I Am Haunted by the Number 23

23 appears on a TV show

I can see it everywhere. Everytime I check the time, it's always 23 minutes past the hour. When I check the sports news, somebody always poured 23 points or any stat line for the matter. Even in TV shows and movies, somehow number 23 always got mentioned. I can even see 23 sprayed on street graffiti. If I were to jot down the times how it appeared the past year, then it would take me 365 pages. Twenty-three is virtually everywhere!

This haunting experience happened after your death.

After 9 months of living together, we figured it out that we were not destined to be together, so you agreeably and painfully let me kill you. Zip the veil of the future, never to attempt to catch a glimpse. Bury the past and go on living each day without any thought of you. The thing we had was the best 'thing' I had, no doubt about it. No need to embellish it. Done.

There is a fine line between being really in love, and being really stupid in love. And I believe each person is given a chance to be both for ONCE in their life. And my one chance was with you. I was 30 and you were 16 goddammit! Clearly we should not go on seeing each other. We had to dine out in places where few people go (and enjoy silly feed offs with the pizza). We spent time at private gardens and not in malls so none of our friends can see us (and witness butterflies feasting on your sweet brown eyes). We didn't take the public transport for it would be certain stone-to-death for me if we'd been caught falling in love. We took risks, but it was unnecessary. We're really not meant to spend those 9 precious months together in anybody's book. But hell we did, and I'm supposed to forget all those things but your ghost keeps haunting me.

You are 23. You were born on the 23rd day. And it's always been you. We had 23 mutual friends. The day we first met falls on the 23rd day of the month, and the day you died was a lonely Saturday night of May. You are 23.

How can I forget you if you keep haunting me? Or does this mean that I really shouldn't have killed you?

23 ver. 2 by Andy Calope

Disclaimer: This article is a work of fiction. Any related true story in full or partial is purely coincidental and unintentional.