Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 267

I look at all the offices and try to imagine everything flying around in the room. Nothing happened. Instead
everyone starts to move in slow motion.
“You look like you need some help?” a voice behind me asks.
I turn around and see a man in his 20s with bed hair. Grinning mischievously.
“With what?” I ask.
“With causing a distraction of course!” he exclaims.
“Yeah but who are y-”
“I know this seem random and you have questions and all but I’ll be right back. Here’s your distraction!”
The man disappears just like that. That was weird.
Suddenly, I see people’s desks floating in the air. The lights started to flicker fast. Printer paper started to
chase the officers. Officer Hinkley was sitting in his chair eating a donut, watching all the chaos ensue.
Since everyone was distracted, I went over to the file room and saw Sidney with my file.
“I got the file, let’s go,” Sidney says. Just as she was leaving the file room, time stops completely. It’s the
weird guy again, but this time with parted hair. Is this guy a ghost too ?
“Nope. Not a ghost, but rather a psychopomp. I’m here because of your predicament. It’s rare that spirits
stay tethered to this world. The only reason is because something is keeping you here. Once you find out
what it is, you can no longer stay here,” says the weird man.
“I already know what I need to look for: how I died,” I said.
“I can see that.” he looks towards Sidney who has my file on hand. “However, your friend here knows
more than she lets on.” The man looks down on a pile of papers and picks them up.
He shows me what’s on each sheet. It states ‘AUTOPSY REPORT… IDENTITY: Deidre Li.’ The papers
list that an old dented Volkswagen Beetle was photographed driving away from the scene. The crime was
detailed as a ‘hit & run.’ In the pile were some photos held together with several photos from a traffic
camera. The car shown was Sidney’s. The report continued to describe that I was run over and found dead,
sustaining fatal injuries.
NoNoNoNoNoNo...Why?! Did Sidney really do this?
“She did,” the psychopomp stated. He disappears, leaving me with the truth.
“No! She couldn’t have! If she did, she would’ve told me already!” I ran out of the police station and met
up with Sidney, who was waiting at the parking lot.
“So the report here says you died because of car accident. So that’s it I guess. You should be moving on
now.” Sidney read the file, avoiding eye contact.
I can’t believe it. She lied straight to my face, and she wasn’t even convincing!
“That’s a lie and you know it!” I stormed off and started walking away from her. I didn’t want to listen to
her pathetic apology. Not after this.
“Deidre I can explai-” Sidney tries to reach out to me, but I cut her off.
“How could you lie to me?! Out of all the people that I know, you were the one I trusted the most. Yet,
you lied to me.” I was devastated. The one person that I knew my whole life always told me the truth, but
this time she lied.