The winds whipped around the air so fast carrying little clumps of snow with it as it brushed down the road. The buildings were all around. Some six stories tall, some seven, other larger, not too many were any smaller than those. They were all grit covered. The walls in the alleys had spray painted graffiti on them. Some had things like thrown out mattresses and trash too big of to bag and dispose of. The streets had cars trucking down them effort fully trying to break through the road blocks that the snow had created. The traffic was havoc, the roads were untouchable by cars without fear of driving into a snow bank or crashing.
The men walked in over sized trench coats clutching hats so they wouldn’t blow away. Women were in those thick coats and high boots with fur and stuffing to them. The children were bundles up in gloves and scarves and whatnot. Some of them were even throwing snowballs around at one another playfully, some not as playful as others since they had rocks stuffed in them. Those were some of the older kids though. They weren’t trying to hurt each other. Really, It was all just good natured child fun.
Animals were inside if they had owners, and if they didn’t then they were huddled in the streets together looking for food and warmth. They had it the hardest this time of year. They were either cold and alone on the streets dying or nestled in a home where their owners were feeding them and keeping them safe. Like another, the ones without homes were overlooked, abandoned, forgotten.
You could hear the sounds of the town. The whale from the train‘s whistle, the laughter of the children, the honking of cars, it was alive. the town seemed to be cloaked in a veil of happiness if you were in the right places. But the veil was stretched so thick that it could not cover everywhere. There were spots where it didn‘t even bother to try. Where homeless and people out on their look crawled in to sleep for the night.
The town had one crevice, one chasm, one abyss where the light did not touch and the darkness seemed to consume everything it could get its hands on. The blessing of the town seemed to have no effect. It was the alley where one girl would not be noticed as she died, the alley where she was freezing to death in the damp cold. And it is the alley where death, the reaper, would soon show up.
The sound did not penetrate her ears. The site of the town was one that was blurred with her lack of consciousness. The only thing she could make out through the haze was a small black bird sitting at the end of the alley. It seemed strange, like a little door keeper at a hotel. Had she checked into the alley then, for good? The thought was washed out through the distortion of her mind. She might have once been able to think a thought such as that but now with her head as it was she could not for the littlest of thoughts.
Her head pounded in on her. Her stomach growled at her. Her right arm was like a typhoon of pain when she tried to move but for the most part she was just numb all over, partly from the cold snow. She was starving and didn’t remember her last meal. They never fed her. She would love for one little something before she died but it would never come. Her breathing was sharp and heavy as it came in. She had to swallow down with all her strength to keep inhaling.
Her very hair ached in a throttle of pain. A new girl looked down at the girl lying in the snow. She had appeared then when she wasn’t paying attention. A figure of black and white that she couldn’t make out at first but then she sharpened. Her sight didn’t sharpen. Just the girl standing in front of her became more clear to her. She felt her breath lighten slightly.
The girl lying in the snow was ten at the oldest. She had been sobbing. You could tell from her puffy red eyes and the streaks frozen to her face. Her face was smudged with dirt and mud. She wore a pair of pajamas that were in the same shape she was, bruised and battered. Despite this, her rosy cheeks were still shimmery and bright as ever. Her skin was only slightly paler than it had been a few hours ago. Her body felt a thousand pounds heavier. It was not the cold or the feeling of death creeping in on her that created this feeling of extra weight, but the knowledge.
Innocence was truly bliss for without it the world felt like it was going to crush you at any moment. The world was just about to crush her as it was. The light was lingering in her eyes but just barely. The cold had factored in a lot of it but her entire body was going stiff. Her body had even stopped shivering it was so cold and tired. She didn’t have it left in her to fight. She just laid there as the weather hammered away at her.
When Kassey, the poor freezing girl, looked up at the girl staring at her she knew exactly who she was, even if the two of them had never met before. The strange girl, who seemed unaffected by the cold winds surging around her and through her skirt and bare legs, kneeled down, pressing her bare skin against the snow as she looked at Kassey. “I have come for you.” She said silently. Her voice was no more than a whisper. It was so quiet and humble.
She nodded, understanding. Kassey would not fight the person standing before her. She would not try and fight death. Why should she? Kassey pushed herself up out of the cold and stood there. For the first time in a long time she felt unleaded. She didn’t feel a hundred pounds too heavy or so sad or anything else like normally.
When she looked back down, she saw her own body, no longer moving in the slightest. She leaned down one last time and brushed a tiny bit of frost off of her cheek. It was a meaningless gesture though as her hand simply passed through her body now. She was nothing more than a spirit. A ghost.
“Is it warm?” She asked turning around and looking at death. Her cheeks burned and she shook as she asked the question. She wanted to be gone from all of this now. It was a question she had thought to ask before she went. Little girl death stared at her. Death did not look too much older than Kassey, she had dark brown pigtails and she dressed in a black skirt and zip up jacket. She had no shoes or socks on. Her legs were bare from her skirt’s brim down.
She nodded. “Whatever you want it to be.” She says in a fractured voice. Kassey walked forward and took death’s hand. Death closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again they were pure white. Then Kassey was gone. The Kassey lying on the ground did not move. It simply lay there, what heat was left in it was being absorbed and snuffed out by the environment around it.