An August Visit

[WP] True world peace has been attained. No more death by hunger, war, or disease. People have slowly started to notice that they no longer die. Turns out death went on hiatus long ago due to humans being great killers. Death is starting to get suspicious.

******

He sat at the table, looking at his laptop with his arms folded. His mind was somewhere else - nowhere actually, just pondering the issues of life – and he sighed as he got tired. Stretching out, he thought about going out for a drink and –

Pop!

He looked up, his left eye fixated at the man in a black three-piece suit casually seated on his sofa. He looked at the man with his right eye to be sure of what he was seeing, and sure, it was a spirit alright. He lost sight in his eye due to a freak bike accident that nearly killed him. It turned out that due to the fact that he almost died and he lost sight in his left eye during the accident, the eye became an ‘oculus’.

An oculus. A name used to refer to eyes that can see the world of the dead, of spirits, of angels and so on. All he could see was the dead due to the nature of his acquisition.

“And you are?” he asked, coughing loudly.

"Oh!” the stranger said, and then he realized that the stranger did not even know he was in the room. “I didn’t even know someone was here. My bad, I guess it’s been so long that I forgot that someone who can see both worlds simultaneously was needed to make me appear here.”

So long? he thought. Who’s this clown?

“I do need to ask you a few questions, however,” the stranger asked; the stench hit him as he came closer.

"What is that smell?!"

"Oh..." the stranger grinned from ear to ear. "My new cologne. You like it?"

"It smells like a goddamn abattoir."

"Spot on! It's actually called Mindless Slaughter, my latest scent. There's Suicide, Stillbirth, Depression, Freak Accident, and so on."

"What the f*ck? Os that some goth sh*t or what?"

"Far from it."

"Then why's it all death-themed?"

"Because I'm Death."

He did a double-take. "Who now?"

"You know, Death. Papi D. The entity responsible for the destruction of humans who have lost their will, right, or capacity to live. That's me."

"Like the real..."

"Yeah, it's me. What did you expect, a long flowing cloak and a scythe? That's so nine centuries ago. I find this apparel... classy." he said, looking at himself. "But, if you say you like it..."

His clothes melted and got tattered to become a cloak. His face and hands kept on emaciating till I could see the outline of his bones on his flesh. His eye sockets became empty, but yet the man could feel the empty sockets boring into his own eyes.

"Revert."

"I thought so," the man said, turning back to normal. "Now that we're done with introductions, I'm here on serious business terms."

"I expected that; people like you do not come here like this except for serious matters. What's it now, is it my time to die?"

"As much as I would love that, no. And that is why I am here. The reason for this august visit is because people aren't dying. That is an anomaly, and suspicions have begun to arise in Hell."

"In hell?"

"Yes, been though I do not stay there, the administrators of hell are very interested in my activities, seeing as the more deaths I process, the more their torture-hole becomes populated. Also, Heaven stopped bickering over my actions- - they don't like deaths so much. This led me to believe that people were not dying as much as they used to, something I've confirmed by checking my records. Only 10,000 deaths yesterday. That, my friend, is a shame."

"But then how can you be complaining about people not dying enough? Isn't it your job to make sure they do?" I asked sarcastically.

"You have a smart mouth. Wonder how smart you'll sound when you're dead."

"Easy, easy," the man said, smiling at Death. "But still, my question is valid."
"Let's just say I gave humans the wheel for the past, five centuries. Wars, famine, plagues - humans seemed perfectly capable of killing themselves all by themselves."

"So you have not been in control these past few years?"

"Nope, not at all. Death on Earth has been pretty self-sustaining for a while, I saw absolutely no reason to intervene in the situation. Now I see that I was wrong. But what the hell happened?"

"Humans became more...human."

"The last person to say things like that was Shakespeare. Guess what he is?"

"Dead?"

"Bingo!"

"Ha," the man said. "You aren't here for me, and killing me won't get you the explanation you need."

