I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'll try to update soon!

My name is Death, and someday you're going to have to meet me.

But if that scares you—if that makes you nervous—you can call me Gilbert Beilschmidt, because I like that name a lot better.

I only have two friends. Love, who prefers the name Francis Bonnefoy, and Life, who prefers the name Antonio Fernandez Carriedo. Out of us three, I am the only one seen as 'evil'. Life is a beautiful miracle and so is love. But for some reason, people seem to think death is the end. It's not.

Well, it might be. Don't ask me if there's an afterlife or not—I don't know. I only guide souls from the edge of the world we exist in to the edge of the Beyond, where dead people disappear to. You cannot pass into the Beyond if you are not dead, and I'm not technically dead or alive, so I don't know what happens there. Sorry.

Anyway, there is a difficult task waiting for me tonight. At 7:53 this evening, I must visit Cannes, France, and kill a young woman named Jeanne.

This shouldn't be a big deal, but Jeanne is... special.

Not to me. To me, she's just another human. Not famous, not well-known. She's important—everyone is important—but she's not important to me.

I started suspecting Francis was fooling around about two years ago, shortly after he began disappearing for long stretches of time and not taking his bow with him. His bow is exactly like that bow you humans believe belongs to Cupid. One shot with one of his gold-tipped arrows sends someone falling down into the unreachable grasps of love.

His weapon is the bow. Mine is the dagger. (Yeah, contrary to belief, I don't normally use a scythe.) Antonio doesn't have a weapon, only a blessing.

What was I saying, though? Oh. Jeanne. Right. I suppose that Francis, Antonio and I are immortal, and Jeanne isn't. She's human. Which is why she has to die—because that's the way it's supposed to go. Duh. I believe—though I've no proof—that Francis has fallen for Jeanne.

How's this possible? I mean, it's kind of hard to shoot yourself with a bow, true. But sometimes, very rarely, love can defy love. Sometimes—like, once every hundred years or something—Francis shoots someone with an arrow and they don't fall in love. Sometimes Francis doesn't shoot anyone but they still fall in love. Maybe that's what happened.

The way I see it, all love is accidental.

But don't tell Francis I said that.

It's 7:52 when I find Jeanne. She's pretty, with short blonde hair, and she's driving. I understand immediately that Jeanne is to die in a car crash.

Let me be clear about something. When people die, I don't kill them. I mean, I do, because I'm Death, but...

Okay, let's talk about Jeanne.

In about forty-five seconds, she's going to die. In a car crash. She's going to die in the car crash because Death (me) is going to come for her. If Death doesn't come for her, if he just lets the car crash happen, she'll probably be in a coma for a few days and then make a slow recovery. But that's not the way it's supposed to be.

It's like... when a kid is born, Antonio gets a sort of feeling of what their life is going to be like, much in the way I know when someone should and shouldn't die.

The only way I can make sure someone is dead for sure is with my dagger.

And sometimes that doesn't work. Francis' arrows can be faulty, and once in a lifetime, my dagger is faulty.

I check my watch. 7:53. In that instant, there's a horribly loud shattering noise in the stretch of road in front of me as Jeanne's car collides with another driver.

Jeanne is the only one who has to die.

There's this weird, confusing moment when the world feels like it's frozen, and that's when I do it. I walk over to Jeanne—her heart is still beating, but her eyes are closed. I stare at her for a moment. Francis fell in love with this girl. And so Love fell in love. How ironic.

Without another thought, I pull out my dagger and slowly press the cold metal against her throat.

I'm sure this is too much for you to take in. Should I clarify some things?

I don't have to 'hand-kill' everyone like I did with Jeanne. If I had to do that, I wouldn't have time for anything. But I do make personal visits sometimes. It feels like the right thing to do.

Also, I'm fairly personable. I won't kill anyone until it's time. And I can materialize wherever I want whenever I want, so don't even bother trying to run from me.

Lastly, death doesn't hurt. Dying might. But death doesn't.

What's the difference, you ask?

I'll use Jeanne as an example. That car crash might have been painful—I doubt it was, but it might have been—but I can promise you that when my dagger cut into her throat, it didn't hurt a bit.

In some ways, I'm a lot more merciful than Toni or Francis. Everyone knows that giving birth is a pain, and broken hearts are some of the most agonizing things. But I wouldn't know.

As soon as I get home—I know it sounds strange, but I do have a house in Berlin—I take off my boots, rest my dagger in its case, and start boiling water to make homemade hot chocolate. (Like I mentioned, I'm personable. I'm just like a human, except I control death and I'm immortal, okay?)

I relax. I'm done for the night. Done killing. I mean, there are mental affairs to attend to, but I'm done hand-killing for the next few hours. Besides, Francis is probably going rabid by now. I'm sure he knows. I wonder if he knows...

Around nine, as I'm enjoying hot chocolate so hot it scalds my throat, my phone rings, but it's not Francis like I was expecting. It's Antonio.

"Toni. Hey. How's it going?"

"Where are you?" he answers, and I can picture his green eyes filled with worry.

"In Berlin. I'm done for now. Why?"

"Francis is upset. What did you do?"

I sigh, setting my mug next to me. "My job. He fell in love with a human, okay? No matter how you look at things, it isn't my fault."

"I know, but I—Francis is really unhappy. Can't you bring her back?"

"Antonio, you're the one who can control life and birth and stuff. It's not my area."

"Don't pin this on me!"

I snort. "What does he want me to do, go to the Beyond or something? Ha-ha, awesome. Not happening. Bye now."

I'm about to hang up when Antonio's panicked voice stops me.

"Gilbert," he says. "I think you should watch your back."

I cough on my hot chocolate. It's just funny. "Francis would never hurt me. I'm sure he's upset, but he knew that Jeanne was human. Besides, love isn't a certain thing."

"Of course Death would say that," Antonio says.

Since I can't sleep—Death and Love and Life don't sleep—I kind of watch the television but not really, drinking the entire pot of hot chocolate. I keep thinking about the conversation I had with Jeanne as I led her to the Beyond.

The path to the Beyond, which can only be walked by me and those who have already died, is not like this world at all. Some people call it the Spirit Trail. Remember, it's an alternate universe, so the laws of space and time that are here don't exist there.

So, Jeanne said she understood that she couldn't be brought back to earth, but asked if I'd deliver a message to Francis Bonnefoy.

"Sure," I said. "But he's Love—he'd get it anyway."

At that point, Jeanne stopped walking and looked at me. We were close to the Beyond, and I could feel it—an uncomfortable ache beginning to spread through my head.

"What do you mean, he's Love?"

"He's like me. Can we go, please? Being close to the Beyond is painful if you're not dead."

Jeanne frowned. "You mean... he's... I mean, he's kind of immortal, like you?"

I nodded. "Right. Now please, hurry along. I'd like to get back home before I miss The Walking Dead. Wait, what was it you wanted me to tell Francis?"

The Beyond was so close at that point that I could see the blinding white light coming from the portal leading to it. And without another word, Jeanne raced toward it and flung herself into the gateway of the Beyond. She was crying, and in the places her tears hit the Spirit Trail, little white roses blossomed up from the ground.

Just like that, she was gone.

She left this universe crying.

Even for me, it kind of broke my heart.