ลิลิธเวอร์ชันภาษาอังกฤษที่ใช้ส่งโปรเจ็กต์จบปริญญาโทนะคะ จะมีจำนวน 8 ตอนซึ่งไม่จบทั้งเรื่อง 

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ภาษาอังกฤษอัปเดตทุกวันศุกร์เวลา 1 ทุ่มค่ะ

Chapter Six

            Funeral.

            When I was seventeen I went to my grandmother’s funeral. She died in her sleep. She had Alzheimer, couldn’t remember me, and had to ask my mom every time when we visited her. Jamie and I didn’t know her well. We attended the service, surrounded by strangers; some of them cried, some shared stories to each other, Jamie and I stood there and talked about something else. We didn’t have a lot of memories with her. My mom told me I should say goodbye to my grandmother. I said it. I didn’t feel anything toward her. I was sad because my mom was sad.

            A week ago, I just broke the rule.Instead of punishment, I received a message from Death; on the other hand, August spent 12 hours in the void because he failed to supervise me.

            I didn’t expect Death would let me attend my own funeral, I was wrong. August received a name and that person was going to my funeral. So, we followed her to Bright Lake, Wisconsin. It was less than two weeks, but I’d missed this place so much.

            Bright Lake was a town located in northeastern Wisconsin. The population was 272. We only had one bar, and one convenient store which had everything we wanted in town centre.We had one elementary school. All kids in the area went to this one.

            Bright Lake Cemetery was my resting place, surrounded by forest and closed to Long Lake. The view was magnificent, water glittered by sunlight, but not as beautiful as Jericho, there was no place like Jericho.

            My parents stood beside each other, holding hands. Jamie stood next to my mom, his eyes turned red. I saw Jamie cried before but that was ages ago when he was a baby. Now he was trying so hard to hold his tear. My heart ached at the sight of my family. I thought I would live to see my parents’ funeral because that was supposed to be. I should be the person who buried them, not they buried me.

            Whatsurprisedme was that Detective Carhart came along his way from New York City to attend my funeral. He greeted my family but didn’t say anything afterwards. The service was over, and my body was deep under the ground.

            “Did you go to your funeral?”

            August shook his head. He became colder after the punishment. I couldn’t blame him since I was the one who caused it. I tried to be a good follower though seeing my parents didn’t bring peace to me.I didn’t want to leave them. Not like this.

            “Do you know who did it?” My brother confronted Detective Carhart while our parents were talking to the guests.  

            “I can’t share that information with you.”

Detective Carhart looked older than the last time I saw him, dark circles appeared under his eyes. It’d been only a few weeks; the case had already worn him down.

“She’s my…she was my sister. I have the right to know.” Jamie stared at the detective. I’d never seen him look at anyone with that kind of gaze before. 

“I’m sorry. I can’t,” his eyes showed sympathy and understanding. “I’m here to pay my respect and I want to assure you and your parents that I’m not going to stop until I catch the perpetrator.”

As I was listening to the conversation, I wanted to tell the detective about the killer’s appearance and his licenceplate. I wished I could say something. I knew I can touch human, but I was afraid of breaking rules. I, myself, could bare the punishment though I didn’t want to cause any troubles to August. He wasn’t supposed to suffer because of me.

I looked away from my brother to my mom. Her eyes redden, her hands held tight in front of her. She tried to stay strong for the sake of my dad and my brother. She was the one who kept our family together after my dad had a stroke two years ago; he had to quit his job and be treated at home. He was better now but I kept him from looking for a job because I was going to be the one who provide for the family. So, my dad could rest and spent his day on something less stressful.

Watching my mom and dad tried to keep themselves together in front of the guests made me wanted to hold them tight and told them that it was okay, I was okay. Of course, it was a lie but what else I could say to them. What else I could do for them.

I shouldn’t have come here. What was I thinking coming to my own funeral? What would I expect to see? There was no way I could see their smiles, no way they were going to be happy.

Can a grim reaper cry?

The answer was no. It didn’t matter how badly my head hurt or how every muscle of my face was in pain. No tears fell from my eyes.

I wasn’t surprise when I didn’t see my colleagues at the funeral. We only met for one day. They had no reason to be here.

Can a grim reaper get hurt emotionally?

The answer was yes. If only I had more time to spend with them, we might become close friends, we might hang out every day. If only I didn’t die.     

