Injured- Death is Just a GirlThe sound of the flat line burned through the otherwise silent room, alerting us of the end of Rosie’s coma. I looked over at the other girls, once part of our three-man vigil, now a part of our three-man funeral. In Bridget’s corner, the waterworks had begun, The tears welling up in her eyes and falling to the ground, pooling in her glasses and staining her sweater. Evelyn was just sitting in one of the uncomfortable, plastic chairs they gave us, staring at the flat red line. There was a look in her eyes almost as if a light that had shined on her her whole life had suddenly been switched off, leaving her confused and lonely in the dark. I understood how she felt- It shocked me too. Rosie was our light, like a sun that shone in our own private sky. We couldn’t imagine what it would be like if for any reason, she wasn’t here anymore. In our minds, she was other-worldly, a higher being than us pitiful mortals. In our minds, she couldn’t die. She just couldn’t.
But no one thought to tell her about the train.
We were foolish, honestly. We heard what the doctors had said. words like “internal bleeding” and “massive head trauma” don’t mean everything is going to be okay. Words like that mean trying to remember what flowers she told you she wanted in her casket, that one day you were talking about funerals. But we didn’t think about it like that. We didn’t want to.
The nurse left the room to, and I quote, “Give us a moment of peace.” Almost as soon as she left, another girl entered the room. She didn’t say anything when she came in. She was pale and thin, and when she looked at Rosie, we could tell she had seen a lot of people who were in Rosie’s place. There appeared to be circles under her eyes, like she hadn’t slept in a while, but she appeared wide awake as she strolled through the room, still without a word. Finally, I spoke up. “I think you have the wrong room.” She turned to look at me, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw her eyes were a solid black.
“I don’t have the wrong room, Amber.” She said, in a cold, echoing voice. I shivered. How could she have known my name? Bridget and Evelyn looked scared as well. “I am Death.” The girl stated, quite simply. This shocked all of us. We had always pictured Death as some tall, hooded figure, perhaps with a scythe, or in Bridget’s animes, some attractive guy with colorful hair. I took a closer look at her. She was thin, but muscular, her brown hair up in a messy bun.
Death must be a dancer, I thought to myself, stifling a giggle. Rosie had been a dancer too; She and this “Death” might have been friends. That thought made me sad again. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. I was forced to watch as Death put her hand on Rosie’s forehead, and her eyes opened for just a second, making the three of us jump in surprise. Slowly, her green eyes faded to white, than closed once more.
“It is done.” Death said, as if we couldn’t tell. The three of us closed our eyes and bowed our heads. I’m not sure why, it just felt like the respectful thing to do. We kept our eyes shut until we could hear Death’s voice again.
“You know, I could take you with her.” This caused our eyes to flutter open in confusion. “I know she meant a lot to you...I could take you too. Then you wouldn’t have to live without her.” Death sounded like she was about to cry. Me, Bridget, and Evelyn all looked at each other for a long time. We didn’t know what to do. Than suddenly, Evelyn’s Ipod, which we had been playing for Rosie, turned on. It had run out of power, but I guess now that we had charged it, it had enough power to work again. We had been playing Welcome To Night Vale, a podcast Rosie loved. We listened carefully:
"...That’s the essence of life, isn’t it? Sometimes you go through things that seem huge at the time, like a mysterious glowing cloud devouring your entire community. And while they’re happening, they feel like the only thing that matters, and you can hardly imagine that there’s a world out there that has anything else going on.
And then the glow cloud moves on. And you move on. And the event is behind you. And you may find, as time passes, that you remember it less and less. Or not at all, in my case. And you are left with a powerful sense of the fleeting nature of even the most important things in life.
And the faint, but pretty, smell of vanilla."
We politely declined Death’s offer. With a wave goodbye, she slowly faded from our sight. We walked out of the room together, thinking still about what we had heard. There would never be anyone like Rosie, ever again. We knew that. But we also knew that somewhere, there was someone who felt the way we did about Rosie, only about us. Maybe it was each other, maybe it was someone we hadn’t met yet. Sure the end of Rosie was the end of an era, devastating us to the core. We would never forget jow much good she brought our lives.
But, the glow cloud moves on.
And we move on, one way or another.