ลิลิธเวอร์ชันภาษาอังกฤษที่ใช้ส่งโปรเจ็กต์จบปริญญาโทนะคะ จะมีจำนวน 8 ตอนซึ่งไม่จบทั้งเรื่อง 

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ภาษาอังกฤษอัปเดตทุกวันศุกร์เวลา 1 ทุ่มค่ะ

Chapter Five

            Selina Grace Bennett

            September 2^nd. 00:45 hrs. Flushing Ave. and Broadway, Brooklyn. Hit and Run.

            Current location: Williamsburg Bridge

            The view of Flushing Avenue flashed into my head. I saw a junction under the bridge, a sign of a tattoo shop on one side and a sign on sporting goods on the opposite side.A woman was crossing the road when the blue hatchback ran a red light and hit her. The sound of tyresscreeching echoed in my ears. Her body flied a few metresaway. She was trying to move. Her legs twitched, and her mouth gasped for air.

            I startled for a moment, my hands kept trembling. I just witnessed a car accident then realisedthat it was only in my head. It didn’t happen yet.

            “August, I received a name.” At first, I couldn’t recognisemy voice, it was dry. “August.”

            August heard and walked back to me. He looked at the information on the piece of paper.

            “Do you know where it is?”

            “That place just popped into my head. I’ve never been there before. And I saw this woman got hit by a car. Is that what you see every time you receive the name?”

            “You’ll get used to it.”

            I wondered what he saw when my name came up. What was his reaction? His feeling? How could he keep calm after seeing those events when I was trembling like I was the one who got hit?

            “If you aren’t sure where it is, you can come here and look it up.”

            The other side of the wooden map board was a world map with a magnifying glass icon on the bottom right.

            “Wait! It’s a touchscreen?”

            August gave me the side-eye and continued searching for the exact location of Flushing Ave. and Broadway. The same junction I saw in my head appeared on the screen.

            “Is this what you saw?” I nodded. August continued. “Let’s go.”

            He took me to the exact same spot I was when I foresaw Selina Bennett’s death. The street was empty. All the shops were closed since it was already pass midnight. 

            “We have to wait.”

            As I was waiting, I thought about what happened yesterday when my body was found.

What did Detective Carhart find on my body? Would there be any traces of that man left behind that could lead police to the killer? Would they catch him? Would he be punished? There were so many unanswered questions that I wanted to find out, but I couldn’t. I wished I could leave this scene and followed the investigation. I wished there were abilities I could use to find that monster immediately. I remembered his car, and I saw the number plate, if I could get that information to the detective, he would be caught. Actually, he could have been caught if August didn’t stop me. Grim reapers’ work would always get in my way. I had to find the best solution to track the killer while collecting souls because that was the only time I could be on the living side.

“You think you’re immortal? You think they can’t hurt you?”

What did August mean? Who were they?

“Focus. Is that her?”

A woman, mid-twenty, with brunette hair and blonde highlights through mid-lengths, wearing a black jumpsuit was walking along the Flushing Avenue. She was on the phone; a video call judged by the way she was holding her smartphone and waved to the camera. 

I followed her because the accident was about to happen.

“Hi, mom. Sorry I didn’t take your call earlier. I’m on my way home.”

Her mother was on the screen, looked like she could be the same age as my mother.

“You always go home late. You’ve to take care of yourself. Shouldn’t you buy a car or move?”

“It would cause a lot. I can’t afford a car or a new place, yet. Don’t worry, mom. I’ll call you every night.” 

Salina reminded me of myself. Her mother worried about her, but Salina was smiling because everything was okay. She had no idea what was going to happen. Her conversation with her mother made me missed my family.

I didn’t know what got into me. I had no recollection of why I did what I did. When I saw a car was about to hit her at the pedestrian crossing, I ran between them and pushed the woman away. The car changed its direction, jumped the curb, and crashed a column pier. 

            Salina sat on the pavement, she was in shock at the accident. From her point of view, she was pushed by something she couldn’t see. From my point of view, I realised that I could touch human. As I was staring at my hands, August was furious and grabbed my hand.

            “What did you do? Do you know how serious it is?” 

            My lips trembling as I tried to find the right words to respond.

            “You mess with the Order. You’re going to regret it.”

            August let me go and walked toward the car, two silhouettes appeared next to each other. Salina was alive, but the driver and the passenger weren’t. The passenger was pregnant.

            Salina called 911. She was still on the floor, tried to describe the accident as much as she could. She kept saying ‘I don’t know what happened.’ and ‘Please hurry.’

            I just stood in the middle of the road, couldn’t move, couldn’t talk. I saved one life, two…no three were gone. 

            I was brought back to Jericho by August. He didn’t say anything since the incident.

            “The Order will be here. Congratulations.” That was the most sarcastic tone he’d ever said to me. “Notice anything?”

            I looked around and saw the difference. There were no LED lights, no laughing, no screaming from the rides. Everything was shut as if this place was abandoned.

            “Lilibeth Mary Langdon,” a huge silhouette appeared in front of me. It was hard to tell what he looked like underthe black-hooded robe. “Would you please come with me?”

            “Good luck.” August just left me there.

