|
|
|
Glenn Carson was beginning to notice odd changes in his life. It started a few months ago. The first thing that he noticed was when he cut across the park on the way to work the grass directly under his feet began to wither and die in seconds. When he first realized it was happening he naturally pretended that he didn’t see it and that it had nothing to do with him. The problem with this tactic was that it only worked for so long and eventually it had to be addressed. Glenn forced ignorance upon himself by remaining on the sidewalk wherever he went. As long as he didn’t step on the grass he didn’t have to see the eerie brown footprints he left behind.
“You’re late,” said Owen as soon as Glenn walked in the door. He glared at Owen. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with his annoying boss this early in the morning. He was the bane of Glenn’s existence as he forced him to do actual work. Glenn considered himself a laid back guy who enjoyed spending his time on the couch watching what might be construed as an unhealthy amount of television in his apartment.
He didn’t like his apartment, it was small and cramped but he couldn’t afford anything else on his pay. He also hated his job, he worked in the drive-through window at a McDonalds that was within walking distance to his apartment. At the moment it didn’t seem like he was going to be getting a better job anytime soon. This might have something to do with the fact that he was a twenty-two year old college drop out with no discernable goals.
“Sorry,” muttered Glenn, “My watch died again.”
“Glenn, you can only use that excuse so many times.” Just because Glenn was making an excuse didn’t mean he was lying. His watch kept stopping, along with most of electronics that had come near enough to him in the last month.
“Whatever.” He opened up his locker and put on the outfit he despised with a level of hate that was about equal with what he felt for Owen. He climbed into the drive-through and sat down in front of the clunky old cash register with grimy pictures on it. He slipped his headset on. He winced as the mechanical screech poured through it.
“Anurg, ekup owy, all eyes, edem poke,” gargled a voice through the headset.
“Next window, please,” said Glenn in a monotone voice as he pressed a few buttons before turning to Owen, “Hamburger, ketchup only, small fries, medium coke.”
“Okay,” said Owen with a nod as he turned back to the fryers. He sat hunched over for hours until his shift was done. Then he walked to Taco Bell for dinner because he was completely sick of hamburgers. After dinner he would normally walk back to his apartment, watch a ton of late night television, and then crash. It was his usual routine but today, it got a little broken up.
While he was eating he stared out the tinted windows of the restaurant at a tree. As he stared at it, it’s leaves lost their color and went from green to orange to a dry brown. Then in a crescendo they fell from the tree to the ground, where they rotted and turned into a sickly mush, then the tree collapsed into itself until it had nothing to support it and fell in the mush where it was all consumed in flames before his eyes.
“Oh my god,” said Glenn as he jumped out of his seat, knocking his chair over, creating a lot of noise that he didn’t hear. He ran to the tree. There was nothing left but what could only described as the carcass. It was an empty shell of burned out organic mess that smelled of sulfur and smoke much like Fourth of July fireworks. Glenn stared at it, he didn’t know what to think. It smelled noxious and being near it made him ill. He was so distracted he didn’t realize that he’d stepped off the pavement. He looked down just in time to jump away. It was more than just where he’d stepped this time. Every blade of grass within a foot of where he’d been standing was now completely void of life, just some charcoaled-colored earth and burnt rocks.
He took off running for his apartment and as soon as he got there he locked the door and pulled a beer from the fridge. He sunk down on his couch. He tried to calm down, to convince himself that it was a hallucination, that it hadn’t happened and that it most definitely had absolutely nothing to with him. He held the beer in his hands until it warmed up a little and then tried to drink it all at once.
He picked up his remote. When he pressed the power button nothing happened. He knew without looking that the battery had been drained yet again. He groaned. He was spending a fortune on batteries lately. He wasn’t sure he could handle it for much longer. Light bulbs going randomly, rarely lasting more than a day; batteries losing all power shortly after being used the first time; the dead grass and now that tree. It was too much.
Glenn fell asleep on his couch and when he woke up the next day everything seemed ordinary. He looked out the window and saw that it was late in the day. He groaned with the realization that yet again he was late for work. He looked out the window and guessed that it was somewhere around eleven. He was already three hours late for his shift so he went and took a shower. He tried to relax, breathing in his citrus body wash as deep as he could. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, letting the water rush over him, overwhelming all sounds. After a few minutes, when he felt better, he turned off the water, the cold air rushed in around him and he got out. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around himself.
