When Night Falls

by Kayla Krantz

  Such a waste, she sighed.

  She crawled through the broken window, ignoring the broken glass as she reached inside and put her hands beneath the girl’s body. She pulled her out of the car, wary to see the carnage that claimed her life. She set the little girl on the pavement and stepped back, waiting. This would be hard. It was always the worst to collect the souls of children. They didn’t understand what was happening, and she couldn’t explain it to them like she could to the adults.

  It broke her heart, but Lucy and April left her no choice. The hazy white figure of the little girl rose from the small crumpled body. The little girl stood up, her blonde hair appearing white as it rested perfectly over her shoulders. The Angel of Death waited for her reaction, biting her lip gently to keep from crying at the sight of the newly deceased child.

  Finally, the little girl turned to face her.

  “Hi, pretty lady, what’s going on? Is Mommy okay?” the image asked the Angel of Death.

  She stopped herself from glancing at the girl’s mother. She knew that if she did, the little girl would follow. Her mother would be just fine—The Angel of Death knew that. As for the little girl? Well, Grim had decided that it was her time.

  “Your mother’s fine,” the Angel of Death said truthfully. “Want to go for a walk with me?”

  The girl sniffled and wiped at her nose with her hand. “I wanna see Mommy.”

  The Angel of Death broke her gaze for a moment, before forcing herself to smile. “I know, but I need you to come with me for a little while.”

  “Where?” she asked, pushing a clump of beautiful blonde hair from her eyes.

  “Home,” the Angel of Death replied and blinked back tears as she reached her hand out to the little girl.

  The little girl looked unsure, but reached out her tiny hand anyways, setting it on the Angel of Death’s open one. She managed another smile at the little girl and began to walk with her, away from the scene of the accident. She closed her eyes and felt the little girl’s hand disappear as she sent her to The Sorter. The Angel of Death opened her eyes again, her usual bittersweet smile plastered on her face as two, tiny teardrops caressed the sides of her face.

  She turned to look back at the accident. One of the cars had caught on fire. Most of the people in the wreck crawled out with only a few cuts and scrapes. The dead girl’s unconscious mother was pulled out by a bystander who had seen the car flip. She knew that it wasn’t anyone else’s time to walk with her.

  The Angel of Death blinked, not wanting to stay a minute longer. She hated always having to haunt the scenes of tragedies, plucking the life out of a few unfortunate victims along the way. She closed her eyes and flapped her wings, desperate to get out of there as soon as she could. When she opened her eyes again, she stood in the middle of a cemetery. It was an iconic place to her.

  The Angel of Death folded her wings and looked around. She felt content there. Strange, because she had told all the people scattered across the grounds that they were dead. Many times, she wondered why such a dark place brought her happiness. She finally decided that it was because she could feel their peace—the peace they obtained by moving on to the afterlife—a peace she was denied. It gave her comfort to know those people had accepted their fate and were happy where they were now. She stepped along carefully, studying the tombstones as her bare feet brushed across the grass.

  She stopped walking and stared at a large cross-shaped tombstone with a crack running through it. This grave always fascinated her, being the oldest one there. She smiled sardonically at the memory. This had been the first soul she claimed—the first person to die when she accepted her role. Because of the body resting in the ground, she had gotten tangled in her role.

  A rustling sound nearby brought her back to the present and she whisked around, only to see a little boy, maybe four or five years old, wandering through the grass a few feet away. The Angel of Death sighed and turned back to the grave; he wouldn’t see her anyways. She reached out with her bone-white hand, letting her fingertips brush the edge of the tombstone.

  Suddenly, she felt a tug on the bottom of her wing. She winced as pain shot through her spine and she turned, surprised to see the little boy gripping the edge of her wing in his tiny fingers.

  “Are you the tooth fairy?” he asked her, hopefully.

  She stared at him, dumbfounded. He could see her. He could see her—and he wasn’t dying! This had never happened before. The Angel of Death didn’t know what this meant.

