Chapter 8

The rays of the sun entered the room, falling onto Eliana as she was sleeping on the floor, a thin blanket covering her body and a pillow supporting her head. It was nothing like the usual noisy morning. She could hear birds chirping for the first time. She wasn't tired and was feeling light and no stress, no nightmares, and no emptiness as she usually felt.

She sat up and looked towards the window, the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. She smiled as the weather was just uplifting her good mood. She leaned against the sofa again and just admired the beauty of nature.

"Feeling better?" Luan asked and he popped out of nowhere.

She jumped up due to shock.

"Sorry." He said and laughed awkwardly.

"It's gonna take time to get used to having someone else in this empty house." She scoffed.

"Where were you this whole time?" She asked him as she sat back properly.

"I don't need to sleep so I was roaming around the city." He smiled brightly. She was standing up to prepare breakfast.

"My back hurts now." She groans in pain.

"Oh sorry...but I forgot to tell you I can't touch you…" He shrugged. She looked at him all confused as he could do that the previous day.

He laughed and sat beside her. "OK see, I had asked God for the ability to touch you but my powers are very weak so I can't do much…" She gave him a sympathetic smile and patted his head.

"You don't have to force yourself." She ruffled his hair before leaving to wash up.

He was amazed by seeing how understanding she was. She hadn't questioned him about who he was and why he was here; how he had died or anything like that. She just trusted him blindly. So many people had misunderstood her, made judgments about her; or even stopped talking to her after knowing her truth. They all assumed that she was lying to get attention or she was mad. She stopped talking about it to anyone in the end. However, she was still trying her best not to do the same to others.

"You wanna eat something?" She asked him as she walked out of the washroom after a long time. Her hair nicely done, her face washed up and beaming with happiness. He shook his head.

"I can't…"

"I feel bad now…" She pouted and looked at him with puppy eyes.

He smiled on seeing her cute side and walked up to her. "What else do you expect from a ghost, miss?" He asked her and she nodded as she thought about it.

"Yeah...it's impossible…" She nodded along and he patted her head lightly. They both weren't uncomfortable with each other. The pain they had experienced their whole life brought them closer. They know how to deal with each other without hurting their feelings, the thing that most people couldn't understand.

"Is it tasty?" Luan asked Eliana as she was eating her breakfast; something that happened once in a blue moon.

"Ehhh you making me feel bad with that." She fake cried. "Can't you even try just a little bit?"

He brought his hand near the food to pick it up but his hand just passed through it. Eliana looked at him in shock and sadness.

"See, I'm only able to touch you." He said and she smiled awkwardly before she continued with her breakfast in complete silence.

"What are we gonna do now?" He asked excitedly as she was ready to leave the house.

"You're gonna follow me all day?" She asked him in surprise.

"I have nothing else to do." He whined with a pout.

"Didn't you roam around all night?" She teased him.

"That's 'cause you were dead asleep." He glared at her and she burst out laughing.

He smiled and was relieved to see some of the dark energy leave her body in front of his eyes.

"We're going to college." She said and turned around after locking the door. "I'm a boring person."

"I love boring people." He said excitedly and she laughed.

"Why are you trying so hard?" She asked him and couldn't stop laughing.

"What? I want you to like me." He whined and she gave him a weird look.

"Cringy." She stated and walked away.

"Don't run away." He followed her. "I need to take you somewhere before all that!"

*At night*

"I hope I don't end up hurting her…" Luan said with a sigh as he stared at the moon. He then turned around and stood in front of her. This time he kept both of his arms in the air and started saying something in a low voice. After a few moments, a thin ray of white light came out of his hands. He pushed his hands towards her and the thread-like rays started wrapping around her. Ah, the rays wrapped more, the black clouds that always surrounded her decreased.

*

He knew that she wanted to change but the dark energy had increased so much that it was difficult to release it slowly. So now, he was surrounding her with positive energy to get rid of the dark energy forcefully. However, it obviously came with a price, his powers were decreased due to that. He wasn't able to touch her for some time. Initially, he was able to touch small things but now he lost that power as well. It would take him some time to recover from this. He didn't tell her any of that.

Any small negative thing could trigger her and make the dark energy return back to her. So he was going to stay beside her all the time to avoid such a situation. Because if the dark energy returned this time, it would affect her much worse, even put her life in danger.

Eliana didn't even realize that she was changing. She was a lot more cheerful than before cause she was surrounded by so much positive energy. She was focussing more on Luan than on any other people, cause the threads surrounding her body connected her to him. She wasn't stressing about any of the negative things anymore and as long as it stayed that way, she was safe.