Queen of death
A Short Story by Ava D.
Diary entry:
Life can actually be imagined as a long road with a lot of branches and gradients. You run and run and run and sometimes you have tailwind and you would like to cry out into the world how great life is, but sometimes the wind comes from the front and pushes you down. It takes a lot of power to brace yourself against the wind and move on. Every now and then you take the wrong branches and it takes a lot to get back to the saving main road. Some people stop for good sooner, others later. And I’m the only one in charge.
I’ll take them to me when the time comes. Eight year old girl, her name is Emily, often thinks of roads and wrong branches. She is sure she took too many wrong branches in her life. She paints pictures of me which decorates the walls in her room, but she has never seen me before. Nobody can see me, because I’m not a human. Today I visited Emiliy’s grandfather. It was time for him to leave. He was very ill and weak. Emily didn’t like him very much, so she isn’t very sadly. Nobody wants to have anything to do with the „Queen of death“, as peoples call her, and her parents begin to worry. She wonders if I could die and who would be my successor if I died one day. But what nobody could know she is really the queen of death. She’s mine. It has always been and always will be.
Signed by Death, on 11 September 2014
Five years later
It was a rainy day and the clouds seemed to outdo each other in their blackness. For mid-September it was already very cold and people hid in their cozy houses and apartments to watch TV on the sofa together and to read in their ear armchairs with thick blankets wrapped in a book. A family with two daughters lived in a house at 23 Hamilton street. The older one was Emily. Her younger sister, eight year old Malu, was very different from her. She loved glitter, but Emily had always hated it, she played with doll houses and barbies and loved rosa and purple. Emily had never done any of that.
That evening, the mother called Emily from her room to the table, as the parents had decided to make a family evening with games. When Emily didn’t show up, Malu went up to her room to check on her. Quietly she opened the door to the room and stuck her head in it.
„Emily? Mom and Dad want you to come. We want to play”, she said in the room, but couldn‘t see anyone at first. „Emily?” Her voice was louder now. When again no one answered, she got to do with the fear. She quickly ran down the stairs to tell her parents Emily wasn‘t in her room. When she came into the living room, the father sat on the sofa and watched the news.
„Malu, what’s going on?“, he asked. Malu let her felt on the yellow sofa next to her father and took a cup of tea from her mother. „She isn’t in her room”, she explained. The mother moaned as she dumped some sugar in her cup. „I hope she didn’t run away again. Tonight, I don’t want to go looking for her. In the weather, no halfway sensible person goes out.“ The father stood up and drew the curtains. „Have you looked in the bathroom yet, sweetheart? And also in all other rooms?”, he suggested. Malu shook her head. „No, but I don’t want to go up again in this darkness.“ The mother nodded sympathetically. „Still, maybe one of us should blow up. We can turn on the light, but if we don’t know she‘s really out there.“ She twisted her face and shuddered at the memory of a similar evening on which Emily had ran away.
During this time on the street stand Emily. She weared a jacket and shoes, a hat and a shawl. She walked along the street and looked into the lighted windows where people were happy together. But Emily headed for a park popular in good weather which was now exited in the dark. The only sound was the incessant rustling of the wind, which a soft whisper probably did not suffice today. The lanterns threw their ugly puke-yellow light on the street and so it was not quite dark, but nevertheless for some a little creepy. But Emily wasn’t afraid. She was afraid of monster high dolls, but not of shadows and darkness. The gate to the park squeaked uncomfortably in her ears when Emily opened it. The wind twiched at her clothes and it raged on and on, but Emily had an aim.
She knew someone was waiting for her. She felt it. In one of the many shadows, someone hid who knew more about her than she did. She had wondered so many times who she was and now she wanted to know. She was different she knew. After all, she was nervous, as if she knew that something big was waiting for her.
In order to calm down a little, she began to sing quietly. Her clear voice seemed loud to her, as if it disturbed the calm of the quiet and dark cemetery. In a back part of the park she took a sudden movement. It seemed to her that behind a large tree was at least as large a figure lurking as the tree.
Carefully she distressed to the tree. Her breath went faster and faster and she bit her teeth together so as not to scream with fear. That’s not what she came here for. She wanted answers. Answers she had been waiting for far too long. Suddenly she felt an icy breeze. „Hello?”; she whispered in a fearful voice. „Is there someone else?” Nobody answered but a strong gust of wind blew a piece of paper at her feet, which she picked up with trembling fingers to read.
This was written there:
Dear Emily, It’s not the end, darling. It’s the beginning at a new story. Nobody knows how it’s going to end. You are the new queen. You are the new death. And in a hundred years, it will be someone else again. I’m here now. I’m very tired, because yes, it’s time to die for me. I can’t love you, Emily, because I’m death. I can’t feel love. But if I could feel love I would love you like a daughter. Now it’s time when the old death dies. Signed by death on 11 September 2019
Emily’s hand trembled more and more. That couldn’t be, she tought. She screamed as if it could undo everything. She had never wanted that, even though she was happy to know what she was now.
At next moment she felt an icecold hand which took her hand and kissed it. Suddenly, her whole body began to burn. She closed her eyes and writhed in pain and screamed and screamed, didn’t noticed that someone put a sooty hand on her mouth to dampen her scream.
When she opened her eyes she felt she wasn’t a human. Next to her the person who put a scooty hand on her mouth cried very loud . It was like he was in pain too. Now she knew.
She was the new death.
END
By Ava D.
Translations:
*branches: Abzweigungen; *gradients: Steigungen; *tailwind: Rückenwind; *successor: Nachfolger; *one day: eines Tages; *outdo: übertrumpfen; *cozy: gemütlich; *ear armchairs: Ohrensessel; *wrapped: eingewickelt; *check on her: nach ihr sehen; *moan: stöhnen; *dump: kippen; *halfway sensible: halbwegs vernünftig; *drew the courtains: Vorhänge zuziehen; *suggest: vorschlagen; *twist the Face: das Gesicht verziehen; *similar: ähnlich; *ripp *shawl: Schal; *incessant rustling: unaufhörliches Rascheln; *did not suffice: nicht ausreichte; *lanterns: Laternen; *rage: toben *calm down a little: sich ein wenig beruhigen; *distress: näher gehen; *icy breeze: Eiskalter; Windhauch *undo: ungetan; *writh in pain: Vor Schmerz winden
Illustrationen: pixabay.com