Dinner Date With Death

I sat there staring at him, he stared back. Okay…this was awkward. I reached out to touch him but he pulled back.

“Let’s just get this over and done with.” He said.

“Don’t be too hasty, I want to get to know you.” I said.

“No, you don’t.” He resisted.

“Uh, yeah, I do.” I said "for starters, why do you do what you do?"

“Because, I have no choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”  

“Not this time there wasn’t.” he said

“Hmmn…” was all I said as I got up from his dining table and walked over to his bar and poured myself drink. I could feel him staring at me.

I was gorgeous and I knew it. I had blonde hair, blue eyes, full breasts, long hair, flawless skin….I was everything a man could wish for…but not him.

“You don’t understand, I don’t want to do this, I’m not ready.” He said finally.

“I understand.”  I said as I watched him battle his feelings. I understood his feelings but he stubbornly wouldn’t let me understand him. “But a deal’s a deal.” I said as I walked up to him. “Are you ready?” I asked.

I saw tears well up in his eyes, just like I saw in the others, “I’m ready.” He said with shaky voice, trying his best to be brave.

I placed both hands on his temple and began breathing at a slightly more exaggerated rate. I concentrated on what I was doing. I was, literally, dragging the life out of him.

Don’t judge me, it’s not easy for me either, being death. You absolutely have no idea how many people die in a day. The only perks that came with the job was that I could transform myself to look like anybody I wanted. But what good does that do?

It is said, “just before you die, you entire life flashes before your eyes. Every single memory, action, or decision comes flooding back.” Let me tell you now... that's not true.

First of all, I drag out all the energy from your life force, as I do this, your vision dims, and then as the whole process becomes more intense, your sight brightens, almost at blinding, but only you can see it. Then slowly your mind clears. Most times, peoples’ last thought usually concerned the afterlife, “Where am I going after here? Heaven? Hell? Purgatory? Reincarnation? Who am I going to be if I come back? Will I remember anything?”

Truth is, your life will eventually begin to flash, but not in front of your eyes…in front of mine. I begin to see everything; your whole life, your fun times, your pain, your happiness, your sadness, your tears, your joy. Everything.

Now as I held his head, I watched his life. I saw his first birthday.

 I saw his mother run into the middle of the road to save him from being hit by a car when he was about six years old.

I saw him get bullied all through junior high. And it didn’t get any better for him in high school.

At 18, he joined the army to serve his great country. To make a difference. But at 24, he barely got out alive.  I saw the people he killed in the line of battle. I saw the nightmares he had because of it.

I even saw the first day she met his wife. She was his psychologist’s assistant. She had turned him down the first time he asked her out, but his persistence eventually paid off.

Ever since the first day he saw her, he loved her more with every breath. And he never had the urge to look at another woman again.

And I felt it, I felt his love for his wife. I Stumbled briefly as it overwhelmed me.

But not just his love, I also felt his pain, his joy, his frustrations.

For a split second it was as though I lived their lives with them. And sadly for me, that was the closest I came to knowing what a normal life felt like. And I go through this torment over and over again every day. What I wouldn’t give, just to live a normal life.

They got married at the bed and breakfast where they spent their first vacation together as a couple. It was a dainty but lovely ceremony. That night she told him she was pregnant, had been for three weeks.

The day his daughter was born, he cried his eyes out and promised to protect her as long as he lived and if possible for ever.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, he couldn’t afford the hospital bills, and his insurance couldn’t cover her treatment.

He borrowed money from a loan shark who required favors from him in return. These ‘favors’ ranged from robbing banks to dealing drugs and even smuggling into the country. Literally, anything you could imagine.

I shuddered cause I now saw it his way. He had to do what he had to do to save his daughter's life. He couldn’t stop or else the loan shark would have stopped paying for his daughters treatment or even killed his wife and kid. He really didn’t have a choice.

When I got the information on him a year ago, I was just told that he was a criminal and needed to be stopped. Guilt overwhelmed me as I continued to drain his life.

When I had first come to him, he begged me to give him an extra year with his daughter while she got better. Honestly, I still don’t know why I did it. I just did. It felt like I was giving the poor girl more loving memories with her father. But I couldn’t stall with his case again. His soul was being demanded for.

He decided not to tell his wife about his life of crime or about our previous encounter. He just wanted her to have good memories of him.

He already knew I was coming tonight and he sent them to see a movie.

I felt that regular chill that told me it was almost over. Then his last thought flooded me. “I just want them to be okay.” His wife and child. He loved them that much. He didn’t care about what happened to him after. He just wanted them to be okay.

I heard the door open behind me, it was his wife and daughter. No worries. Only the person I came for could see me.

That was it. The end. I let go of his head and let it drop to the table.

His wife screamed and rushed to his lifeless body, “Call 911” she yelled to her daughter who rushed to the phone.

“Baby, baby look at me. Wake up.” she cried “You can’t leave me, you just can’t leave me.” she said hugging his body tightly.

“Is daddy going to be okay?” His six year old daughter asked.

But her mother was to enveloped in grief to notice her question.

He rocked his lifeless body as she cried. “I love you, baby, please, please...”

“It was too late.” I thought as I watched the pain I had inflicted on this family.

But this was my job, what I did every day. It wasn’t easy and it definitely wasn’t worth it. Being death is obviously nothing like you imagined.