Death Wish

Tap... Tap... Tap-tap... tap... tap-tap... tap...

The tap went on tapping and tapping but little Audrey didn't dare to get up and close it. She couldn't get up from her bed, walk through the hall and close the tap. Such a simple thing wasn't simple to her... it wasn't simple at all.

It all started a week ago. First, it began as a fever and soon it became almost deadly. Doctor had already lost hope as they didn't have a clue what caused her disease. There was no pathogen in her blood... nothing foreign... nothing abnormal. In hope to spend with her the last moments of her life, her parents brought her back home and rarely left her side… until that only moment.

It was a dark night – no stars, no moon. Her mother went to the kitchen to make her husband a cup of tea while he went into the bathroom to rewet the napkin he used to put on Audrey’s forehead. Knowing her fate, the little nine-year-old looked at the ceiling and begged; begged god to cure her; begged god to free her from that prison.

Suddenly, light appeared from the side of her bed. With difficulty, Audrey looked at the light and whispered, every word coming out with terrible pain, “Are you God?”

“No, little innocent one,” the light replied with the most pleasant voice. “I am no God. I am an angel.”

“Angel? Did you come to cure me?”

After a silent moment, the angel said, “I am afraid not, little innocent one.”

“Why did you come then?” Audrey asked naively, still unable to realize that, before her, stood the Angel of Death.

“To take you to heaven,” the angel replied.

“Heaven?” Audrey asked, slowly digesting the information. “But I do not want to go to heaven. I want to stay here with mama and papa.”

“You must come,” the angel said and unexpectedly, Audrey felt pain in her heart.

“No…” she pleaded with her soft voice. “Please no… Don’t…”

The pain eased. “Do you really want to stay here so much?” the angel asked. Audrey nodded. “Then I will let you live… but there will be consequences.”

“Concience?” Audrey repeated, trying to figure out what that word could mean. “I don’t care about any conciences.”

“Very well then,” said the angel. “Then I grant you life that wasn’t meant for you. I grant you life that will leave you between the two world.”

With these words, the light faded away. Amazingly, the next day, Audrey was cured – no symptoms, no pain. Her parents were overwhelmed but Audrey couldn’t be happy. Being left between two worlds was difficult for a little girl. She could see spirits, demons and real people. She started confusing between them… but her parents didn’t notice that. They were very happy to notice anything. That night, she was lying in her bed, alone in a room with spirits flying around her and demons all over the room. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t stop her fear. All she could do was plead for death she once pleaded for not getting.