            I followed this mysterious man, passed the carousel then turned left, I’d never been to this part of Jericho before. Along the way, grim reapers were watching me, the joy they’d have were gone. They feared the man in the black hooded robe.

            “Where are we going?”

            “Do you know why we have grim reapers?” He sounded like an ancient sage teaching his apprentice. “Without grim reapers, a human’s soul will be lost in the living side. When they’re left there for too long, they become vengeful spirits and cause the unbalance between the living and the dead.”

            We walked among the wasteland where the path had no end, under the dusk sky, the amusement park was behind us.

            “Do you know why we receive names from Death?” Whether I answered or not, he was going to tell me anyway, so I kept my mouth shut. “Because it’s their times to leave the living side.”

            “Now,” he paused, looking at me though I couldn’t see his eyes under the hood. “Do you know what will happen if someone interferes it?”

            I already knew the answer.

            “The driver and his wife and their…” I couldn’t finish my own sentence.

            “You were with August when he reaped their souls, you know the answer,” he said. “The wife was about to give birth to a boy who was going to live until the age of fifty.” 

            The news shocked me than I already was.

            “…what’s going to happen to Salina?”

            “She’ll live.”

            The answer was so simple, somehow, I felt so heavy. 

            “I’m not here to punish you, Miss Langdon, even though most of them think I am.

            His words didn’t make me feel better. I knew there was always a consequence from one’s action. Death had warned me about the rules and punishment.

            “So, what’s going to happen to me?”

            “Nothing. I’m here to deliver the message.” I didn’t ask because I knew it was from Death. “Lilibeth Mary Langdon, you are not going to be punished, the consequence is the punishment itself.”

            “What’s that supposed to mean?”

            “I don’t know, Miss Langdon. I’m just a messenger.”

            I looked at him but couldn’t see any part of his face. He reminded me of a mediaeval wizard in a movie.

            “August talked about the Order. You are the Order.” 

The ‘they’August was talking about.

            “One of them,” he stopped walking. “You know your way back to Jericho, right?”

            I looked at where we came from; Jericho was far away.

            “I hope we won’t see each other again, Miss Langdon, but I have a feeling that we will. Whatever you’re going to do, be careful.”

            He disappeared in front of me before I could ask his name or asking for more explanation.

            When I came back to the amusement park, all the LED lights turned on as the attractions were in service. The lively atmosphere had returned to Jericho.  

            I met Mandy nearby the lake. She knew about the visitor.

            “You met Jed.”

            “Jed?”

            “Yes, Jed. Short from Jedidiah. He’s the kindest one among them.” 

            “How many are they?”

            “Four, I guess. They work for Death just like us, but in a higher position. They observe every grim reaper and make sure we’re all follow the rules. You’re not the only one who broke the rules. Most of us tried to save life.”

            I smiled because Mandy tried to make me feel better even though it was not working.  

            “What’s the punishment? How many of them?”

            Her eyes widened as I finished my question.

            “Didn’t you just receive one? I guess not since it’s too fast. The minimum should be 24 hours,” she said. “They’ve many ways to punish us. The most common one is the void; a place where time and space don’t exist. It’s the bridge between the living and the dead.”

            Those sentences seemed like a slogan because that was exactly what August told me.

            “You’ll be left in the void,” Mandy continued. “24 hours are the minimum for saving life and causing the change of nature. I don’t know the maximum, I heard that before my time, there was a grim reaper who spent a week in the void. It corrupted him, changed him. He’d never be the same. The suspension of small mistakes like you’re not on time at the scene to collect souls is to ban you from entering Jericho. You have to spend your time in wasteland which is boring and frustrating because you could hear the joy the others are having in Jericho.”

            “The latter doesn’t sound so bad.”

            “Well, they all sound good compare to the greatest one.”

            “The greatest one?”

            “The punishment for killing a human.”

            All of a sudden, every part of my body got tensed. I squeezed my hands really tight, tried not to show emotions.

            “As you know we’re grim reapers, we reap their souls, but we aren’t the one who cause their death. We cannot harm a human. We definitely cannot kill them. If you do, you’ll be perished.”

            “Perish? Aren’t we already dead?”

            “It means you’ll be removed from your duty, locked up in the void for eternity, and everyone on the living side will forget about your existence, like you were never born.” 

            “They’ll forget about me.” The words kept echo in my head.

            “Sad, isn’t it?” Mandy looked at the sky above us. “It’s alright if it’s about me. But when everyone is going to forget about me, I can’t take it. What’s the point of being alive if no one knows who you are or share memories with you.”

            My family was my everything. Just the thought that they were going to forget about me made my chest hurt, I felt numb all over my body.

            “The hardest part of this job is when your target was murdered. You witness it beforehand, but you can’t prevent it nor help. You want to do something, you want to kill that murderer yourself, but you can’t. The consequence is unbearable. Get locked up in the void for eternity is one thing, forget by everyone…that…that’s the cruellestpunishment they could do to us.”  

            Mandy got up, opened her palm and a piece of paper floating above her hand.

            “Well, talking about murder, Death always knows his cue. I’ll see you later, Lilith.” Mandy disappeared. 

            I just sat there deep in thought, under the civil twilight, in a place where no human knew it existed.