"Bargaining with Death? I guess things are that bad now. I've become severely underrated."

"Well, the thing is that we have achieved World Peace."

"Pfft. HA!" Death said, breaking into a long laugh. His eyes were teary, and he could barely catch his breath. "That was a good one, I swear it was. World Peace? Hilarious! Ever tried being a guest on the Trevor Noah show?"

"I'm not joking."

"Ha...ha...huh? Y-you're not smiling?" Death said, snapping his fingers. A seat fashioned out of skulls appeared as he sat down. "World Peace?"

"Humans have finally learned to understand, acknowledge, and care about each other. Religion, Culture, Race, Nationalism, Economy... none of that matters anymore. We've all become one in our ambitions and actions despite our diversities, and we've learned to move forward as one despite our differences."

"Oh shit! Damn it! You know, when that long-haired guy on the cross said this..."

"Jesus?"

"...Yeah him, whatever. When he said it, I laughed because it didn't even sound remotely possible. I thought he'd lost a lot of blood and his brain was shitting down. World peace? Come on, even at that, disease..."

"Science has come a long way. Scientists are now able to identify and predict new strains of disease-causing agents and prepare vaccines against them. The vaccines are distributed for free..."

"Free? What the hell?! But that won't differentiate between the rich class - the guys who can afford to live - and the poor class - the ones who have to settle for death."

"Yeah... there is no longer anything as rich or poor. Money does not exist. People produce, people consume, but still, everyone is working because there are various sectors to work in. Everybody is occupied, everyone is working towards progress, so the cost of living is zero. It no longer costs to have a good life."

"But, but, but.... then there'd have to be overpopulation." Death said, exasperated.

"You really have been gone for a long..."

"Choose your next words carefully."

"Eight, Well, the Space Z program is underway. We have successfully developed Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn to the point that they are habitable by human life. Turns out aliens don't exist, so humans who choose to live there can, although their clothing choices are limited."

"Religion. Race. Disease. Nationality. The very factors I trusted to ensure that hundreds of thousands of deaths would be recorded daily - all gone," Death said, getting up. "This...I have to put an end to all this."

"What? How? There is no reason..."

"Reason? The only people who die are old people and say a few freak accidents. Do those numbers sound good to you?! Because they don't to me!"

"So what are you going to do?"

"What I can!" Death said, reaching out for the man's face and plucking out one of his eyes.

"AARRGHHH!" The man screamed, grabbing his empty eye socket. "What the hell are you..."

"You humans know so little about this world, yet you take pride in the little knowledge you have which is nothing but ignorance in the eyes of us who have been around for eons..."

The man groaned on, his left eye now looking at Death with murderous intent.

"Do you know why it is called the oculus? Do you know why it is so s[ecial? With this eye, I can channel my consciousness to anyone on this earth and control their bodies."

"That...that is dangerous. There's a price for powerful spells; the more powerful, the more it costs. You know that! You know what it does! It ties your lifespan to mine and halves our lifespans. If I die early, which I will, you will too. What kind of suicidal bastard are you?"

Death forced the eye into his socket and it turned white. "The kind that does his job."

Immediately, the man could see what he was doing. He had entered the minds of the Defense ministers of the United States and Rissia and ordered nuclear strikes directed at each other's countries.

"Are you nuts? Two people? You'll kill us both! Instantly! Stop that!"

"War. They will both be forced to war by the unprovoked assaults, the war that will drag in the rest of the human race. Peace is beautiful, and whatever is beautiful is fragile!" Death said, now sounding like a crazed lunatic.

As the missiles launched and the astral projection was cut off, Death's form began fading as the man could feel his life force fade as well.

"You're... a mosnter." the man said, falling to the ground dead.

"The death who died..."

as his form faded away, his last words echoed in the room.

"...how poetic."

******

@Leo_kitti, @Hanzell, @Gwenie, @gertu13 how's this?