Chapter One

I WOKE up from the blinding lights. I found myself lying on the ground. In the middle of the streets. Fuck. 

I tried to remember all the things that happened last night. The last thing I remembered, I was about to cross the street when I saw a familiar girl on the other side of the lane. She was about to get hit by a car but I saved her. 

I got up and surveyed my surroundings. The girl I saved last night. Where was she now? I remembered I pushed her on the pavement. Fuck. And why was it daylight now? Did I fall asleep in the middle of the road? Was I really drunk last night?

I looked down and checked on myself. All I remembered before closing my eyes was that I was covered with my own blood. But how come I was perfectly fine? I didn't see any trace of blood on my dress. I tried to move my hand. I didn’t feel any pain in any part of my body. Just what the fuck happened? 

I panicked when I saw a truck approaching me. Fuck! My first instinct was to run. I had to run. But the truck was moving fast. Now, it was only meters away from me. I closed my eyes and waited for the truck to hit me. 

One, two, three…

A moment passed but I didn't feel anything. Nothing happened. Why? I opened my eyes and found out the truck was now gone. Instead, a white SUV was now heading towards me. 

I stayed in my position and waited for the car to run over me. I watched as the car hit me but I felt nothing. It just penetrated me and then passed through me like I wasn't standing here. 

I looked down at my body. Nothing happened to me. I was still here. What the fuck? What was happening? 

How… how was this fucking possible? Maybe I was dreaming? I tried again to remember all the events that had happened last night. I was fucking sure I got hit by a fucking car. Was it possible that maybe…I was dead already? Fuck.

“Not yet.”

A guy suddenly appeared beside me. What the fuck! Where the hell did this guy come from? I was in the middle of the street and I was sure he wasn't here earlier. 

“W-who are you?" I asked him. He was tall and handsome. I looked at his face. Straight nose, thick brows, squared jaw, red lips and deep eyes. I stared at his eyes. His eyes. They’re as dark as his clothes. 

He was wearing an all black outfit. Black cape, black pants, black shoes. Everything about him was black. He looked like he's going to attend a funeral or something. 

He smiled at me. I didn't know why his smile suddenly unnerved me. It was the first time I got intimidated by someone. There was something different in him that I couldn't explain.

“I’m Kairos. Your death angel.”

Kairos? Death angel? 

“What? I don't understand. Death angel? What are you talking about?"

I stopped when it occurred to me that we're still in the middle of the street. I witnessed how a car passed through him. Just like what I experienced earlier. 

Fuck. Who was this man? 

“Do I have to repeat it to you, Cresia?”

He called me by my name? How did he know me? “Fuck! Do you know me?”

He didn't answer my question. Instead, I saw how his eyebrows crossed. He looked annoyed. “You know what I hate the most? Humans with foul mouths.”

Human? Did he just call me a human? 

What the hell was happening? How the fuck did I wake up in the middle of the streets? Without any injury. Vehicles were passing through me like… like I was invisible. Then there's this guy. He just suddenly appeared out of nowhere and introduced himself as a death angel. My fucking death angel. I don’t even know what a death angel is!

“A death angel. Angels who are assigned to collect souls and bring them to after life. And what is after life? It's either heaven or hell,” he answered me. 

I dumbfoundedly looked at him. He could read my mind? 

“Before The Creator created humans, there are already angels with Him—"

"Wait," I interrupted him. "You're really a fucking angel? As in angel?" 

He frowned. "Do I have to repeat everything to you?"

"I…" I didn't know what to say. 

"When He created humans, he assigned two kinds of angels to accompany them. The birth angel and the death angel," he continued. 

"The birth angels were assigned to accompany humans the minute they were born until they reached the age of ten years. In short, they are the guardian angels. On the other hand, the death angels were assigned to accompany humans when they are about to die and bring them to the afterlife.”

Fine. I knew stories about angels when I was a kid, but never did I believe in them. And now this man in front of me, telling me, he was a freaking angel? A fucking death angel? 

Something caught my attention. It was a man crossing my street. He looked like the man beside me. He was wearing the same clothes and the same aura as Kairos. He had a very dark aura in him. Just like this man beside me. 

"That was Thanos." I heard the man beside me speak. 

I continued to look at the man whom Kairos called Thanos. He was walking towards us. But I noticed he was not alone. Behind him was another guy. 

But he was different from the two men in black. The third man looked like a beggar with his tattered and crumpled shirt. He was walking barefooted and with his hands tied up. They were tied up with a silver knot. 

Thanos and the man behind him stopped in front of us. 

“Finally, you captured him, Thanos,” Kairos said. 

“It took me a month to finally capture him." I felt shivers run all over me as I heard Thanos' voice. His voice sounded really cold. His aura. It was darker than Kairos. Thanos glanced at me before looking back at Kairos. “New assignment?”

New assignment? Was he talking about me? 

