"death"

a short story.

Death never looked so excruciatingly lovely. No, I mean it. Literally.

Now, don’t you look at me with that judgmental gaze. You know what- sit, sit and grab your favourite snack, I’ll tell you the story of how I fell in love

With death.

~

”one for sorrow

two for bated breath

three for a wedding 

and four for death

five for silver

six for gold

and seven for a secret never to be told”

The first time I saw her, I was sitting on the edge of the bridge facing the sea. The sky was dripping in crimson and gold and it was painfully divine. I ran my hands through my hair and contributed carbon dioxide into this sad world just to steal more oxygen right after.

 I saw a figure down at the beach, silhouetted in black pulling a limp body to his bike and driving away. Two years ago this moment would’ve taken my breath away but I soon realized that things like this are normal in this part of the town- gang violence, injuries, aren’t something that concern the general public. Death has become a welcomed guest.

Four crows zipped across the sky in a seamless line, cutting through the sunset as the streetlights flickered on. I climbed over the railing to the other side and hailed a cab. My apartment was a mess of ash and ashtrays from cigarettes that didn’t belong to me. I had decided that living this way was enough. So I took to cleaning my mess and sitting out on my balcony with a glass of apple cider. I looked out, hypnotized and told my mind to shut up for a second. 3am is my absolute favourite time, everything is so quiet, no pollution, no people, no expectations, no suffocation. 

And I spotted him again. Now you must keep in mind I did not know that this figure was going to be the cause of my sleepless nights for days on end. That this figure was going to be the reason for nightmares, screams and mortals perishing. I ignored the silhouette as it disappeared from sight as fast as it had come into it. And 10 minutes later, exactly 10 minutes later 

knock knock knock knock

No one ever knocks on my door, except for disaster.

I stepped out of my chair and rolled up the sleeves to my shirt, felt my jaw tensing, the vulnerability that dawns on my face before the sun does, being masked into nothingness as I prepared myself for an encounter with another human.

Ha. Little did I know.

I opened my door to a curtain of black hair whipping across my gaze. The biker is a ‘she’. She looked at me with serene kohl lined eyes as she untangled her helmet from under her arm to push a strand of hair behind her ears.

The look of discomfort didn’t sit well on the face that was meant to mirror confidence. 

“Look,” 

Her voice was deep and husky, like a calypso

“I don’t do this very often so I’m going to get straight to it, I need your help.”

There was urgency in her voice, she didn’t make eye contact, just kept looking around like she was expecting someone to pop up behind her. 

“Well…?”

I didn’t realize I had been staring at her for so long without responding when she finally looked straight at me, her eyebrows raised. 

“Oh yes” I fumbled around as if I was looking for something only to apprehend I didn’t even know what I was looking for, so I locked my hands in my pockets 

“What do you want?”

“Okay, I’m not sure if it’s safe telling you all this but I’m really new to all this stuff and I screwed up, big time.”

I instantly relate, which causes me to beckon her inside and gesture to the couch with one hand while I perch myself on the kitchen chair. Part of me is extremely glad I cleaned today. 

“Well you see, I’m death-”

She goes to continue before I stop her and regret allowing a psychopath into my house.

“You’re what?”

A look of realization shadows her face as she slaps a hand to her forehead. “Right, I forget mortals aren’t used to this kind of information. Well technically, I’m Dimitri, but back in the underworld people just call me Death. I mean they’re souls, not so great at the whole memory thing, you know?”

I, as a matter of fact, don’t know.

“Anyway,” she continues

“My dad retired from his job, like a month ago and they just throw me out of hell onto this place that I’ve never seen before- no training, nothing and just tell me to go on and collect souls? So I was doing a pretty good job, although your guys’ souls are surprisingly weighed down, by what I don’t know. But then this dude that I came to collect by the beach today- I...” she faltered

I’m way too taken aback by all this information to actually knock sense into myself and so I find myself asking

“You what?”

“I can’t find his soul”

“And…” Wow, I really don’t know what to say

“And, that’s bad?”

“BAD?!” She’s incredulous, “it’s horrible, it’s not possible, it can’t be, I don’t know what to do and I’m going to be in real trouble if I can’t place his soul before the crack of dawn”

“But, how can I help you, I mean, what do I have to do?”

