Mystical One-Shots

Death Follows

What would you do if Death was following you? Not to kill you, reap your soul, but to take you for themselves. What would you do? Give yourself with no struggle, or fight and run?

I chose to fight. I chose to run, hide, everything I could to get far away as possible. But after all this time, after two years of running nonstop, I can only see my future me running until I no longer can.

One day I know Death will catch up when I can no longer run. And once it does, it will never let go. Once you are caught in its grasp, all hope is lost.

I've only encountered Death once, face to face. It was one of the most terrifying things I've been through. When you are right in front of Death, it feels as if all the warmth in your body is stolen, that you will no longer feel happiness.

It came to me one night, two years ago. I was sleeping on my bed in my dreadful but still mine apartment. I just turned seventeen, and I got enough money from jobs to buy myself a livable apartment and get out of my abusive aunt's house.

Ever since I lost my parents at a young age, she hated me, only ever treated me as another person in her life, not as her niece. It went from verbal abuse, starvation, exposing me to the elements, such as leaving outside the house in the rain, and physical abuse that consisted of her slapping me.

The apartment I bought had a kitchen and living connected, one bathroom and one bedroom. There was mold on the carpet, bathroom curtains, tub, sink. The paint on the wall was peeling off as well, as infiltration wet the floor.

However, even with the many bad and disgusting things the apartment had, I was proud of it since I bought it with my own money. Also, the bed wasn't so bad since I managed to salvage some money and buy a nice but cheap mattress.

My sound asleep self had no clue that Death incarnate would make a short visit to take me one night. I remember dreaming of eating caramelized popcorn as I watched Lion King on my somehow bought LG LED TV. However, when the lights were turned off, my popcorn was gone from my hands, and the TV went static. Somehow, the blanket I was wrapped in made no use as I was still freezing.

Frames from the movies battled with the static images before the TV turned off. After that, everything was quiet; everything was cold. It looked like there was no life in the world anymore.

As everything stood still, I felt some freezing cold, yet at the same time boiling hot run up my arm to my cheek and stopping at my hair. The image of my modern living room turned to pitch black as the weird and painful feeling now moved down my cheek, stopping at my lips.

The freezing cold and boiling hot feeling then turned into a comfortable warmth as it grazed my lips. However, my eyes felt heavy, so I put all my strength to open them, and I wish I had remained sleeping at that time.

With little to no light coming from my bedroom window, I saw a shadow looming over me. It was faceless with deer-like horns sprouting from its head and hood. Strands from its robe levitated in the air like tentacles, and towards their feet, the same happened, but small still-burning ash floated around it.

One hand held what looked like a scythe connected with chains as the other touched my lips delicately. I tried my best not to move, afraid that if I did, that scythe would find itself lodged in my stomach or my head rolling on the dirty floor.

The hand stopped touching my lips and moved down to my neck before I felt two fingers touching the side of my neck. Incoherent words left their nonexistent lips as excruciating pain burned my neck.

I tried screaming, but nothing came out. I tried running, but I couldn't move. I tried closing my eyes and falling into another less painful nightmare, but it didn't work. All I could do was cry as the pain increased until it abruptly stopped.