Chasing Death

Let's start with that night

They say when one door closes another opens, but what do they say about losing your friend?

I mean, that's all we were, was friends.. but we had been living together for the past two years. We had a frog named Betsy, I don't know if he had been dating anyone but I'm sure he would have told me.. there was just no need... But then he died, I was there and saw everything, well... let me explain.

Wyatt had just come home from work and was going on about how one of the work girls was an i***t when he slipped and hit his head on the corner of the bar in our kitchen, knocking over the basket of oranges directly onto his head. I laughed at the irony of my clumsy best friend calling these girls idiots as he was quite literally a gigantic klutz.

We made supper that night and went to bed in our rooms. It was the middle of the night when I heard Betsy croak and when I opened my eyes there was a tall dark eerily shaped figure in my door frame.

"Get out of here Wyatt, it's like 4am. You woke up Betsy!" I shouted at the figure in my doorway and threw one of my several frog plushes at them.

"Oh no. no no no. why can you.." the figure stammered off and slipped out of my view.

That wasn't right.. Wyatt? Wyatt! "Wyatt?!" I shrieked and bolted from my bed towards my door and across the hall to his room. The door was ajar and the figure was beside his bed.

"Look.." the figure turned to me, I couldn't see a face, just drapes of dark cloth making a silhouette. It didn't take me much to put two and two together. "..normally I wouldn't do this, but you have a very attentive guard frog. I can give you a couple of minutes to say goodbye, but you have to promise to not make a big scene out of all of this, okay?" the figure turned to me.

"I.. what.." I stammered off trailing my words and trying to collect my thoughts as much as I could. "So wait.. Wyatt.. is.. dead?"

"Yes."

"And you're.. Death?"

"Also correct"

"and you want me to just.. not.. freak out?"

"if you wouldn't mind. It's late, it would cause a scene, this is kind of.. my job, you know?"

I blinked. I don't know if it was the shock that my roommate and friend of two years was now dead or the fact that I had met Death, but I just froze, looking back from Death to Wyatt.. and then back to Death.

I felt tears well up in my eyes and I fell to my knees.

"What am I supposed to do?" I looked up to Death but they were gone. I broke. tears started falling down my face as I cried for my friend, I cried for me, I tried for our Frog. This wasn't fair. We were still so young.. how could this happen?

Death came back to the room, evidently, they had gone in the freezer as they brought me back an ice cream sandwich. "Mortals use ice cream to cope right? I never was good at this stuff"

I chuckle through the tears and accept the ice cream. "Thanks for trying.. but what now?" I ask unsure what I was supposed to do.

"Well, you have to do what humans do..."

I have to do what humans do... I pondered on that while Death did their Death thing by my friend's body, removing the soul swirling their hands over and pulling the energy from my friend's body.. I couldn't help but peek. 

"You're not scared?" Death saw me watching them. 

"Terrified," I replied, my brow furrowed "but what can I do? I don't even know what happened.. I just heard Betsy croak and then you were here. I can't do anything and I can't help but feel like this is my fault. I should have had him go to the hospital when he fe-" 

"It wasn't the fall." Death cut me off and I looked at them puzzled " look, you'll have to do what humans do and call 9-1-1, start that process. They will do an autopsy, but it wasn't the fall." I don't know why but it felt like Death was comforting me? in some other-worldly type way there was something comforting about this figure in front of me. 

"crr--rrroaaaak" Betsy chirped up. 

"She knows something is off.." I trailed off. 

"Animals do that, that's why she alerted you to my being here. it happens all the time. Kind of breaks my heart, if I had one." an awkward pause ."I have to go, do what humans do." 

"I.. wait!" I looked at Death. How many people could say that? "will I see you again?" What was I doing? 

"I hope not. Now, do what humans do." 

By the time I had blinked they were gone.. The tears came back and I went to my room to get my phone. I had to do what humans do. I made the call and sat by Betsy's terrarium until the authorities came and helped me with Wyatt.