Demise x Na Jaemin

x 5

The hand of a grim reaper signifies death: its fleshy skin hued with blue and long bony fingers can be frightening, comforting, and inebriating as it leads you to your fate. To have one extended out to you can only mean one thing.

"Am I dead?" said the voice of a fifty-year-old man, rugged and coarse as his spirit is extracted from his lifeless body.

"Yes, it is complete," the hand of the spirit falls into Jaemins as he lifts him up and next to him. "Take a look" The man's solemn eyes peered down at his lifeless body as it lay hunched over the steering wheel of his car. Glass shattered everywhere as the front of the car lay wrapped around a large oak tree.

"And my family will be okay?" The man turns to Jaemin, his face pleading for a positive answer, and an answer to prove that his decision was the correct one.

Jaemin stayed stoic, unremorseful as he spoke "No, not for a long while" he turned his head towards the car that stopped on the road, a young woman opening the door and running over to the man's lifeless body. The pure shock on her face as she calls out for the man, checking his pulse and pulling out her phone to call for an ambulance.

"But they will be." He turned to face the man, his hand still in Jaemins. "Come, let's go. I am sure there is someone excited to meet you."

Jaemin guided the man away from the scene, hues of red and blue outlining their silhouettes as they continued to walk into a bright light.

X

Walking through the desolate night, feet kicking a small stone down the pathway, Hara pulled her jumper closer to her body as the soft touch of rain drizzled onto her. One of her hands held the handle of a plastic bag filled with groceries. Feeling it sway with each step she took.

The night was eerie and the street she was walking down felt secluded in comparison to the main road she had just come from.

Not a single soul in sight- but she could not help the fact that she would turn her head every few seconds to see if someone was following her. An internalised fear penetrated her mind, ideals of someone following her, ready to snatch her away and do horrible, terrible, abominable things to her. Which was ironic since she was just visited by a hooded figure to carry out her request to die.

She could not help the uneasy feeling that lingered within her as she thought about the figure and his large scythe that stood tall. Her stomach churned at the thought of it. So much so that she could not find it in her to fall asleep again, so she exited her house into the solitary of the night to purchase some snacks.

Hara sighed, the emptiness remained within her as she walked alone. She wondered what it would be like to have friends, to be able to laugh and laugh and laugh until tears filled your eyes and pain encased your stomach.

She could not see how the idea of something so carefree and simple could be so impossible for her to experience.

Human connections seemed effortless to others, but to Hara, such things were irrevocably inconceivable.

The dark trees of the park she entered loomed over her and she decided to sit down on a lone bench in a hidden gazebo at the back of the park.

The drizzle of the rain never faulted as she rested her head on her propped up palm- watching at the streetlights reflected their golden hue onto the rippling street floor.

She lacked the energy to walk back to her house, not wanting to be met with that all familiar darkness and quietness of a lifeless home. Her brother still missing and her mother at work.

A yelp escaped her lips as she jumped in her seat at the sound of a bird landing on the rail of the gazebo frightened her.

She calmed down almost immediately as the bird stared at her with beady eyes.

"Oh, you frightened me," she spoke to the crow.
It's head twisting slightly as if to get a better look at the girl.
"I guess you are trying to escape the rain too."

The crow bounced its way closer to her, cawing a little in response.

She rested her head back onto her chin and faced her body towards the bird.

"Shouldn't you be in a tree somewhere all nice and warm? Or do you not have a home to go back to either."
The bird cawed again, hopping a little closer to the girl.
"I see. Maybe you could join me for a bit, it's dry under here," she examined the bird whose head moved left and right signifying that it was also examining her.

"Oh," she remembered, fishing into the plastic bag and pulling out a roll of bread. She broke a piece off and placed it on the railing between her and the bird.
"You must be hungry, we can share this."

She popped a piece of bread into her mouth as the bread came forward to eat its piece.

"I must be crazy, I'm talking to a bird," she scoffed derisively, but when she looked back at the bird, she felt something calming about it. Something familiar lingered within its eyes.

It cawed once more before flying away and Hara sighed, "yeah, I understand, I wouldn't want to be around me either."

She grabbed her plastic bag and exited the gazebo. The rain fell heavier as she made home- unaware of the crow who landed in the shadows of a tree.

Or should I say, Demon, who watched her from the darkness.