Mila’s Grief
Have you ever been ghosted by someone? If yes, do you try to connect further with them over different channels? What if you are trying to reach him but he has gone far where you can’t reach while you are still living as a living being? What if they are still with you the whole time and giving direction and you are unknowingly following them.
When vision gets dark and moonlights become only lamps in the sky. A single, fragile hope on a freezing shiver night. The surroundings turn pitch black and a voice whispers continuously in your ear: “Why? Why? Whyyy?”
Mila was never in a position to think that she may be dumped let alone ghosted. She tried all the possible ways to get him to respond by calling and texting over and over again and looking at her phone screen until her eyes burned, waiting desperately for a reply that wasn’t forthcoming. Aiden had always been unreachable with the phone dead to the world leaving Mila caught in a lethal vacuum of silence.
Days turned into weeks and there was still no news of Aiden. It was unbearable, and Mila’s heart beat a dull and sluggish rhythm. She was always on tenterhooks and never knew what the next alert would bring except sorrow. She would always go over every conversation they’d had and try to dissect it to find a reason for his sudden disappearance.
It was then that Mila, in a fit of desperation, tried to get any information about him from his family. Instead, she discovered that Aiden didn’t have a family. A couple of years back, his parents and his younger sister had died in a car accident. Mila was stunned beyond comprehension, her sorrow mixing with a cocktail of sympathy. After all, they had been together for over two years, and he had lost his family, and Mila was the only friend he had in the world.
All the same, the news came as a shock to her. How could a person she loved so much have so much sorrow in his life and never tell her? Why didn’t he ever talk about the family he’d lost?
As the silence dragged on, Mila’s grief turned to paranoia. Sitting in the house, Mila’s thoughts drifted back to something Aiden once told her. He had a basement room where he used to spend hours at a stretch. He forbade anyone from going there. Mila had once gone there, and the experience had scared her so much. She’d only been there once, and Aiden had come out in a blind rage when she’d called his name. Ever since then, a cloud of suspicion had hung over Mila’s head. What was it that Aiden had in that room? Was it something that had made him violent and abusive? What if Aiden was cheating on her, and that was why he never wanted her to follow him there?
Is Aiden deceiving me?
A sob escaped Mila’s lips. Every breath she took seemed to be a gasp for air. Mila was so consumed by the thought of finding out what was in that room and why Aiden had been so obsessed with it that she decided to take action. What could be so important that it warranted such secrecy? The room was in the basement. How mysterious. Mila’s thoughts were racing, her body shaking with the force of her emotions.
She marched off towards the basement stairs, but the air conditioning suddenly kicked in, and a chill ran down her spine, as if the house itself was warning her against going downstairs. Nevertheless, Mila persisted, and she soon found herself standing in front of the basement door, her heart pounding furiously in her chest. It was two weeks to the day that Aiden had disappeared.
In her hand, she had the key to the room, which she’d found in a deep drawer in Aiden’s bedside cabinet. Her grief had turned to ice-cold suspicion. Mila took a deep breath and stuck the key in the lock and opened the door.