I glanced at Kairos. I noticed how Kairos looked and nodded at Thanos. The way they stared at each other seemed like they were sharing a secret language or something. 

“I'll go ahead.” I heard Thanos speak as he left us. The man behind him silently followed him. Together, they continue to cross the street. 

"W-who was that?" I asked Kairos. "Thanos? Kairos?" I muttered. "Just where did you get your names?" 

"And you think Lucresia is not weird for a name?" He clapped back. 

How dare this death angel insult me. But wait. He called me Lucresia! "How did you know my name?" 

"I already told you, I'm a death angel. I'm your death angel."

"That Thanos," I mumbled. "He's just like you? A freaking death angel?" 

I searched for Thanos and the man behind him but I couldn't see them anymore. It was like they just vanished in thin air as soon as they crossed the streets. 

“Thanos, he was assigned to capture those missing souls.”

I looked back at Kairos. "Missing… soul? Who are you talking about? The man behind Thanos? I-is he dead?" 

Kairos nodded at me. If Thanos and Kairos were death angels… 

“Then what about me? Why am I seeing you? Am… am I a soul already? Am I dead already?" I grabbed his coat. Was he really an angel? "Answer me?!" I demanded him. "Am I dead already?" 

Kairos looked at me before snapping his fingers. Suddenly, we were transported into a different place. I looked around. I saw a nurse station on the corner. I realized we were inside a hospital. 

"Doc, here's the chart of Mr. De Vera, the fifty year old man with a CKD stage two."

Two people were walking in the hallway. They were both wearing white uniforms. The other one was on a doctor's coat, there's a stethoscope hanging around her neck. I read the letters embroidered on her white coat. St. Lukes’ Medical Center.

"Thanks, Kenny. Please tell Doc Miranda I have an operation tonight." 

I could clearly hear everything they're saying. They continued on talking as they passed by me. 

How the hell did I get here? I looked for Kairos. He was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. Why did he bring me here? 

"You can find your body here."

I was in awe. “You can read my mind—" I stopped when I realized what he just said. "What are you talking about? My body's here?"

"Follow me."

Just like what he said, I followed him. We reached the ICU department of the hospital. Lenos stopped in front of a room and looked at me. 

 "Look inside."

From the glass window of the room, I saw an unconscious body lying on the hospital bed. I gasped when I realized whose body I was staring at. It was mine. 

I was lying on the bed. Different apparatus were connected to my body. My head was wrapped in a bandage. 

Kairos said to me. “Your brain got damaged from the accident. Your body was unconscious so your soul left your body.”

Wait, if my body was here on the ICU… that means I'm still alive.

Kairos clicked her finger. In an instant, we were inside the hospital room. I went near my body. I stared at my face. Fuck. 

My once flawless skin was now full of cuts and bruises. I couldn't recognize myself. 

“Do you wanna know what happened to the girl you saved?"

I ignored whatever he's saying; I just continued to stare at myself. I didn't know what entered my mind last night! I didn't know why I had to save that girl! I didn't even know her. 

Now, look at what happened to me! 

Come on, Cresia. The important thing is you're alive. 

I tried to touch my unconscious body in front of me but I failed. “I can’t touch myself!” 

“What do you expect? You’re a soul. You can't easily touch things, even your own body. It requires great concentration.”

“H-how can I go back to my own body?”

“The only way you can go back to your body is when you wake up…” 

I noticed the flower vase on top of a small table in the corner of the room. It was filled with black roses. Black roses. Where did they come from? 

I remembered the girl I saved. "How was she?" 

"Thanks to you, she was safe."

“Who brought me here to the hospital?”

“The father of the child you saved."

“He's the one  taking care of my bills?" 

I looked around the room. St. Lukes? That girl’s family must be rich. But of course, after I saved her, they had to give me the best treatment. 

He smirked. “Who else? Wala ka namang kamag-anak o kaibigan.” Kairos was right. I didn’t have a family nor friends to take care of me. 

I had a lot of questions right now. How did he know all those things about me? How did he know that I was alone in life? 

“I am your death angel. I know things about you.” I was about to ask him a lot of things but the door opened. A nurse entered the room. I watched her as she checked on my body’s condition. Fuck! It was so fucking weird seeing my own body in front of me. 

I waited for the nurse to go out before I turned to Kairos. “If you’re my death angel, why the hell are you here? I'm still alive, am I not?"

“Good question.” He grinned. “Do you want to know the answer?” He glanced at my unconscious body before he turned to face me. “Because you will never wake up again, Cresia. March 28, 2018. 12:01am. That will be the exact time of your death.” 

W-what… “I… I’m going to die?" Those words came as a whisper from me. "No. No way!” I looked at my poor body. No. This couldn't happen to me. This was not real. 

“You can’t escape death, Cresia. Whether you like it or not, you will die sixty days from now. And do you want to know what will happen to you?” He grinned. “Your soul will end up in hell.”