Wildest Dreams

“Trick or treat!” echoed throughout the neighborhood followed by the laughter and giggles of children. The loud music from house parties filled with drunk and rowdy teenagers could be heard from miles away. At the corner of the bustling street on 5^th Avenue, the pubs were filled to the brim with long queues with people in different costumes. Outside the pubs, there were tipsy couples making out against graffiti filled walls and drunk teenagers vomiting alongside the road. Ah, Halloween... the only time where we can be anyone that we wish to be and live in someone’s else’s shoes. Halloween was supposed to be eerie and creepy. Thus, I did not even understand the hype about Halloween and why it was such as big event, it was my least favorite holiday of the year. But I could understand why people dressed up during Halloween, it allowed us to be anyone we wanted to be. I always imagined how life would be if I could be anyone I wanted to be and how much better my life would have been. However, the only thing I did not expect this Halloween was that I became a ghost.

You see, the funny thing about death is that it can be so unexpected. One minute I was alive, the next I was dead on my bed. I have thought about death a couple hundred times, but nothing prepared me for the loneliness for the life after. Despite all the laughter, the large waves of crowds, the loud music, I still felt so lonely. It was my first Halloween as a ghost and I had nowhere to go, nobody to be with, but that was normal. But… that’s when I saw him. He was not perfect, but he was perfect for me. A perfect sight for sore eyes.

Even as a ghost, he was so ravishingly breath-taking… He glistened in the moonlight as he drifted among crowds of people disrupting their private moments and just acting as though he was a part of the crowd. He stood out so brightly perhaps because he was the only ghost there, he was like a 21^st century James Dean. He was tall and handsome as hell. He brought about a playful vibe and I just knew that I needed to know him. I stood beside him and made eye contact with him. He saw me and initiated the conversation, he said his name was Bryan, he was a soldier who died on his third round of his Afghanistan tour. He had a missing leg as it got blown apart when he tripped over a trip mine and died. I told him my name was Bella and I had depression, it was something that I struggled with for years ever since my parents divorced when I was 15. We were both missing a part of each other but together, we felt like a whole again.

He asked me if I wanted to spend the night with him. I told him bring me to your happy place, he brought me to the beach. He did not know that this was my happy place as well. I told him I loved being near the ocean. I felt free, I felt relieved. For the first time in forever, I felt happy. I felt so free, it was my first Halloween that I was truly happy. It felt like magic. Halloween was all about the magic and the spookiness. Halloween is supposed to be eerie and creepy. However, I could not stop but think that my first Halloween as a ghost was magical, like as if it was out of a fairy tale. What a twist of events right?

Despite the loud laughter, loud screams and blasting music from the crowd on the beaches, it did not keep us apart as we looked into each other’s eyes as we poured out our emotions to one another. We talked, we made jokes and embraced each other’s company. His laughter was so beautiful, it was like melody to my ears. So warm and so perfect. Tonight, we shared our hope and dreams. It felt like my wildest dreams came true. It felt as if we were meant to be. We spend the whole night talking. I laid my head on his shoulder, he placed his arms around me for the first time and we both embraced the silence. The warmth of the sunrise shone on us and the orange horizon unfolded across our eyes. The gawking of seagulls could be heard as they flew across the horizons. It was a perfect Halloween and I did not want it to end. But I knew that all good things must come to an end. Halloween was over and we had to go back to our respective places where we belonged. We shared a kiss that was unforgettable. My first kiss at sunrise. It was romantic… Our love was like a splash of colors… I felt grey from missing him, blue from being away from him… I felt like red when I think about our love. That was a great color to describe our love and our kiss at sunrise. I told him to meet me here every Halloween, he told me it was a promise and he would see me here next year and we parted ways.

Who knew that my first Halloween would allow me to find true love. I felt so free as I went back to where I belonged, wherever that was. I would hold onto this memory of us forever. My first ever Halloween in love.

I cannot wait to see him again. I wanted to live in this moment forever. I envisioned his soft face, those eyes that made me stop in my tracks. And every time I think of him, it feels just like the first time all over again. I want to re-enact every moment of us perfectly. For tonight, it was a life-changing event and I felt alive again even though I was long gone. For tonight, he made me feel more alive than I have ever felt.