He looked in the mirror before picking up a smaller towel and rubbing it across the top of his head harshly. He scrapped at his scalp as if he was trying to force the thoughts of recent days out of his mind, he was unsuccessful. He tossed the towel on the floor when he was done and walked out into his living room.
When he did he screamed. There was a man sitting on his couch. The man turned to look at him when he let out his yell. He grasped desperately at the towel around his waist, holding on to it for dear life.
“Hello,” said the man, calmly. He rose off the couch and turned to look at him. Glenn gawked at him. The man smiled at him, it was a soft, cordial smile; there was nothing alarming about it. But Glenn was too startled to pick up on that detail. What he saw was a six foot something man, who could probably kill him. The stranger had wavy blonde hair and odd red eyes. He was pale and had such white, soft skin. The strangest thing was that he was wearing a long, draping black cloak.
“What? Who are-? How did you -?” stammered Glenn as he looked around for some kind of weapon. He knew there was a baseball bat somewhere, but Glenn wasn’t exactly the tidiest person.
“Oh, what’s with the modesty?” said the stranger, gesturing to Glenn’s towel, “I’ve seen it a million times before, in various conditions, it’s just raw meat now.”
“Who are you? What do you want? Why are you here? How did you get here?”
“I appeared. As for what I want and why I’m here the answer is simple: you.”
“What?”
“I’m here to see you.”
“Why?”
“I’m going to offer you a job. My job.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Death,” said the man.
Glenn stared at him.
“What?”
“I said, I’m Death.” Glenn stared at him, his face was perfectly straight.
“You’re insane. I’m calling the cops.” Glenn reached for the phone but it flew away before he got to it. It sailed right into his intruder’s hands.
“I should have expected that. That was my reaction too.”
“How did you do that?”
“Like I said, I am Death, I have powers. You know, move stuff with my mind, walk through walls, I can fly too, it’s pretty cool.” The man who called himself Death was smiling at him. They looked about the same age and they spoke the same slang but there was something odd about the way he spoke, like he was older than he looked and acted.
“What?” A crazy person had broken into his apartment while he was in the shower and now he was trapped in his living room wearing nothing but a towel with no idea how to get out of it and all he could say was: “What?”
“Just sit down.” Death waved his hand and a chair knocked him into seat.
“Hey!” yelled Glenn as he pressed the towel down between his legs.
“Okay, I’m up for retirement and you’ve been chosen to replace me.”
“Did you recently escape from a place with padded walls?”
“Look, kid, I understand this is hard for you to grasp but I am Death,” said the stranger, “Here, I’ll prove it to you. Put this on.” He threw a bundle of clothes at Glenn. He swallowed and was now more aware that he was wearing nothing but a towel.
“Um -.” He looked from the clothes to the stranger.
“Fine, I’ll turn around.” Throwing his arms up in mock defeat he turned around. Glenn slipped on the clothes. He was shocked when they fit perfectly. After he was done he realized that he should’ve spent his unsupervised time looking for a weapon. He was shocked to realize that as bizarre as the stranger was he didn’t seem threatening. In fact there was something oddly comforting about him. At the moment he was holding a photograph of Glenn with his parents.
“Done,” said Glenn and the stranger turned around, “What are you doing?”
“You’ll see.” Their surrounding disappeared to be replaced by a crowded room, full of people at a party. Judging from the large tables stacked with gifts, someone was having a birthday. It was in a large hall, with large pillars all around the room. Above it was a domed ceiling with a mural on it so far away Glenn couldn’t even make it out. From it dangled a large, fragile looking chandelier, it looked like an accident waiting to happen.
“How did you do that?”
“Wherever there is life there is death and since life is everywhere so is death. And I am Death so I can be anywhere I want to be.”
“This is-.” He looked around the room, trying to search for some words to describe it but he didn’t find any. Instead he met the gaze of a strange woman only to feel it pass through him. He waved his hand in front of her repeatedly but got no reaction.
“I know. I remember my first teleport, nothing like it. Stop waving your hand, they can’t see us. And you’re lucky, you look like a moron.” Glenn looked at the people in the room, they were all dressed in suits and fancy gowns like dolls still in the boxes. He could tell they were nowhere near his apartment, the people in the crowd were foreigners. He wondered out loud, “Where are we?”
