Unreseolved NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

I have a Game Object ghostBuddy (with a collider) with script GhostBuddy.cs as here:

 using UnityEngine;
 using System.Collections;
 
 namespace GameScripts.BalloonBalance {
     
     public class GhostBuddy : MonoBehaviour {
 
         public bool isInsideGhost = false;
 
         void OnTriggerEnter2D (Collider2D other)
         {
             if (other.gameObject.GetComponent<singleCharacter>() || other.gameObject.GetComponent<Character_Bimanual>()) {
                 isInsideGhost = true;
             }
         }
     }
 }

and I am trying to check from the game manager if isInside Ghost is true , by setting:

 public GameObject ghostBuddy;
 
 void Awake() {
 ghostBuddy = (GameObject)Instantiate (Resources.Load ("Prefabs/GhostBuddy"));
 }
 
 void FixedUpdate () {
     currentPoolSize = pool.Count;
             if (shouldIDraw) {
                 if ((ghostBuddy.GetComponent<GhostBuddy> () != null)) {
                     if (ghostBuddy.GetComponent<GhostBuddy ().isInsideGhost)
                         StartSpawningBigEgg ();
                 }
             }
             else if (!shouldIDraw) {
                 return;
             }
         }
 
 void StartSpawningBigEgg() {
     if (currentPoolSize == 4) {
         Spawn (1, new Vector3 (0, 2.0f, 0));
         Spawn (1, new Vector3 (0, 3.0f, 0));
         Spawn (1, new Vector3 (0, 4.0f, 0));
     }
 }
 

where spawn will just spawn an egg. I get an error

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object GameScripts.BalloonBalance.GhostBuddy.FixedUpdate () (

but couldn't figure out why because I have instatitated everything properly.