[Masa]

Synopsis: A short story I wrote a long long long long time ago, I found it and wondered if any readers could figure out the meaning that I must have lost.



"You there, child. Why do you cry?"

The girl looked up and stared at him rather blankly with her amber eyes, her brown hair was disheveled and messy, and all the more frizzy than it were straight. If it weren't for her horrific look and her somber figure, one would have thought her quite pretty. She widened her eyes then turned on her knees, her hands together in a pleading fashion, "Please... hear my tale!"

The man before her smiled weakly, his thin-rimmed glasses shining off the light of the sun in the side of the sky's way. He wore a large gray trench coat and a bowler hat. There was a bit of stubble on his chin, but that might have very well been the shadows cast by the sun's rays.

The girl bitterly began to recount her tale, from the very start, and to the very end.

"My name is Elizabeth Hecate Randall, today is my fifteenth birthday... When I woke up it was like any other morning, simple, boring, but with a cupcake for my birthday..."

I sat up a little in my seat at the dinner table and poked away at my breakfast food, even though I was sort of hungry, I just didn't feel like eating right now, heh, an oxymoron of my own body... haha. I eyed the stupid pink cupcake with disdain, if my parents didn't want to celebrate my birthday with me I'd rather they tell than just give me a cupcake in the morning and ignore me completely for the rest of the day.

"Elizabeth dear, why aren't you eating? Are you sick?"

"No mom... I... think I'm going to head to school now... bye." I grabbed my school's black book bag and quickly left the house, blatantly ignoring my mother's calls of "Be careful", "Have fun", or any other useless stuff mothers seem to all know. The sky looked cloudy and dismal, another normal day in my completely pathetic life. However what wasn't normal in my life was seeing a body suddenly fall down in front of her house, then suddenly becomes consumed by a red fire...

"A fire erupted right in front of your own house? Didn't anyone else notice?" the man interrupted; rather shocked by the way this story progressed.

Elizabeth shook her head, trembling slightly, "No... no one noticed... it was a girl... she was walking to school with her boyfriend... he never even noticed... right beside her..."

I, of course, was startled and horrified to see this, I ran forward, taking off my backpack, I wanted to... to you know, smother the fire or something, but by the time I reached her... she vanished... I... I don't know exactly what happened, but then I noticed some guy was looking at me funny. I yelled at him, "D-did you see!? Why didn't you help her!?"

And he... he shook his head and looked at me like I was insane... then he shrugged and walked away, whistling. He was whistling! Like nothing happened! But... there was a man standing there. He was dressed in casual clothes and all that, I'm sure he wasn't weird, but... he was standing there, looking at me with a smirk on his face, and... he had weird eyes... silver, yeah silver eyes. They looked unnatural... metallic and stuff. Then I blinked, and he was... just... gone. It scared me; I thought I was hallucinating, you know, bright colors and all that stuff. So... I forgot about it, no one seen it but me, so I thought maybe, you know, eating breakfast kept you from going nuts... so I stopped at the store to grab a snack.

During school everything seemed fine; I dismissed the idea as a simple whacko thing because I didn't get much sleep last night. So then when I see another person turn into a giant fireball, I really begin to panic. I started to think I really was going insane, this time it was some old woman walking down the crowded streets, she fell ablaze, and yet people walked over her, completely oblivious to the smoldering ashes. Then again I saw him, a man simply standing there by the now completely scattered area where the lady's ashes were. Then... he looked at me again, he held his chin up and his silver eyes flashed, I closed my eyes as a sudden chill seeped into my already numb bones. Then my eyes were torn from the figure outside to face my geometry teacher, who was chastising me for not paying attention to the board. Who the hell pays attention to a freaking board anyway?

"So this man... is he connected to the sudden strange burnings, child?" the man whispered, he was completely immobile while Elizabeth recounted her strange story, he didn't seem frightened in the least, but behind those glassy reflective spectacles his eyes tenderly observed her shuddering.

Elizabeth nodded slowly, "Yeah... I was just about to explain that... it... I think he's..."

I rushed home, fast as I could, but I ran into a man on the way. I never noticed he was there until it was too late. I fell down, but something in me made me jump back up, I quickly tried to apologize, but the words died in my mouth. The man's eyes were dark and sad, his eyelids were sort of droopy and he looked sleepy, his mouth was closed, but his jaw was slack. I was going to ask if something was bothering him, but he suddenly burst to flame! This time I knew I wasn't hallucinating, because I could taste the heat of the fire, my chills grew worse as his body fell to a crumpled heap at my feet, and standing behind him... was that man. I didn't run though, because there was still that little part of me that wanted to know if this was real, but I was almost in tears when he smiled.

His silver eyes held the strangest sort of empathy I've ever seen, he slowly crouched down and touched the black stain on the sidewalk, then he talked to me in a tone a father would speak to a newborn baby, "You needn't worry small girl. This man was ready to go. He actually died a long time ago and knew what would happen... I told him what was to come, and he faced it bravely... now are you ready to be just as brave?"

