Chapter 1

Vanessa looked at the name in the card and sobbed harder. It was her birthday, and the card was a birthday card. It was beautiful, and it had the right words in it. The problem was with the name of the sender.

When she woke up and saw the card on her bedside table, she had reached eagerly for it. But the name of the sender killed all the joy. The sender was a man way older than her. He was a political colleague of her father whom her father has promised he will have Vanessa as a wife for political reasons. Vanessa did not want the man. She wanted Mike, her ex-boyfriend. But she does not know of he will ever have her again. They broke up a year ago an Vanessa has hardly thought about her since then.

But now, she can no longer forget him. She does not want to anymore. She has finally found that she loves him. Now, she cannot believe she broke up with him just because if a diamond necklace. She was a spoilt brat, she knew it, and had acted no less on the bridge that day. She had...

×××××

Exactly a year before...

...screamed at him. Mike blinked. He could not believe she had actually screamed at him. He looked around in alarm, but surreptitiously. He could see people stopping to stare at them. He licked his ĺips nervously.

"We can sort this out. Cool down Vanessa" he said. Vanessa glared at him. An uncomfortable silence (to him at least. Vanessa looked a if her feelings right then could register nothing but hurt) stretched between them.

"I'm waiting." Vanessa snapped suddenly. Michael blinked again.

"Maybe we should find somewhere more private" Michael tried the diplomatic approach.

"I won't budge from here." Vanessa screamed again. Mike noticed the onlookers have dropped every sign of pretense. They seemed immersed in the unfolding drama.

"Hey, look. We are in public. You are the vie president's daughter..."

Vanessa snorted impatiently. Right now, she does not care about such etiquette. She cares only about one thing. When Mike called her early in the morning and requested her to meet him on the bridge, she had thought she was going to get it. But now...

"So I should deserve better." She fumed. "Today is my birthday for goodness sake! Can't I get a decent gift? All I asked for is a diamond necklace made by Miss Malinda. And what do get? A trip to some darned restaurant. God!"

Vanessa's voice was now shrill and beads loaf sweat stood on her forehead. Abstractedly, she noticed people were staring at them, mostly through phone screens. They were videoing.

Mike looked around helplessly. Vanessa usually was not this unreasonable. She had always been understanding and loving. He could not think what has gotten into her.

"Look, Vanessa.."Mike's voice was low but desperation could clearly be heard through it. "You know I can't afford it..."

"You ruddy well can't!" Vanessa cut in again. Out of the corners of her eyes, she saw a phone's photo light blink, catching in the action of pointing at Mike's chest.

"I should have known you never could when I picked you from the gutter. My mind must have been addled."

Colour rose in Mike's very fair face. His chocolate brown eyes turned burnt-chocolate-dark. His lips thinned frighteningly. He hated being reminded about his background. It we a very sensitive subject to him.

"Look here! Didn't you..."

"...Remind you of your background? You don't want our audience knowing your true self?" Vanessa taunted.

The colour spread from his neck to all over his face, then turned scarlet. His lips thinned even more, if that was possible. A vein started throbbing in his temple. He moved his lips, but no words came out.

So it is over between us? Vanessa read from his moving lips. With a mental start, she remembered that had agreed that anynreminder of his past and he would walk away, never to return. Tears sprang to her eyes. She wanted to say no, but something seems to have gotten into her. The words were out before she could even think.

"Yes, it is over."

She watched as the colour receded from his face and neck. His eyes became Brown once more, and the vein in his temple disappeared. Vanessa thought he looked...serene.He leaned towards her.

"A last kiss?" He asked gently, serenely. For a moment, Vanessa gazed at his beautiful pink lips. She could not resist. Her mouth parted. His lips enclosed hers. Vanessa had always thought Mike was the best kisser in the world, but they had never quite shared a kiss like this last one. Vanessa saw photo lights flashing again.

When they pulled away, tears slid down Vanessa's cheeks . Mike did not see it, because he turned away immediately and walked to his Mercedes without a backward glance. Vanessa suddenly felt a pang of fear. She rushed towards Mike.

"Mike, I don't mean it." She said, holding his sleeve. He shook her off and opened his car door.

"I'm serious. I didn't..." the door slammed. Vanessa had withdrawn her head just in time to prevent her neck being crushed. The car revived and pulled back suddenly, throwing Vanessa off balance. The front tires turned and the car accelerated suddenly.

"No!"Vanessa screamed in shock and disbelief. The car slammed into the bridge railing. The fender curved inwards. It pulled back, accelerated and slammed into it again. Vanessa stood frozen in shock, wide-eyed, as again and again, the Mercedes slammed into the bridge railing. When it started falling,a sob racked through her. It unfrize her. She whirled around in panic and saw the crowd. Almost no face was visible through the solid block of phones. Right then, she knew she cannot live with it. She had to forget. She knew a psychiatrist who could help her forget. Sobbing hysterically, She pushed through the crowd to her Lexus.

×××××

As the car tilted over the edge of the bridge, something seemed to relinquish its hold on Mike. He watched the solid mass of water rushing towards him. In a flash, he remembered all the tales he had heard about this particular river. Strange things often happened around it.

That must have been it. Mike thought in panic. Whatever was in the river had caused him to do this very foolish thing..

He grabbed the door handle. Before he could move, a great quake went through the car and water splashed on the windscreen. It has hit the water. It went under. Desperately,Mike tried to open the door. But inexplicably, it has locked itself. Mike knew that water could not leak into the car if the door were locked and the Windows were wound up. He would be safe. But it would only be a matter of time before lack of air killed him.