“Do you know where Cote D’Voire is?”
“Never heard of it.”
“It’s in Africa, really small country.”
“Why are we here?”
“See that man over there,” said Death pointing to one of the more finely dressed party-goers, “He’s one of the royal family. He was born seventeenth in line to the thrown. Currently he’s seventh and by the end of the night he’ll be sixth. I guess you could say he’s a bit of a social climber.”
“I don’t understand.”
“He’s pretty handy with a bottle of poison if you catch my drift.”
“He’s a murderer?”
“He’s a royal.”
“How do you know that he’s going to kill someone?”
“Kid, for the last time, I am Death.” He stared at Death, finally able to grasp the truth. He was standing in the presence of the Angel of Death. “Am I going to do die?”
“You’re not going to die, you’re going to take my job.” Glenn had so many questions but all he was able get out of his mouth was senseless dribble. There was a crash somewhere across the room as man collapsed over a table. A figure appeared next to them, looking significantly puzzled. Glenn stared at him and realized that it was the same man who had just collapsed, the same man that everyone in the party was now crowded around where he lay a few yards away.
“What just happened?” asked the man.
“You died,” said Death and he pointed to the man’s body.
“Oh, that’s unfortunate,” said the man, “What now?”
“Follow me.” Suddenly the people vanished from the room that they’d been standing in. It seemed to have lost all it’s color and it was eerily quiet.
“Where are we?” asked Glenn but Death ignored him.
“Just go through there and everything will be fine,” said Death and the man looked to where he was pointing. There was a large, glowing portal in front of them. The man walked straight through it, disappearing in a flash.
“What was that?” asked Glenn.
“We are on the ghostly plane, the realm between the living and the dead.”
“What’s on the other side?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never been. In fact it’s the only place I haven’t.” He seemed sad for a second but he smiled again before they reappeared in his apartment.
“Wow,” said Glenn as he fell down onto his couch.
“It’s mind blowing, isn’t it?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“You’re going to like the job.”
“Job!?” asked Glenn, rising to his feet.
“Yes, you are my replacement. You’re Death now.”
“No. I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I’m not Death!”
“Not yet.”
“I’m not going to kill people!”
“I don’t kill people.”
“You’re Death! Killing people is what you do.”
“No it isn’t. Look, people die, it happens, no one can control that. I just pop their souls out and show them how to get to the other side. Essentially I’m a cosmic taxi driver. So you start tomorrow.”
“What? I’m not going to do this.”
“Why not? It’s a cool job, better than the one you have now.”
“Any job is better than the one I have now.”
“So, you’ll take it then?”
“No way, if it’s such a good job why don’t you keep on doing it?”
“I’ve been doing this for a while and now it’s my turn to see what it is all about.”
“How long is a while?”
“I used to be a mortal like you until I got chosen to take this gig.”
“You were?”
“Yeah, we’re actually a lot alike.”
“What do you mean?”
“I lived alone too, no attachments and my life was pretty pathetic.”
“My life is not that pathetic.”
“It’s not like you’re doing anything with it. You dropped out of school and work in the fast food industry, where your boss is about two years younger than you are.”
“Insulting me is not the best way to convince me to take the job.”
“Haven’t you noticed what’s been happening to you? The dead plants?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Those are my powers, you’ve been receiving them. That’s how you can see me. You can obviously handle the powers, that means you can cope with the job.”
“I already told you I’m not going to do it.”
“Here, I’ll make you a deal, a trial run? If it doesn’t work out, no problem. It’s as simple as that.” Glenn looked at him. He was serious, he wanted Glenn to go take a soul. He didn’t know what to say. His life was boring until now. This certainly qualified as interesting, sitting in his apartment, talking to Death about a job. Something inside of him wouldn’t let him say no. How could he? He would never get another chance like this.
“Okay.” Death smiled a smile that wasn’t all there, it just didn’t reach to his eyes.
“Good, now this one is up to you.” A large scroll of paper appeared in his hands. He let flow out and read what was written on it.
“What’s that?” asked Glenn.
“It’s the List,” said Death simply without looking away.
“What list?”
