The Man Who Trapped Death In A Trunk

'Course I wasn't the only one in the room.  Death was there, too.  I'd known he was coming.  Evelyn and I had talked about him on occasion when she was feeling her worse.  "Just leave him be," she'd said.  "You promise?"  I crossed my heart and hoped to die, which I knew I would want to do if I ever lost her.  It was no easy chore watching him steal that last breath from her, but I let him do it because that's the way Evelyn had wanted it.  

When he was done, his attention moved from her to me like the second hand on a clock.  "You can see me."

I nodded.

"I remember you.  The trunk."  He crept across the bed - right over Evelyn's body, which made me sick - and we came face-to-face, so damn close I could smell that godawful stench on his breath.  He laughed.  "You know what I think I'll do with you?  I think I'll let you live forever."

David B. Silva, from Out of the Dark

Image by Stevenson Cemetery.