Near Death

    Samantha stood in a white mist. It was cold, and empty, but somehow it was comfortable. She was tired, but not tired enough to sleep. The mouse was waiting for something, but did not know what. It was so quiet, so peaceful.
    She was a pretty mousegirl of nineteen, barely enrolled in college. She had long, plaited red hair and twinkling green eyes. Her smile was beautiful, and clean. She usually dressed in jeans, sandals, and a t-shirt. She began to pace back and forth.
    She stopped to wonder how she had gotten here. The mouse curled her t-shirt nervously, straining her memory. She was walking down the street by a construction site and… someone had shouted “Watch out, mousegirl!”… and then… nothing.
    She gritted her teeth. Why couldn’t she remember? She twisted her t-shirt some more. Not a wind shifted the mist which perpetually swirled about. It was cold, but it was also well lit. She continued to pace back and forth.
That’s right! Someone had shouted “Watch out, mousegirl!”… she had looked up, and saw the steel girder falling towards her. She had frozen, not knowing what to do. Then all she could remember was pain, and then she was here.
    A voice, soothing and dark, came from behind her. She whipped around to face it as it spoke.
    “Welcome to the Etherium.” He said. He was a sleek gray fox with a strong, handsome face and funny white eyes. He was dressed in a business suit, and his hair was short-cut and neatly combed.
    “Wh-who are you?” asked Samantha. The fox bowed politely. “I’m the Grim Reaper.” He smiled. Samantha took a step back. “You’re the Grim Reaper?” she asked. “Yeah. What’d you expect? A skeleton wearing a robe and carrying a scythe?” he said, laughing.
    “Am I…” Samantha began, but he cut her off. “…dead? Well, yes and no. Being crushed by a very large heavy object tends to kill you, true… ” he started, pulling a piece of paper out of his suit pocket and looking at it. “…but I’m not scheduled to meet you for a long time yet.” He finished.
    “So what does that mean?” she asked, almost afraid of the answer. The Grim Reaper smiled. “It means I have a choice. I can either keep you here or send you back.” He said.
    “Which are you gonna choose?” Samantha asked, terrified of the answer. The Reaper laughed. “That depends on how well you state your case.” He smiled, sitting and leaning back in a chair that had suddenly appeared.
    Samantha looked scared. Then the Grim Reaper laughed. “Relax, I was just kidding. To tell the truth, if I keep you here, I’d have to rework my entire plan. All that paperwork… I hate paperwork. That was enough of a mess last time I had to do that.” He said after a minute.
    “Does that mean…” She started, her eyes shining with hope. The Grim Reaper cut her off again. “Yeah, I’ll send you back. Just look into my eyes.” He said. Samantha gazed into his eyes deeply.  He spoke, yet his voice was now distant, faraway, and hypnotic.
    “It is not yet your time. You must go back.”
    A sudden flash of light filled her vision, then all was dark.

    Samantha was in terrible pain. Her entire body was one massive injury. She couldn’t move, speak, breathe. She was still ‘dead’ to the living. She could hear sounds and voices. She could only make one thing out at first. The steady, monotonous “bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep” of a flatlining EKG. Suddenly she could understand a voice.
    “Defibrillator primed! Clear!” Electricity ran through her body, adding to her already immense pain. “Nothing. Give her ten CCs of adrenaline.” A sharp pain in her arm, and she suddenly felt stronger.
    “Okay, defibrillator primed again! Clear!”  Her whole body shook again with more pain, and the long “bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep” of the EKG turned into a more rhythmic “blee-beep, blee-beep”
    “I’ve got a pulse! Keep the defibrillator ready, just in case.” A pair of lips locked with hers, blowing cool breath into her lungs. Two one-second breaths. She let out a shrill grasp and a shaky breath. The pain she had felt before was a death-numbed shadow of the pain she now felt.
    “She’s alive. I can’t believe it! She must have had a one-thousand pound I-beam laying across her when we got there.” The pain of consciousness was too much for her, and she passed out again.

     She awoke much later in a hospital bed, attached to an IV tube and an EKG. She was sporting a full-body cast. Her entire body was numb. A care-worn older rabbit in a nurse’s uniform stood over her. The nurse smiled. “You’ve got to be the luckiest girl I’ve ever seen. That I-beam would’ve killed most furres.” She said.
     Samantha nodded, picturing a business suited gray fox with white eyes, but as she did, she realized she did not know where she had seen him. She shrugged it off. “Yeah, I guess I am. Where am I?”

                                           THE END