Home.
I missed home. I missed my mom, my dad, and my annoying yet lovely brother. I shouldn't have left home, I should have looked for a job in Wisconsin. I would have been alive if I hadn't decided to come to New York.
What was going to happen to them? Were they going to know that I was dead? Were they going to discover my body? I had no idea where the man went or what he was going to do with my body. Did he ditch me? Buried me? What if no one found my body?
I tried to picture what I saw when I appeared as a spirit behind that monster, to see any clues that could let me to him. He carved something on my stomach with his knife; it was too dark to see what he was carving; letters, symbol, there was no way to tell. I could only see how his blue eyes sparkling with satisfaction.
I was lost in thought. I couldn't concentrate on what August had been saying or where he was going to take me.
We'd been walking for several minutes and there was nothing to see except the darkness.
"Where are we?"
August turned around, raised his brow.
"Since you were not listening, I'm going to tell you again. Because I'm a generous person. We're in the void; a place where time and space don't exist. It's the bridge between the living and the dead. If you don't know the direction, you'll be lost here forever."
"How can you tell the direction?" I saw no difference wherever I turned my head to, it was darkness period.
"There're so many things you've to learn, Lilith." He sounded like a father trying to teach their child. "We have to blink."
"Can you te–"
The moment my hand touched his, he blinked. I gasped for the air once again, realised I would never get accustomed to the blink. I felt sick already.
"Not bad for a newbie." August didn't even try to hide his sarcasm. He clapped his hands calling for my attention. "Welcome to Jericho."
Jericho was an amusement park. A carousel was operated, and a bunch of people were having fun. Loud screams came from the right direction where the roller coaster located. The place was lit up by colourfulLED lights.
It wasn't what I expected.
"Dope isn't it?"
I'd lost my words. This place was full of live and energy. Those people were grim reapers, but they looked happy and relax.
"Good thing about being a grim reaper is that we don't have to sleep or eat anymore. After work, we hang out here. Make yourself at home."
August left me in front of a map board indicated every rides and attraction they had.
My first stop was the carousel since it was the nearest. Two grim reapers were riding horses, one was on a pumpkin carriage. It took me back when I was six years old, my parents took me to the amusement park for the first time. I barely rode anything since I was too young, so I spent my day riding a unicorn with my dad where my mom took photos of us.
I walked on the way to see the giant roller coaster up close. On my way there, I passed several booths; shooting game, throwing game, archery. August was at the shooting booth. He scored the maximum point by hit every target. He seemed more relax than the time he was on duty.
"Slushy time! Come and get your free drinks, my fellow companions."
A big man with a magnificent goatee handed a cup of slushy to everyone on the line. Rainbow colourcame out of one machine. I didn't even want to ask or tried to find the answer, I took one plastic cup and moved on.
It'd been years since I last tasted the slushy. It was hard to believe that I was going to drink it again after I died. I took a sip carefully, brain freeze was one of my painful memories, turned out it wasn't cold. In fact, I tasted nothing.
"Why is it so bland?" My exclamation drew the attention from a couple in front of me.
The guy said; "You must be a newbie. How did you end up here? What did you do? Jump? Pills? A gun? Oh, wait. Hanging?"
"I…"
"Yes, she's a newbie and got so many things to learn. If you guys excuse us." August wrapped his arm around my shoulder, dragged me away from the couple.
"What're you doing?"
August lifted his arm away.
"Saving you." He said. "Don't tell anyone how you become a grim reaper. Keep a low profile. You're not like everyone here. You're the exception, I've never seen anyone wanted to become a grim reaper before."
"You saw what happened to me. How can you leave without doing anything?"
"You can't do anything. That's what dead means. It's the end."
His expression was hard to read. I wondered how he became a grim reaper and what did it mean that I was an exception? Was there a certain way to become a grim reaper? I would like to ask him; however, I had a feeling that he wasn't going to answer.
"What should I answer them? He wouldn't be the only one who asked, would he?"
"Answer them with a question." He said. "Just say; what about you? They mostly don't want to talk about it."
I had no idea what he was talking about.
"So, what're you going to teach me? The blink? There're so many things to learn, aren't there?"
"Nah, that was an excuse. Just keep exploring the place. When the job comes, I know where to find you."
He waved at me and walked away.
How could I learn anything if he kept avoiding me? I should find someone who was willing to teach me.There wasn't only one grim reaper around here, they were all grim reapers. It had to be one whom I could talk to.
I started to walk again without any sense of direction. I tried to picture the map I saw early, but I only focused on the roller coaster and didn't pay attention to other places around here.
A creepy castle was in my sight. The entrance decorated with teeth and fangs made it looked like a wide-open mouth of Dracula. The exterior painted with grey colour, white lines made them looked like cracks. Red and purple lights could be seen through the windows.
A Haunted House?
Why would grim reapers wanted to go to a haunted house? Technically, they were also a ghost, weren't they?
"Young lady, would you like to meet my friends?" A man by the entrance approached me. I knew I shouldn't have met eyes contact, but it was too late to avoid him.
"No. Thank you."
Whoever his friends were, if it involved going into the haunted house, no, thank you was the only answer.
He kept inviting me to see his friends, and I kept refusing him until my feet came to their senses and started walking away from the man and his creepy house.
At the end of the way was a huge lake with blue pedal boats parked at jetty. This place quite far away from those LED lights, it made me realised that the sky was different. It was a mixed colour between red, orange, and dark blue, like the time when the Sun was setting but there was no Sun.
"I've never seen you before," said a girl in a flower pattern dress, she sat on a bench facing the lake.
"I'm new. My name is Lilibe…Lilith. My name is Lilith"
"I'm Mandy."
