Death's Emissary

www.AntonioGarciaBooks.com

Death took a moment to look over the city he had been assigned to for over a century. In this moment, there was no one breathing their last breaths that he had to be there for, so he took a moment just for himself, which was rare.

He wasn’t actually the Death, but one of Death’s countless emissaries who carried out his duties for him around the world. Heck, around the Universe.

The emissary could hear the heartbeats of everyone in the large city. He knew it wouldn’t be long before he heard one stop, and that it was time to perform his duties.

He had been an emissary for so long that he had forgotten what it was like to be human, or how he had been chosen to become an emissary in the first place.

Suddenly, he detected someone close to death and with a blink of an eye, he was standing next to a man taking his final breaths in a hospital.

The man looked at peace as the machines around him sounded alarms, which one of the nurses quickly silenced.

The family had “Pulled the plug”, and the man, who was unconscious, slowly drifted off.

“Is that me?” the man asked, now standing next to the emissary.
“Yes,” he replied.

“What happens now?” the man asked.

“Now, you go home,” the emissary answered.

The man watched his family as they cried around his bed, and then turned when he saw a bright light behind him.

“Where does it go?” the man asked.

“I don’t know,’ the emissary said honestly. “I’m only here to guide you through.”

The emissary gently took the man’s arm and without resistance, walked him into the light.

As soon as they walked into the light, the man disappeared and the emissary found himself alone with the grieving family.

Not wanting to intrude on their moment, he disappeared back to his favorite spot overlooking the city to wait for his next soul to collect.

It wasn’t long before he was at the scene of a double murder.

Well, one murdered and one still dying from his wounds.

He helped the one who had died pass through, but stayed with the one who was dying as the paramedics showed and began trying to save him.

“Who are you,” the emissary heard someone ask. He didn’t bother to look to see who was talking. There were almost always people talking or sobbing near him when he arrived.

“Hello?” he heard someone behind him continue.

Curious, he turned to see who was talking.

To his surprise, there was a woman looking right at him.

He turned to see who see was talking to, but there was no one in that direction.

“Hello, can you hear me?” the woman asked again.

Thoroughly confused, he looked behind him again, and not seeing anyone there, he turned back to the woman.

“Yes you,” she said. “Who are you?”

Still not understanding if this woman was crazy or blind, he moved to the side, watching her.

To his surprise, she followed him.

This had never happened to his knowledge, and he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

He continued to move around her, and she followed him, seemingly growing in frustration.

"Can you see me?" he asked, hoping she hadn’t really been looking at him and instead another person who was standing behind him now.

“What?” she asked flabbergasted. “Of course, I can see you. But who are you and why are you here?”

Before he could even start to try to explain, one of the detectives approached her and asked, “Who are you talking to?”

She turned toward the detective with a look of ‘Is everyone stupid tonight?’ but said, “Him!”

The detective followed where she was pointing and not seeing anyone, gave her a quizzical look.

Annoyed, she turned back towards where the emissary had been, but he was now gone.

The emissary watched her confusion from outside the window. He wasn’t sure how she had seen him.

He vanished to the hospital to help the last victim cross over, but immediately traveled back to the crime scene to watch the woman who had seen him.

She appeared to be a detective, but the emissary suspected that she was much more.

‘Maybe an empath?’ he thought.

In between delivering souls to the great beyond, he followed the woman through her daily routines, staying out of sight as much as he could. Hiding was new to him. He had never had to hide before.

Deep in thought, he looked up and saw that he had briefly lost track of where she walked off to while following her around a grocery store.

“Who are you?” the woman’s voice came from behind him.

He turned, shocked that she was confronting him again.

He started to say, “Emissary,” but realized that she wouldn’t know what that meant.

Hearing only the beginning, she responded with, “Emmitt?”

Trying to regain his composer, he only nodded.

“Why are you following me, Emmitt?” she asked.

He wanted to just disappear, but now that she could see him, vanishing right in front of her could change her views on reality, which was a rule he was not supposed to break. He assumed he was breaking a rule now, but he had no control over her being able to see him.

“I was just curious,” he said. He felt unable to lie. He had never had to lie before.

“About what?” she asked again.

Suddenly he felt that another person was going to die. He knew he had to leave but was unsure how to.

He looked passed her as if something had caught his attention. When she turned to see what he was looking at, he vanished.

“What the?” she asked, looking in all directions to see where he had gone.

Her focus was broken when her radio squelched.

Another possible homicide had just happened, and she informed dispatch she was on her way.

When she arrived, she instantly saw Emmitt standing at the crime scene looking over the body. She was surprised that once again, none of the other officers were paying him any attention.

She picked up her pace, ready to confront him, when all of a sudden, there was another person standing next to him, also staring down at the body.

Letting curiosity take over, she walked at an angle where they couldn’t easily see her. She wanted to see what they were up to.

