Letter From Your Misunderstood Friend

Poor Death, so negatively portrayed. Hope this helps

  Hello everybody I have yet to meet

  Well this is very unusual for me, see most times I only say hello when we meet, and trust me when I say, you will not have the opportunity to tell people that you have met me, I almost always come as a surprise to people.

  Sorry introductions, I forgot about them, but like I said I’m new to this. I am Azrael, well that is my name, or at least the name that humans gave me but then you might know me better as Death or perhaps even as the Grim Reaper but really they’re just job titles. And there are other descriptions of course, harvester of mankind, harbinger of souls, thief of years etc.

  They have cropped up here and there throughout history, but I feel they always rather negative descriptions of me. I am not really a bad person, admittedly I have a rather morbid job, but then so do rat exterminators and no one makes to much of a fuss about them doing an evil job or anything, my job was assigned to me by fate and the gods, I did not choose this course of work, I am not doing it for the wages and I doubt I shall get much in the way of a pension, for when I have no more business to do, I shall no longer exist.

  I am a friend really; I am certainly not an enemy. The thing and/or person that kills you is an enemy perhaps, I do not give you pain, if anything I remove it. I will not hurt you, I know what you’re thinking, the scythe I carry does not look painless and I know it is an evil looking thing isn’t it? But really it’s just for show, you my feel my hand on your shoulder but that is all you will feel, you probably won’t even notice, undoubtedly you will have other things on you mind.

  Like I said I am a friend, the last one you will ever know. Babies know me as the only friend they ever knew, sad I know, but that is my job. And sometimes like all jobs, you don’t exactly get the satisfaction of a job well done. I hold them in my hands as they cry for milk they shall never need, and it is then that I feel the weight of my task on my rather bony shoulders, I feel the injustice of the universe when I remember that even murderers on My Row get a last meal, these poor children do not even get a first.

  Still it is sad like I said but that’s the job, I can’t dwell on it too much, I need to keep going, I still feel sad at times, of course I would want it no other way. To not feel sad in a job like this is one step away from feeling happy. And if sadness is the wrong emotion for this job, happiness certainly is.

  Anyway I was saying how I wasn’t you enemy before wasn’t I? I am rather hopeless at this aren’t I? Anyway I was assuring you that I do not hurt, that does not mean you shall not be in pain. Cancer might hurt you unless you don’t know about it and you’re at home alone in that case the cancer may certainly hurt you, it might not be cancer but that disease has made a habit of giving me plenty of work and so I thought I might say it first. Of course that’s not the biggest of killers, admittedly it is in the top five, but it misses out on the top spot by quite a lot, mosquitoes are at the top spot, they really increase my workload. Or at least they used to do, not as much now of course but I still get rather steady business thanks to those annoying little things. There’s also a few - well no, not just a few I mean a lot of - other ways you may die and inevitably be in pain. You may get shot that hurts so I’m told. Stabbing also hurts and makes rather a mess, again so I’m told. I do not have any flesh to give me much pain, nor do I have blood to cause much mess so I am not exactly sure how pain feels like, and thankfully I have not yet received any broken bones, that would cause no end of problems for me, but alas I am digressing again, I did say I was hopeless at this. I’m better at the practical side of this job rather then talking about it.

  You could be poisoned, now that one is nasty. Being corroded from the inside out and there’s no telling how long it could last, doesn’t sound particularly fun, does it? Arsenic is the worst, actually no that’s not true really, there is worse stuff, Strychnine for example, but Arsenic has always been the popular one. There is other poison cyanide is one, Mercury is another but I haven’t seen that one much lately, takes to long and a murderer rarely wants to turn the victim insane before finishing the job, before I come and finish mine. And of course diamonds, crushed of course, they have been used once or twice but not anymore, it’s a rather expensive way to kill somebody and it wasn’t all that reliable a method. There are other things of course, plenty of venoms from plants or animals that’ll do the job well enough.

  I really should stop talking about this stuff shouldn’t I if I am trying to prove that I am not all bad? However I am merely speaking as a professional at his job, about other people that can be called professionals at theirs and I do get carried away when I talk shop. It is after all one of the few things that people want to talk about when they find they have been killed, in my opinion they focus too much on the method when they should be focused on the whole “Their dead,” thing, but they never seem to want to. In fact many people have even suggested to me ways they could have been killed with more efficiency, they are generally the people who are not so good at small talk.

  Maybe I should talk a bit about myself, ah yes another rather tricky subject. Well I have existed on this particular planet for about…hmm, well several billion years. That actually is a hard topic, I have in fact only existed as I do now for a tiny fraction of that time, I did not arrive on this planet as a scythe wielding skeleton this particular personification has only been around for the past several millenniums, but I have always existed, and I always go where there is life, you could say I am life’s shadow. I think that would be a very good description of me don’t you think? That might catch on, but then again it most probably is already being used. Anyway when I came to this planet, I came with life. Together we rode through space, on a burning chariot of white hot ice and rock. When I say I came with life, I don’t mean Life with a capital letter I mean just life. Strangely enough I have no counterpart. While life is indeed held sacred, most often more sacred then death is, a suitable personification of life has never been established, however I have given some thought as to what my counterpart would look like, a new born baby perhaps, of maybe a young women of motherhood age? But then maybe I do have a counterpart, perhaps she has yet to be given form as I have been she may still be as I was all those years ago, again something to show that you humans are much more concerned with death then life. Ah yet again I frustrate you all with my digression, my apologies, allow me to continue. How long we went through space, I cannot say, it was cold, the life on the chariot slept, and I waited. It could have been millions of years, it might even have been billions, and I know is that I didn’t have that much to do back then, in truth, I was bored.

