Tonight’s cold, not that I could tell if it was warm. But the light frost told me enough.
I hate the cold, it’s one of the worst things about death. Especially if you die from a well like I did, I just wanted to make a stupid wish. Now I’m here, lost in the mortals’ world. Can’t move on, can’t go back, and I’m always soaking wet and cold. At least the moon is pretty…
I hear shuffling and look to see a small figure, staring at me from around the corner, or at least I think he’s staring… Does he not have eyes? He realizes I see him and darts away. Hmm, must have been a kid, they’re the only ones that notice me anymore. Even if all they do is run away…
Eventually, after more hours of sulking, the sun comes up and I begin to fade again, the closest thing I have to sleep. It doesn’t last long, a blink and it’s sunset again, the final rays of the dying day bringing me back from the void. Then the cold sets back in once more. I sulk and pity myself for a couple more hours.
Snap
I look up to see what I think is the same figure, his head is in better view now. It’s white as porcelain, and his eyes are just… sockets? He looks like a skeleton yet he still wears living people's clothes. He’s not dressed in some overly stereotyped outfit, like my dress, Why? His nervous expression peeking out from under his hoodie. Who is this person? He realizes I’m staring again and takes off leaving me alone for the rest of the night.
The sun comes and goes in a blink again, and I get as cold as I always am. But this time a figure is in front of me. I flinch back in shock, almost falling in the well again. He starts laughing,
“Ha! I scared a ghost!”
His voice is offsetting. I expected some rasping and clattering but it's clear and fluent as if he was still alive.
“HI, I’m Grim!” He extends a skeletal hand towards me. Now I hear the expected clattering, as his hand starts to shake. I try to take it but mine passes right through.
“Oh sorry, I forgot ghosts can’t do that” He retracts his hand scratching behind his hood, He’s still rattling. Then relaxes, and gets excited again “Well, what's your name?”
I try to say something but when my mouth opens all that comes out is an eerie groaning from the back of my throat.
“EEEEEEECCCCCCCK”
“Oh, you can’t speak huh” He says looking at me then the well, “Yeah that’s common with drowners, their lungs filled up with water and now they can’t use them,” He puts a hand to his chin examining me.
“Hmm, how long have you been like this I wonder.” He looks around the well, then in it.
“That scrape looks like you slipped in a while ago.” he points to the rim of the well I’m sitting on, there doesn’t seem to be a scrape to me though…
“Then you hit your head there,” He points to a dark spot on the inside of the well, that I can just barely make out in the starlight. He continues his sherlock holmes act,
“The coins in the water would show this was once a wishing well.” How can he see that? The water is all murky from where I….I was left…
“You must have been too short, so you climbed up to make a wish, but slipped and fell. Hit your head so you couldn’t stay conscious to call out or try to swim,” He stops his playful demeanor and looks at me, actually expressing sadness despite lacking a face. “I’m sorry. You died really young. Dad says if a human dies before they were meant to, they are stuck there waiting till it is their time.” He kicks a bit of snow off the ground, “I don’t like the rule, but he’s the one in charge. Sorry.”
Well, that explains some things, but how long do I have till then? How old was I when this happened? How old was I supposed to be when I died? How long could it take?
“WAIT!” his expression goes back to excitement, “It might have been your time but you died with something unfinished, like you wanted something done before you fell, and can’t rest without it! Yeah, maybe that's it! You just have to tell me what you need…. YOUR WISH! What was your wish?”
He stares at me with the same look as an excited puppy, but I can’t respond to him. After a second that dawns on him and he sits on the well beside me deflated.
“Sorry, I get a little too worked up some times,” he sounds defeated. Hesitantly, I raise my hand and hover it so that it looks like it’s on his shoulder.
“Stop it! That tickles.” He chuckles, then realizes the gesture. “You're really nice, you know that?” I smile for what feels like the first time in ages.
“You must get really lonely here… You know what! I’m going to come and visit you from now on! I won’t be able to do it every night but I’ll TRY!”
He lied, he did manage to make a visit every night. He would come and talk to me, being happy and cheery and even worked out a way so that he could understand me vaguely. It was only simple things like yes or no but it helped. I found myself Looking forward to his visits, he’d come when the moon was highest in the sky, and stay untill the sun came up and I had to fade away.
We didn’t always talk, we also played tag around the well. I always won, but he still tried and never fussed about things like me cheating by going through the middle of the well. It was nice, I wasn’t lonely anymore.
Then one day something happened.
I was waiting at the well like usual but the moon had already started to lower again, it looked like he wasn’t going to make it for once. I hang my head in disappointment. It had to happen eventually. So I sat there waiting in the cold again…
“Ummm Hi,” Suddenly he was behind the corner again like when I had first seen him, he looked extremely nervous.
I crossed my arms at him and looked the other way.
“I know...I’m late…” I could hear his steps being hesitant, that wasn’t like him…
I turned back to him, he was halfway to the well, he was holding something behind his back though.
“I...I was just really nervous, and….and wanted to give you something…”
I spring up and run over to him, He turns to make sure it's still hidden
“Not yet, Just hold on a second ok…”
I cross my arms again, rolling my eyes at him.
“Just sit down, and I’ll show it to you.”
The rattling helps convince me he’s truthful if not a little nervous. So I sit down again still crossing my arms.
“Ok, so I don’t know if you remember, but today’s valentine's day…”
If my skin wasn’t pale white permanently I’d be red right now.
“And I wanted to get you something and I just did my first try at reaping, it was for an old lady. She had lived a long life and died peacefully, among her family members. She was so wise and full of love she handed me this and told me to only give it to the one I treasured most… So Here!”
He reveals a heart, a large human heart, with an old worn ribbon wrapped around it saying something about Valentine's day. It had no blood so it had a pale white color. My first thought was sickening, that it was disgusting...but then I realized something and the cold evaporated into a pleasant warmth.
“Thank you” I say wrapping my arms around him,
“You-You can talk, you can touch!” He says in shock
Tears roll down my cheek as I kiss him on his big white dome head “My wish was for someone to give me their heart! I remember it now!” and then I feel funny the warmth is continuing to swirl around me. It feels so uplifting,
He looks up at me, smiling his impossible emotional smile, “Good, now you won’t be alone in the cold” his voice is sad. I don’t understand, why is he sad?
I feel my feet on the ground, only to be lifted off as that familiar fading sensation starts spreading through my body. “NO! I want to stay!” I reach out my arm but he doesn’t take it.
“I’m a reaper, this is my job. You were fun to play with but it couldn’t be forever. I’m sorry.”
“NO! I WANT TO STAY!” I reach further slightly putting my hand against the side of his jaw and cheekbone.
He places his hand against mine, “Thank you, but it’s time to go now. Don’t worry you won't be alone anymore…”
The world swirls and fades. The last sensation I feel before the warmth takes me is something wet against my palm…
“Dad,” Jr says, still looking at the sky.
“Yes, son?” I step out of the shadows and stand next to him, following his gaze.
“Do we ever get an ending?”
“Of course we do.”
“So I’ll see her again?”
“I don’t know, the humans’ soul is extremely powerful and unpredictable, who knows what will happen”
“But there's a chance?” He turns to me, his sockets pooling with tears.
I kneel down to him wiping them away and fixing his spoof of hair.
“Yes son, there is always a chance.”
Comments (0)
See all