“The list of everyone who’s going to die today. Names, places, times. Let’s see.” Without saying a word Death flicked his hand again and the scroll disappeared.
“What do I have do?”
“Trust me, you’ll know.” He grabbed Glenn once more and they were teleported away from his apartment. This time they were ended up in a hospital room and Glenn was alone. Death had disappeared. He looked around, searching for Death or for some clue as to what he was supposed to being doing there.
There was a young boy sitting in the bed, surrounded by people. Glenn stared at the boy in shock; he looked about five or six. His skin was an unnatural shade of green. He didn’t have any hair and so Glenn could see a large scar on his bare scalp. The boy had his eyes closed and everyone was crying. The monitor was beeping faintly before it flat lined with a loud screech. Nurses and doctors rushed in, pushing the grieving people out of the way without a second thought as they shouted to each other.
Glenn stood there frozen, staring at the motions around him as the young boy lay there, dying. He wanted to do something but there was nothing that he could do. After the third failed attempt to resuscitate the boy, Glenn rushed over to him and grabbed his arm. The next thing he saw was a little boy standing next to him. It took him a minute to realize that it was the same boy that was in the bed. He was healthy, with short brown hair, bright eyes and pudgy pink flesh.
“Where am I?” asked the boy and Glenn stared at him.
“Um, that’s complicated,” said Glenn. The boy looked at him, not understanding Glenn’s non-answer. He turned and saw his parents crying over his body. The boy looked at them for a while. Glenn didn’t have a clue as to how to deal with this suddenly dead child. How was the boy supposed to comprehend that he was dead?
“Am I dead?” asked the boy. Glenn was startled.
“Yes,” said Glenn, trying to sound soft but failing, “How’d you know that?”
“I heard one of the nurses talking about it.”
“Oh.”
“It’s not fair,” said the boy and Glenn nearly toppled over. Looking at the tragic scene around him he knew the kid was right. He was so young and innocent yet he was dead. There didn’t seem to be any reason behind it. His statement summed it up perfectly. It was just plain unfair.
“Uh, yeah,” stammered Glenn, he just couldn’t keep his voice level.
“What about my mommy?” The woman had completely collapsed in tears on the floor of the hospital room, her husband wrapping his arms around her, trying to calm her.
“Well, she’s, um, she-.”
“Will she be okay? I don’t want her to be sad.” Glenn took a deep breath.
“She will be sad but only for a while. Pain, it slowly fades even if it doesn’t disappear.” He wasn’t sure that the young boy understood.
“Can you tell her I love her?”
“I will, I promise.”
“Where do I go now?”
“Follow me.” He took the little boy by the hand and suddenly they were on the ghostly plane. Another glowing rift appeared in front of them and without saying anything the boy skipped through it and vanished. Glenn collapsed in shock, he didn’t realize he was back in his apartment. He stared at nothing, rerunning the conversation he’d had with the boy over and over inside his head. The boy had just been able to understand that he was dead. He knew what had happened and all he cared about was that his mother knew how much he loved her. A boy like that didn’t deserve to die.
“So?” asked a voice and Glenn looked up and saw Death standing over him.
“No.”
“What?”
“I can’t do this, that boy-it’s not fair.”
“No and it rarely is.”
“I won’t do this. I really can’t handle it. I almost fell apart.”
“But you didn’t, your first is always the hardest. It gets easier.”
“It shouldn’t get easier! Watching people die, it should always be hard.”
“It should but that doesn’t mean it is. You’re meant for this Glenn, I can see it.”
“I am not,” said Glenn with a sigh, “I like my life. Yeah, it might be pathetic but it works for me. I’m just not the kind of guy who does extraordinary things.”
“You’re slow. Glenn, this is what you can do with your life. You haven’t done anything else because there’s only one job like this and it hasn’t been offered to you before now.”
“It’s not for me, you said I could try it out and if I didn’t want the job there would be no hard feelings.” Death heaved an angry and deep sigh right in Glenn’s face.
“Fine, but at least think about it before you say no forever.”
“I’ve already made up my mind.” Death disappeared with a puff of smoke, leaving Glenn sitting on his floor, thinking about everything that he had once thought he knew. This encounter had come so out of the blue and it had certainly changed his perspective. He was exhausted and all he wanted was to wake up to find that it had all been a dream.