The car righted itself as it started sinking. Mike's innards lurched with the motion. Horror ringing in his mind, Mike balled his fist and slammed it on the windscreen. Sidery cracks blossomed on the windscreen. He hit it again and again till his hand went right through it. Painfully, he drew back his hand. Water immediately rushed into the car. Mike hardly noticed it. Crazily, he hot th3 windscreen again and again till the crack was large enough for him to force his body through it. By this time, tho water in the car reached his nose.

He held his breath, ducked under the water and swam out of the car. Vaguely, he wondered what death by drowning would feel like. His lung were already hurting him. He gave in to the urge and took a breath. Water rushed into his lungs. He gasped again. He could not help it. Few feet from the car, Mike's body went still and he sank to the bed of the river.

×××××

Later that day, Vanessa sat in her room watching the seven o'clock news. She was on the news, but she could not got the life of her think why. The news reporter was talking about her breakup with a a man named Mike who committed suicide right afterwards. Vaguely, Vanessa wondered who Mike was. But ight then, the video clips of her and a man on Thu bridge came to the screen and Vanessa became immersed in the drama. Thu news reporter wrapped up by informing her audience that divers found Mike's car, but found no body inside the car. It was suspected he swam to safety through the broken windscreen. The news reporter could not resist chuckling at the end of the newsreel.

"He committed suicide, then found he could not face death."

×××××

Back to the present...

At the bed of a certain river, a body lay. It was bloated and was already decaying. As Vanessa remembered her last birthday, it opened its eyes. It grinned.

My first deathday anniversary. It said, though nothing but bubbles escaped the mouth. It sat up on the sandy bed, then stood up and started swimming upwards. Several minutes later, it burst through the surface and started swimming towards the bank.

×××××

Vanessa threw the card across the room and clutched the pillow to her face. She could not 'forget' any longer. For the last three months, events of her last birthday has been growing clearer in her mind. She could go back to the psychiatrist, but she would not. She does not want to forget any longer. She wants...well, she does not really know what she wants, only that she does not want her father's colleague for a spouse. Unless wanting Mike counts, but then, one can not want the dead. One can only mourn the dead.

Vanessa started at the thought.

Mourn?

He might not be dead yet! Many people have survived a fall off a bridge.

A knock sounded at the door. If it was not early morning, Vanessa would not hav heard. She contemplated whether to answer it or not. She decided any salesperson at the door may go to he'll. But then, whoever it was put a finger on the doorbell and held it there till Vanessa thought she would go crazy. Her brows furrowed in irritation. She stomped out of the bedroom. She hit her foot on the sofa as she stomped across the sitting room. With a vengeance born of pain, she threw the door open. She froze.

Standing at the door was something that would be nothing if not revolting. A bloated fair body stood at the door. It's skin has almost been washed colorless from its long stay under water. The clothes were soaking wet. The pupils were colorless, probably due to the over dilution of the Aries humour in it, and only half it it showed. The pupils formed an ugly complement to the whites of the eyes, which were no longer. His lips have drank so much water that they have lost their beautiful pink colour. They now had the pale pink colour of a bubble gum with the colour chewed out of it. Viewed against the colorless skin of the face,MIT presented a very nauseating sight.

But even the lips looked delectable when compared with the worms wriggling in their numbers across it. The worms were colorless and pale and nontranparent all at the same time. The lips were not the only place they infested either. They were all over the face, burrowing their way thriugh the whites of the eyes and pouring in numbers out of the nostrils. All over the body, pus filled swelling could be seen. Even as Vanessa stared frozen, a swelling burst over the left eye and both pus and worms slid down to hang on the eyelashes. It was Mike's body, come back to life inexplicably.

Vanessa could not see the body for what it was though. Something unexplainable has covered her eyes, making her to see a completely different picture. The pink lips were still pink, to her. The Brown of the eyes were still pleasantly soft and beautiful. The skin was still unusually fair, still as smooth as it ever was. She was seeing Mike as he was before his death.

She raised her palms and held it over the corpse's palms for a moment. Then she ran her fingers atop it, unbelieving. Spellings immediately burst and pus and worms flowed over her palms. She could not see it. The hands looked okay to her. Her palms flew to her chest in shock. She was trying vainly to stifle the sobs racking her chest.

"Mike!" She sobbed out at last. She threw her hands around the body's neck and kissed the mouth. Liquid and writhing solids spilled over parts of her in contact with the corpse. The corpsecontinued staring into the room , unmoving. Then without looking at Vanessa, it raised its hands and rubbed it over Vanessa's back, smearing it all over with yellow pus. It placed its hands in the small of Vanessa's back, pressing her body closer to its own. The action emitted a squelching sound as her body pressed into skin that was more or less melted wax.

She walks backwards into the room, dragging the corpse with her. She managed to unplug her lips from its own and gazed admiringly at it.

"Mike!" Vanessa exclaimed again, astonishment in her voice. She could scarcely believe her eyes. The pale pink lips curled into a grin.

"Thought I was dead, did you?" It asked.

"No...oh Mike!" Vanessa was sobbing again. "I mean, yes. I thought you had...you..." She could no longer continue. She threw herself against him and buried her nose in his shoulders.

"Died?" The amused voice of Mike finished for her. Will you attend my deathday party then?"

Vanessa pulled away pretty quickly.