As he laid on his back, he tried to think to only a moment ago, on the other side of that last breath... but it was fuzzy. He could remember seeing his parents and his big sister standing in the hallway, crying, and the doctors gathered around him, shouting...
With a gasp, he pushed himself up, suddenly feeling panic rise up in his chest.
His chest.
Lifting his hand, he searched for a heartbeat and dropped his hand when he found nothing.
"Surprised?"
The voice cut through the boy's panicked silence, it's cool aloofness sending a chill down his spine.
Forcing himself to find any bit of courage inside of him, the boy turned to see who it was that was watching him.
Silhouetted in the deep blue glow of a doorway, a young man stood there, his arms clasped behind his back, donned in nothing but black. He was tall and lean, his jet black hair pulled away from his face to reveal a pair of ice blue eyes that continued to watch the boy, curiously.
"Who are you?"
The man's lips twitched at the boy's question.
Taking a step forward, he simply offered, "You may call me Lord Death."
"Death?" The boy's eyes grew wide at the sound of the word.
Lord Death glanced down at the boy, the corner of his mouth almost lifting up into a smile. "I'll repeat my first question--are you surprised?"
"But," the boy stumbled over his thoughts, trying desperately to understand what was happening. "But this wasn't--"
"Supposed to happen?" Death finished his thought for him. "You'd be surprised with how many people say that."
The boy wasn't listening to the dark man standing before him; he was looking around, desperately searching for something--the truth... or perhaps an escape.
"I was supposed to make it," he muttered to himself. "The doctor said I was going to be okay." His thoughts came to him faster than he could say them. "I wanted to be a dad... I wanted to grow old."
Lord Death scoffed at his words. "Growing old is vastly overrated, my boy."
After a moment of watching the young boy continue to panic, Lord Death took him by his shoulders and forced him to listen. "See here, boy. It is not the length of your life that counts, but the depth."
"What?" The boy tried desperately to let the man's words anchor him to the here and now... only, he didn't know where "here" was.
"I have watched you live and grow all these years and I can assure you that you have lived a full life."
"But I'm only nineteen!"
"And in just nineteen years, you managed to do more than most ninety year old men I welcome here."
Seeing the boy had calmed down a bit, Death released him and took a step back. "You've lived not a long life but a deep one." He paused for a moment before adding, "And that is far more meaningful."
The boy remained silent, his thoughts a mystery to the lord for only a moment.
"What about my family?" His words surprised Death. "My sister?"
Lord Death smiled at the boy's concern. "They will be just fine," he assured. "And when it is their turn to come here, we can meet them together."
"How long will that be?"
There was something in Lord Death's smile that he didn't particularly like--didn't trust--but he forced himself to forget his doubts. At the moment, Lord Death was the only person he had in this place and the man had given him no reason to fear him or his words.
"Sadly," Death declared, "I cannot tell you that right now. But, I promise, it will be within the blink of an eye for you. For you see," he leaned in to whisper, "we are not trapped by the human's idea of time here."
Here.
From his first breath he had known that there was something special about this place... and "this place" was certainly nothing like he had ever known.
His eyes were slowly beginning to adjust to the world around him--it was no longer complete darkness. He was beginning to see the hint of shadows and the dim glow of lights in the distance.
Turning to look back to Lord Death, he asked nervously, "Where exactly is 'here'?"
The man threw his head back and laughed. "So sorry, my boy!" Putting his arm around the boy's shoulders, Lord Death smiled down at him through the darkness and confirmed the boy's thoughts and fears with a nonchalant smile. "This is the World of the Dead... Welcome to the Betwixt."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I do daily writing prompts in the fall to get me prepped for NaNoWriMo and today's was "What he found out."
I've found that a lot of my writing, whether it is a haiku or a short story have to do with death and dying and what comes Next. I'm currently working on a big writing project about the world of the Betwixt and what happens when a living human girl arrives in the world of the dead. The story focuses on her and her relationship with Lord Death but there is another character in this story that is very near and dear to my heart. Jed is a character in this story, our main character's little brother and Lord Death's second in command (he was given that position because of how full his life was when he died). This is a snippet that doesn't happen in the storyline but I wanted to share with you "what he found out" the moment he arrived in the Betwixt.
It's the quality of life, not the quantity. It's the depth, not the length.
a.r.w.
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