Park Bench

Something I saw one day when I went to the park.

I am sitting there at the park swinging. I'm stuck in a daydream of what my future might hold but then I see Him. It is a typical summer evening and he is on a trip to the park with his family. His wife and his two adorable children slowly make there way over to where I am swinging, moving from slide to slide. He takes his time to go sit on a park bench for a smoke. As he walks over he notices me and says hello. I return his hello with a slight nod. He sits on the bench and pulls out a cigarette from his pocket and continues to light it. One quick puff and he notices that something has changed. He looks at me and realizes who I am. All of the sudden he begins to cry. His wife notices his crying and comes over and tries to comfort him. After a few moments of quietly talking among themselves the wife understands why he is crying. The older of the two daughters being no older than five notices her father crying and comes over to them from the swings. "Mommy, why is daddy crying?" She asks. The mother turns and fakes a smile and tells the little girl to go back to the swings. Being a child, she listens and returns to the swings. Now knowing the same as her husband, the wife turns and looks at me with tears in her eyes.The husband halts his crying to speak to me. "Have you come for me?" He says. I take in a deep breath and reply. "Yes." He returns to his crying and begins to kiss his wife and tell her of how much he will miss her and how much he loves her. I tell him to stop his worrying. He stops and looks over to me in confusion. "You are a man of sin and darkness." I say. "But you are also a man that brings great hope and goodness to this world" I continue as I motion over to his children. I get up from my position on the swing and begin to walk over to my black bike. "This is your second chance." I say as I mount my bike. Before I ride away I add. "don't waist it." As I ride away I hear him and his wife crying and laughing and they turn and cry out to me their thanks. As I get farther away I remember that I had a job to do. I stop my bike and turn my head to look back at the man and his wife. As I look back I see the man. He stops crying and begins to remember the cigarette still burning in his hand. He takes the cigarette and takes another long puff from it. As I watch him do this, I feel sadness and a tear begins to roll down my face. "I told you not to waist it." I say as I snap my fingers once. At the instant I snap my fingers together, The man's cigarette burns down to a stub. He see's the cigarette is now gone and exhales his last breath of smoke. The man's eyes fade back into his head and his body slumps onto the back of the park bench. The wife notices her husband and begins to shake him with worry as if trying to wake him up, but he doesn't wake. She begins screaming and crying for him to wake up but to no avail. I begin again and ride away as she calls for an ambulance. As I ride away farther and farther, I feel another tear stream down my face. It is in this moment I remember that I can't, no, don't give second chances. In this moment I remember who I am. I am death.