Niko and Chronos: Life and Death

   I watched as this girl appeared before me. She was small and meek, but naturally confused of where she was. She looked around frantically, trying to figure out where she was.

   “Where...?” she asked, “Why am I… here…? Where is here…?”

   I answered the girl, “I am Chronos. An aspect of Death.”

   “Death…?” She asked quietly as she turned around to face me.

   “Your time in life has ended. Therefore, you must come with me. There is nothing that can change this decision," I state calmly.

   The girl stares at her feet, saying nothing for a moment but breaks the silence asking, “I died?”

   “That is correct. Your time has come. None can escape this fate,” I say.

   I am greeted with a cold silence. This girl continues to stare at her feet, saying nothing. The silence continues.

   “Are you not going to say anything?” I inquire, “Most humans argue bitterly at this point. Those who don’t argue, usually welcome me.”

   I am, yet again, faced with a long, cold silence. I am perplexed by this.

   Why does she not say anything? I think to myself, She neither argues like others before her, nor does she welcome me.

   The girl remained silent. She was in utter despair, so deep that she could not cry, or even scream…

    This variation from the norm intrigued me.

    I wonder if I could make this girl who has fallen silent speak… I think to myself as I attempt to create ideas and form sentences on how to go about solving the matter at hand.

   I have it! I thought. I expend a fraction of my power, just for the purpose to make this girl speak. I create a high school based on her memories.

   “This place, you dreamed of it, no?” I ask the girl.

   “This is the school I… was supposed to attend.” She finally says, “I heard its bell from my hospital room. I imagined that there must be a large, old clock tower there… I heard the bell every single day.”

   I look out into the courtyard where a clocktower made of old, mossy stone cast a large shadow over the courtyard as it seemingly loomed over the school. I walked towards the window to inspect the tower more as she continued.

   “And I’d here the laughter of everyone who attended there too… I dreamed of this place… I wished to come here someday. I wished to make tons of friends… Now I’m finally here…”

   I turn around to look at this girl as she rummaged around in her pockets for something. The girl pulls three different items out, showing them to me, “Look, Mr. Death… These are my treasures… They were probably put with me into my casket.”

   Intrigued as to what she was holding I approached the small. I cocked my head to the right a little, confused as to what she was holding, inspecting these strange items.

   The girl held a fuzzy creature of some sorts in her hands, showing it to me, and ever so slightly holding it towards herself as if she still hadn’t been ready to let go of the strange animal yet, “A stuffed rabbit from a picture book the nurse gave me… Its name is Niko, because that’s my name.”

   She put the “rabbit” back inside her pocket and held out the next item in her small palm, “And this is a ring my mom got me at a festival, she said I would have a beautiful wedding and that Prince Charming would come… My mom disappeared after that. She said she didn’t want me… Maybe she shouldn’t have given birth to me…” To my surprise the girl said this so matter-of-factly that it caught me off guard. To not be born? To not be given life? Why would one wish that? What causes one to believe that they should not have been born?

   My thoughts are interrupted  as the girl holds another item and continues, “This is my hair. The nurse kept a bit of it when it was still long and pretty… She gave it to me after all my hair got shaved off, and It didn’t cheer me up much so I yelled, “Why would you do this to me!?” I cried and got angry, but I couldn’t throw it away…”

   The girl sat there and fumed, becoming angrier as she told me about this, rage filling her eyes. She looked at me with piercing eyes and shouted with a poison, “Why was I born...!? Why… Why did I have to be born!? I have nothing! No friends, no parents, not even my health…! I prayed to God every day, and not one prayer was granted…! Why… did I exist…? What was the point of my life…!?”

   I stand there shocked, dumbfounded by this girl’s words.

   She existed for a reason, everything happens for a reason, I thought.

   I look down as I ponder these things as I feel a hole growing inside of me; a feeling of immense sorrow for this girl.

   “Thank you, Mr. Death… For showing me this place… But I didn’t want to see it… everyone else gets to come here every day, but I… I’m gonna die alone… This is too cruel…!” The girl begins shouting, “I’ve had enough…! Hurry up and kill me! Take me away right now…! I don’t want to see this anymore…!”

   The girl screams, dashing toward a desk and she grabs something and attempts to gouge out her eyes. I quickly run to her aid and stop her from harming herself as she tears down and crumples to the floor sobbing.

   This must stop, she did have a meaning in life, she was meant to be born…

   I begin to feel the words that I had once lacked, fill my head. I speak these newfound words, letting them flow like a calm river, “Niko… You don’t need a reason for your life. No one has such a reason. You existed. You lived. That’s all that matters. There is only one of you. You are no one else. Everything you do, only you could have done. Didn’t the people around you change a little bit because you were there? In your life, there were those who found joy and sorrow in your words. I’m certain you changed someone in that way. You gave someone life. And I’m certain that they changed you in turn. Your mother, nurses, friends... Whether you intended it or not, they were changed. They gave you life. Even if you disappear, the world you were from goes on. But that world is the one you lived in. Even if only a little, it changed because you lived in it. You were there as a small cog in that world. A person’s life isn’t defined by grand accomplishments. You lived. Does that itself not give meaning to your life?”

   “I… lived…” she chokes, “I think… I just wanted someone to say that to me… Chronos, I’m happy. I lived my life, I lived it… to the fullest. Thank you for waiting for me Chronos. I’ll go with you.”

   I helped Niko stand and I offered her my hands. She accepted, and her hands filled mine. I looked her in the eyes and she nodded. Niko and I passed into the great beyond.