A Dance with Death

In the bustling hospital, in room D-34 there lay a young blonde girl clinging to the last thread of life, the machine nearby beeping in time to her slow faint heartbeat. The girl's family nervously watching by her side. Suddenly the machine beeped quickly, then becoming a sing piercing tone. There was an air of silence as the machine continued to ring out that single shrill note, notifying those who were closest to the blonde girl laying in the bed that her spirit was no longer there.

Although she wasn't completely gone, there standing on the opposite side from her parents the blonde spirit looked upon sorrowful sight of her tear stricken family. Her mother with hot tears streaming down her face, giving her cold lifeless body an emotional embrace and her father behind her trying to sooth her wails, while her elder brother looked away towards the busy hallways, struggling to mask his sorrow with a look of indifference. The blonde girl stood there in disbelief at the grief she caused her family.

She wanted to console them and tell them that she was there, that she wasn't gone from their lives, and that she wasn't taken away from them before she could tell them how much they meant to her but before she could open her mouth to speak a stranger in long black hood entered the room. There was something strange about the way the figure entered the room, seeming to effortlessly take the lingering breath of life that was left in the room. They silently strolled towards the girl and upon reaching her, the blonde was left speechless. The figure was unusual but strangely familiar l. They no skin but a broad oval-shaped skull with a square chin, a thick dense neck, thin and long arms and legs, and large hands which held a metal scythe with a pole as black as an unlit room without windows. They looked terribly familiar to the girl.

The girl gasped as she remembered what happened earlier that summer month. Her vibrant yellow hair that reminded others of sunshine neatly braided into to two pigtails and in her favorite collared nightgown with a raindrop-like pattern decorating it, while preparing to rest for that cool quiet night. The sound of a beautiful melody filling the once silent night. The enchanting music hypnotizing her as it sounded as if the starry night sky and forest were humming along to the tune seemingly magnifying the harmony of sound. She stared out the window searching for the direction the wonderful noise came from. It had come from the direction of the lake. Captured by the sound she quietly snuck out of her warm comforting home into the dark unnerving forest. As soon as her bare feet touched the wooden cold porch, she jumped and ran towards the woods using the music as a compass to find its source. When she breathlessly reached the shimmering body of water, the sight that danced before her nearly frightened her to flee back the way she had came.

The figure who was currently standing before in her hospital room with her was the same cloaked skeleton she had danced with all those nights ago. They stretched their arm out towards her palm up and skeletal face inviting her to take his boney hand. She hesitated longingly looking back at her grieving family wanting to tell them that she would be alright in her afterlife but knew in her heart that they would be unable to see or hear her in this state. The blonde took the skeleton's hand and looked back one last time as the hospital room became the beautiful forest from that starry night, the large full moon in the dark purple sky sitting peacefully in the reflection of the lake. The magical melody filling the air once more as she was in her raindrop collared nightgown, hair in two neat braids with a delicate white lily at the top. Hand in skeletal hand the girl and the figure danced together in perfect harmony with the mythical music. She had once again for the last time danced with Death.