Shadow in Time
Flashback
Often I have flashbacks of the innumerable lives that I have taken over the course of time. I can’t explain how or why it happens, I suppose it’s akin to you humans experiencing déjà vu. The most recent life that I claimed as my own before I was forced to compile a new list belonged to a middle aged business man.
I have forgotten his name but I never forget the faces of the dying. He worked in New York City and spent every waking moment obsessed with getting a promotion and sucking up to his boss. The man never made time for his family and as a result, his children grew up without a father figure. His wife was under enormous pressure to raise a family and maintain a job. Their marriage was falling apart at the seams and he still frittered his life away in a cubicle.
Finally, his time came. Yesterday at 3:30 am I slipped into his bedroom and gazed down at him as he slept next to his wife. I felt like an intruder and if he was aware of my presence and could physically touch me, I’m sure that he would have attempted to kill me with the nearest object. But as I’ve said before, I am Death and cannot be defeated nor can I be detected.
As I watched the covers over his body rise and fall with his even breaths, I felt a pang of something I could not identify. Was it envy? Was it sadness? Was it regret? I am not sure what I felt, but I feel that sensation almost every time I take a life. The only time I do not experience that dreaded pang is when I take the life of someone who is cruel. Perhaps I am capable of feeling remorse.
Back to the matter of the man whose life I last took, he never knew I was there. So, I continued with my normal procedure of separating soul from body and just as quickly as I came, I left.
When I describe the cause of death I simply say I extracted their soul but in medical terms, you could say that he died of a heart attack. That man was the perfect example of why you shouldn’t waste your life away chasing the hands of time. You know you won’t win, yet you still try.
When will you learn to accept your fate?
I have forgotten his name but I never forget the faces of the dying. He worked in New York City and spent every waking moment obsessed with getting a promotion and sucking up to his boss. The man never made time for his family and as a result, his children grew up without a father figure. His wife was under enormous pressure to raise a family and maintain a job. Their marriage was falling apart at the seams and he still frittered his life away in a cubicle.
Finally, his time came. Yesterday at 3:30 am I slipped into his bedroom and gazed down at him as he slept next to his wife. I felt like an intruder and if he was aware of my presence and could physically touch me, I’m sure that he would have attempted to kill me with the nearest object. But as I’ve said before, I am Death and cannot be defeated nor can I be detected.
As I watched the covers over his body rise and fall with his even breaths, I felt a pang of something I could not identify. Was it envy? Was it sadness? Was it regret? I am not sure what I felt, but I feel that sensation almost every time I take a life. The only time I do not experience that dreaded pang is when I take the life of someone who is cruel. Perhaps I am capable of feeling remorse.
Back to the matter of the man whose life I last took, he never knew I was there. So, I continued with my normal procedure of separating soul from body and just as quickly as I came, I left.
When I describe the cause of death I simply say I extracted their soul but in medical terms, you could say that he died of a heart attack. That man was the perfect example of why you shouldn’t waste your life away chasing the hands of time. You know you won’t win, yet you still try.
When will you learn to accept your fate?
♠ ♠ ♠
I originally wanted to have a brief account of Death actually taking someone's life, but I decided not to include it because my original idea didn't flow properly. However, thanks to a commenter, I was able to rework it back into the story :)