The next day he headed off to work, cutting across the park because he was late and he forced himself not to notice that the grass was still dying under his path.
“You’re late,” said Owen as soon as Glenn stepped through the door.
“Sorry.”
“And where were you yesterday? You didn’t even show up.”
“I took a personal day.”
“You don’t get personal days.”
“Well I took one.” He didn’t wait for Owen to respond. He just ducked inside the locker room and got changed before hopping into his window. He started taking his orders and let his mind slip away from reality, his body running on autopilot. His job seemed extra mundane today. After what had just happened to him, everything appeared different. Nothing would ever be the same again.
“Hey!” yelled Owen, snapping Glenn out of his head.
“What?”
“That’s the sixth order you miscalled!”
“Huh?”
“Where’s your head today? This is McDonalds!” Glenn later realized that it had been Owen’s statement to finally push him off the edge, it had been the final straw.
“Well, McBite Me, I quit!” He said it before he’d even realized that he’d thought it. It has just slipped out and he didn’t want to take it back. The job no longer meant anything to him after what he’d seen. He stormed out, leaving his prepubescent boss gawking at him. He walked around for a while and without knowing how, he’d ended up at a hospital. He entered and made it all the way to the morgue. Sitting on the bench was the mother that he’d seen last night, grieving over the loss of her son.
He sat down next to her silently. She was simply sitting there and staring out into space, looking at nothing but clearly somehow seeing her son. She looked horrible and he couldn’t blame her. He couldn’t imagine what she was going through. She suddenly began crying again and reached into her purse and pulled out tissues.
“I’m so sorry,” she stammered between her sobs.
“Oh, no, it’s okay,” said Glenn as he gently stroked her back.
“Who did you loose?” asked the mother.
“No one.”
“Then why are you here?”
“I’m keeping a promise I made to a little boy.”
“Little boy?” She looked and stared at him.
“Your son wants you to know that he loves you, very much.” She looked down the hall to where the crypt was and where her son’s body was being laid out.
“How did you-?” She stopped when she realized that he wasn’t there. He’d disappeared without a trace. She looked around for him but found nothing. Glenn had found himself once more in his apartment. He wasn’t sure how he got there until he saw Death sitting on the couch.
“So I see you’ve made your decision,” said Death with a smile.
“Shut up.”
“You’re going to take the job then?”
“Of course I’m going to take the job. How can I turn it down?”
“I know, same way they roped me into it. Well, here you go.” He held out the large scroll for Glenn.
“I’m not carrying that around.”
“Why not?”
“It’s huge! These are modern times, don’t you have anything more compact? Like a Grim Beeper or something?” Death groaned at him, still smiling.
“Fine.” With a flash the list changed into a beeper. He handed it over to Glenn
“Thanks.”
“It’s all yours now.” With that simple statement Glenn found himself on the ghostly plane. It looked, just as the other times he’d been there, like his surroundings. This time it was his apartment, only it wasn’t. It was decorated quite differently, like an old folk’s home. Death let out a small gasp when he saw it and Glenn assumed that this must have been his apartment back when it belonged to Death. One of the portals opened up before them, it was bigger and brighter than the others that Glenn had seen.
“Wow,” said Glenn, as he shielded his eyes.
“Good luck, kid.” He ran through it, as if he thought that for a moment it might close before he got there and he would be stuck there. Death had crossed over and Glenn found himself in his apartment. Death’s things had vanished, no more than a memory.
His “Grim Beeper” as he’d called it went off instantly. He felt a pull deep within him and followed it. He found himself in the ballroom back in Cote D’Voire. It was deserted now, except for one man. Glenn recognized him as the one who’d killed all the others. He wondered who he was going to kill this time. There was a loud creak and they both looked up. The large chandelier began to shake. It fell down with a crash on top of the man and he appeared beside Glenn, staring at the bloody carnage.
“I’m dead! That chandelier! I never should’ve installed it. I was so close to thrown too!” yelled the royal turning to Glenn, “Are you Death?”
“No, I’m Glenn.”
“What? This isn’t fair!” turning back to look at his mangled corpse. Behind him a beeper went off and suddenly the royal was standing there alone in the room, with his body. Some things were fair.
 Zegwarian310 · Mon Nov 26, 2007 @ 05:49pm · 1 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
