"Expecting Death"
::ding dong:: (the doorbell)
"Coming!" a woman's voice came from the kitchen.
She rushed to the door while wiping her flour covered hands on her apron.
"Well, aprons are there for a reason." She mumbled to herself.
::ding dong::
She didn't bother to check who it was and opened
the door. On the other side was a slender woman dressed in all black from
head to toe. Her skin was milky white and seemed to be able to reflect
light off of it. Her hair was as black as night and all light seemed to
get sucked into it. She was holding a scythe in one hand and a planner
in the other.
"Hello, can I help you?" Was all she said in response
to her guest.
"Yes, I'm your Death and I'm here to take you with
me." Was all she said as if it was something normal to say.
All she did was blink and stare and give everything
a moments thought. "You are? But I didn't receive any prior notice about
this." Death seemed a bit surprised.
"You didn't? How could that be? You were supposed
to be notified at least a month in advanced." Death replied.
"Really?" She asked genuinely. "I wasn't notified
for anything like this. Are you quite certain?"
"Yes, I am." Death opened the planner and began
to check. "It must be that horrid messenger boy. We put him back in training
quite recently since he never seemed to do his job. That would explain
it."
"Oh dear." She wiped her hands clean again. "How
about you come in and maybe we can reschedule this. I'm sure its been a
tiresome journey." She motioned her to come in.
"It wasn't too bad." She stepped in and took off
her shoes. "Thank you." The lady walked ahead to the kitchen and pulled
out 2 tea bags and put some hot water in.
"Here, sit down and have some tea." She place both
on the table.
Death took a sip. "Same tea as usual, Quaterine."
She flipped through her black planner.
"Yes, well that happens to be the only tea left
right now." Quaterine took a sip from her cup.
"So, lets get on to business." After briefly looking
at a few dates she clicked her black pen to get ready to write. "How about
next Saturday?"
"Next Saturday?" She checked on a nearby calendar.
"Oh, I can't, I have a wedding to go to."
"Oh that's right. It's one of your client's daughters,
right?" Quaterine nodded and looked through the calendar. Death looked
at her for a minute. "I see you're expecting soon. Maybe I'll come back
after?"
Quaterine looked down. "That's right. Well the doctor
says he's due to arrive 3 weeks from yesterday." Death pulled out a laptop
from nowhere and started typing. A moment later she stopped.
"Here, look through this list and tell me which
way you would prefer to die." She rotated the laptop for her to see. "I'll
schedule sometime after the birth. Doctors are relatively on the dot with
the birth dates now."
Quaterine looked through the list. It was pretty
long but she narrowed it down to only a few. "I'll take number 27. That
should save you the energy of picking a day." Death wrote everything down
and typed it on the computer also.
"Okay, 27 it is. It's been nice seeing you and I'm
very sorry for the inconvenience."
"Oh, its nothing. So I'll see you in a few weeks
then." They both smiled at each other before Death disappeared into the
floor. Quaterine marked it down on her calendar.
Back at headquarters…
"Okay, that's one down, a 4 to go." Death checked
the name off on a clipboard.
Back at the mortal world…
::knock knock::
The wooden door opened ajar but only a crack big
enough to see who it was and small enough to close quickly in case of an
intruder or something. "Yes? Who are you?"
"It's me, Death."
"Death? What are you doing here?" The door opened
all the way to show a petite Asian.
"Well you see, there was a few problems and you
and a few others were supposed to die today but I came to reschedule it.
I'm sure you weren't even notified of your death before." The woman shook
her head.
"Uh, come in." The woman moved out of the way. "I
was just about to clean the house when you came so don't mind the mess."
The two were more business like so they came right
down to business. "After the birth, definitely."
"How about the day after?"
"Can't, there's a massacre and a whole riot thing
going on that day and they need as many of us as they can get to take them
with us."
"Really? I wouldn't have thought a riot would start
so soon."
"Well, life is unpredictable."
"It certainly is. Okay," She looked through her
own planner. "How about this date?" She pointed to an empty white box.
"That will do just fine. Now remember to look over
that list and tell me the number before that day. Just beep me. Here's
my number." She handed her a business card, black of course. She bowed
quickly and started to sink into the floor to leave, but not without one
last look at the lady with her cobalt blue eyes that seemed to pierce into
your soul when she stared.
At headquarters…
She made a check mark off another name. "Okay, 3
more. Hmm.., I'm getting tired of this time, I'll just jump ahead a little
and save me some time." She walked over to a platform with overhead lights
above. The platform was surrounded by plexi-glass and an invisible force
field. She motioned to a man standing near by and gave him the time she
wanted to travel to.
