Carolina, Reaper

There Are Weirder Ways To Learn About Your Death

It's official- Mondays are the worst day of the week. You might be thinking 'Yeah, I know, so what'? Easy for you to say- all you did was get up after a long weekend, I got a prophecy saying i'm gonna die in a week.

Yeah, that escalated fast, thinking all i had to deal with today was a test in algebra II, but no, i had to go about my day just to find out this is my last week on Earth- supposedly.

Before we get to all the dying and last wishes and blah-blah-blah, first i guess i should tell you how i got there (to the best of my knowledge, anyways'.

My name is Jedediah Young, and a Grim Reaper climbed through my window on a Monday night to tell me that i'm one of the oldest old souls to ever walk this earth.

Oh, and that if i don't save the world, i'm gonna die with it.

I think we're getting ahead of ourselves though, so let me start at the beginning.

My mother died when i was young, maybe 4 or 5, it's been a long time and i don't like to think about it too much because when i do, it seems to make my dad more sorrowful, like the very thought of her affects him, even if its not his own. It was a car crash- late December, getting home from work at the hospital. My mother was the charge nurse, and dad swears he's never met someone happier and healthier than her in those days. "She used to smile like the sun Jed." He'd stare off wistfully into the distance, a ghost of a smile on his face. "You look a lot like her."

She swerved to avoid hitting a deer and ran straight into a tree on a long stretch of road out in the country and they didn't find her until morning. I found the old report in my dad's desk when i was 12- her honey colored hair was matted with blood and the same 'Misfits' cd she kept in the car was still playing. Since then, nothing was the same.

Dad's been distant since then,so i've been relatively on my own, taking care of myself. But when High school hit, it's almost like i live on my own. I do the shopping and cleaning and taking care of myself and him- Dad's so paranoid he hardly goes outside anymore. Most of the folks in Blackwater probably think he's dead. That would explain the casseroles we still get on our doorstep sometimes.

I got bored of it quick, but it's what i have to do. Mom would've wanted it that way. So i dragged myself out of bed this Monday, raindrops racing their way down the window of my bedroom, and walked to school. I kissed my dad on the forehead on the way out, noticing the way his once luscious brown hair was quickly fading into gray and receding, how his sea-foam eyes were starting to look glazed more and more each day. I frowned but tried not to worry as i stepped out the door.

"Jed?"

I stopped, my foot already on the front step. "Yeah dad?"

he looked up from his ash tray and his drooping eyes stared into me.

"Your mother loved you," He whispers

my joints lock and my muscles tense but i reply "I know dad."

he gives me a strained smile, the first in days. "Something told me you'd need that today."

I shiver, and say goodbye to him once more and rush outside into the pouring rain. The sound of the raindrops hitting the pavement didn't help the silence much, but i was grateful for it regardless.

throughout the day, I couldn't get rid of this odd feeling. Between what my father said to me and this feeling i had on my skin, this itchy-crawly, prickly feeling, like the one you get when someones watching you, and i couldn't shake it the whole day. Every time i turned around, i expected to see someone looking at me (Even though i wasn't exactly eye catching in the first place). But no, there was no one there.