Ghost Corp — Part 2
Read part 1 here: Ghost Corp – Part 1
Abhilash woke up the next morning, holding his throbbing head. Something had happened last night, but what? His head hurt when he tried to remember.
He jumped as he heard a “Good morning!” from Shankar floating into the room, and everything came flooding back.
Abhilash looked like he had been through a hurricane and somehow survived. He dragged himself to the bathroom, his eyes on the floor. Shankar shrugged and floated away.
When Abhilash finally came into the kitchen, he saw a steaming mug of coffee on the dining table. He turned around to see a smiling Shankar. He said, “My way of saying sorry,” and smiled.
Abhilash took the cup gratefully and sat on the chair. “Sorry for haunting my house?”
“Not exactly. I’m sorry for… breaking you? I’m not sure, I guess I’m just concerned for you, man. You look like you died and came back as a zombie.”
“Thanks,” Abhilash took a long sip of the coffee. “So, how do I make you leave?”
Shankar laughed as he sat down on the chair facing Abhilash. “Leave? Nobody’s leaving.”
“I’ll call an exorcist and force you to leave.”
Shankar clicked his tongue, still laughing. “Exorcisms are a sham, my boy.”
“But that’s what they do in movies!”
“Yes, and movies are real, aren’t they?”
Abhilash kicked his heels and slumped down. “Then I’ll leave.”
“Oh no, you won’t. You love this house.”
“Not enough to live with a ghost.”
“Okay, consider you do plan to leave. Do you think you’ll find someone to buy the house who’s just as gullible as you? They’ll ask around because the price seems too good to be true. Then they’ll know the story of this house being haunted, and they’ll drop the plan,” he raised a finger as Abhilash opened his mouth, “consider that you plan to rent this house. Do you know how many tenants you’ll have to go through in a year? I’ll ensure they change every two months, or even sooner. Then the word spreads even faster that this house is haunted and finally, no one will ever come near this house. Then what, genius?”
Abhilash closed his gaping mouth. “I, I — oh, I don’t know, what do you want from me?”
Shankar looked smug. “Let’s see. I want you to call me Sir and do my every bidding. Whatever I say, you do.” He burst out laughing at the look on Abhilash’s face. “I’m kidding! Live and let live, son. You mind your own business, I’ll mind mine. Sound good?” Abhilash nodded dully.
The next few months were pretty uneventful, all things considered. Abhilash slowly got used to living with Shankar. It was almost like living with a roommate, except that the roommate was dead and didn’t need to use the bathroom. Abhilash was often startled when he walked through an invisible Shankar which felt like suddenly stepping into a cold shower. So, they had an agreement that Shankar wouldn’t turn invisible when Abhilash was around. Shankar agreed to it but didn’t follow it religiously and would have a good laugh when Abhilash walked into him now and then.
Abhilash sat at the dining table, staring at multiple photos of a girl on his phone. He kept swiping back and forth, muttering under his breath.
“Yes, she is cute.”
Abhilash jumped and turned to a giggling Shankar. “Stop doing that! For how long were you lurking behind me?”
“From the time you sat down, saw the photos, and said, ‘she’s cute’. I agreed audibly, after 15 minutes.”
“I hate you,” Abhilash turned away, blushing furiously.
Shankar floated and sat in the chair beside Abhilash. “Who is she? Girlfriend?”
Abhilash sighed. “No, potential wife. A new proposal,” he pushed his phone towards Shankar. “They’ve been looking for a suitable girl for me for the past 3 years and I’m slowly losing hope that I’ll ever get married.”
“Marriages are made in heaven,” Shankar declared, drawing a big circle with his right hand up in the air. The ceiling fan shook ever so slightly.
“Do you believe that?”
“No. But listen, even though I don’t believe in this soulmate bullshit, I do think that with some effort, you can find the one for you. No no no, listen,” Shankar waved his hand, dismissing Abhilash’s scoffs, “You seem like a good man, my boy. I think you will get a good woman to be your partner. What do you think is the problem?”
Abhilash’s shoulders slumped and his face fell. “I’ve talked to more than 30 women by now. Most of the time, they reject me. Now, I too have rejected a few, but it’s mostly them. They don’t give a reason why. They just say it won’t work out.”
ABhilash jerked up from his slumped position as Shankar twisted his chair so that they were face to face. “Wha — ”
Shankar held up his hand and Abhilash fell silent. “You’re a smart man, Abhilash. You’re rational. Now, think hard, and tell me why they might be constantly rejecting you. Your family is decent, you earn good money, and you’re not bad to look at either. So, what’s the problem?”
“How do you know I earn good money?”
“I’ve seen you looking at your payslips on your laptop and I’ve seen the numbers. Let’s concentrate on what’s important, shall we?”