“Help me find his soul, of course.” She says as if it’s obvious. “Look, I have an hour at the most before the sun comes up and I have to be back home, I can’t look for a human soul alone in such little time now can I?”

“I guess you can’t” I stand up and rub my palms against each other. “What’s the plan?”

 “His soul has to be hanging around close to his body somewhere, you see. We just go down, examine his body and I’m sure we’ll find the it somewhere”

“That’s you plan?!”

“You’ve got a better suggestion, mister?”

I just shake my head and cross death’s path to walk out the door and I hear her chunky heels stomping, following me. 

We take the lift down the building and I don’t even try to make small talk because I’m just beginning to comprehend the fact that I’m in an elevator with death. As the last button on the panel lights up with a ding we step out into a sickly sweet shade of magenta.

I have no time to ponder over this purple hued beauty because my friend to my right is frozen in horror. I follow her gaze to nothing and back, I’m confused until I take in that the ‘nothing’ is the cause of her horror. 

Her bike is missing. 

“My bike is missing” 

She slides down the concrete pillar behind her and shoves her face in her hands, starts shuddering with sobs “This cannot be happening, oh my god, no, no, no”, the panic in her voice rising

I kneel down next to her and stroke her back, I’m amazed by the calmness and comfort in my voice as I shush her sobs. “We’ll find it, Dimitri, just- don’t cry. We both know that’s not helping” 

She nods with her face still buried in her hands and looks up, her eyes already swollen and her nose red. My heart breaks a little. 

“Here’s what we’ll do” I say, a sudden motive in my voice. “We’ll take a train to where you last saw him. That should clear things up a little, right?” I’m still talking carefully, so as to not upset her.

And my insides shatter as I see hope on her face mixed with relief, for someone else being in charge for once, giving instructions, giving consolation and I suddenly see a young girl behind this intimidating demeanor. One that was thrown into the real world with a heavy burden on her slender frame and I feel a flame rising in my heart. I will help her and I will make everything alright.

I take her hands and haul her up, and we start walking towards the train station in silence, again. Once we reach, she mouths bridge to me and I already know which one as I collect a ticket from the machine and we get on the empty train.

Cracks of sun rays are breaking the horizon as we stand in the door frame, a strand of her hair flies into her eyes again, I reach over and absentmindedly tuck it behind her ear. This causes her to look up straight into my eyes, they soften and I think after all the people I’ve met in this lifetime, she’s one of the few that sees just how tired I am. Her eyes devour every imperfection on my body, my rumpled hair, my exhausted eyes, the slight stubble growing on my chin, the top button of my shirt undone, my tie loose, sleeves haphazardly rolled up, watch half unhooked and suddenly I feel so revealed, so naked and vulnerable because no one has ever looked at me this way before. But I can’t seem to find myself breaking eye contact with those hypnotizing brown eyes of hers. They show me the human side of death, through the kohl and ‘boldness’ there’s an actual person there. And I really want to get to know her story. 

She leans in, to secure a loose thread escaping from my shirt and gasps as the train stops and throws us into collision. 

I’m in love with death

What the hell? And don’t cringe at me for swearing, I do in every literary sense, mean Hell itself.

“We’re here” I whisper

She nods and we stumble out onto the beach and with a sigh of relief I spot her bike. She’s so excited she hugs me and jumps up and down and runs to it, dragging me along 

“Now all we have to do is find the sou-” she stops dead in her tracks

And so do I, the black cloth covering the man’s face has shifted down a little and the first ray of sunshine hits his face.

And it’s like I’m looking into a mirror. 

I feel a vacuum building in my core as it sucks me into the body; it has found its soul.   

It must have slipped my mind that I was dead 

and I guess death wasn’t so great at differentiating man from soul. 

~

TIMES TODAY

Man Falls To Death From City Flyover

It has been reported that a man, name unknown, fell to his mortal peril from the city bridge facing the sea. Anonymous witnesses claim he was ‘peacefully watching the sunset’ before he lost balance and fell straight on the rocks covering the beach. His body was last seen by a sole watchman being carried away on a bike by a man whose face has not been identified due to a helmet. The watchman claims the biker seemed to be hugging the body, shuddering but claims are still uncertain. The only evidence of this man’s death is the blood staining the rocks.