Days of a Reaper

A bony hand held a pocket watch as the hooded figure stood outside of a hospital, it was almost time. The reaper made his way into the hospital, slowly making his way through the halls until he came to the room number 203. This room belonged to an older male in his 70s, his clock showed five minutes until it hits zero. The reaper slipped in and stood in the corner and watched as the man held on to his wife's hand for his last moments. Thirty seconds left, the old man spots the reaper in the corner and gives a soft, sad smile. The reaper bows his head and moves closer putting his hand on the mans shoulder. The monitor is a direct sign that the old man has moved on. The wife sits there crying and holding his hand praying for his safe passage into heaven.

The man opens his eyes and looks around him, he sees a bright blue sky, a bright green forest with deer and all kinds of woodland creatures around him. He chuckles and runs his hand along a fern.

"Grandpa?" a small voice calls out to him from behind a tree near a path. He turns and his face lights up with tears in his eyes. In front of him is his grandchild, Mary, what had died at the young age of ten over 15 long years ago. He turns to the reaper, who in turn waves his arm towards Mary and backs away, the old man makes his way to her and picks her up laughing. The air is filled with laughter and giggles. The reaper places his hand over where his heart should be and feels a tiny feeling of warmth as he slowly disappears.

The reaper turns the corner and comes to a little corner store in New York City, inside were about five people, all different ages, but the two that mattered the most were only 15 and 16 years old. The reaper walked in and saw a female cashier behind the counter trying to put all the money in the bag while one of the boys held a gun to her face, the other was walking around the store trying to keep the other people back. The woman was a blubbering mess so she kept messing up and dropping money, getting on the boy's nerves, he cocked the gun and got it closer to her face and yelled at her again. When he did that, he had distracted the other boy for a second and that allowed one of the onlookers to grab the gun from him and knock him out with it, making him drop to the floor.

"Put your hands up now!" the guy yelled to the boy. The boy freaked and pulled the gun on him. He looked for his friend but couldn't see him anywhere. The boy quickly dropped the gun and fell to his knees, the reaper let out a breath that he wasn't need and walked closer. It seems he wont be needed this time. They were lucky this time. The police and an ambulance came to pick up the two boys as the reaper left to go to another hospital.

A Tonya Laurence was giving birth today. The reaper walked through the halls and stopped outside the door. On one of the seats outside was a man sitting and bouncing his knee up and down in a fast motion. He must be the husband and father, the reaper thought. The reaper walked through the doors and looked upon the doctor and nurses helping to deliver the child. The mother was in great pain, the reaper could see that. Her clock showed.... barely enough time. She started to drift off, the nurses started to panic. The reaper didn't know what came over him, but he wanted to give the mother a fighting chance to have her baby. He walked closer and pulled his clock from his robes, twisting the dials he brought the time back thirty minutes and places it over her head and let it disappear. She gasped for air and cried out, another contraction hit her hard. The reaper watched over her as she pushed and pushed with all her might. Finally after twenty long minutes the baby was born, a healthy little girl. The nurses let the husband in and he happily kissed his wife and picked up his newborn baby.

"Belle, her name will be Belle," the father told the nurses, they quickly jotted the name down with smiles on their faces and let the couple talk to themselves. Sadly, the reaper looked back at her clock, two minutes left.

Oh, how the reaper would love to let the woman live on with her husband and child, but he cannot. There is a system to death and life, if one is to live another is to die, that is just how it goes. Thirty seconds, the woman is starting to get lightheaded, she looks around the room and spots him, she figures out what the reaper had done before and smiles. The reaper is sad and wipes away one of her tears as she slowly lays back on the bed, her baby girl snuggled deeply in her arms. Her husband and nurses are stunned, they didn’t know what had went wrong. They start on the compressions but nothing seems to be working.

When she opens her eyes she is beside her mother and father back on the old farm, she cries in happiness and sadness. She knows she will be able to watch her child and husband grow each passing day from her little piece of heaven. She will wait for them. The reaper leaves and comes back to earth for another soul to take, this is his life now, this is his job. One he cannot quit no matter how much he wishes he could.