The Girl In the Window

This story contains darker themes which some may find disturbing or upsetting.

The girl in the window always cries. The ghost doesn’t like to see the girl cry. She always seems so sad. The ghost likes the girl. It doesn’t know her name, only how she looks and what she does. She reminds it of itself for some reason, yet the ghost has long forgotten itself. It has been years since the ghost died—or has it been only a short while? The ghost doesn’t know its name, only how it looks and what it does. The girl seems familiar, as if the ghost should know who she is but has forgotten. Either way, it watches the girl, as if to protect her, even when it knows it can’t.

Sometimes, someone else comes into the room, speaking to the girl in the window. A man comes in, looking angry. The girl in the window cries every time the man leaves. Other times, a woman with hair as white as the snow enters the room. She always looks calm, yet there is sadness deep in her eyes. The ghost can see it. It wonders whether the girl in the window does too.

There were times when the girl isn’t even there, however. The ghost always feels lonely in those times, even though it shouldn’t feel emotions at all. It wishes it could protect the girl. It doesn’t know why she needs protecting.

The ghost wishes it could cry along with the girl in the window. It feels far too much sorrow than it can handle, even though it doesn’t know why. It cannot remember when it had a reason to be sad. Crying isn’t a happy thing; it’s full of sadness and grief. The ghost doesn’t know why it wants to cry. Maybe it wants to have something in common with the girl in the window. Either way, the ghost can't cry, even if it wants to.

There are times when the ghost remembers things. Glimpses of memories of living, breathing, loving. Those times always feel bittersweet. The ghost wants to remember itself. It wants to know its name. It’s just endlessly stuck existing, only seeing, never touching, never feeling, never living. The ghost misses living, even if it doesn’t remember what it was like. It doesn’t want to exist anymore. It wonders whether the girl in the window feels the same.

It hopes not.

Before dying, the ghost always thought that it would be fun to be a ghost. To freely float around, free of expectations. However, now that it is one, it feels like a curse. The ghost is stuck in one place, nothing to do, no way to escape its reality. It doesn’t feel, it can’t touch, it can’t protect girl in the window. It doesn’t know why it needs to protect her.

The ghost never feels cold or warm, and yet when the angry man walks into the girl’s room, it feels a chill run through it. It doesn’t know why. Time passes by and the ghost watches the garden in all four seasons of the year, all while stuck in one place, unmoving, only thinking and watching the girl in the window. Sometimes the girl seems happy, but when she looks out of the window, she cries again. It wonders why.

It wonders why the girl always sits in that one round window on the second floor of that red brick house. Sometimes the ghost tries asking the house. The house doesn’t give an answer. It asks the sky. The sky doesn’t answer either. It asks itself. It doesn’t receive an answer. It feels like it should know the answer. Maybe one day it did, back when it wasn’t a ghost yet. Sometimes the ghost wonders whether there had ever been such a time in the first place. Maybe not. Maybe the ghost had always been that way; just a nameless spirit cursed to forever stay in that one place in the garden of the red brick house.

The girl always stays in the window, staring at the garden, yet never actually goes outside. Maybe it’s the garden that is cursed and the girl in the window doesn’t want to end in the same fate as the ghost. Does the girl know the ghost exists? It doesn’t know. It doesn’t think it wants to know. There is something in the ghost telling it that it doesn’t want her to know. It doesn’t know why. There is a lot of things the ghost doesn’t know.

The ghost never turned around. It knows it physically could, yet it felt like it isn’t allowed to for some reason. It doesn’t remember why, but there is a reason. There has to be one. And so, the ghost stays in that one place, watching the girl in the window while she watches back, neither looking away. It feels like the girl isn’t looking at it but rather through it. Like it doesn’t exist. And maybe it really doesn’t. The ghost is not sure anymore.

The girl in the window closes the curtains some days. Sometimes when the angry man comes in, and other times for seemingly no reason at all. The girl in the window seems happier more often some days, yet some days she seems to cry more than usual too. The woman with pure white hair goes to talk to the girl in the window less. The ghost cannot remember when she came there last. It wonders why. It doesn’t wonder for too long. It doesn’t seem as important as the girl in the window. The ghost doesn’t know why it thinks that.

One day the girl in the window is no longer in her window. Instead, she walks into the garden. The ghost has never seen her in the garden before. In that moment, the girl seems familiar in a way she has never felt before. She has ice blue eyes and blond hair that shines under the sun. The girl goes closer to the ghost, walking through it. In that moment, the ghost knows that the girl cannot see it. It still doesn’t know how it should feel about that, how it would have felt if it could feel anything.

For the first time, the ghost breaks its rule and turns around to follow the girl with its gaze. It finds her crouched in front of a small grave. The ghost cannot read the writing. It doesn’t know why. It feels like if it physically could, but something is stopping it. However, it knows it wouldn’t feel nice, so it doesn’t try. Maybe that grave was the reason the girl in the window cried.

The ghost still stays in one place and the girl returns to her window, continuing to always cry, while the ghost still wonders why. And somewhere behind it all, there is a brother who had been taken too soon and now no longer remembers who he is, while his family lives forever in grief.