Short Stories About Death

What's Going On?

The girl stared at the angry sea with her eyes wet from all the tears. The cold wind danced around her, as the sky filled with the darkest clouds that she had ever seen. It seemed that the sky, the wind and the sea shared her anger and sorrow, like they were all mourning for something or someone.

The mother's cries still echoed in her ears, along with the father's sobs and the younger brother's screams. She could still hear them. But above all she could still hear the voice of the young boy, telling her what had happened.

“We were at the cafeteria” he had started “In that day there was cake, so everybody was there. I was finishing my lunch, when I heard a loud bang and screams. After that, it was panic. Nobody knew what it was going on or where to go.” He had looked at his mother and continued “I remember trying to call mom, but somebody grabbed my best friend, Lucy. I looked up and saw a masked man holding her ponytail, with a gun pointed at her head.” He had taken a deep breath and continued.” I panicked. I didn’t want to lose her”. Here, the tears had started to fall. “So, I got up and shouted “Let her go”. The masked man looked at me and laughed “We have a brave one here”, he said. “Why are you doing this” I asked. “Because I can” he answered. And then, I heard a bang and everything went black. He had shoot me”

“Just like that? ” the girl had asked

“Yeah”

“The man didn’t even flinch?”

“No” he had replied, staring at his own body.

The girl felt the ocean dancing around her feet, and took a deep breath. That couldn't affect her. She was used to take children, adults, old persons, victims. But this. This was awful. It was a kid. A kid that had been shot in school. In a school. A kid who was barely 11 years old. Normally, the kids that se was used to take were deadly sick or had died in an accident.

“Are you alright?” the boy had asked, when she started crying silently.

“It's just…I'm not used to take kids who are so young, with this type of fatal wounds.  I mean...Haven't humans evolved? Isn't what happened in the past enough? When will they be satisfied?”

“My mom used to say that, we will never be satisfied” the boy had said.

“We have to go” The girls had said

“I know” And the, he had taken her hand and smiled sadly.

A cry of a dog brought her back to the present. She looked behind her and spotted a huge black dog.

“I was starting to wonder how long you would take to find me” she pointed out

“You always liked the sea” he simply replied, in her head.

“It's strangely beautiful. It can be the most beautiful song, but at the same time it can be the most destructive force on earth.” She sat on the sand, feeling the sea playing by her feet. The dog walked to her, and sat at her side.

“You can't give up” he said “Not now”

“I know. I just hoped they had already learned their lesson. With so many wars, fights, deaths. But they still hurt each other. They still kill each other. They still kill each other for power. For fun, because they can.”

She stared at the black dog. He had always been her faithful companion and friend. He had never abandoned her and had always dealt with her multiple personalities.

“I'm just tired” she said

“Tired of what?”

“Tired of seeing the humans destroy themselves! Tired of taking children! Tired of taking people with easily treated wounds! Tired of taking people who don’t deserve to be taken! Tired of wars! But mainly, tired of watching and not being able to do anything to help.” She almost screamed

“Why can't you do anything to help?” the dog asked

“Because I'm Death.” She screamed “Because I'm the enemy number one of humans. Because they hate me. Because they think of me as this cruel, wicked, nasty, mean thing.”

“Some days, you're like that” he pointed out.

“Not helping.” she glared at him.

“Sorry.” he said, lowering his head “But is true.”

Death fell backwards and, laid on the sand, feeling the sand beneath her body.

“And, not everybody thinks like that” the dog added.

“What?”

“That kid you just took. He accepted you with open arms. Some of them don't fear you. Not anymore. There's even a famous book character that said: “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” I think is name was…

“Albus Dumbledore. I've read that collection.” she said, smiling sadly.

“So, maybe this next generation isn’t afraid of you.” the dog said, looking to the horizon.

“Maybe” it was her only answer.

And they stayed there, staring at the raging sea and feeling the angry wind. The dog looked at Death. In that day, she looked so innocent, with a child's face and a ripped black dress. Some days she was a mean old lady. Some days she was cold woman. Every day she was different. And he loved her for that.

“There's no happy ending to this, right?” she asked

He looked at her. “No.” he answered “Not likely.”