  “Y…Yes,” she managed to mutter, still shocked as she pulled her wing gently from the boy’s grip. She was too stunned to think of anything else to say but she was careful not to touch him, not sure what the consequences would be if she did.

  He grinned up at her, oblivious to her panic. He was missing two front teeth. “What are you doing here, tooth fairy?”

  “I-I was just leaving,” she uttered as she took a few steps backwards, careful to make sure he wasn’t following her.

  As soon as she was far enough away, she unfolded her wings and flew out of there as fast as she could, heart beating fast in her chest. He had seen her—he had actually seen her! With the cemetery behind her, she lighted to the ground, still in disbelief. The encounter meant something. He was special—he had to be. She sat down on the ground, sifting through her thoughts.

  Lucy and April had told her about this when she first came into her role. It was important. Suddenly, she had a thought; maybe she had found her own loophole. Maybe she could get out, if she played her cards right.

  She stood up and stretched out her wings. Reflexively, she reached out to touch the feathers on the tips. She knew how to do this, but it would take endurance—more than she was even sure she had. Sighing, she flew up to the sky, trying not to think about the path ahead of her. If she did, it would only become more difficult. Another flicker of light passed through her vision—another soul to collect—but, if this worked, that wouldn’t matter anymore.

  Nothing would.

  She kept flying and finally lighted down next to a large building. It was long abandoned and falling apart, so she was guaranteed much-needed privacy. The outside was dirty, with leaves growing up its sides and the windows were gone, burned out by a fire long ago. Flimsy boards were nailed over them. The Angel of Death walked along the side, looking for the door. No signs indicated what this building used to be, but she had been around long enough to know that it had once been a log company. A little gory, but right now, it was perfect. Even if the others didn’t consider her an Angel, by human standards, she still was which meant limitations in her options to cut off her wings.

  When she reached the door, she noticed a rusty chain holding it closed with a sign that said “WARNING.” She pulled the door forward just enough for her to squeeze in. Inside the factory, light streamed in through the boarded windows. It wasn’t much, but she could see. Chains hung from the ceiling and broken machinery filled the space around her. She did her best to ignore them as she walked over to the nearest object, a round saw blade, set in a machine. Just like the door chain, it was rusty, but the risk of getting tetanus didn’t matter.

  She pushed the button, hoping to God it would work. With a clank, the rusty blade began to spin. The constant whir set her body at ease, surprising her. She expected the opposite reaction. Staring at the saw for a minute, she watched the sharp tips spin so fast they looked like nothing but a brownish blur. She couldn’t believe she was about to do this, but it would definitely be worth the trouble if it worked.

  She swallowed heavily. Flexing her wings, she turned her back toward the saw and stuck the roots out as much as she could. At first, feathers only flew around the room, but then she felt the bitter pain as the saw ripped into the meat on her wings. Blood splattered everywhere, painting the room with a crimson shower. She suppressed a scream as the blade ripped relentlessly through her two beautiful wings; the only things uniting her with the realm of the Angels.

  The rusty blade tore thro
ugh the tendons and nerves, and then crunched its way through the bone. Just a little longer and it’d be over. Finally, the Angel of Death let out an ear-splitting scream. With a final wave of pain, the blood-smeared saw sliced through nothing but thin air. Her wings thumped to the ground, now useless.

  She drew several deep breaths, waiting for the pain to subside and the dizziness to clear. She clicked off the saw and looked down at the red-splattered wings that had been hers. Her bloody hand clutched the corners of the saw table as she tried to steady herself and she swallowed again, bending down to pick them up. She cradled them in her arms before trying to remove the remaining stumps, but found it was too painful to even try. Cuddling her severed wings to her chest, she left the factory to find that little boy’s house. She closed her eyes, desperate to tap her teleporting ability. Although she had become human, her ability still worked, and she found herself standing in the boy’s room, blood still running down her back. She didn’t notice it as she looked at him.