We shook hands. She let me sit beside her. Mandy was young, sixteen at the most. Her blonde hair was straight and long, her big blue eyes were beautiful. She looked like a doll and a little sister I wished I had, instead I got Jamie who was alright but too far from cute.
"How long have you been here?"
"Hmm…dunno. Two years? Who's counting anyway."
Was it going to be all right if I asked her to teach me blink since August didn't seem like he wanted to do?
"You know when grim reapers travel, they have to…"
"You wanna blink, right? I can teach you."
The girl was smart, I had to admit. She got up quickly ready to demonstrate. She stood still, eyes opened. I watched her closely, didn't want to miss anything. Once her right foot stepped forward, she disappeared and reappeared ten yards away.
"This is short blink. You should start with it."
I got up and walked to her starting point.
"It's about concentration." Mandy said. "Picture where you want to go in your mind and just blink."
It sounded easy, looked easy. I pictured where Mandy was standing in my mind and how I was going to stand beside her. I lifted my left foot off the ground like I was walking.
"You did it!"
I jumped, didn't aware that I already blinked. Looking back on where I came from was incredible. The feeling was so much better than when I travelled with August.
"That was easy."
"Yes, yes." She nodded. "The longer distance you wanna go the more challenging it would be. Wanna try?"
"Of course!"
"I'll be waiting for you at the entrance. You know where the map board is, right?"
"Yes, I do."
Mandy disappeared, signalled me to follow her. The entrance was somewhere on my left. I faced that direction, tried to recall places around the wooden map board; a colourful food stall with drawings of corn, hot dog, and burger, soft ice cream stall next to Mexican food stall, and carousel toward the back.
I could hear laughter and scream in my mind. Once I stepped forward, I arrived at the entrance. Mandy waved at me with a smile on her face.
"Well done, Lilith!" She sounded like my kindergarten teacher, I couldn't help but smile back.
"Thank you. It's not as hard as I thought."
"It can be tricky sometimes. Keep practising."
"Lilith. Come with me." August walked to us in a hurry.
"Oh. Hi Gust."
"Mandy." He nodded at her then turned to me. "I see you met our lil' Mandy."
"Hey!" Mandy didn't fond of the word little.
"I've to borrow Lilith. Go play with your friends, she'll be back soon, alright?"
"I'm not a child!" Mandy stormed off, disappeared in front of the ice cream stall.
"She's mad at you. Why did you say that?" Mandy reminded me of Jamie when had turned teenager and I still treated him like a little brother.
"She'll be alright." August held out his hand, ready to blink.
"I know how to blink." I couldn't wait to show him what I'd learned.
"Yeah? You don't know where we've to go. Now, hand."
I tried to keep my cool and not to complain about taking a back seat.
"Fine."
We arrived at Gomer Building in daylight, assumed it was already the day after I died. The place was busy as usual, I couldn't help but to look for any familiar faces. Were they going to know that the new employee would never come to work anymore? The manager must be furious about my absent.
August entered the building, walked pass a security check to one of lifts behind.
"Where are we going?"
"Floor twenty-sixth."
It wasn't my floor or any of my colleagues. However, two grim reapers were here could only mean it was someone's time. We followed humans inside the lift, blended in with them. Although one question remained, how could we push the button? No one was going to 26th.
"Shouldn't we just blink?" I whispered even though nobody could see or hear us.
"I thought you might want to see your workplace."
How thoughtful of him.
"Thanks."
The lift opened at floor 20th, Lin walked in. I wanted to greet her, but she couldn't see me. Her natural look was so perfect, well-suited to her open sleeve navy dress.
"Gary." She called a man who just came in.
Gary looked gorgeous with dark grey long-sleeved shirt and beige skinny fit pants. He carried a backpack and one laptop in his hand.
"'sup Lin, where're you going?"
"Doing some legwork for Michelle." She padded her file in her arms. "Anyway, do you know where Lily is? Phoebe said she's not in yet and she didn't pick up the phone."
"No, how would I know where she is."
"You're with her yesterday."
"I walked her to the City Hall. She didn't let me walk her home." Gary corrected her.
"Oh, where is she then? You think she quits?"
"No way."
August nudged me when the door slid open at floor 25th. I looked at both of them again. Gary's eyes met mine. I knew he couldn't see me, but our eyes locked at each other until the door shut between us.
"You alright?"
"Yes. Yes. I'm fine."
Carried on our way to floor 26th by taking the fire exit stairs, I kept thinking about Gary and our first and last time we met. I should have let him walk me home that monster wouldn't dare to attack me. I would have been alive. I…
"That's our target." August pointed to the woman in the room. The front door indicated her name and title.
"How does she die?"
"Heart attack."
The event occurred five minutes later, Jennifer stood up, suddenly she collapsed and just like that she was gone. Her spirit appeared beside August.
"So, that's it." She said, looking at a bunch of people circle around her body. One of them performed CPR, but it was too late.
"You don't look upset." August said.
"No. Why would I be? My parents passed away two years ago. I live alone. I'm single. I married to my work. Now I'm free. Why would I be upset?"
Despite her words, Jennifer looked sad but calm. She accepted her situation and followed August without any questions.
'That was an easy task,' according to August when we travelled back to Jericho. He told me that most people resisted following him, pleaded to go back to life, cursed at him because they thought it was unfair.
Sound familiar?
I bet that was a natural reaction.
"Old people and those who live in a hospital for years accept their death easily. People around your age tend to fight."
"Well, of course. Life has just started around my age."
We reached the lake where Mandy sat on the same bench as I met her the first time.
"What about children? What's their reaction?" I asked out of sheer curiosity.
"Children like me, so they simply follow me." Proud August could be annoying sometimes.
He left me with Mandy. I wasn't going to complain this time because I liked Mandy and she could tell me a lot of stuff about grim reapers.
We sat there, admired the lake and talked.