Death and Company

Chapter One

Death had come to Texas, but not in the foreboding sense for humanity. He had come to do a job. Death stopped his motorcycle at the light, waiting for it to change back to green. The heat from the Summer sun radiated off the pavement beneath him. If he were human it might have been uncomfortable in the long sleeves and pants, he wore. He watched the mortals walk past, going about their lives. They were unaware of the hourglass above their heads that slowly emptied representing their time left in this left. How blissful it must have been to not know when your end would come. He often wished he could be like them and not know when someone was going to die. He looked at the paper in his pocket. It contained an address and a time. His job was to retrieve the souls when their time finally ran out and help them cross into the unknown. He did not know where souls went when their time here was done. Religions often talked about a heaven or a hell, he wasn’t sure if either existed. He just knew that once the sand granules had all fallen, it was his job to be there when it happened.

He arrived at the appointed place right on schedule. The location was in the heart of downtown San Antonio. An old city that he had visited many times before. He had watched these roads turn from muddy cattle trails to busy roadways over the centuries. He pulled off his helmet to get a better look at what was happening. Of course, an immortal didn’t need to wear a helmet, but when appearing in the mortal world, one had to keep up appearances. A man was running down the sidewalk with a purse in his hand. On his heels was an obviously angry woman. Death presumed it was the owner of the purse. The man did not look when he started to cross. A car slammed into his body with a sickening crash. Death hated the messy deaths. Although the soul never looked gruesome in their death state, he did not like having to sometimes watch it happen. It would be easy to assume after witnessing so many deaths over the centuries it would make him desensitized to it. It had not.

He watched as the soul of the man stood up and looked around. His eyes were wide with fear and he screamed when he looked down and saw his mangled body lying on the ground before him. He screamed for help, hoping some of the people now gathering would be able to hear him. No one would, it was too late for him. The sooner he came to accept it, the easier it would be for him. He screamed again for help, growing more panicked as people stepped through him or failed to notice his dim presence.

“No one can hear you but me. Your time has ended and it is time to move on. I’m here to open the doorway for you. It is your choice to enter, but once this doorway closes it won’t be opened again.” The man spun around and faced Death. “Who are you? Why are you the only one who can see me? What door? What happens once I go into it? Can’t I just get back into my body and be ok? I’m standing here talking so I must be ok? Right?  Right?”

Death shook his head. “Your time in this existence is done. I cannot tell you what is beyond that door, I have never crossed myself. It is only my job to open the door and give you a choice.  If you do not cross, you will be stuck in your current stock. Centuries will go by and you will descend further into madness. No one will see or hear you. You will be completely alone. You will watch everyone live their life, but you will not be able to do anything”

“But what about ghosts? They have those television shows on all the time where people communicate with spirits.”

“Those spirits are different. They died before their time was supposed to come. Someone or something took the choice away from them. They need the gifts some mortals have and they must open the door for them to make their choice. You died when you were supposed to, so you will not have a second option if you fail to cross now.”

The man nodded his head as he understood. He looked around at the scene that had developed now. Police were speaking to the woman that had chased after him. An ambulance had now shown up to take the body to the morgue. Death wondered if the man would deny his chance to cross. He would not be the first one to do so. Death had seen his fair share of souls that wanted to stay and watch over their loved ones. Even though they couldn’t interact with them, they wanted to be close to them. The weight of this decision didn’t have an impact until their loved one died and they were left alone.

“I haven’t lived the best life. I can’t say I was a good person. I died while stealing a purse. I probably deserve whatever punishment is coming to me, if there is any. I hope my family can forgive me when they find out what kind of person I was. I’m going to choose to cross because staying just seems like a bad option compared to the unknown.”

Death nodded and waves his hand. A glowing golden door appeared and opened on the street. The man looked around to see if anyone noticed what was going on just a few feet away from them. Everyone seemed too busy trying to look at the scene on the street. The man took a deep breath and walked into the light. The light dimmed and faded. Death put his hands in his pockets and noticed the paper was gone. It always disappeared once the soul had decided. He knew it would not be long before another one appeared. He wondered where he would be going next. Sure, there were reapers who worked for him and would handle some of the other souls, but he was still Death. He still had a job to do. He scanned the scene again. Making note of the hourglasses above each person’s head. Something caught his eye though; someone was missing their hourglass. He sniffed the air; he didn’t smell a vampire nearby. Since they were immortal, they did not need a glass. They were a special case when it came to their soul. He had to get closer to make sure he was correct. He reassured himself the girl was probably just a vampire and the crowd was playing with his senses. He looked back at his bike and sighed. He would have to go on foot so he didn’t lose her. He knew he must be bored, why else would he be chasing after a girl. What was the mortal saying, “Curiosity killed the cat” the only problem is you had to be alive to die, and he hadn’t been alive in a very long time.

Death walked quickly in the direction the girl had gone. He was thankful the sidewalk was not crowded and it didn’t take more than a few moments before his long stride allowed him to catch up to the girl. He kept a reasonable distance from her, he did not want to alert her to his presence. He inhaled deeply trying to catch the scent of a vampire in the air. He smelled nothing, well that wasn’t true, he could smell her perfume of lilacs and jasmine. She was not a vampire, but what was she? There was no way she could be mortal. All mortals had an hourglass. She was not a ghost by the way people moved out of the way or looked at her as she passed by. Death was intrigued for the first time since he had become Death. He decided he would follow her, hopefully to her home so he could make note of it. He wanted to study her, like those mortals on television do with the wildlife. Death did not like the unknown and she was it. He had to have an answer or it would drive him mad. He followed her for several blocks to an apartment building. He hoped this was her place and not her visiting a friend or boyfriend. He made note of the address, mentally cataloging it with all the other random things that floated around in his mind. He slipped his hand inside his pocket and felt the paper there. “Time to go back to work,” he thought to himself