The Reaper

Slight trigger warning I think? This talks about death and might not line up with your religious views, so, be warned, but I hope you enjoy, this is a first draft and I need to sort out the mistakes, but, that’s it I think? Ok, have a good day!

This is it. Admittedly it’s not how I thought I would go out. I thought I might get hit by a bus or something by now, but of course, I had to get sick in the middle of a plague. I did serve in the war, so I guess that’s something to be proud of. I met a wonderful woman, we couldn’t have kids, but that’s probably for the best. Now I get to feel my life fade away into memories and wait until the Coronavirus takes me out of this world after seventy-eight years. I have more thoughts about my life but I don’t want to bore you, so I’ll keep them to myself, I’m just glad that my last spoken words were to my wife, “I love you, I hope you have a nice day in the garden”, thank God for phones, otherwise it might have been something I might regret. 

 Then I see him, just in the corner of the small room, he seems tall, yet sad and small, as if he’s in his own little world thinking about something, I know who he is without needing to think, The Grim Reaper. He doesn’t wear a giant black robe or have a skull for a face like how I envisioned him though, instead, he’s wearing a simple black hooded cloak that looks humble and non-threatening despite the rest of his appearance, he has no face that I can see, just an invisible force holding the hood up. Of course, he’s holding the scythe that is almost always depicted whenever he is in paintings or stories, and now he’s going to finish the virus’s job and kill me with it and bring my soul to the afterlife that I deserve.

He snaps out of his thinking and seems to look in my direction, I can’t really tell, then starts to walk towards me and the bed I’m laying on. I look at him as he stands over me, I close my eyes and wait for the moment to happen. Except, nothing happens, or at least I don’t feel anything happen. I open my eyes thinking that my last words instead might be, “what the hell are you waiting for then?”, but then I see that he’s holding out his hand to me it looks like a shadow just like the rest of his body, with the scythe dormant at his side. I then realize that he wants me to put my hand in his, I take it. Then I think the words are spoken directly into my mind.

“My weapon is not to harm you, it is to protect you on your journey, and I am your guide, I am a reaper.”

A bit confused, I sit up, despite everything aching and hurting more than anything, I have so many questions but I hold them and nod because I still want my last words to be to my wife. Then I nearly vomit because I see my body still lying on the bed. I jump up off the bed which sends a shock up my spine and makes me scream. My new guide takes a step back in apparent surprise, I guess screaming when standing up isn’t usual in dead people. Then it actually hits me, I’m dead.

He then speaks again through the weird telepathy trick and says, “We must hurry, creatures will find us soon, and I would like to bring you to your destination in one piece.”

I realize all my pain is gone and I can breathe, and now that it seems that my speaking on Earth is over, I tell him, “Lead the way”.

He lets go of my hand, and we’re off. I don’t know where we’re going, or how long it will take to get there, but I have a strange comfort that it will be alright in the end. 

My comfort quickly vanishes when a giant flying scorpion-like creature bursts through the window.