Yes, this was Alokas life. Ghosts came to her looking for help, asking her to help them finish their business here, so that they could move on. It was all good when they came to her seeking help during her free time, but it was awkward when they came to her during her classes in high school or university. She couldn’t tell them to wait until her school or class was over, and they were very persistent, they were so persistent even Douglas couldn’t get them to back off a little. Aloka wondered how her mother did it. How her mother had a job and dealt with ghosts like these every day.

As the years passed Aloka, found some kind of balance between school and helping the ghosts. The most impatient ghosts were the ones that were murdered. If one of these showed up, she made an excuse that she wasn’t feeling well and went to help the ghost. The other ghosts weren’t so impatient, so she dealt with their problems when she finished her classes. The only thing she never got used to was when ghosts of children came to her seeking help. They were always the victims of kidnappings by sexual predators or victims of hit and run accidents. She could never stomach that.

One evening Aloka was sitting in her dorm room, eating dinner and watching the news together with Douglas. The police chief was giving a briefing about six men that were murdered in the last month. He asked the people of the city to call the police if they had any information about the men. They showed pictures of the murdered men, they all looked alike, the same build, the same hair and eye color, the same face shape. If you saw them on the streets, you would think they were the same person.

Aloka immediately thought that a serial killer did these killings, but almost all serial killers were men and they all targeted women, not men. Women serial killers were extremely rare and these men looked too big and masculine to be easy prey for a woman.

“Douglas, could you go to the police station and eavesdrop on the detectives who are on this case? Six men, that look the same, are dead so it must be a serial killer. What worries me the most is that not one of their ghosts came to me seeking help.” Aloka asked Douglas giving him a puppy dog eye look.

“I hate when you look at me like that. Fine. I’ll go eavesdrop. What do you want to know?”

“Everything the police know about the murders. What evidence they have, how were the men killed, if they have any suspects… You know the drill.” Aloka said. This wasn't the first time Douglas did this. This was one way they gathered information to help the ghosts.

“Yeah… I know the drill.” Douglas said and disappeared.

Aloka finished her dinner, washed the dishes and went to bed, hoping that this night won’t be one of those when a ghost wakes her up in the middle of the night, seeking help. One sleepless night was enough for her.

Douglas returned after two days while Aloka was still asleep. He couldn’t resist, he positioned himself above her and loudly screamed “BOOOO!” Aloka jumped out of bed onto the floor looking around her. When she saw him smiling, anger appeared on her face. She started throwing stuff at him, but they just went through him hitting the wall behind him, and shouting at him “You idiot! You scared me half to death!” That only made him laugh harder.

This wasn’t the first time he did this. She hated it when he did that. She got dressed and Douglas calmed down.

Still angry with him Aloka firmly said “Report.”

“Come on. Can’t you take a joke?” Douglas said with a sneer.

“I said report.” Aloka said not wanting to give him the satisfaction by reacting to his teasing.

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“Ok. Ok. Al the men were beaten to death. The police don't know with what. The weapon used didn’t leave behind any pattern or an indication of its shape. The men were all reported missing and found dead the day after, which means that the killer took them, killed them on the same day and the police found them dead the next day. All the men worked at different places, they had families and they had normal boring lives.” Douglas said.

“Then what do the police know about the killer?” Aloka asked.

“Noting. There was no evidence on the crime scenes. The men were killed at the places they were found, the bodies weren’t dumped there. Nobody saw or heard anything. There was no evidence on the victims, no DNA, nothing. They don’t even know if the killer is a man or a woman. All they had were two pictures with names and addresses of men who looked like the men who were killed. They were talking that these men could be the next targets and that they had them under surveillance.” Douglas said.

“That's a lead! Why didn’t you say that first? That’s the only thing we can work on.” Aloka said raising her voice.

“Wait... Wait... Wait...Work on. What do you mean work on?” Douglas asked confused.

“Well, don’t you find it strange that none of the ghosts of the dead men came to me seeking help like that woman who was a victim of a serial killer?” Aloka asked Douglas.

“No. Maybe they didn't know or see their killer and didn’t have unfinished business here?” Douglas suggested.

“All six of them? What are the chances of that? I know that something is not right. Did you remember the names and addresses?” Aloka couldn’t explain how she knew but she knew that something was wrong with this case.

“Yeah...I did, but I still think that whatever you’re planning is not a good idea.” Douglas told her the names and addresses of the two men from the police station. He had a bad feeling about this.

Aloka wrote each name and address on a piece of paper, turned the pieces of paper upside down, mixed them around on the table and picked one up. She got dressed, put the other piece of paper in her pocket and left her dorm room. She headed towards the address written on a piece of paper she picked up from the table.

Aloka arrived at the address around ten PM. People sitting on benches, jogging, sitting in their cars and alike surrounded the building. She saw this hundreds of times, these people were undercover cops waiting for the killer to show up. She didn’t want to seem suspicious, so she sat on a bench in the park in front of the building, took out her cellphone and pretended to chat, laughing here and there. Douglas was pretending to sit on the bench next to her. She never understood why Douglas pretended to sit on a chair, bed or couch. Obviously, he couldn’t touch anything from this world but he still pretended to. Was he doing that for her or for himself, she never knew and didn’t want to ask him.

Douglas suddenly stood up. Aloka felt a sudden burst of cold wind. “Douglas, what's going on?”

“We have to go. Now!” Douglas said with fear and urgency in his voice.

“Why? What's going on?” Aloka stood up and saw a gray woman's ghost coming their way. “It’s just a ghost. Maybe she needs our help.”

“I know that you can see that she is gray, but I can see she is black. She is an evil ghost. We must go! Now!” Aloka could now clearly hear the panic in Douglas’ voice. Douglas started to move away from the ghost’s path but Aloka didn't move.

The woman’s ghost stopped in front of Aloka and looked at her. “Why are you doing this?” Aloka asked the ghost, but didn’t get an answer.

“You idiot! Move away! Run!” Douglas screamed at Aloka.

“You don’t have to do this. I can help you find peace and move on if you'll let me.” Aloka sad. This time the woman’s ghost screamed at her and reached towards her head. Aloka dogged the ghost's hand, it only touched one strand of her hair. The strand of hair turned white. Aloka ran towards Douglas.

“I told you to run! If she touched you, you would be dead by now! Why didn’t you listen?! Your mother and I told you to stay away from evil ghosts for a reason!” Aloka never saw Douglas so angry.

“I’m sorry. I thought...” Aloka started to say.

“You thought! Don't think when an evil ghost is in front of you, just run! A single touch from an evil ghost can kill you. Look at what it did to your hair. That strand of hair on your head is dead. That could have been you!” Douglas looked at her with anger and disappointment in his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Aloka apologized. “I really thought that there must be a way to help her. We need to stop her before she kills again, the police won’t be able to.”

“No. Stop it. Don't get involved with evil ghosts. You can’t help them, it’s impossible.” Douglas said firmly.

They went back to the dorm room.