The Trip

I was quietly driving one night on an almost empty stretch of road, as a precaution, I had slept all afternoon in order to be fully awake for the many hours I spent on the road. Then, the headlights of a car driving on the opposite lane allowed me to distinguish, through the mirror, a dark figure in the back seat of my car, and I must say that startled me a lot.

In order to calm my sudden and growing fear, I began to rationalize that whatever it was, that thing was completely still and if it wanted to hurt me, it would have done it by now. I immediately dismissed the matter as a play of lights and shadows.

I continued my journey until yet another car drove past me in the opposite direction, flooding the insides of my car with light. I instinctively looked in the mirror; the figure was still there, not moving at all, too quiet to be a person. You couldn't even see nor hear it breathing. I kept driving, more and more nervous, because now I was totally convinced that it wasn't my imagination. This time the other car's lights illuminated the back seat long enough so that I could see that the figure was wrapped in something resembling a robe, its head hidden by a hood.

"Maybe it only was my imagination," I said aloud, "You may already be tired and seeing things that do not exist," and just at that moment, a truck passed with all its lights on. This made it possible to see the face of what was traveling with me, or rather, I could see where the face was supposed to be. All I saw was a skull. I had to muster all my courage to keep control of the vehicle, and although the backseat was again totally dark, I could clearly distinguish the silhouette of this being, as I knew it was there.

Trying to fight off the fear, I found myself thinking that a hooded figure with a skull instead of a face could not be anything but death itself. So keeping my terror filled voice as much as possible, I said: "Please get on the passenger's seat, I'd like to ask you some questions." Then, the silhouette disappeared from the back seat, to immediately reappear next to me. The first thing I thought to ask was "Is it my time?” To which the being answered with a serene, deep voice: "No, not yet, just wanted to hitch a ride." I dared not to ask him where he was going, because wherever it was, it would be to take a life. The entity, reading my thoughts, said:

"We do not take any lives; we only take care of bringing souls to the other side"

"We?" I asked surprised, "Are there more reapers?"

"Our numbers are close to a million," said Death, "No matter how supernatural the living consider us, it would be impossible for a single reaper to help the thousands of souls that leave their bodies every day across the veil."

"What is you true form?" I confidently asked knowing that it wasn’t my time yet.

"Our real shape," began Death, "is immaterial and invisible to any living or recently liberated soul; we have to materialize in order to perform our work"

"Why a skeleton?" I inquired.

"Because it's the easiest form for us to take," he said, "We can take a fully human shape, but that requires a lot of energy. Sometimes we have to, because some newly liberated souls suffer a great shock to see the classical figure of death approaching them, so we have to take a less threatening appearance in order to make the transition as smooth as possible."

"Why is it I can see you if it isn't yet my time?"

"I have a personal preference to gradually materialize," said Death, "is less tiresome that way, but it takes a considerable time, so I start to materialize before reaching the place where I have to play my role. Besides, you are one of the few people who can see, even momentarily, through the veil that separates the spiritual from the material world. "

At that time I was slowing down, as we were approaching the city entrance. Just before nearing a traffic light, Death asked me to stop. We had arrived at its destination. Although the light was green, I stopped, just in time to see how the car in front of me was rammed at a high speed by another car that ran the intersecting red light...