August and I followed our target to my parents’ house, Laura Adams, aged 47. She was a friend of my mom since they were in college. Laura lived in Newark and saw the news about the discovery of my body. She’d met my parents when they flied to New York City to identify my body. Laura decided to come to the funeral. I’d never met her before. It was way before my time. She was nice to my mom and helped her as much as she could. However, in the next two days, her kidneys would stop working, which led to her death in a week. The sign of symptoms had shown on her body; swollen ankles and hands, lost her appetized. She didn’t eat anything since she arrived in Wisconsin. She noticed it, but she didn’t care.

While everyone occupied the living room, I climbed the stairs to my bedroom. It looked the same as I’d left. The room was painted with light blue colour, my favouritecolour. The furniture was white and black. On the bookshelf contained with my favouritenovels and some textbooks. I didn’t bring them all to my place in New York City since it would be too much. I had my graduation photo hung on the wall, there was another one in the living room. My mom put them there for me, she said that the photo would reminded me of how determined I was as a student and as a human being. I was being judge since high school because my family wasn’t rich, and I lived in a small town. That was why I had to study so hard to be noticed, to be accepted. They thought that I wouldn’t be able to become successful. I had proved them wrong by entering Wharton. Though they weren’t completely wrong, were they? I didn’t become successful. I died.

Looking at the graduation photo on the wall, I remembered how happy my mom and my dad were. They were proud of me. They told everyone in the town. Everyone in the photo was smiling, even my brother. We bickered and argued each other a lot, but that was how we showed our loves.

The heavy footsteps approached the room slowly. It was my mom. She stopped in front of the room, her eyes staring at my bed, her mind drifted away from reality. 

I walked towards her, then stopped short. I couldn’t hug her. She couldn’t see me. We were a few inches away, yet we were keeping apart.

I stepped aside when my mom walked in the room. She sat on the bed, looking at the same photo as I did minutes ago. The corner of my mouth twitched to a smile. I studied her watching my photo. She didn’t say anything though I could feel she was talking to me, missing me, wanting to see me again.

“Mom,” I called, knowing she couldn’t hear me. “Mom, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I can’t be with you. I’m sorry that this happened. I’m sorry that I can’t keep my promise that I was going to take care of you and dad and Jamie. I’m sorry that I’ve to leave you. Mom, you’re going to be okay. I know you do.”

The more I talked, the more furious I was. If it wasn’t because of that man, this wouldn’t have happened. My family wouldn’t have to go through this tragedy. My mom wouldn’t have to caress my blanket while looking at the photo. She would caress my hair while looking at me. She would smile and see me smiling back.  

“Mom,” Jamie was at the door, he hesitated to come in. “Mom, they’re leaving. They want to see you.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.” She brushed off her tears, noticed that Jamie didn’t move. “I’ll be fine, Jamie.”

“You don’t have to,” he said. “It’s alright to not be fine.”           

My mom didn’t say anything for a whole minute then she smiled at my brother. Both of them went down the stairs together to send their cousins and friends. I saw Detective Carhart was talking to my dad in the living room. When he saw my mom coming down, he got up and ready to leave.

“MrsLangdon, I’m sorry for your loss.” Detective Carhart expressed his condolences once again. It sounded like he’d said the words too many occasions.

“Find the person who did this to my daughter, detective.”

“I will, MrsLangdon. As I told MrLangdon, we believe this is not the first time. We have the best team working on this case.”

“Not the first time. You mean a serial killer?” Jamie asked.

“We’ll keep you update. By the way, the service was beautiful,” he shook my mom’s hand as a farewell then leave.

I followed the detective outside. He was about to get in his car, I had to do something to let him know about the killer. I should leave him some kind of message.

“What are you trying to do?”

August called from behind. I stopped following the detective. He got into his car, started the engine, and drove on.

“Nothing,” I lied, and August knew.

“Lilith. Let him do his job and you do yours.”

August didn’t seem to be mad at me. He was probably too tired to get mad.

“Let’s go back. We’ll check on MrsAdams again in two days.”

I looked at my house, it was quiet after the guests had left. I didn’t know when I would see this place or my family again.

“August, thank you for letting me come here.”

“I didn’t let you come here. It’s part of the job.”

He could choose not to follow Laura since it wasn’t the day yet, but he came here anyway.

“Thank you.”

“What did I just say?” August sighed, held out his hand. “Let’s go.”

I took his hand and we blinked back to Jericho.