Aren’t we all deserving of friends? Someone who cares for us, loves us for who we are. For me, a friend is quite hard to come by.

If I wanted to, I could fool them all; live in a relationship built on a shaky foundation of lies and false truths.

But I don’t want that. Because that doesn’t feel real to me. And for someone so close to solemnity all the time, I want something I can grasp. Something happy.

My job is a lonely one. Most hate me with every fiber of their mortal being for taking their loved ones. But none of them think through the bars of unbridled rage grief brings.

All humans are fleeting blips on my radar. I deliver them to their next stop on the Death Train, and they’re gone. It must be better that I don’t know what affection is like. This is my way.

I didn’t think it would change. I didn’t expect someone to see me as anything but scary and mean.

But here we are. Back at the Feregrin Community Hospital. I get to see her again. I could already hear the beeps fading. I was on time, by the sound of it.

“Bestie!!!” The girl exclaimed as she appeared, a smile etched wide on her face. “I missed this place. It hurts out there, but here it’s quiet… free.”

She is referring to the veil between life and death, a place she frequents with her congenital heart disease. It’s an in-between zone suspended between dimensions, like a train station.

“Hello, Latessa, I missed you too.” I still haven’t figured out how to speak to her in kid-lingo, but I think she prefers this anyway. I’ve seen too many kids like her talked down to as pets rather than equals. They think she is fragile, weak.

“How much longer do ya think it’ll be ‘till I get to spend all the time here with you!” She is too sweet. I give her a warm, hearty chuckle in return, like that type of belly laugh humans do sometimes.

“Well, you’re pretty resilient, so you’ll get to be like a superhero for a while. Someone who gets to teleport interdimensionally!”

“Woah! What’s intedmenshunly mean?” She scrunches her face thoughtfully.

“Someone like you. Someone who has a foot in both worlds and can’t let go of either. Someday in the future you’ll choose one, but not yet. I do believe you have life left in you still. I’ll let you in on a secret, though. You have knowledge that very few people have…” I bring my voice down to a whisper tone, “You know what happens when you all die. You know it’s not scary, that it’s simply another stage, past the limitations of mortality. Take power in that.” Her image starts to fade, signaling her passage back to the living realm.

“When will I see you again?” She asks me earnestly.

“Soon… sometime soon.”

And then the beeping started again.