When the E.N.D Comes

Chapter 4: Time of Dying

Life and death.

Two forces as old as creation itself.

Forever intertwined in a continuous cycle that is subtle yet ever present in the time that serves as our existence in this life.

How both forces work, one may truly never know.

Sure, life can be chalked up as a series of cells merging and growing together to form a living being or organism while death is simply when the spark of life fades away; whether it be a long and happy life or a traumatic, sudden death. Our time is up as we have come to put it.

That is how we perceive, the forces of life and death; time. We wither make the most of our life before our clocks stop ticking.

But in the grand scheme of things, life and death is as a mystery as it is to the other. Why are we brought into this world? Why do we die after so long or little a time? And what would happen if we found a way to extend the time on our clocks?

To life not just a few extra days and weeks. Not months, no, but years-decades, generations even!

The perceived notion of immortality. Of staying the way you are until the end of time itself. It is something that many have dreamed about; desired and searched for even. A way to prevent time from catching up with us.

But as the old saying goes, "time stops for no man." Nor does death; the ever patient, silent reaper simply watching from the shadows, idly biding its time.

The sad and cruel truth of the matter is that time can be a curse.

One would think, that if a way to live forever, that they would be secure and content in the fact that they would never have to fear death again.

But then, while you remain young and healthy, those closest to you grow old, wither and die. Everyone you have come to love disappears from your life. The world around you moves on and changes while you stay the same. It is a cycle you are forced to watch...knowing that no matter where you go, that no matter how much time passes, you are irrevocably and absolutely; alone.

Knowing this...what would you do?

Would you fall into a depression, never to come out of the grave you dug for yourself; forever trapped in an exile of loneliness and despair?

Would you go insane at the sudden realization that you can never die-that you will be stuck the way you are, never to change?

Or would you try to make the best of the situation. Would you move to new places, meet new people and form new bonds-no matter how short they may be?

In all honesty, there is no real answer but only one real, absolute truth to these questions. At some point, at some time, you find yourself longing for death to claim you. The one thing you feared and thought you could escape suddenly becomes a very, very appealing thought.

An end to the memories, choices and consequences that have followed you throughout your unnaturally long life.

A chance to pass on, be purified of all sin and start anew in the next life.

...

For one man, who had lived far longer than he should have, his curse-which had plagued him day after day, night after night, and year after each achingly long year-was about to come to an abrupt end.

After so long of waiting, searching and hoping, he was about to finally pass on from an existence he had long since come to hate.

His name was Zeref.

And after four hundred years of living, his clock was coming down to its final moments.

His time of dying was at hand.