Abhilash wanted to protest but stopped. He looked away, thinking. After a few minutes, he said, “I know why they reject me,” still not looking at Shankar. “I don’t know how to talk, or what to talk.”
Shankar clapped his hands so hard that Abhilash’s chair zoomed back five feet, almost knocking him down. “What the hell, man?” he croaked, completely winded. Shankar made a beckoning motion and the chair zoomed back to the original position, with Abhilash barely on it.
“I’m going to throw up,” said Abhilash, holding his temple, eyes watering.
Shankar barely noticed Abhilash who looked like he sat on a roller coaster ride. “I can help you,” he said. “You can practice with me!”
“Practice what?”
“Talking!”
Abhilash wiped his eyes and looked at Shankar. “I don’t need practice,” he got up, swayed, but regained his balance. “This is getting weird, I’m not going to practice talking to a girl with a ghost I may or may not have imagined. I’m going to sleep.”
“Okay. Don’t come crying to me after this new girl rejects you,” Shankar called out to Abhilash’s disappearing back.
“She rejected me.”
Both of them were sitting at the same places they sat last week. Abhilash held on to his coffee cup like it was his life support, and rocked back and forth in his chair.
“You can laugh,” he told Shankar, who was trying very hard to keep a sympathetic face.
“I want to, I really want to, but I won’t. My offer still stands, by the way.”
“What, practice sessions?” Abhilash laughed. “Why do you think they’re going to help?”
“No harm in trying, right? What do you have to lose?”
“I don’t know, my sanity?”
Shankar slowly started floating away. “Have fun getting rejected by the next girl, Abhilash. I hope you’ll have fun.”
“No, come back,” called Abhilash. He smiled and said, “In the current circumstances, you’re kind of my only friend. I want to practice with you.”
Shankar smiled and floated back. “I have a small condition, though.”
Abhilash sat up straight, eyes narrowed. Shankar seemed hesitant for the first time. “It’s a pretty big thing, actually. It won’t happen unless you cooperate.”
“Spill it.”
“So, I work for this organization, Ghost Corp. Haunting this house is my current job. I’m up for a promotion; to get that, I need to undergo an evaluation. It’s coming up in 3 months, and I need you to act scared when the Inspector is here.”
Abhilash’s eyes were mere slits now, his whole face contorted. “You lost me at ‘Ghost Corp’. You — work? Promotion? Aren’t you, I don’t know, dead? What in the world is happening?”
“I understand that this might be a little overwhelming. Usually, I don’t even talk to people. I just scare them. But you,” Shankar shook his head, “You are a special case. You questioned my existence, and that was the reason why Ghost Corp was even created. So, I have to go through this route of explaining everything to you, and expect you to play along.”
“Explain it to me, in a way that a person can understand.”
During the next 1 hour, Abhilash stared open-mouthed at Shankar, who explained that Ghost Corp was an organization that was created with the sole purpose of keeping the dread of the ghosts alive. People nowadays stopped believing in them, or getting scared even, he said. If this continued, then all the ghosts would gradually lose all respect. So, Ghost Corp assigned ghosts to random houses and abandoned buildings to ensure that the people still had fear in their hearts.
Ahilash’s whole face looked like a question mark.
“Ask. Just ask,” said Shankar.
Abhilash only managed to put out a weak, “Why?”
“Why? Because what’s the purpose of a ghost if they can’t even scare somebody? What’s the point in our existence?”
“Ghosts can be good too. Why should people be scared of you to boost your ego?”
“Ego? No! Look, we are just trying to keep the old tradition alive. We don’t kill people. We just scare them enough, and that’s that. We go to great lengths to ensure that people don’t die because of us.”
“But in the movies — ”
“Again with the movies! They aren’t real, they’re just exaggerating what they’ve experienced. Our motto at Ghost Corp is ‘Scare, but spare.’ ”
Abhilash snorted. “Awesome.”
“Look, they came up with the best tagline they could, alright? I know it doesn’t sound great.”
“No, it’s — it’s good. So now you want to get promoted to Inspector? That’s the next level at Ghost Corp?”
“Yes. I worked in abandoned buildings for several years before I came here. I’m bored of this.”
“Why do you need to haunt abandoned buildings? Who comes there? Ghost hunters?” Abhilash chuckled.
“Yes,” said Shankar, as if that was obvious. “They film these buildings and we have to know how much to show to keep them intrigued, but not reveal too much. It’s fun.” Shankar paused, fidgeting with his fingers, and continued, “You have to act scared when the inspector comes.”
“But — ” Abhilash looked troubled. “What happens after you get promoted? Will another ghost come here? I don’t want that.”
“I didn’t think about that,” Shankar drummed his fingers noiselessly on the table. “I’ll think of a way to avoid that, okay? Leave that to me.”
“I’ll put out the act only if you make that happen.”
“Deal.”
Read Part 3 here: Ghost Corp — Part 3
