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Note: I am not really looking for a review. I already know that it needs a lot of work. I would just like to know if this story is worth going farther with.

Death. It happens every day and it’s not something that is wanted by most people. Natural death is something that is written in your files. It’s your destiny, something that you cannot change, no matter how hard you try. Accidental death is something completely different. That’s caused by bad chance, that you can avoid and change.

I know this because I am Death. It’s not just me, however, there are hundreds of us out there, monitoring the people that we were given files of. We are called Death Guards. Watching people for months, and sometimes even years before we are told it’s time to set their souls free. And with that one touch we end that person’s mortal life, painlessly, and bring them into a whole new one.

In 1922, I was only at the age of twenty-five. Excitement was all over the United States. We were fresh out of World War I and women were just recently given the right to vote. One night, after attending a musical, my wife and I were walking hand in hand home. She insisted that we took a alleyway this night as it was a shortcut. I thought nothing of it until a man appeared in front of us, a gun pointed at my sweet, Rosie. Instinctively I pulled out my gun and shot, but he noticed me pulling it out and turned the gun to me. We shot and killed each other.

On my files it reads that I had an accidental death. Had I not taken that alleyway that night I would have lived until I was sixty-eight. A stroke would have been my cause of death, but I would have died painlessly, my Death Guard would have made sure of it.

After my death, I had a choice to join a world without fright or sadness, or make a difference and join the Death Guards. I made my decision on the spot and chose Death Guards. My Rosie chose the other. She died of a Natural death at the age of forty. Her heart gave out from grief and stress. I read her files over and over, always hoping I would be given her name to guard, but the head Death Guard wouldn’t let me no matter how hard I pleaded to him.

I remember him looking me in the eyes and saying, “You won’t be able to do it. Do you really believe that you could kill someone that you love so deeply?”

I walked out of his office without muttering another word.

I walked into the Sweet Gardens Nursing Home. I was handed the file of George Howards a few months ago. Every week now I come in to read to him, watching over him and making sure that nothing is done to him in the remainder of the time that he has left. He is going to die from the cancer that has nearly spread to every corner of his abdomen area. He’s going to die in exactly five months, two weeks, two days, five hours, twenty-two minutes, and seventeen seconds at the age of eighty-four.

I walked up the receptionists desk and signed my name, the lady looked at me and smiled, “George has been up and ready waiting for you all morning. He was giving the nurses a hard time when they had to move him to the dining room for breakfast and lunch.”

I lifted the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. “He’s really taken a liking to this one. He sits there eyes wide with every word I say. And if I stop for one second to even clear my throat he curses at me to go on.”

She laughed, “That sounds like George to me. Well, you have a nice day.”

I tilted my hat to her and made my way to George’s room. Saying hello to each of the residents that I passed by on my way there. I peered into the bedroom. The bed was made and the two chairs were already facing each other the way I make them each time I come to read. George was nowhere to be seen however. I walked into the room and sat in one of the light green chairs.

I played with the pages of the book for some time as I waited for George. This isn’t the first time that I’ve waited for someone that I was to meet up with again, and it sure wouldn’t be my last. Some people have plans, some are forgetful, and some just simply don’t want to meet back up with me. I know how humans are and how they feel and act. I was one and during times such as this I reminisce on my past as a mortal. I was known for being late to events or sometimes not even showing up to it. I always thought that life was too short to worry about things that didn’t matter. Now, I wish I would have taken more time on those things that I deemed stupid back then. That way I might have had more memories to remember nowadays.

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes just as I heard screaming coming from the hallway, “I’m a grown ass man! I don’t need other people to bathe me. I am more than capable of doing so for myself!”

I looked towards the door as George came in. His hair was wetted down, and there were two nurses on either side of him, making sure that he didn’t slip and fall on his way back to his room. “You know that it’s our job to take care of you,” said the one lady with red hair, a little plumper than the other.

