Love of my life

It all started a month ago. I have moved to this new apartment after finally leaving my parents’ house. It was my second day here, coming home from work all tired, all I wanted to do was to take a shower and get some rest. For context, it is not a huge apartment complex, it was just a small building, four floors and a basement for parking, each floor only have two apartments. My apartment was located on the 3rd floor. As I was climbing the stairs I heard footsteps I look up and on top of the stairway of the 4th floor, there she stood. She was the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen, her smile had some kind of extraordinary attraction, her black hair looks like the place where all the beauty of the night came from, and her brown skin was glowing in an outlandish radiance, almost supernatural. I only looked at her for about a second but it feels like an eternity. She looked at me and said ‘Hi’, I replied, and then she asked me if I was the one who moved in here yesterday, I said yes, and asked her if she lived on the 4th floor, she told me that she was living up there for quite a long time, as a matter of fact she was the only one living up there until I came as I am the only person living on the 3rd floor, prior to me only one apartment was occupied on 3rd and 4th floor the one in which she was living.

We didn’t talk much that day except form getting primary information about each other, she went back to her apartment and I went to mine, I took a shower and the much needed rest, but I still was not able to get her perfect image out of my head. I occasionally saw her during the week that follows, we met in the stairway, didn’t had much of a chat just exchanged pleasantries, and things got normal.

It was Sunday, and I was doing the usual work people do on Sundays, like cleaning the place, and making sure that I am not running low on any groceries. I found out, I was short of some things and went out to buy them. When I returned, I saw her standing there in the stairway, she looked at me, smiled and said hi, I replied to her, and we started to make small talks, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere I invited her to my apartment for a drink. Looking back, I think she was not surprised by my invite as she might have thought that I was being nice to her as a neighbor, but for me it was not ordinary to invite people to my place, but there we were, in my apartment having drinks, we opened up to each other, and I immediately had a feeling that we were going to be great friends.

This was the first time since I moved here, that I had a proper conversation with someone in the building, as others who were living there were not that friendly and I, myself, am not good at social interactions. But with her it was different, we talked about my hometown, my work and all, I asked her about her work and she told me that she work for an online marketing firm and mostly works from home, and she had been living there since last three years, we talk more about the town and places to visit, and before we know it, two hours have passed.

It was 6 o’clock and I had to head out to meet my friends form work as they had planned to show me around town. She left my place and I got ready to depart. It was a great evening, I met some new people and visited some places, and mostly enjoyed the time with them. By the time I reached my place it was already 10 o’clock. I went in there took a shower and went to sleep. In the following days things were great, both at my place and at work, she and I became good friends and frequency of her visits to my apartment increased. We would mostly talk and watch TV together, often times we stay up late talking or playing games or watching TV, it was becoming a normal thing for her to spend her evenings at my place. This continued for about a month before I finally asked her for a date, she seems delighted and said yes, and even teased me that it took so long for me to ask. I wanted to take her some place special but she said she didn’t want to go, she want to stay at the apartment, and order food, I didn’t think much about it and agreed.

The date worked out well and we officially started our relationship, we were both so happy. The next weekend I was planning to invite my friends at my place to watch this sport event together, and asked her too to join us, that was when I saw some strange behavior from her, she suddenly stood up and said that she had forgot to tell me that she was going out of town this Friday, I said ok, but the way she behaved that night stood out to me, but I brushed it off, and didn’t paid much attention. On Friday when I reached home I got a message from her, telling me that she had left and will not be joining me tonight.

The weekend passed, I had fun with my friends, it was a good time, but I missed her, I hadn’t told any of my friends about her, as I wanted them to meet her and not just hear about her, but I figure I will introduce her to them some other time. On Monday when I reached home she was there, she had come back from the trip that morning, I invited her for dinner and talked, as we have so much to talk about. After having the dinner we sat on the couch and our conversation started.

As I was talking to her I felt something was off, she was looking scared, I asked her but she avoided the question and asked me about my weekend, I told her about everything that happened and how much I missed her, and how I wanted her to introduce to my friends, and how much I wish that she should never leave me not even for a day. As I was speaking, I saw her eyes were filling up, I immediately went silent and looked at her, right in the eyes, her face looked like it belongs to an innocent child, who had been scolded by her mom, the tears were about to flow from her eyes, I didn’t knew what to do, but I had to do something.

I leaned towards her, put my arm around her shoulder, the tears started flowing down her cheek, I wiped them off, and embraced her by putting her head on my chest, and my arms around her, I gave a gentle stroke at her forehead, and assured her that “nothing bad was going to happen, tell me why are you crying?” at this point she had put her arms around me and was hugging me tightly, and her crying had turned into sobbing, she stayed in that position for few moments sobbing, then spoke in a broken voice, “I love you”, I said, “I love you too, but why are you so scared? Please tell me” and then she spoke “because I don’t want to lose you, they don’t want to see us together, they will do anything to break us apart.” I asked her who “They” were but she was so scared to tell. I was so afraid and worried about her condition, that I didn’t want to let go of her, so we ended up spending the night holding each other, it took a long time for us to fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up, I found her awake before me, she was in the kitchen making tea and looked a lot less terrified, but I didn’t want to leave her alone, and decided to take that day off from work. I walk up to her and ask her if she was feeling ok, she said yes, I asked her did she want to talk about last night, to which she said no, and I told her that I was not going for work today. She looked at me and gave a look of assurance and insisted that I must not skip work for no reason, I looked at her with a little bit of surprise, and said “I think what happened last night constitutes as a valid reason to skip work and spend some time with you”, she said I must go to work and she also have work to do, and we will talk about last night when I return in the evening.

We drank tea together and then she left and went upstairs to her apartment. And I got ready to go to work. I hardly got any work done, all day I was thinking about her and what had happened during that trip. And who were “They” that she was talking about. Finally, the day ended and I left for home.

When I reached there, I didn’t saw her there, as usually everyday she would be there standing near the stairway. I wanted to see her so badly that I went into my apartment and basically threw my things on the floor and went running up the stairs to 4th floor. When I went up there it suddenly hit me, “I didn’t know which of these two apartment is hers”. I had never been on this floor. I tried knocking on both the doors but got no answer from either of those. I was started to get worried, I took my phone and called her, she was not answering. I left her several messages and went back to my apartment, waiting for her response. I tried waiting but after 15 minutes, I couldn’t bear it anymore and went downstairs to inquire about her from our downstairs neighbors, and I was shocked by their response, nobody in the building knew her, and not only that, they told me that there is nobody living on the 4th floor. I couldn’t believe what they were telling me.

I didn’t know if I could trust those people or not. So I decided to go to the police. I reached the local police station and told the cop everything. He listened to me patiently and then asked me if I had any photograph of this girl. I showed him her photo, and after looking at it, his facial expression changed, he looked at me and said “are you playing a game or something with us? You know it is illegal to mislead police?” I told him I don’t understand what he was talking about, “I knew this girl and she is missing. This is not a game”. He had a hard look, he stares directly into my eyes and said “The girl you are talking about, had died 3 years ago, she had committed suicide” I couldn’t believe him and said that there must be some misunderstanding, she was alive and I had talk to her that morning. He said that I am insane, “This is not possible. She committed suicide in that very building in the 4th floor apartment, 3 years ago” I asked him “how can you be so certain?” to which he replied “I am the one who discovered her dead body”.

The cops think I have some mental condition and wanted me to visit a psychiatrist. I told them that I will, and left. I know they are keeping an eye on me and I know I’m not ill, and she was not dead. It has been three days since she disappeared, and I am still searching for her. I don’t know whom to believe or whom to trust, but I will keep on searching until I will find her.