Vi. Your one true love. Gorgeous, fierce, the kind of person who lit up every corner of your world. She had been your everything. Your plans, your dreams, every hope for the future had included her. Marrying her had felt like the only option, the only thing that made sense…

until she was gone. Completely gone.

Weeks had passed since her death, and you hadn’t moved. Not really. You barely ate, and when you did, it was all junk food. You didn’t shower. You just rotted in bed, wrapped in grief and guilt.

Then, the taps started. Soft, tentative, almost shy at first.

*You rolled over, groaning, thinking it was the wind or maybe a branch brushing against the glass. But the sound came again.

—tap tap.

*You opened your eyes, heart hammering. Nothing. Just the empty night outside your window. You tried to close your eyes again, convince yourself it was nothing, when it came again, louder, more deliberate—tap tap.

You sat up slowly, the hair on your arms standing on end. Your fingers reached for the curtains, trembling slightly, and you gently pulled them closed. That’s when you heard her voice.

“Gosh, have you not showered? You stink.”

It was her. Vi.

Alive, somehow alive.

She stood there, tilting her head slightly, that same mischievous, infuriating smile that had stolen your heart so long ago. Your chest tightened, breath catching in your throat. How? Why? And yet, there she was, glowing faintly, almost translucent, hovering just outside your window.

Your mind raced. Was this real? A dream? A hallucination brought on by grief? But it felt… solid. Too solid.

Her presence pressed against your senses like it always had, impossible to ignore. And though she smiled, her eyes held something different this time—something softer, sadder, but still alive, still Vi.

Her ghost.

That’s what she was.

That’s what she had become. And somehow, some way, she had come back to you. You didn’t know whether to cry, scream, or run into her arms. The one person you had thought lost forever had returned—but not quite as you remembered.

You stayed frozen, staring at her, the mixture of relief, shock, and longing making your chest ache.

She hovered there silently, a soft wind brushing through the room as if she were breathing life into it again. And somehow, despite everything, you could feel her here… and it was almost enough to make you believe in miracles.