I woke up.

I yawned for quite a bit as I stretched my arms up high. With the bright rays of the sun piercing through my makeshift curtains, a new day arrives where I am still alive, but at least I'm now one day closer to death.

I grabbed my phone and browsed the shopping website that I ordered the curtain rod from, 1-2 days to be delivered. Not that long of a time, but because of my uneventful daily life, it feels like an eternity.

I left the confines of my blanket and was ready to stand up, but suddenly, I stepped on something. It wasn't painful like the debris yesterday, but rather quite soft. With confusion fully observable on my face, I looked down to see what exactly it was.

"Slippers?" I mumbled to myself.

Just yesterday I was thinking about the slippers that were in my drawers, and now here they are. I don't exactly remember grabbing these out of there since I'm too lazy to sort through all the chaos inside those drawers. I also don't have a tendency to sleepwalk, not that I'm aware of. But then, how exactly did these get here?

I grabbed them and pondered quite a bit. I don't know why I grabbed them, it wasn't as if bringing them closer to my face would reveal the answer. But suddenly, I figured it out. If it wasn't me, then it would have obviously been someone else, and the only other person, or rather entity, inside my room was the girl.

I dropped the slippers back on the floor and slid my feet into them. They were already here, so I might as well get some use out of them. It wouldn't hurt to try to maintain some good hygiene once in a while.

I stood up and approached the hideout of the culprit. I took a deep breath and exhaled before I slowly swung open the closet doors.

She's not here.

Just yesterday, she sat in that corner by the piles of clothes, but now she had disappeared without a trace. Now I was starting to doubt myself. Did she even exist in the first place? Or was it just my mind being troublesome? I wouldn't be surprised if it was either, but I do favor the latter a bit, since it would mean that there was never any ghost in the first place and I would be left alone with no one to disturb me, only my imagination. But looking closely, I actually do have proof that she definitely exists. It was the Chinese fried rice. If she truly didn't exist and I was only imagining things, then the rice would still be here, but it's now gone as well. Where exactly did she go? Maybe she finally moved on or something. I'm not sure about the conditions in order to move on to the afterlife or whatever, but I can infer that it might have something to do with being satisfied or having a sense of fulfillment, and if you ask me, gobbling up some Chinese fried rice is indeed quite fulfilling. I closed the closet, knowing that it was no longer haunted by a ghostly entity.

I stretched again, but this time felt more satisfying. It was as if a huge burden was now off my shoulders, allowing me to become weightless, removing all the fatigue accumulated in my undeveloped muscles.

I wasn't really sure what I would do to start my day, but I immediately found the answer as I almost jumped out of surprise at the sound of my doorbell.

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"Delivery!" an enthusiastic yell from a man came from outside.

I froze in place. I haven't heard anyone's voice in quite a while, excluding the ghost girl. This wouldn't normally happen whenever I ordered deliveries, they would just place the food on the floor without knocking and leave. Why is there a need to shout?

"Delivery for room 21!"

"Oh fuck!" I muttered in my mind. Does this mean he's waiting for me to receive it myself? I know it's a kind gesture to make sure that the customer receives their food, but I wish that idiot would learn how to read and follow my instruction of "Please leave on the floor." in the delivery app, which I've specifically instructed in order to avoid situations like this.

A knock sounded on my door.

I guess I have no choice in the matter. I don't want to do this, but like I've said in the past, I don't want to burden anyone else, and making a minimum-wage food delivery person wait a millennia definitely counts as being a burden.

I slowly walked towards the door, my hands growing colder the closer I got.

He knocked again, "Delivery!"

I took a deep breath. It's very fortunate that he seems like quite a nice fellow. It's probably been over a minute of waiting now, but his voice still sounded jolly as he yelled. If it was some jerk who yelled out of frustration and impatience, then I would probably be hiding under the covers by now.

"Is anyone home?"

"I-I'm here." I spoke softly.

"Good day to you, sir. This is MicRonalds delivery."

It's quite a miracle that he even heard me. I didn't plan this far ahead, and obviously, the last thing I want is to open that door and be seen by someone in my miserable state. What should I do to avoid this? My hands are still frozen in place as I contemplate what to do. I needed to think fast, as it would be quite awkward to make my presence known but not open the door right away.

Suddenly, I was able to conjure up an idea. I'm not sure if it will work, but at least I should give it a try. I clenched my fists, took a deep breath, and readied myself to speak my longest sentence in almost two months.

"J-Just leave it on the floor. I-Im carrying.. something."

"Alright, sir, I'll just leave it here. Have a good day!"

Around thirty seconds of silence passed.

I gasped for air.

I didn't notice at first, but after speaking, I froze up even further, including my breathing. I continued to viciously breathe in and out, it was like I was hyperventilating, or maybe I really was. My hands were cold and shaking, my legs felt like they were about to crumble in any second now, and my vision almost seemed to be spinning.

I rushed to the bed, stumbling on every step I took. It was a mixture of walking and crawling, which looked quite pathetic. It's as if all my bones turned to jelly, and the shaking of my legs might just be further proof of that.

I collapsed onto the bed and immediately covered my entirety with my blanket. I still continued to gasp for air while my ice-cold hands roughly grasped a pillow that covered my head. Obviously, covering my face with a pillow and blanket wouldn't really help calm my breathing, it would only make it harder to breathe, but I can't think clearly at this moment. All that was on my mind was to hide and disappear.

Nothing mattered to me, not even the food that was still waiting outside. I just want to disappear. Even if I were actually able to converse with someone, I still feel weird, and my face is as red as a tomato. What did I sound like while I spoke? Did he find my voice funny? What does he think about me? Did I even say the words correctly? Was my pronunciation correct? Many questions filled my mind about every detail of what I did. All I could think about was every second of that interaction. I wanted to forget everything immediately, but I just couldn't clear my mind with a snap of a finger.

I want to hide, I want to disappear, I want to die already. Please, just let me die already.

I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind.

"Don't think, don't think, don't think.." I repeated over and over in my head.

My entire body was still shaking and colder than the temperature of my fridge, but at least with every "don't think" in my head, I began to calm down little by little until my vision finally went black.