Chad sat on a driftwood log watching the old one legged man die. One moment he had been Rico's surfboard, the next a Great White Shark's snack. It was horrible. He could taste his blood and saltwater. He looked down at his scarred naked body. Why kept his torso on top of his legs? He was torn in half. Why had the pain stopped? He looked at the old one-legged man and knew it was Rico, but how? Moments ago, he had been 18.
He noticed the presence next to him, in the night shadows. It was more of an impression. The night shadows seemed to congregate next to him. It wasn't cold, but warm.
A voice or thought came unbidden from the formless shadows to answer his questions.
"Chad, it is the End of the World for you, and for Rico. In linear time, they happened decades apart, but when a soul's journey ends, it ends at the same time as all other souls. Julius Caesar shares his moment of death with Judas Ischariot, Newton, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and you. The moment of death is the same for all souls. Death exists out of time and only in that moment. But the souls are scattered throughout linear time and place, but all end at the end of the world. That moment is now. No time really passes here. And as for your body, your appearance is as you imagine it, as is mine. Though without imagination, I am formless shadow."
Death? thought Chad.
The shadows became robes with a gleaming skull peering out of the hood. His skeletal hand held an enormous black scythe.
"Ah, a traditionalist. Sometimes I prefer those who choose to make me a gaunt pale lady or a kindly old gentleman, but each chooses their own death."
"I didn't choose to be a surfboard or be eaten by a shark," Chad said defensively.
"Indeed. That's why I am having this chat with you. Call it introspection, if you will. I exist only in this moment, though this moment exists throughout all time. In this moment, I am omnipresent. I am with Rico, though he seems less aware than you. Perhaps, it's the residuals of his magic on you? I only know that I my appointment with you was at the hour the shark broke the surfboard spell, and ripped you in half. Was that moment preordained? Were you destined to die by shark that day, if Rico hadn't turned you into a surfboard? Or did the circumstance create this death scenario, and enter your name, time and circumstances in my -er, um- for want of a better word - book? Would you have been out in the sea if Rico hadn't taken you there, Chad?"
"Uh, I don't think so? If I didn't have a date, I'd have gone to the Country Club - there's always a dance on Friday. And this time of year, it's too cold to surf."
"Perhaps a drive along the sea road, where your car might plunge into the sea?"
"Maybe? But I wouldn't have any reason to go to the coast? You're death, surely you know," Chad said.
"One would think. I do my job. I know my job. I know the afterlife, but I don't know life and free will. All that is done, when I enter the scene. Rico burns in his own special hell with Gringo Jock devils torturing him for eternity for his crimes."
"Oh, all eternity? Can he get out for good behavior? I mean, he did awful stuff to me, but-"
"I don't make the rules, I merely execute them. Perhaps what we call hell is really Rico's perverse masochistic view of heaven. You create your own heaven or hell, I've heard."
"I guess you're going to take me to heaven, then?"
"Are you a masochist?"
"No!"
"Then I don't think you will consider your afterlife heaven," said the reaper sadly.
"Wait, I'm the injured party. Why do I merit eternal torment?"
"Perhaps asking the question, answers it too? You must acknowledge your crimes to pass from your hell or limbo beyond it? Or stay there for eternity? Most do." Death sighed. It was like a wind blowing down a narrow rocky canyon. Chad shivered instinctively, though he did not feel it get noticeably colder.
Chad blinked. He was in his own bed. It had been a dream. He was oblivious to the shadows glimpsing his life, as he walked to school. There was a car accident a block away, ambulances were there, and the shadow was. It strained to see Chad. It strained to understand its own existence, by understanding this one's.
Chad said hi to his buddies, and opened his locker. There was a shiny black box inside with an envelope. Chad opened it, and grinned. He had a secret admirer
The shadow felt sorry for Chad. He would relive his last day, over and over and over again, until he understood what he had done to Rico to make Rico do what he had to him.
Was it all predestined, or since Death exists only at the End of the World, it just seemed that way. Perhaps there were parallel worlds with parallel Deaths. In another End of the World, perhaps Chad was an old man, who died of natural causes because he made different choices. Perhaps, he and his friends had invited Rico to surf with them? Death was getting to know Chad pretty well, as he kept repeat is own death. There were others who seemed to repeat their deaths, but they didn't end up chatting with the reaper time after time.
The night before Chad opened his locker, the janitor had a heart attack in the school hallway near his locker. Death wondered what if the gift from the secret admirer was changed. Would Chad's fate be changed? Would Death still meet him on the beach? What of Rico? Did the shadow dare tamper? Could the shadow really alter anything?