Nancy

A Story by MSal

With nearly no cause, nearly 900,000 people go missing every year in the United States. This story is about one of them.

As night drew nearer, Nancy pulled down the heavy steel gate and locked it shut. Quickly stuffing the key back in to her leather bag, she trotted on with her black heels clacking under her. Around the corner she went, her short, full, ginger hair swinging behind her. By this time, nearly all the owners had shut down their computers and were already in bed with soft fleece pajamas. Nancy gestured at her sparkling watch and continued to walk towards the department store at the end of the corridor. Reaching the front line of a closed Macy's, she once again checked her watch and turned right in to a hallway which lead towards the exit doors. Clack, clack, clack. She opened the metal door with a little struggle and strutted in to the night.

The last thing Nancy heard was the chanting crickets around her before the darkness engulfed her.

Nancy awoke with a small pinching, pulsing pain in her neck. Worrisome, she screeched to break the silence but the dark figure invisible to her eyes in the blackness gave no response. Heart beating, she felt around herself hoping there was no other source of pain that she might have not noticed. There wasn't but she found the shackles. Cold shackles had strangled her guilty hands and as she moved them, the metal clinking rang through the room, echoing off of every corner.

“What is this?” she whispered to herself, her mind still dazed.

Suddenly, Death's footsteps broke the silence. A single light flickered on above Nancy and her eyes began to water as the spotted the glimmering ax in his hand.

“No, no, no, no please!” pleaded Nancy. “Please don't do this now. I promise I'll do it soon, I �"

And then faceless Death spoke.

“The time has come, Nancy Whiter. Your time is up.”

She whimpered and looked hopefully at the glass pendant on her chest. A young child with tubes running under her nose smiled back. A tear glided down from Nancy's eye and she closed her eyes.