“Move? Maybe a dog?” she asked.

“It most definitely wasn’t a dog…” he stood up from the bench and walked in that direction. She observed him for a minute, stood up and then followed him.

She watched as he walked towards a junction. As he neared the junction, he turned to his left, saw something and immediately hid behind the building. She quickly caught up to him. But she noticed how his face was pale and colourless. A look of terror clearly visible in his eyes.

“What? What happened?” she asked.

Placing a finger on his lips, he asked her to remain quiet, and then gestured towards the direction he was hiding from. She nodded, reassuring him of her silence and then slowly peeked towards the forbidden direction. 

At a distance, she could see a movement. It was too dark for her to make out something. As her eyes adjusted to the view, she could see it was a young girl. With open hair and clad in white, the girl was alone and was staring at the display in front of a jewelry shop. 

“What is she doing in the middle of the night? That too, alone?” she whispered.

Using his fore finger, he pointed downwards.

“Ew. You could’ve just said she is an escort or something, instead of pointing to your…’thing’.” 

He listened to her, slapped his forehead with his palm and whispered, “No idiot! I meant, look at the ground!”

Furrowing her eyebrows, she looked at the ground, little worried of what she would find. It looked quite normal.

“No!”

His reaction made her look up at him. 

“Look at the ground under her,” he gestured towards that girl.

She sneaked a peek at the girl again, this time concentrating on the ground. She was confused. She couldn’t see anything. And then it hit her.

“Shit,” she whispered. Eyes wide, she turned to him.

“Shit!” she whispered a little louder. He nodded at her with equally wide eyes.

“Where are her feet?” 

“I don’t know!” 

“Is she floating?”

“I don’t know!”

“Is she a ghost?”

As soon as this question popped, he seemed to calculate something in his head. He asked, “White dress?”

She nodded.

“Open hair?”

She nodded again.

“Lonely girl.”

She nodded once more.

“She is wandering alone in complete darkness in this scary excuse for a town.”

She nodded to each of his points.

“And her feet are missing. She is literally floating,” his voice broke a he made floating gestures with his hand. She nodded one last time.

“Yup,” he concluded, “I think this is the classic case of a spirit with unfinished business.”

His head placed over hers, but their bodies hidden behind the building, they both spied at the spirit of the floating lonely girl in white dress and open hair. They watched for about one or two minutes, how the girl just stood idle, staring at the window display.

“I feel bad for her. She looks so sad,” he whispered after some time.

“’Looks so sad’? Can you see her face?”

“I don’t need to. I can sense it,” he replied.

“You feel bad for a ghost?” she asked him with unhidden sarcasm.

“Of course. I think she is crying,” he said, a hint of sympathy in his tone. But she rolled her eyes at his comment.

“Why don’t you go console her then?” 

“Meh. She I already dead. So why bother,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

About 10 seconds later she looked up at him and said with a smile, “But this is so exciting isn’t it?”

“I know! Initially I was scared; her being a ghost and all. But to have seen an actual ghost in person, it's so thrilling!” he replied, enthusiasm exploding in his voice,” But what is she staring at? What shop is it?” he asked her.

“I think it's a jewelry store,” she replied.

“Huh. Dead or alive, women will remain the same,” he shook his head in disappointment.

“Hey! Don’t make me come up there!” she warned him, “By the way, what time is it?” 

“He squinted his eyes at the watch and whispered, “I think it's around 3 o’clock. Yup, it's 3.05am.”

Their eyes grew wide, as realization hit them both. Immediately turning to each other, they made a realization sound, “Aah!” as they nodded.