Sleep

Got to bring them to light, all my mistakes, all the things left unsaid by the night. Death is ever nigh, so eyes aware search the darkness for that infinite, silence sleep. Wide awake, awaiting tragedy without second thought to the irony. Vicariously passing through a loophole in time, letting life escape through the fingers, wondering what has just been seen, accepting the shadows as beings of the same nature. All over the wall light reflects back and leaves unseen the truth. A boy sits and waits, slowly his human nature changes from predator to prey.

Death is an old, ugly man. Face always frowning, ever sad, ever lonely. Seeking company but never obtaining it, it retrieves lives. Methodical, liar, treasonous brother of life. Lover of the sea, it thrusts forward against ships and land, takes all in sight. Coming from ancient times of cold and stone to these days of steel and concrete, it bursts in ignoring all material. It is now in the room and watches with empty eyes the wary boy in the bed, seeking and never finding an answer to his fear. It moves slowly, floating besides the bed, silently. It tilts its head and watches its prey closely, its old face full of wrinkles pushing up in dismay. It has never liked the company of a child. They're too energetic and full of questions. Its old age can barely keep up with its weight, much less with a hurried child always pulling it forward.

So death stared for a while, waiting as the frail boy shivered at the cold that it had brought in. A touch of its hand and it would be over. This boy would have no body, just a soul being carried off to somewhere, doesn't matter where. But it was still a boy's soul and it should remain in the mortal world. So death looked upon him one last time and vowed to return in a few years to find him old and experience, with wrinkles of his own. Only them he would take him and embrace him as a long lost friend. Leaving the room without looking back, death roamed away to another location where a soul would be waiting for it. So the boy went back to sleep, all the fear gone and warmth returned to his body.