  Then I became aware of heat, it came as a rather big shock to be honest, the chariot slammed against the crust of this planet, the life from the chariot spread and as its shadow I spread with it.

  Things then starting happening with the planet, I didn’t notice them. As you can imagine for the first time in millions of years on that chariot I was busy, and I didn’t notice a great deal about my new home, neither did the life but life back then was very simple, they didn’t really notice a great deal and for the first time I had something to do. And while I did it, the world changed.

  And naturally life changed with it. It took quite a while, in fact it took more then a while and I was bored again, not through having nothing to do, instead now I was bored with what I was doing, or should I say I was tired, and lonely. But I kept going, as was my job. Still life got slightly better at things…more interesting for one, and bigger, and with it so did my job. I moved on from my dealings with single cell life-forms, as you can imagine, they were dull, but life, is life and death is death, they played there part, as I played mine but now I had multiple cell life-forms to turn my attentions too, of course my attention was still on their simpler ancestors but now I wasn’t necessary to perform a…personal attendance. After a while they became ever more complex worms, fish, etc they became bigger and bigger. Monstrous creatures, animals that today people look upon there remains with a mixture of awe and primeval fear. Almost as if there native instincts remember them. Then of course, it came, another chariot blazing across the sky, this chariot was different however, it carried no life and no death, however it certainly delivered death and it delivered it quickly and effectively. Admittedly it took a few years after its fall to cause the destruction that is now known today as the E.L.E (Extinction, Level, Event,) of the dinosaurs, food shortages and disease became rampant. Yes in those few short years you could say I had my hands full. Indeed they were certainly full in the first few days, but now I was called to bring an end to the time of these incredible beasts, fate had marked them for slaughter it seemed, and I was their butcher.

  And again, I became bored. I was back eventually to fish and other small rodents. I remember thinking, or at least was I thinking? It is hard to understand what I was back then. I was merely a presence but then if I could become bored I must have had the ability to think, surely.

  Evolution this time took a different direction; maybe it was due to the second chariot, I am not sure. I do know that had the savage lizards that had dominated this planet the first time round had still been here; this second wave of creatures would never have survived. Still it was not for me to question exactly how these beings had come to be, they were life and as I have so often in this story told you, where there is life, I am also. I did my duty whenever it was called of me to.

  Well I doubt I could tell you anything about your ancestors that you do not already know, you continued to become more interesting. You found ever more ways to survive, both complex and simple. Ages of ice came and went and still the resilience of your early race persevered, I was very impressed at the time.

  It was around this time you started to wonder about me, that came as a shock I can tell you. No creature before you had wondered so much about me. To them death was just a part of life, much like sleeping, of hunting or mating had been. They hadn’t really feared it, their bodies had which showed through their instincts, but they hadn’t. But now you started to show true fear for me. You saw how my old customers had…become. And so you gave me the image of your deceased. You could even call me your first god. You certainly started to believe in me before you ever believed in any creator; it amuses me that you believed in the butcher before the Shepard.

  I will admit now, I was starting to become fascinated by you, you learned a lot from me, which is true. Treat wounds properly and I was less likely to visit you, it might be better said that you learned from my handy work. I however was learning from you in much more interesting ways, I still am learning of course but in those early centuries I learnt emotion, sometimes I wish I had ignored that lesson, it can be…disturbing, such a remarkable talent though.

  And I have been watching ever since, I have watched your wars, they have given me things to do although not as much as you might have thought. I have watched your poverty as well, that has given me far more things to do, but strangely you have not noticed that as much, maybe because war costs more money? I will have to think upon that.

  I enjoy your extensive culture, your art in particular gives me pleasure. Your music also helps the centuries to fly by. I like Operatic music, I believe it is rather expected of me, but I am by no means narrow in my musical likes. I have been to a great many concerts, I have even been called to work at a number of them and once or twice I have been called to take the entertainer himself or indeed, herself. Your architecture as well is also something I appreciate when I have the chance. As you can imagine I have seen almost all of your most famous buildings in my time.

  I don’t like your beliefs very much; they make my job so much more difficult.

  Hmm, ha I can think of nothing more in which to say? How embarrassing. I would ask you to write in with questions but now is not the time for answers, I suppose you shall have to wait awhile for that conversation, I hope this makes them more interesting talks then I am used to. I also hope that it takes many years until you do meet me, as I say, in the bone, however the only truly dependable thing about my job, is that it, eventually, get done. When I get round to you depends upon so many variables it makes it near impossible to predict, but please look both ways before crossing the road. All I ask now is that you do not fear me, do not hate me. Welcome me with wide arms and an open mind; I will be there to help. To take away suffering, remove doubt and carry you when you have walked as far as you can. I will release you from the prison of the flesh, you will be beyond anything physical, and eternity of experience will be waiting for you. Pity me, for that is one journey, I shall never make.

 

      Sincerely Yours

                                Azrael

Reviews

[Sagemind]

Amazingly done, it felt like Death was just another guy trying to make a living. He actually sounds like he feels a bit bad about what he does.

[desertraven]

How non-challant death actually is.
Amazing piece.
Sandra

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amazingly i thought that this was a good story. it gave the impression that he was just doing a job that was given to him and that he had to complete it. A very nice look into the life and thoughts of the grim reaper, or thats is nick name, lol.

[Jenny Davis]

Wow, this has such depth...I felt like I really knew "death" and that really isn't a good thing, yet you made it an easier pill to swallow, nice job on this! :)