Her eyes widened when a bright light appeared behind them, and Emmitt lead the other person through. Afterwards, Emmitt stood alone.

“What are you doing?” an officer asked her when he saw her standing off to the side.

When she looked back, Emmitt was gone.

Getting her thoughts back to her job, she followed the other officer to where the body lay.

Her eyes nearly popped out of her eyes when she recognized the body on the ground. It was the man who was standing next to Emmitt a few minutes ago.

A horrifying realization dawned on her.

She focused on her job the best she could, but all the questions she had for Emmitt when she saw him again burned in the back of her mind.

It was a couple of days before she saw Emmitt off in a corner again. He was intently watching her. Now that she suspected what he was, she didn’t see him as threatening as before.

Emmitt froze when he saw that she noticed him and began walking towards him. He was torn between wanting to vanish and wanting to see what she had to say to him.

“Hi Emmitt,” she said casually, which was somehow worse than her accusing him of something.

“Hi,” he sheepishly said back.

“So, I’m guessing you’re not human,” she said flatly.

He only shook his head.

“I’m a partial psychic,” she stated. “I don’t normally see ghost, or in your case, what? An angel? Death? But it does help me read people better.”

He only stared at her.

She stared back.

“Do you want to go somewhere and get to know each other better?” she asked flatly. She wasn’t one to beat around the bush.

He could only nod.

“Well, since it seems no one else can see you and you can appear anywhere,” she started. “Do you want to come over to my place?”

He nodded again.

Once they were back at her apartment, she watched as he walked around, looking at all the pictures.

“All the times you followed me, you never checked out my place?” she asked.

He shook his head.

She walked to him with two glasses of wine. “Would you like a glass?”

He shook his head and said, “I can’t touch.”

The rest of the evening into the early hours, they talked. Well, she talked. He listened. She tried to get him to tell her more, but most of his answers were one sentence and vague.

Seeing her finally doze off, he took one last look at her and then vanished.

The next day was busy for him. He had three souls to help cross over before the sun even started to set, but being a Saturday, he was sure he’d have at least one more.

And sure enough, he heard the fading heartbeat of another soul.

He couldn’t remember a time when he felt anything for anyone but seeing the detective’s body on the ground bleeding out, his heart ached.

“I don’t want to die,” she said when she saw Emmitt standing over her.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want her to die either.

Out of instinct, he knelt down and reached out his hand to touch her. He put his hand on her chest. He couldn’t feel her body, but he could feel her fading heartbeat.

Instantly, she took in a deep breath as the paramedic finished his triage enough to get her to the hospital.

“She might live if we get her the hospital right now!” the paramedic shouted.

They got her on a gurney and rolled her into the ambulance.

“She’s crashing again!” the paramedic called out when they were about halfway to the hospital.

Again, the emissary reached out his hand and she instantly recovered.

Even though he didn’t know what he was doing, he was surprised he had this ability, though it felt wrong somehow.

He had to revive her one more time while she was in surgery.

“What are you doing?” he heard a voice coming from behind him as he watched her lay unconscious in her recovery bed.

When he spun around to see who had spoken to him, he saw that Death himself stood before him.

He instantly felt guilt. He knew he had failed to perform his duties.
“I couldn’t,” Emmitt explained.

“When it is their time, it is there time,” Death stated, revealing with his expression that he was sympathetic.

Death moved toward the detective to fulfill their duty, when Emmitt instinctively moved slightly to block him, but stopped himself.

Death noticed Emmitt’s movement and stopped.

“You have been alone for a very long time,” Death stated. “Do you remember when you became my emissary?”

Emmitt shook his head.

“You were once human,” Death explained to Emmitt’s surprise. “Centuries ago, of course. You died and I made you into one of my emissaries because I saw that your soul was strong and compassionate enough to help other souls enter the great beyond, even if that meant you had to remain here forever alone.”

Emmitt watched him, not sure where Death was going, when Death started again. “I think you have been alone too long.”

“Emmitt?” he heard the detective’s voice behind him. “What’s going on?”

They both turned towards Death when they heard him speak.

“I will offer you both the choice,” he started. “I will allow you both to travel on to the great beyond together, or you may both remain here as my emissaries.”

Confused, she asked, “I don’t know what that means.”

Death explained all that being his emissary entailed.

“I think you both have the compassion and fortitude to help souls cross over when they pass away,” Death said.

Emmitt and the detective took a few minutes to talk over what they wanted to do, though Emmitt still didn’t say much. Only that he would agree with whatever she wanted.

“I think what you do is noble,” she said. “I think we could do some real good here.”

Emmitt nodded.

They both looked at Death and gave him their answer.

“It is done,” he said and vanished.

Emmitt looked at the detective who was now wearing the same type of cloak he wore.

Sensing another person was dying, he took her by the hand and smiled. He wasn’t alone anymore.