"Just slide your ID card there and if all goes well,
you'll be there in no time." The man pointed to the "door" that is supposed
to open when the card is slid through.
"If all goes well?" She was hesitant to go. The
man started to look in different directions.
"SO! Let's get started! Shouldn't waste time like
this!" He let out a fake laugh and walked over to the control panels. She
slid the card through and walked onto the center of the platform.
She took one glance at the man giving a thumbs-up
and closed her eyes. "I better be okay or else I'll come back and kill
him." She said under her breath and gripped the scythe a little bit more.
In the future…
"See! I told you it would all work out just fine!"
She opened her eyes to see the same man again. Nothing changed since these
people are dead so they're ageless. She raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"How do I know that nothing really happened and
I'm still stuck at A.C. 180?"
"Take a look outside."
Outside in the future…
"Hello? Hello?!" Death called out to where her next
client was supposed to be. "I guess she's out training." She was ready
to sit on the steps and wait until she heard footsteps.
"Yes? Can I help you?" Another Asian girl was standing
in front of her. Her hair was done in pigtails.
"Meiran?" Death knew it was her since only the people
she wanted to see could also see her. Hm..that was a little confusing,
you get the idea.
"Yes. Oh, you're Death, aren't you?" Death nodded.
"Yes, what can I do for you?"
"I'm here to make an appointment on your death."
She said casually.
"Meiran! Where are you?! Aiyaa!" Wufei walked down
the hall. "There you are! Who are you talking to?"
"Death." Meiran rolled her eyes at how annoying
he was. "What do you want?"
"Besides the fact that I want lunch now, I don't
see anyone here to talk to." Wufei tapped his feet impatiently.
"What are you?! Retarded?! You can't see Death unless
she wants you to!" Meiran scorned him.
"She? Death is a woman? Of all the injustices, this
has to be the worst!" Wufei was ready to rant until Meiran cut in.
"Will you shut up?! Make your own damn lunch!" Meiran
started to walk away and motioned Death to follow her, leaving Wufei babbling
by himself. "Sorry about the inconvenience. He's so incompetent."
"It's quite all right. So about your death.."
"That's right. Can you give me an honorable death?"
Meiran walked slowly under the cherry blossoms.
"Hm… well, I think I can arrange that. This turned
out quite simple. Everything is set now. It's the best I can do though."
Death wrote it down. "I'll see you soon. Until then." She bowed and sunk
into the floor.
Down at the future headquarters…
"Take me back, please." Death slid her card through.
"Yes, my Lady." The man snickered.
Death shook her head and closed her eyes. "Freak."
When she opened them, she saw the same man again. "Freak."
"What?"
"FREAK!" Death made her way out. "Do you have hearing
problems or something?" She checked off another name and preceded to the
next.
Back to the "present"…
"I'm sorry but this is how things have to go. Okay."
Death practiced. She knocked on the wooden door but on the second knock,
it opened. "Hello?" She walked inside and found no one. Food was on the
table and the trash needed to be taken out. "That's odd, they're supposed
to be here." She looked at her watch and then at the clock in the house
and the calendar.
Silence and thinking. "AH! They're supposed to die
today! I'm still in the future! That moron!" She ran out the door and jumped
up and started to look for them by air. It was easy to spot them since
there were explosions by them. She flew down to the wooden cart thingy
wagon.
"What the hell? Who are you?!" The driver said hurriedly.
"I'm Death!" She had to raise her voice over the
explosions. "I know this is short notice, but you two have to die, now."
She meant the driver and his wife.
"Death?" The woman had to go closer to her ear so
she wouldn't have to raise her voice. "I thought you gave us at least a
week in advanced and choices."
"I do, but uh.., there was a minor mistake," she
laughed a bit to ease the tension and then said under her breath, "and
a big stupid moron."
"But what about our two kids? Both aren't old enough
to take care of themselves and one is only a baby." The driver said very
loudly.
"Don't worry, everything will be okay, you'll see."
Death looked at both kids but they didn't seem to notice anything. "So
are you two ready? It'll be a relatively easy death. You'll just feel some
burning here and there though." The driver seemed fed up and just shrugged
an agreement when the lady nodded calmly. "Thank you and I'm very sorry."
She stopped flying with them and started towards
the ground. When the ground was up to her nose, she saw an explosion that
hit the cart or near it enough to send everything flying.
