It was so swift that she felt like being hit by a car. She took an involuntary step backward losing her balance, felt the wall and then she slid down on the floor with a thud, her head a little fuzzy. Her breath in gasps as her eyes seemed to be out of focus.

She shook her head to clear the fog that suddenly fell on her brain and looked around again trying to get her vision to focus. Okay, why does it feel like everything suddenly turned surreal? Was she really dreaming? She closed her eyes for a minute and opened them again to finally focus on the question that should be addressed immediately to make sense of this confusion.

What the hell is happening?

Where is that Park Jimin guy?

Was she really dreaming?

Did she really dreamt that she’s already dead?

Her eyes widened as she turned to the wire mesh pencil holder underneath the TV and immediately put a hand to it, closing her palms around it. She let out a big sigh of relief. She felt it. She can hold it. Cold. Solid. A smile lit her face and held onto it for a little bit longer before she slowly let go, staring at her hand, frowning.

Why does her hand look… diifferent? It looked… well, it looked cute and all the rings…. Wait. Her hands are delicate and her fingers are really pretty… why….

Rings…

Her eyes traveled on her wrist… and fell on the weird looking bracelet with strange markings….

The blue striped shirt and ripped jeans… these clothes….

She immediately got to her feet and rushed to look in the mirror.

And the face of the guy… Park Jimin… stared back at her in utter horror.

She took an involuntary step back, her eyes fixed on the guy’s reflection, his face mirroring what she is feeling. “Oh my goooood!” Then covered as that… man-voice came out of . She put a hand on her face, patting it in the hopes that she would see her own reflection. Wait… what does she look like? Well, whatever she looked like, this is definitely not it! She is a girl! A woman. Female! That much she is sure of!

She paced around with a hand over mouth trying to hold that horrific scream she knew is hanging around before looking in the mirror again. “Oh my god, what is happening?” She wanted to cry for this…whatever this is to be over. Then she froze… and slowly looked down at herself with the man’s body and she grimaced. “Oh my god! This is so gross for me! What is happening!” She paced back and forth again trying to think as she pushed her hair back then felt the short threads of her hair—or Jimin’s. My hair. My beautiful glorious hair!

She swallowed hard trying to calm herself down. Okay, okay. I need to calm down. There has got to be an explanation for this. This can’t be real…. Either that or she had gone crazy. Then she froze again as she looked in the mirror seeing that guy’s face looking at her in widened eyes, his words reverberating inside her brain about her being a soul.

A soul.

Her panicked mind slowly calmed down as she considered the possibility. Unreal, crazy… but what if. If that was true—and she is not currently strapped down inside an ambulance to be taken to a mental hospital and all these is just happening insider her mind—did… did she turned into this guy? Is she going to live as this guy? Was there some kind of unfinished business that she needs to do before she could find peace and… walk into the light? Is she going to be Park Jimin while she completes her… whatever unfiinished business she had?

Her thoughts abruptly came to a halt when she felt a nudge. What was that? She whirled around expecting to find someone and saw the same empty space. Still the empty house that she had woken up to. What is happening now? Then she felt it again. Stronger this time. Like an insistent shove.

Inside her.

Inside this body.

And then just as swiftly, she felt herself being flung off. Like a blast. She tried to brace herself for the pain when she hit the floor but she didn’t. Because she was floating an inch from the floor.

“How dare you!!”

She got to her feet and looked at Jimin who had a hand on his chest and looking very very angry.

At her.

“Don’t you ever do that again!” His fist clenched as he tried not to yell at her. Unsuccessfully.

The fact that he was angry at her for something that she didn’t know made her angry too. “Do what again?! I don’t even know what happened!”

“You are violating my body!” The veins on his neck is straining and looked like it’s ready to pop off.

“What?!” She was in disbelief. “How am I violating your body? I didn’t even touch you! That is not my fault!” Then she gasped when she realized it. “I… I was just inside your body….”

But he was too angry to even care. Dammit, he would have to get with the witch to check his bracelet. This was supposed to be a talisman to ward off souls and spirits away and prevent them from inhabiting his body.

“Oh my god, I’m really dead….” She can’t believe it. Now she knew she’s not dreaming. She finally realized it. This is real. Really happening to her. She wanted to cry for her own loss but… can ghosts even shed a tear?

Jimin saw that realization on her face and saw the gloom that seemed to wrap around her form. He should have been used to hysterical spirits by now but it still makes him angry that they could so easily invade his space. Invade him. He could still remember those dark moments when he didn’t know what to do and he wakes up on someone else’s property, being handcuffed by the police for trespassing, being transported to a mental institution…. He had never known what helpless feels like until he hit rock bottom.

And then the witch found him and helped him return his life back to normal.

The spirits and souls used to frighten him so much. Now he had already gotten used on seeing them everywhere to the point that he is already mistaking them as living people. They can’t go near him anymore. They can’t touch him.

Until today.

After a minute of feeling sorry for herself, she lifted her agonized eyes at him with a resolute look on her face. “I want to know how I died,” she said sounding firm and took a step towards him. “Help me.”

The gall of this soul! But he had pressing matters more than her guts to address. “No!” Jimin exclaimed taking a step back when she tried to come closer. “You stay the hell away from me.” Given that his bracelet is no longer working, he brought his necklace with a cross pendant underneath his shirt. “You stay away!”

He is holding a cross on her! Now she feels so insulted. “What am I, a demon?” Then she froze and gasped loudly as she realized what she said. “Am I a demon?”

Okay, the cross isn’t going to help him ward off spirits. He tried it before.

“Tell me I don’t have tentacles sprouting behind me,” she begged almost desperately. “Do I have horns?” She was afraid to check her forehead,

Jimin dropped the necklace. Out of all the things she is worried about. His chest was still heaving from the anger he felt earlier but he answered her to clarify her ridiculous fear of being a demon. “You are not a demon, okay?” He threaded his fingers through his hair feeling so inconvenienced.

Better explain it to her fast so she could get out of his house. “You are not dead. Like I said, you’re a soul. A wandering soul because it couldn’t find its home.” The look of confusion spreading on her face made Jimin exhaled loudly. He should’ve recorded his explanation to use for every damn time he come across a wandering soul. “Your soul has been disconnected from your body and I would guess you have been in trance because of the trauma.” Her confused face became even more confused so Jimin just laid it directly. “Your soul is wandering because your body is lost.”

“Lost?” She repeated as she processed that information. “So… that means I’m not dead yet… right?”

“Yes, you are not dead.” Then he muttered, “Jeezus christ, how many times do I have to say it.” He is very sure about that since he pretty much knew the difference now. Souls of dead people does not have a ring of light silhouetting their forms. Wandering souls look iridescent where life still clung to it, whereas souls of dead people looked… dead. Dull. Grayish. Especially those old souls that remained on earth to rot. Those are the scariest to look at.

She looked relieved at that confirmation. “Okay… so… I still have a body. And it’s alive.” She was still a little skeptic about this and hoped this is not some kind of a twisted reality TV show. But given how everything happened since the moment she regained consciousness… she doubt it. Maybe she needs to believe paranormal things can happen.