Chosen by Death

Another Visit from Death

I was back in triage, and the doctor was finishing Dustin's cast and telling him to only take the pain killers if he needed them. "Sure thing, doc. But when does this thing come off?"

"In a few weeks." Dustin was about to protest when the doctor turned to me, and said with a wink, "Make sure he doesn't do anything else stupid to re-break it."

"Skateboarding is not stupid!" Dust shouted as the doctor went to the next patient. (He was the neighborhood's best skater, and left everyone in the "dust".) He looked at me disappointedly. "You didn't get my juice?" (He, also, really likes apple juice.)

"Sorry, I..." I had to come up with a good lie, and fast. "They were bringing in a lot of people from an accident, and with all those injuries, I forgot." Girls get worried about bleeding patients and forget about apple juice, right? He bought it. And in return, I bought him some ice cream on the way home.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, until I tried to go to sleep. I was almost out when I heard that same dreadful voice from earlier: "Sorry I had to leave so quickly this afternoon, Pet."

I sat straight up in bed, fully awake, the Death staring at me from my desk chair. His eyes, studying me thoughtfully, were bright blue gemstones in the darkness. "You're not real. This is a dream."

"Oh, no; I'm real, Pet. I'm-"

"Stop calling me that. I'm not your pet."

"Of course you are." That hideous smile came back to his face. "If you weren't, your friend could have been severely hurt this morning."

"Is this blackmail? Are you threatening people I care about to force me to be your-" The word choked me on its way out. "Pet?"

"No." The smile, thankfully, disappeared, only to be replaced by the most pitiful face of concern. "I'm just saying that if I didn't like you as much as I do, he wouldn't have walked away with just a broken arm."

"Fine," I said. "So if I'm your pet, then..." I chose my words carefully. "Then, if I asked, you'd protect people for me?"

"Yes." Being Death's pet could have some perks. A cloud must have moved from in front of the moon, because the room got lighter. He was wearing all black still, but it was slacks and a loose T-shirt, instead of his robes. He looked... comfy.

"What happened to your robes?"

"They're just for business."

"And choosing a pet is official business?"

"No." I scrunched my forehead, confused, as he smiled playfully. Death's smile didn't look as horrid in the moonlight. Wait, what was I thinking? "I just thought it would look cooler."

"You were right." I guess I was feeling slightly more comfortable around him. He looked almost normal – despite having tight, dark, dead, (No, really?) skin and being extremely emaciated with unnaturally blue eyes. I yawned, and glanced over at my alarm clock. 10:31.

"You should probably get some sleep, Pet," Death said, coming over to stand beside me with his hand on my shoulder. I tensed, very uncomfortable again. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Next thing I knew, my alarm was blaring at me to get up and get ready for school. That's it. It had to have been a dream. The 3-day weekend had made my brain bored, so it was imagining the craziest – creepiest – things.

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(A/N: Sorry I haven't posted in, literally, a year. Just... LIFE. LIFE HAPPENS, Y'ALL. It gets in the way sometimes. I will try to work on this and my other stuff here as much as I can, especially since summer is coming up. But, yeah.... We'll see how that goes...)