Fantastical Ramblings Read Online Free PDF

ring.
    There was still time for Death to offer choices.
    All four Lives froze in a tableau that screeched of man’s
violation of his covenant with Life. The black crystal in the staff passed from
red to blinding white. The appointment book grew heavier and hotter yet.
    11:59:45. Time stopped.
    Death looked anxiously from the crystal to the Life who
awaited his touch. Time awaited the next candidate. Who? The book didn’t tell
him.
    “Don’t kill me!” the woman who had left the bar filled with
renewed purpose yelled at the three muggers. “You’ve got my purse and my
jewelry. I can’t run away. My leg is broken. Leave me alone.”
    No one moved. Nothing moved, not even the freezing wind.
    Death waited. A curious sensation of warmth engulfed him. He’d
been cold so long he’d forgotten what warmth was. Not exactly warmth, an
absence of heart-chilling cold. But with the warmth came pain too. Sharp pains
filled his leg in empathic sharing with the woman. Curiosity and dread warred
with fear for mastery within him. His heart raced and then seemed to stop. This
was the last appointment in his book and he would be an active participant
instead of an escort after all the choices were made.
    Fate had caught up with him at last.
    “Help me, please. I don’t want to die,” the woman called to
Death. Her hand reached out in entreaty.
    Death heard himself issuing the same plea a year ago. He
remembered fear and its copper taste on his tongue.
    He shook off the memory and the residual tremors. He had a
duty to perform.
    “I have an appointment with someone in this alley. One of
you must go with me.” Death’s voice echoed around the alley, like a bronze
bell. The three muggers remained frozen in time. Not so much as an eyelash
twitched among them.
    “Take one of them.” The woman pointed to the tableau of
criminals frozen in the act of theft and murder. Her hand wavered and almost
pointed directly at Death.
    Death tried to retreat within the folds of his hood. “They
are outside this decision, Ma’am. Only you and I are here.” Her name eluded
him. Why? This had never happened to him before... before he became Death.
    A year ago he had wanted so desperately to live that he had
chosen to become Death rather than accept his fate. And now he was faced with
another Life in the same dilemma. One of them must die.
    He planted his staff in front of him. The glowing black wood
gave him authority and confidence. Someone in the alley had to die. Time would
not resume unless Death escorted a candidate to the other side. He still had a
choice.
    “I’m not volunteering to die,” the woman screamed. “I’m not
ready to die! I just decided to live. Please let me live!”
    “I can’t give you that choice,” Death lied.
    “Do something.” The woman grabbed the staff and shook it in
desperation.
    Death jerked back on the length of wood in panic. “The staff
is my badge of office. Only I may touch it.” His hood fell back. This time he
knew his appearance was the classic personification of Death, a skeletally thin
face, pasty white. Deep-set eyes that looked into eternity.
    The woman held tight to the staff, shaking it again.
    “You. Must. Let. Go.” Death grabbed the black staff with
both hands, trying to wrest his tool away from her. “You. May. Not. Touch. It.”
    “If you won’t help me, then let me have it to save myself.” She
clung to the staff as if it were Life itself; a Life she desperately wanted. Now.
A few moments ago she’d almost thrown it away. “I can use this as a weapon to save
myself!”
    Power raced up and down the wood binding her to the staff
and to Death. He almost let go. Desperation kept him glued to the wood.
    If he let her live, what would happen to him? Someone had to
die or time would not resume.
    Who would it be?
    What choices were left?
    The only way to cheat
fate and Death is to become Death , another voice had told him a year ago.
    Death stumbled. The woman twisted the staff and