The screech of tires against the wet road was the last sound Mira heard before her world shattered. She watched from the sidewalk, her takeout slipping from numb fingers, as the eighteen-wheeler vehicle slammed into her parent's car at the intersection she'd crossed just moments before.
All she could hear was emergency sirens that wailed in the distance while she ran toward the wreckage, her heart beat was replaced by series of loud thud against her ribs. The car was crushed on the driver's side, steam rising from the wreckage and reaching toward the gray sky.
"Mom! Dad!" Her voice cracked as paramedics pulled her back, their hands gentle but firm.
She thought they were already dead until she saw their fingers move. The next few hours went by so fast that Mira lost track of time. She sat between their beds in the ICU, holding both their hands as the doctors delivered the inevitable news with practiced compassion. They had suffered multiple injuries which lead to internal bleeding and brain trauma.There was no chance of survival and she was asked to say her final goodbyes.
She watched as her mother's fingers tightened around hers. "Mira, sweetheart," she whispered,"We love you. Always remember..."she said before coughing.
"Shhhh... don't say another word mum" Mira interrupted her,"You don't have to say goodbye,you both would survive this"she added with tears in her eyes.
But her father's breathing was already growing shallow, his eyes finding hers one last time. "Be brave, my little star, promise me that you'll live."he said reaching out for her hand.
Just then the monitors began beeping fast before they went silent. Mira fought hard to control the tears that were already flowing down her cheek but she lost. Instead of fighting,she buried her head on her mother's laps and cried her eyes out. When she had no more tears to cry,she raised her head and that's when she saw him.
He stood at the edge of her father's bed, and the world around him seemed to dim and blur at the edges. Maybe it was the grief, or the fact that she hasn't slept throughout last night. He was tall and didn't look human at all,he had dark hair that was as long as his cloak and his skin was pale.
Not only that he was so beautiful in a way that made her chest ache. She didn't know what falling in love at first sight felt like so maybe this was it. His eyes met hers across the small room and for a moment, her breath seized. He wasn't looking at her parents, but was staring directly into her eyes.
Time seemed to stop moving as he moved towards her mother's bedside. Mira watched transfixed, as he leaned down, but he didn't touch her instead he stayed that way until her mother's hand became stiff in hers.
When he straightened, those dark eyes found hers again, and she felt something pass between them. She didn't have time to process what she felt because by the next minute,he had disappeared the same way he appeared.
She attended their funeral barely paying any attention where she watched as people dropped casseroles and sympathy cards, even from neighbors whose faces she couldn't quite focus on.
Night came and she was left with her thoughts,she picked up her family's album and a fresh batch of tears rolled down her face as she saw their vacation pictures. Those pictures were taken days before and now they were no more.
She laid down her head with their memories playing in her mind when his thoughts crossed her mind. She thought about those eyes, that ghostly presence that had made everything else fade away.
She sat up before she began to research obsessively, she was still on her laptop when the early morning sun peeped through her curtains. She searched death mythology from every culture she could find, near-death experiences, ancient texts and modern accounts, anything that might explain what she'd seen. Her search history became a dark rabbit hole:
What does Death look like,
Meeting Death during loved one's passing,
Seeing supernatural beings during trauma.
The rational part of her mind whispered that it had been shock and grief playing tricks on her perception. But her heart knew better,she'd seen something...or someone real.
Days turned into weeks and she found herself drawn to places where death lingered. She volunteered at the hospital, hoping to catch another glimpse. She walked through cemeteries during the day and at night, her heart raced each time she saw a shadow pass by her.
She even attended funerals of strangers, sitting in the back pews with her eyes scanning for any sign of that otherworldly presence,yet she found nothing.
That wanting became a physical ache in her chest, a hunger that no amount of food could satisfy. Her friends gradually grew concerned, told her to speak to professionals, even booked counseling sessions for her but how could she explain that she wasn't mourning, instead she was yearning? How could she tell them that every sunrise was a disappointment because it meant another day without seeing him again?
Three months after the accident, Mira sat on her bedroom floor surrounded by mythology books and printouts, tears streaming down her face. The house felt like a shadow of it's former self, and she could still hear every room echoing with memories of laughter that would never return.
One would think she was crying for her dead parents, not knowing that it wasn't her parents she was crying for but for the beautiful stranger who had witnessed their final moments and then vanished from her world entirely.
"I have to see you again," she whispered to the empty room. "I have to."she cried
She'd read enough to know the truth everyone had tried to spare her from. There was only one way to meet Death again and this time,her mind was made up.
The pills in her hand had belonged to her mother,they were pain medication from a surgery years before. Mira counted them out on her nightstand:all twenty-three of small white tablets stared back at her. She knew those pills could be her bridge between this world and the next.
She'd already written letters to her few remaining relatives, which contained simple explanations that wouldn't reveal the real reason. "Let them think it was grief" she said as she held one pill, because In a way, it was."she added as she placed it on her tongue.
She swallowed them one by one, washing each down with water from the glass her mother had always kept beside her bed. Then she went and laid on her parents' comforter, the same one that still smelled faintly of her mother's perfume and closed her eyes.
"It's finally happening"she whispered to herself.
It wasn't long before the drowsiness came and it came in waves. Her heartbeat grew sluggish in her ears, and the edges of her vision began to blur. This it was, after so long finally, she would get to see him again.
But as her consciousness faded and her breathing grew shallow, it wasn't Death who showed up beside her. It was someone else entirely. The figure standing over her had Death's otherworldly beauty, but she appeared softer somehow.
Her hair fell in dark waves around shoulders draped in what looked like starlight, and her eyes carried the same infinite depth as his, but her's was warmer. She watched as they widened in surprise as they met her fading gaze.
"You're not him," Mira whispered, her voice barely a breath.
The girl leaned closer,she was in the same age group as her. She could see concern written all over her face.
"Who were you expecting?"she asked raising a brow.
But before she could answer,her vision was already going black, her final thought was a mixture of disappointment and strange wonder. She had sought Death and found something else entirely, someone who looked at her not with the pity she'd expected, but with something that almost looked like curiosity.
The last thing she heard before the darkness claimed her was a voice that sounded like angels melodies
"Oh, what have you done?"the figure asked kissing her lips.