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.  

March Madness (Prompt #1)

There was no way I was going to make it out unscathed,

I lose focus so often that whenever I try to have a conversation the other person seems to wander even farther than my mind,

I feel like my speech is so broken that people ignore me and put me in the attic like an old lamp that’s lost its glow,

Life keeps surprising me that’s true,

But it still feels so mundane and yet,

It is so unbearably terrifying at the same time,

I never feel astonished,

But I can try.

Whenever I find a new reason to smile,

That same reason that I find,

The reason gets so warped and twisted and beaten,

Shattered into a hundred different reasons to cry,

I find a friend,

We spend hours sending paragraphs to each other,

We talk each minute that we can,

Then something changes,

They walked away,

They seemed to run from me like I have a disease,

Like they realized I was a waste of time.

I try to talk to people,

I try to say what’s on my mind,

And I try to listen at the same time,

But it’s so difficult,

It is so, so, deafening to be heard,

When everyone else is screaming,

The world is so loud,

Everyone’s thoughts are so loud,

It feels louder than the sun is bright,

I just want my thoughts to stop screaming at me to die,

Because I don’t want to die anymore,

I want to help others,

Because I can hear them screaming next to me.

I don’t want to run anymore,

But I have to,

The ocean is close behind,

Swimming is hard to do when you don’t know how to float.

I am trying.

Kayla’s Cake

As soon as I stepped into the grocery store I knew today wasn’t going to go my way. I really was tempted to just turn around and go home, but I needed eggs and milk for Kayla’s birthday cake, so I ignored the thing eating the flowers at the front door, and carried on to the dairy aisle.

The “thing” I’m referring to is something from my universe, I don’t own the universe, I meant the universe I come from, I’m not that egocentric, but you probably already knew what I meant, and now I’m elaborating too much and you’re going to think that I see you as stupid, I really don’t, humans are quite intelligent, I just talk too much, and now I probably have to start a new paragraph, sorry. 

The creature probably got here the same way I did, which was accidental portal jumping, I don’t know exactly how it works, so don’t ask me. I don’t think that anyone else here can see it as it really is, which is a very good thing because if they could see it’s six legs and giant spiraled horns I think they would kind of freak out a bit. I am going to describe it to you now because I’m not the biggest fan of the mystery game, but you have to make sure not to laugh because if you do it can hear you and it will go after you.

First of all it is bright blue, a sort of dark blue raspberry blue that makes you want to vomit, and I love blue raspberry, it’s my favorite slushie flavor and probably one of the best things humanity has invented. Second, it looks like a drunk yak that just finished giving birth to a bucket of fried chicken. Third, it has a huge tail like a cat. 

Of course, most people here will see it as a horse. Hopefully, no one will touch it, because it’s venomous and very sensitive about personal space, but that’s just how rhizous are.

 I finished my 9 AM shopping and went to the cash register. Then I had to stop in my tracks because I saw the owner of the rhizou. They were tall, thin, and pale to the point that a blue glow surrounded their skin. They were wearing a uniform that shone bright black in the morning sun (if you people had better eyes, you would understand). This person is, of course, an officer from my universe, and I illegally immigrated from there, so I didn’t hesitate to turn and go to the self-checkout when I saw them starting to turn around, then I went by the rhizou again and carefully gave it an egg.

Something that I never understood was how enforcement managed to keep finding me no matter how many different universes I traveled to. I liked this universe though, even though it has some of the most chaotic stuff I have ever seen in it, I was going to stay. I still have to finish Kayla’s cake, and I need to fix my ship before I go anywhere, so there’s that.

I’m More Tired Than You know

I’m tired of not being able to sleep at night,

I’m tired of not being able to get out of bed in the morning,

I’m tired of being relieved when my parents aren’t home,

I’m tired of seeing girls starving themselves because they think that it will “fix” them,

I’m tired of seeing the hopeless look in the eyes of my friends,

I’m tired of the same loneliness I feel every day because people avoid touching me,

I’m tired of sitting in classes just waiting for them to be over,

I’m tired of seeing horrible news everywhere I look,

I’m tired of being the same species as people I hate,

I’m tired of hating myself,

I’m tired of not being able to genuinely laugh,

I am tired of being tired.

I am not going to try to be less exhausted,

But I might be gone before I can accomplish that goal.

I am finished with being miserable.

Introduce Yourself (Example Post)

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

  • Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
  • Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

  • Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
  • What topics do you think you’ll write about?
  • Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
  • If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started