I knew it, I lost my mind, and I dropped all of my bags and just ran. I ran all the way into the city, because some crazy murderer was after me! I needed to be in a crowd, but even as I ran I heard his voice, "Little Elizabeth... aren't you ready? Now that you can see me it means you must be ready... let's not make a game of my job..."

I began to sob as I slowed, this guy was insane... I'm insane! But just as my thoughts echoed in my head, his voice quickly followed, "Elizabeth dear, why run from me? Existence of the body might be prolonged while the soul itself has long died... I am here to right this small gap in the system of life and death."

I kept running, the further I ran the further my head felt as though it'd split into two, he was implying I died, telling me I was already... I ran here, where my legs collapsed, and his voice stopped... but I could still see his eyes... cold, silver, and so heartbreaking... the soul behind those eyes were covered in a metal case, and will always be...

Elizabeth sobbed and touched her face, tears running down her face, her chin was quivering as whimpers escaped from her mouth and sniffles kept more tears at bay. She curled into a small ball and weakly calmed herself.

The man touched Elizabeth's brow, lowering himself to her level, he smiled weakly, "It's okay, child, everyone is afraid of Death."

Elizabeth's eyes widened in horrified realization as his silver eyes glinted in a morbid way as Elizabeth felt her heart warm in an intense heat. The man's face vanished, leaving only in the air the slight feeling of those silver orbs constantly watching her...

[Lubesh]

If that turned out to be the said man with silver eyes ....why didn't he tak her then? Enjoyable little story though. Notsure of ameaning.were u approaching 15 and thought..mmm wonder if there isa grim reeper and do we have a choice and allsorts of questions lol

[angel]

hmm no idea on meaning. but this is an excellent piece masa well written an excellent read. sorry no help with meaning

[Masa]

I feel as though this is not my story, but it is on my computer... in the font and everything that I've used in the last four years... the date implies that I wrote this at thirteen or twelve, actually at thirteen February so just after I turned thirteen. So this was written while I was still in my depression, hmm...

Oh and it says her heart warmed by intense heat, so I think he did take her away, since everyone else was taken away by a fire, intense heat.... fire... I think that's what I meant...

LOL, I'm such a dork, I can't even remember my own stories... thanks for reading Lubesh.

Ah! You too arsenelite, heh, I edited this one in 'cause we commented at the same time! lol

[Lubesh]

gosh masa ur right obviously.....i did have half a window...mustn't have been concentrating i do rememebr the orbs bit though.strange....my apologies.

[Masa]

No need for apoligizing, it was a mistake that poor Masa has done many many times, hate the sin, not the sinner!

[Lubesh]

Originally Posted by Masa

No need for apoligizing, it was a mistake that poor Masa has done many many times, hate the sin, not the sinner!

hate the sins.no sweat i stilllove myself lol

[Masa]

Love yourself and pass on the love to others, that is the key to a happy life Lubeshu-dono! Thanks for your wonderful comments and brightening my day!

[Lubesh]

domo masa san???lol

[Masa]

Hey you said it right, awesome! lol

[Bluejay]

When I read this part:

"You needn't worry small girl. This man was ready to go. He actually died a long time ago and knew what would happen... I told him what was to come, and he faced it bravely... now are you ready to be just as brave?"

I thought of the twist in the Sixth Sense, where the person is dead but they don't know it. That would explain her parents not celebrating with her and the fact that the others being engulfed went unnoticed. (If I'm stating the obvious, please ignore me.) But that is directly opposite to what you had. My view was: the body died, but the soul lived on, thinking it was alive. Yours was: the soul died, and the body hadn't caught up yet.

Well, rambling over.

[Masa]

Thanks jnabonne, remember I don't have a single memory on this thing, I think I wrote this along with Maria Escale of my former writing group, so I'm going to call her and ask, until then I'm going to go ahead and let you guys fill in the plotholes of my mind!

[EternalPen]

Haha! Wonderful! No cursing! I LOVE that! I don't care if it's character personality or not! CURSING IS NOT NESSCCESARY!
This was slightly predictable, and I don't get it, but I think I can guess. I'm just gonna be safe and say someone elses view of a grim reaper? Either way it was excellenty told, and I LOVE the description right at the end. The last paragraph! ^_^
Keep up... oh wait this was written a long time ago I guess.
Still- Keep up the good work!

[Masa]

Well thanks a bunch! I'm glad you really liked this! I asked Maria Leslie Escale, an old accomplice of mine who helped me write this sort o' stuff. She said we were trying to make different views on death and the ultimate fear of dying, through different aspects such as how death works and the entire way it went through... so I guess that solves on the entire I don't remember what it was about... thanks!

[EternalPen]

And thank YOU. I feel rotten reading stories with cursing in them, but that's almost all I ever find here. glad to see I can still enjoy a few good works of literature without theCOMPLETELY unneccessary cursing.

[Masa]

Erm... did I curse in this one? I rarely curse in my stories, but if I did I sincerely apoligize...