"So...I'm really dead?"
Yes.
"This is...the afterlife? Am I actually really dead?"
Yes.
"It's...cold."
Yes. Follow me.
"Are you the Grim Reaper? Death himself?"
Call me what you want. I only have to carry your soul to a safe place.
"A safe place?"
Yes.
Death opened a white blissful portal. Its warmth could heat up the coldest of hearts.
"Wow...it's like a pretty river! Are those...mom! Dad!"
Off went the soul leaving behind its powerful traces of pain and suffering. Death closed the portal and exited the children's hospital. He made his way down the floors, passing rooms he would come back to later. Off he went, crossing the street. He marked the places where a soul will collide with another within their metal coffins, he marked the light pole where the drunken soul will crash into a light pole, he marked an empty lot where a soul will be taken by its own hands, he marked an old tree branch behind a veterans home, he marked, he marked, and he marked.
The shelter. Not for the human souls. A shelter for Mother Nature's kindest souls. Old. Abandoned. Bruised. Neglected. These were the souls that Death never really enjoyed having to escort. These were the souls that always had a purpose on the realm of the living. No philosophy. No politics. No deeper meaning. Just affection for other souls. Affection that was undying and powerful in the realm of the undead. Their aura was a beacon of happiness within the cold realm that Death roamed in.
As he was about to enter this shelter, out came another soul carrying his designated mark. Confused, Death followed this soul. The soul carried the weak little one to a vehicle. There the soul sat giving the small soul scratches behind the ears. The soul pulled out a device and placed it near its listening tubes. Death was familiar with this device. He leaned on the window of the vehicle and listened closely to the realm of the living.
"Hey. Yeah. No yeah. Yeah! Apparently he was suppose to be put down today, I came in just in time! We still have spare chew toys for him, right?"
The little soul's lifespan suddenly extended greatly. Death no longer had any business here. He turned and walked away.
The day ended with a skeletal grin.
