Flash Fiction: Over to Death

I made a bargain with Death, I bring him souls to reap and he spare mine.  It’s a good deal.  Most of the time.  But after a while, you begin to become…. Less than human.  Something that isn’t quite a monster, but certainly isn’t mortal either.

At first I was glad. I had made the deal because it was a good way for me to get rid of those people who either annoy me, have hurt me in the past or just generally caused or still cause me misery! All those bullies in life – all gone to death.  And in return I got a few more days on earth. It was a win win situation for me!

However, after 50 or so souls gone to Death’s quarters I was now running out of enemies and annoying people. I was at a loss.  I was not ready to die.  I had not completed everything on my bucket list and didn’t want to leave this world until they had all been achieved.  I wanted to die happy.

Though, I wasn’t happy.  Every soul I gave to death took a little bit away from me, I was becoming inhuman.   And what human who had any moral decency would give people over to Death to die, even if they were horrible people.  No one deserved to die and no one, not even me deserves to live longer than any other person, especially since I had a terminal illness which should have ended my day’s weeks ago.  I was living on borrowed time. Illegal borrowed time.

Death was lurking upon me, but I was still being selfish and I still didn’t want to go, so staying with the deal I gave death more people.  And since I had to run out of enemies I had to start sacrificing my friends and my family.  Who was I to have this upper hand?

However, with each soul I gave to Death more of me died inside.  Even though I was avoiding physical death I was still dying – I was an immoral soul walking this earth. A person who did not deserve to live. I started to feel self-loathing towards myself.  I was a monster in the making and it was not a nice feeling.  I was nearly as bad as Death, if not worse.

It was when I was delivering my third death into the hands of Death that my moral conscience attacked me – I fell on the floor and screamed for mercy and forgiveness for all the souls I had sold to Death.  I begged Death to take me this time and spare the lives of whom I loved.  Death laughed in my face and said “I am not going to give you that freedom.  I will make you squirm.  I am going to ask your friend to decide whether you should die or live and continue to suffer. The guilt will eventually kill you”

My friend, a long suffering friend of mine looked at me and then looked at death then looked back at me before saying “Today my friend you shall die”.  With that I crumbled into pieces and just like that I disappeared.  Gone forever like dust thrown to the wind.