  Day had turned to night during her trip to the factory. The boy was asleep in his bed, thumb in his mouth. The Angel of Death smiled at him before she bent down and crammed her ruined wings beneath his bed. Sure, he was young, but that wouldn’t matter soon. When her time was done, he would be whisked to Heaven and forgotten on Earth, aged to fit the role—just like she had been so long ago.

  She teleported from his room before he woke up, choosing to stand outside in the grass in his backyard. Confident in what she had done, she stared up at his dark window. Now, she had one thing left to do and she had to make it count. Teleporting again, probably for the last time, she appeared on a set of railroad tracks.

  The Angel of Death stood there, waiting. She felt a rattling beneath her feet, and a small smile appeared on her face. It wasn’t bittersweet this time, but real—the first real smile she had let out since her time as a human. Bright lights flashed through the darkness and she stared at it unwaveringly, confident that she had left the role of the Angel of Death in the right hands. The train came closer, its horn blaring. She didn’t move from her place on the tracks, staring at her impending doom, spelled out by the speeding train.

  Now, it was her turn to be received by an Angel of Death.

  She was going home—and not a moment too soon.

  Something about human nature makes us want to capture and preserve beauty, so that it can never escape us again. For a beautiful life, we take pictures to remember always, for time makes sure that beauty is as fleeting as our memories.

  To Die For

  “THIS SONG SUCKS,” Riley moaned, changing the station.

  I rolled my eyes, glancing at his feet on my dashboard. My taste in metal music clashed with his love for rap.

  “I have a Beyoncé CD in my purse,” Natalie piped up from the back seat, “…if it’ll stop your bickering!”

  “I’m sure it won’t,” Hunter muttered beside her.

  “You’re right!” I smiled at them in the rearview mirror as I made a careful turn off the paved road. The path through the woods seemed smaller, overgrown with the foliage trying to reclaim the land.

  “Is this the right turn?” I asked.

  “Yeah, the cabin is two miles past the lake,” Natalie said. “I’ll let you know if you’re going the wrong way.”

  I nodded—though in the back of my head, I thought about her twisted sense of humor. I wouldn’t be surprised if she let me drive a few miles off the road just for the thrill of being lost for an hour or two.

  “How many times have you been out here?” Riley asked tilting his head towards the backseat.

  “Three or four—for parties mostly—but it’ll just be us this time.”

  “Hey, small parties are cool too!” Hunter said.

  Riley and I shot sarcastic glances at each other. He turned the music up and fell silent. I continued to drive, stealing glances at the sparkling lake as we drove over the tiny bridge to the other side. I pictured us swimming in it sometime before the weekend was over.

  “Take this right,” Natalie directed.

  I nodded and turned into the woods, feeling that claustrophobic sensation again. Perhaps the clearing around the cabin would be better managed.

  “How’d you get the cabin for a whole weekend?” Hunter asked Natalie.

  “It wasn’t hard,” she said, with a shrug.

  I kept my eyes on the road. That was the deepest answer she would give us.

  “We’re here!” she announced, moments later. I turned off the engine.

  “Thank God!” Riley said, tumbling out of the car.

  I popped the trunk and dug for my belongings, hanging my digital camera around my neck as I pulled out my backpack. Natalie, Riley, and Hunter soon joined me in removing their things as well.

  “We get the biggest bedroom!” Natalie declared, grabbing Hunter’s hand as they ran inside, slamming the screen door behind them.

  “Your sister is something else,” Riley said.

  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go in the cabin yet,” I said, pulling my backpack onto my shoulders.

  “Going for a walk?”

  I held my camera up with a smile. “What do you think?”

  “I’ll join you,” he said, smiling back. “I hope I see you take the winning picture.”

  “Thanks!” We turned and began walking through the trees.

