for a while about what to do. I wiped my tears, went towards the window and looked outside.

She went towards me and told me in a serious tone of voice that she knew I was baffling. However, there was nothing to lose if I conspired with her, because we aspired to the same thing. "How can we say that we want the same thing? You're crazy."

"Kaila, don't deprive or deny it. I'm not crazy and I have known you for a long time. We just want the same thing, and that's to be free."

"How can I make sure that we want the same thing, and you're not fooling me again? You didn't even tell me anything about yourself. How can I trust a woman or a ghost like you?" I queried.

I didn't care if I could hurt her feelings with my words; it did not matter anymore. I knew that she did not have a heart or feelings, because she wasn't even human, but a spirit; a demon!

"I'm Alicia; I'm already dead, but there's one thing which makes me not want to rest in peace. That's because I can't be free from a curse. The same with what you're experiencing, there was also someone who cursed me. Even though you won't believe me, I didn't mean to put you under my curse. It was that I needed to do it so that I could also be free. If you conspire with me in seeking our freedom, there will be a good chance for our goal to be accomplished."

I exclaimed, "I would only conspire with you'll if you removed this curse from me!" I seriously did not want her to use me again for her own interests, because I also had mine.