A Ghost Story

Ends and Odds

So I'm gonna throw it right out there that I never expected to live to the drinking age, 21.  I wasn't sick or depressed or anything, I was just in so many high adventure activities.  I had been sailing since I was two months, I was on the ski team and taught myself snowboarding.  I messed up my growth plate in my left pelvis from running too much on the cross country team and then didn't catch the injury until the next year.  I had fun camping in snow caves with my friends in -20 degrees F.  I had nearly drowned five times (twice cause I was laughing too hard) before I finally made it to High School.  I also seemed to have a history of falling headfirst off the top of the stairs now that I think about it. 

Now, like I said, I started sailing young and I never stopped.  I was damn competent on a boat and sailing was like taking a vacation from the world.  And so, I was sailing when I died.  I wasn't surprised about dying.  The storm caught me by surprise.  The fifty foot waves caught me by surprise.  The mast breaking didn't really catch me by surprise, but the thirty foot boat capsizing sure did.  It takes a hella lot of force to capsize a thirty foot boat and, as I looked up at the towering waves from where I was clinging to the boat, I knew this was over.  And so, my twenty-year-old self drowned.  I died in a giant storm off the Pacific coast and they never found the body.

I was drifting in the ohsoverycold water and watching, too cold to care, as those huge waves crashed down on me and pushed my limp body around like a puppet only held by my life jacket.  I was numb and knew I was fading from this world when a hooded black shape rose from the water before me.  I figured it was probably Shinigami-sama and wondered a bit at how much handsomer he was than the myths portrayed.  There was no skeleton body or face wrapped in rags, his form seemed to flicker and slowly grow stronger.  I realized with a start that he wasn't wearing a black robe, it was part of his form, of the energy that sustained his image.   It wasn't really a he either, Shinigami-sama looked androgynous to me.  I decided to call him/it/they Shin-sama cause I couldn't think long words anymore.  Shin-sama was super pale white with long black hair, black eyes, and grey lips.  Shin-sama reached out with normal sized but ghostly white hands and wrapped me in a hug.  I was mildly confused because I couldn't really process how weird this was, I was shutting down.  I heard Shin-sama say something about a bet before my body finally shut down.