  Bird sounds filled my ears, giving me a sense of peace that we hadn’t felt when we were in town. I looked up into the branches, noticing a cardinal a few feet above my head. Its crimson feathers caught my attention. I stopped to snap its picture, smiling to myself as I looked at the bird a moment before it fluttered away.

  Riley stood beside me, but said nothing. I enjoyed his company on our walk through the woods. We didn’t need to speak to feel close to each other. It was a peaceful kind of friendship.

  “The land’s pretty,” Riley mused, as I snapped another picture of a maple leaf.

  “It really is,” I agreed, studying the image I had just taken. I snapped one more, just in case.

  “Is this really your first time up here?” he asked. “Natalie loves to party here. Hard to believe you’ve never been.”

  “Yeah, well… I’m not the partying type,” I admitted. “What about you?”

  “I’ve been here once for a party Hunter threw. I think it was a week or two before graduation.”

  “Oh, how did that go?” I asked, watching a bird flutter through the trees. My memory of the last few weeks of high school was hazy. Between college tours and the various extracurriculars my parents had lined up for me, I barely found enough time to sleep.

  “It was alright, I guess,” he said, bending down to pick something out of the grass.

  “What is it?” I asked, observing the frown on his face.

  “There are bones over here,” he said, picking one up to observe it in the light.

  I looked at it for a while, noting the ivory color. There were no traces of the animal it had once belonged to. The bones had long been bleached by the sun and forgotten.

  “Are there bears in these woods?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. Natalie would know,” he said, tossing it to the ground.

  “Right,” I said, walking over to him.

  I took in the full scope of the skeleton at my feet. The line of rib bones on the ground wove through the long blades of grass they sat in. I could easily picture them being part of a deer.

  “It’s got a good, creepy feel with the black and white filter,” I mumbled as I snapped a quick picture.

  “That’s all well and good, but I think we should head back now,” Riley said, standing to his feet. I could tell he was uneasy. I nodded and followed him back through the woods. If there were bears, I didn’t want to take any chances.

  When we reached the cabin, Hunter stood in the doorway, arms folded over his chest and smoking a cigarette. “Where’d you two go?”

  “Away from the scene,” Riley replied, bumping Hunter’s should
er as he headed into the cabin. Hunter smirked and took a heavy drag of his cigarette. “Got the camera out again?” he asked, looking at me.

  I nodded. “These woods are great for pictures. I might win that contest after all.”

  “I wish I remembered to bring mine, but your sister has a distracting way about her,” he said wistfully as I passed him, shuddering at the thought. He turned to look at Riley, who was sitting on the couch. “Natalie’s asleep, bro. Keep it down guys, okay?”

  “Are you leaving?” I asked, setting my backpack on the floor beside the couch.

  “Going for a walk. Maybe even think up some picture ideas myself.”

  Riley frowned. “Be careful, I think there are bears out here.”

  Hunter rolled his eyes. “I’ll be fine,” he said, crushing his cigarette beneath his boot before disappearing outside.

  “Whatever,” Riley scoffed. “He can fend for himself,” he muttered, digging through his bag. “You up for a Mike’s Hard?”

  I nodded and caught the bottle he tossed before pulling out his own. We clicked them together and took a sip.

  “I can’t believe it’s been a whole year already since we graduated,” he said, staring carefully at his label.

  “I was thinking the same thing. It feels good to be home—even if it is only for a little while. I got so overwhelmed with college.”

  Riley shrugged. “Take fewer classes, like I do. You don’t have to rush your way through. I mean, you have your whole life to get a good job. These are some of the best years of your life.”

  “Maybe, but we aren’t promised tomorrow either.”

  “Yeah? Well, all the more reason to make the most of today,” he said, taking a heavy swig of his drink.

  “You’re right, I know.” I clutched the neck of the bottle with both hands. “Can I ask you something? What drove you to come up here with us this weekend? Natalie wanted to because she needed time away from our parents, and Hunter came because he does anything she asks. But you didn’t have to. So, why? We haven’t talked in so long. We’re practically strangers now.”