Preludes & Nocturnes

The Sound of her Wings

In a story of her own, Death takes an opportunity to live. This is something she does now, so that she knows what she is taking, after being accused of being cold and uncaring.

Neil Gaiman’s Death is my favorite version of Death.

Even she admits, she doesn’t know what comes after life. That’s not her job. Her job is simply to move people along to the next stage, if there is anything beyond becoming sustenance for new life. 

She has gotten to know what life is personally, and tends to crave more for herself. 

“I wish it could have gone on forever.”

Death of the Endless (Sandman by Neil Gaiman) speaking with Element Girl about death and the unknown. 

“No, I haven’t come for you, Rainie. There was a woman upstairs changing the light bulb in her kid’s room. The stepladder slipped...Like I said, I was passing and I heard you crying, and well, the door was open...”

“Anyway: I’m not blessed, or merciful. I’m just me. I’ve gota job to do and I do it. Listen: even as we’re talking, I’m there for the old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone.”

“I’m in cars and boats and planes, in hospitals and forests and abbatoirs. For some folks death is a release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them.”

“Rainie, in West Africa a small village is being massacred by mercenaries, in pay of their own government. I’m there.”

“In the farthest reaches of a distant galaxy, a planet is being ripped apart by internal stresses; the planet was the home of many cristal intelligences, calm and fine and beautiful. I’m there as well.”

“I’m in all of those places and I’m also here, talking to you. But...I’m not your death. At least, not yet.”