Unknown Death

4

Several days later Emily was sitting in Death's study lost in thought. Death was messing around with his plants. Neither was worried about the silence that has descended between them some time ago.

Death jerks at Emily's voice, "Death how did you know that the brake lines had been cut in my car?" She still hadn't figured that part out.

"I had received my orders to harvest your soul but the time wasn't sure so I was waiting for the accident or whatever to take your life."

"You didn't know when? You don't have like an hour glass or something that tells you when a soul is about to die?" Emily is curious about this, in the time since she's been with Death she hasn't seen much of the popular ideas about him.

Death chuckles, "For some people yes, or at least in a way. I can tell and you should be able to as well when we go to Earth. But have an actual clock or hour glass for each person would be illogical and rather cumbersome. Where would they all be stored? No, I receive my orders and wait for the soul that has been selected to find their death and then harvest them. Whether that death is by illness or other natural means or by accidents. In cases like yours a clock wouldn't have mattered. You were to have years left, but because..." Death realized that he perhaps has said to much trails off. He looks up from his plants and gives Emily an anxious look.

"I was to live several more years if I hadn't of been murdered?" Emily murmurs softly more to herself than to Death. Death decides to answer her anyway.

"Yes, you shouldn't have died until you were at least seventy years old. I've told you too much," Death murmurs seeing her tears.

"No, it's alright. I wonder what would've happened if I had lived though. Would I have finally found acceptance and maybe someone to love?" Once more her voice is more towards herself than Death.

Death hates seeing people in tears although he's caused many of the tears in people over the years. He leaves off caring for his plants altogether to go over to Emily and gathers her in his arms. "I shouldn't have told you. The future is always an unknown, too many variables at play. Taking a right turn rather than a left can change the future not just for you, but for any number of people as well. Such small decisions that we have no way of knowing how it will affect others-"

"I've never had a boyfriend. Never even been kissed. Those men took that from me, to punish my father because he wouldn't do what they wanted-" Emily couldn't finish because she looks up at Death's face in that moment.

"You've never been kissed? How old were you again?" Death asks gently. He knows the kids of this particular generation are about as free with affections as the hippies of the sixties were.

"I was just turned eighteen," Emily manages to say. She doesn't know why her throat was suddenly tight and having a dry feeling. She hasn't felt the need for food or water since she died.

"They are blind fools," Death mutters as he looks at Emily. He couldn't understand why nobody would want her when she's one of the most beautiful people he's ever met. She never even blinked when she found he was Death.

"Who?" Emily asks at his words.

"Those boys that ignored you. Had I been mortal I would have asked to date you the first time I set eyes on you." Death growls out.

Emily stares at him in shock, "I wish you had been, but had you been mortal you would have likely chosen to date one of the other girls that surrounded me at the school. I'm like an ugly duckling compared to them."

Death smirks at her comparison, "Ah, but Emily, the ugly duckling wasn't a duckling, but a beautiful swan. You my dear are far more beautiful than any of those ducks. Especially since it is the male or drake that is beautiful among the ducks."

Emily feels like she should be a dark red by now but knows that blushing like that is impossible now. "That's very nice of you to say, but we both know that it's not true."

Indeed the nasty words of the spoiled rich bitches still ring in her ears, telling her how ugly she is and how she'll never find anyone because of it.

Lost in the memory of her thoughts she is off balance when Death kisses her. "They are wrong, not I. They told you those things because they are jealous of your natural beauty that their artificial beauty couldn't come close to." Death whispers to her after he finishes the kiss.

"How did you know what I was-"
"I can't ready your mind if that was what you are wondering. I have learned to read body language though, and you are easy to read.

"I have watched you from time to time and have heard some of the things said to you by the nasty females at your school. I hadn't realized that you didn't have any friends though."

"You watched me from time to time?" Those words had captured Emily's attention and she couldn't get past them. "Why?"

"There are few people that grab my attention, but when I find one I watch them from time to time until they are, well you know." Death looks down embarrassed.

"Dead?" Death nods, "So are you called to harvest the souls of all the ones that grab your attention?" Emily asks trying to find some reason for her special treatment.

"No, you are the first of those that grabbed my attention to have me personally harvest you." Death pauses before continuing, "You say that you would have chosen to stay with me even if the Creator hadn't of intervened. I've been thinking that is the reason I was sent to collect you. So that you could make that choice. I still would have tried to talk you out of it, this isn't a life I would choose had it been given to me." Silence descends after his words.

"Can we go to Earth? The Creator said that you would go there often in disguise to walk among the mortals." Emily's voice breaks the heavy silence.

Death looks at Emily not sure what it is she wants, "We can go. You can go by yourself if you wish, all you have to do is think of where you want to be and there you are. You won't be visible to others, with the exception of children and those close to death-"

"I want you to come with me," Emily says in a rush breaking in on Death's words before she chickens out.

Death can only stare at her in shock. No one has ever requested his company to visit with. "Are you sure? I'm not the best company, people generally shun me."

Emily looks up at him with laughter in her eyes, "Yes, not many people want Death hanging around to chat with I'd imagine. Yes, I want you to come with me. I'm already dead so..."

Death gives her a slight smirk, "I get it, I'm no threat to your life now. I'd like to come. Where should we go first?"