The Exploits of a Man called DEATH

The Deal with Damien

"Be it known that I am no devil, that I am not defined by time, and certainly not bound by favors to mortals. But knowing their eventual destination and the greatness therein obtained, once a spirit has been purified and is prepared to reach their exalted state, my job is merely to let them pass into the next world and reap the benefits of their actions from this, the temporal life."

"My job is to release spirits who are ready for heaven or for punishment, who will advance no more in body or in spirit, people who have nothing important left to gain or give in the temporal life."

"Occasionally, I will place myself in the company of extraordinarily powerful spirits, who in the life previous, prior to a mortal existence, I will be as a normal human family member and I will live among them until it is time to go and by specific means I arrange my own death or the deaths of others. I live in multiple times and am in multiple places at once all the time, until the god of this universe has no one else to send into temporal existence and until I have no more souls to send into eternal life, I am stuck in this job, a job where all hate you despite the favor you are performing. If you hate your job imagine mine!"

"The Deal with Damien"

"The one time I revealed myself, in recent times, to a family member I had come to love and care for, the day went thusly and after the person was convinced I was who I said I was and that indeed I had no evil intent, they did press me for information and I gave them what I could that they would understand while still possessing a mortal brain which is the equivalent of a single cell of the eternal brain."

"Do you feel it, the slowing of your life force?" I asked.

"I feel like I am getting older," Damien responded.

"And that is how it begins," I said seriously, though I maintained a joking smile.

"I would know after all, I have seen it billions and billions of times throughout all time." I said with a sad smile.

Damien gave me that look as if I were crazy.

"What are you going on about?" he asked inquisitively and concerned.

"Here let me show you, bring me your hand," I said.

Surprisingly, he complied and by touching his hand I temporarily restored his youth, he went from 57 to 35 in a minute. He was shocked and appalled, amazed and transfixed, rooted to the spot and wordless. A single word escaped his mouth as he looked up at me, mouth agape.

"How?" he asked in disbelief, his only thought was that he was still asleep and he must be dreaming. His hair which had been receding for 30 years was half back, his sore and tired joints were pain free and moved with the ease of a much younger person. Varicose veins, gone and the color of his facial hair returned to its dark black from the white and grey he had become accustomed to.

"I will let you keep it for a day, if people at your work make inquiries just tell them you got some sleep, you cannot breath a word of me to anyone if you do, your body will go from the young 35 your body is enjoying now to your actual age." I said gently and then I bid him good night and wished him to have a pleasant night shift at his job.

Many hours later he came home, still appalled but apparently having grappled with it enough to accept it or at least realize it wasn't a dream.

I was asleep—when you are able to transcend all dimensions of time, even with the responsibility of granting release to hundreds of millions of people per day and sometimes many, many, per hour, you have a lot of down time, a lot—when he came up to me and asked me to arise, or at least that he wanted to talk.

We spoke of many things and of those things one of his concerns was about how much longer would he live.

"I am not sure you want to know," I said as gently as I could, "I have been doing this job for billions of years and when humans know it is often a curse until their dying day."

"I want to know, it could help me prepare my family and finances and take care of my wife," He asked in a pleading tone.

"I can grant you the information, but first there is something you need to do for me," I said.

"What? What, could I do for the master of death that he cannot do for himself?" he asked.

"A lot actually," I responded, "you need to find a joy in your life, greater than any you have experienced so far and you need to find patience in your heart, to know this information you must be pure of heart and content with your life or else the information will destroy you and I will be forced to take you earlier."

He gaped and asked, "how?" and I replied solemnly, "This I cannot tell you, at least not totally the whole way to do it, but I will give you a small hint, find a job you enjoy above all else and I promise, the fulfillment of your dreams will bring you contentedness, I promise you do have time to make that happen for yourself, if your happy and fulfilled you will be able to handle the news and date of your impending release without the knowledge blinding you to the joys that you have yet experienced."

He gave me a blank stare, and waved weakly at me.

"Have a good nap dear uncle," I said gently while returning to sleep. "Do not bring the question back up to me until you have fulfilled the agreement and encourage your wife to do the same, not many are in your place, to have the knowledge of what will eternally bring you joy once you pass from this world, even that is an advantage that if you should cash it, will pay huge dividends for eons to come."

As he left my room his full age returned and I heard the cracking of his joints as he strode away.