George waved her away as he saw me, “Goddam. It took you long enough to show up today. I thought that maybe you forgot all about me.” He looked at the book as he slowly shuffled his way to the chair that was directly across from me, “I’m ready to hear the rest of the book.”

“It would surprise me if you weren’t,” I grinned at him as I opened the book from where we left off.

He grunted, “Don’t make a joke of me, fool.”

I smiled as I started reading, “The soldier with the green whiskers led them through the streets of the Emerald City until they reached the room where the Guardian of the Gates lived.”

I continued reading until I was finished with two chapters from the book. The second I closed the book he was all over me, “No, you can’t stop there. It’s not goddam fair dammit. You could read at least one more chapter to me, you know.”

I stood up, “I am glad to see that you are excited for the book, but I’m sad to inform you that I cannot stay any longer. Plus, you need to get some rest now. I’ll be back in one week to read you some more of this book.”

“Fine, have it your way. At least send the nurse in to help me get into bed.”

“Certainly,” I said as I walked out the door. I walked up to the receptionist’s desk and signed my name out.

The young lady looked up at me and smiled, “Did George enjoy his reading today?”

I nodded, “I’m pretty sure that he was more upset about my leaving this time than the last. And also, George requests a nurse to aide him into his bed.”

She held her smile, “Good, and I’ll get right on that.”

She stood up and left the desk as I walked out of the front door. The sky was a light purple. Night was upon Earth and the traffic has withered down to almost nothing as it has been earlier today. I walked quickly to a dark corner so now one would see me disappear in midair.

I opened my eyes back up after the short journey to get to the Death Headquarters. The building seemed so small on the outside, and appeared to be an old rundown, black and grey building. The name Death Headquarters was written above the small wooden doors. It was now covered in rust after the many years it has been attached to the building.

I walked up to the doors and they opened automatically in front of me. I walked through and peered around at the familiar view around me. People, all young, walked around about me. You see, when you die, Natural or Accidental, your soul in another world turns back into what it looked like at its most perfect time. If you were old and withered, your body would turn back into what you looked like when you were a young adult. If you were just a baby you would grow up and have the knowledge and capabilities you would if you had lived out your life. I look exactly as I had when I was a mortal. Now I’m never aging, stuck in this young body.

I quickly walked past everyone, avoiding anyone who called out my name. I had work to do and I didn’t care about the drama that everyone would want to share with me. I walked up a small flight of stairs and into my small office, closing the door behind me quickly. Everyone’s office here is small and square, each wall only roughly measuring eight feet. In the middle of the room are a small wooden desk and an office chair on one side. The walls are painted tan and the floor a dark green carpet. On my desk I have several files laid out for each of my people that I am guarding. And right in the middle of the desk is a ball, like the one’s the gypsies use when they are reading your future. Except ours aren’t for reading futures it is to keep watch on our people, making sure that nothing is going wrong with them. Although, whether a Death Guard is keeping watch or not, if something should happen to his person a loud ringing sound goes off in their ear, and they are automatically taken to that situation, without a choice.

That’s only happened to me once. I was guarding a young girl; she was only twelve at the time. I actually just left her. I was her arts and crafts teacher. Once a week a group of us kids would meet up at the church and draw and paint, but I paid specific attention to her. I had just returned to the Headquarters when I heard a loud, shard ringing in my ears. I dropped my suitcase and covered my ears and closed my eyes shut. When the ringing stopped I opened my eyes back up. I was on a sidewalk, and in front of me was a crowd of people. I pushed through the crowd, and in the middle was that young girl laying on the street right in front of a car. The driver was distracted as she was trying to quickly cross the street. I crouched down next of her. She was bleeding so much, that death was right around the corner for her. I knew what I had to do. I opened up her jacket and touched her heart. I had to set her soul free before it was her time. I was supposed to guard her for three more years. It was in her file to die of the leukemia that she was born with, yet her parents were too clueless and didn’t care enough their kids to know that she had it.

Note: I am going to make it so he gets a file of a younger girl, who he ends up gaining uncontrollable feelings towards. Let me know if it's any good please!!