Her Fleeting

by Renard

It's kindof funny, looking at your own body.

Mine's hanging from a rafter, twisting ever so slightly in the breeze from the open window. I can hear the curtains rustling. And, beyond the traffic, a pigeon is crying, high and clear.

I don't look too bad, at least. There's bruising about the neck and my face is purplish. But, in a sick way, the purple kindof goes good with my blue hair.

It's funny. I'm standing here looking at my corpse and all I can think is that I look okay and I should have got that second tattoo. You can see the first, a black cross on the back of my neck. I wanted...and don't laugh...I wanted...

"A heron?"

If I wasn't already dead, that voice might have killed me for sure.

I turn and the ghost of what was once my heart hammers in me. There's no one there.

"I knew a heron once. They're pretty birds."

I whirl this time, quick enough to almost lose my balance. There she is, sitting in the window, staring at met. She is dressed all in black, of course, jacket pulled over a tank and a top hat perched jauntily on her head. A silver ankh hangs around her neck, glinting.

I almost ask who she is. But I'm not that stupid. "I thought you'd be a little creepier."

She stands up, moves to my right to look at my canvases. Raising a pale hand, she points to a large blue one in the corner. "That one is especially lovely. It's Icarus isn't it? He was a nice boy. He told me that fish really talk. 'Higher, higher, higher', was what they said to him. My fish speak to me too, but I've never heard them say that."

I look at her, wonderingly. "What's your name?"

She smiles sweetly. "Call me Tely, please. And you're Jainey."

She moves to another painting, draws a finger across mottled yellow. "Ah, Sisyphus, isn't it? You know, if I'd have known how it was going to go for him...well, I might have let him play with me in the gardens a bit longer."

I'm really not sure what to say. What do you say when Death comes?

She looks at another painting, then sighs lightly. "Lovely, lovely work." Finally, her dark eyes find me again. Another sweet smile. "Ready to go then?"

But, suddenly I am not. The pigeons are too insistent outside. My body is still warm. I shake my head. "Ah...look...don't I get...like a last request or anything?"

A pale finger points at my body. "That was your last request."

"Not even a last look? I mean, I sure as hell didn't get the 'life flashing before my eyes' bit!" I can't even get death right it seems.

She drops to a sitting position on the floor and watches me calmly. "What do you want Jainey?"

"There was this movie," I grasp, desperately. "This Japanese movie. All about how you get to pick this one moment for your afterlife. I mean, don't I get something like that?"

She looks at me for a long moment. Sighs once. Shrugs. "All right, have your memory. You can't live it forever or anything, but you can have your memory."

She snaps her fingers.

...

And just like that, it is night. I look around in the dark, uncertain. I am naked.

Then, just as suddenly, a body is beside me. Naked. Hungry.

Sharon.

I remember. It is the last good night.

She presses into me and I whimper, my body arching into her. Her mouth clamps to mine, tongue thrusting eagerly into my mouth.

We move like that, parrying and thrusting. When she breathes between my legs, I stop thinking.

We only cry when we come.

...

And just as suddenly, it is day. A mouth is on mine. The lips are strangely spiced. They taste of myrrh.

Death pulls back, reaching out a hand to ruffle my hair.

"Are you ready to go?"

It's kindof funny, looking at your own body. And it's kindof funny, looking at Death. But, when she kisses you...ah, well.

It's really not like shuffling off the mortal coil. It's mainly just warm. And sweet. And peaceful. And..

"Yeah. I'm ready to go."

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