The umbrella was just for show. A very human reaction to weather. It helped him blend in as he walked amongst the humans. Despite his attempts to blend in, people still seemed to have a sense about him, and would tend to avoid him; mostly without realising. People would walk just that little bit further out of their way when they came near him. He didn’t mind. Most humans feared death.

It was raining. Death particularly liked the rain. He enjoyed the sounds as the water bounced above his head, and he found that so many people were looking down, and preoccupied on the weather that they didn’t seem to sense him as much. He wondered if this is why his collection rate was higher on rainy days. As he pondered this, the screech of brakes sounded, and a cyclist slipped into traffic. Death walked through the chaos of the accident and approached the cyclist, who was underneath the front of a car. He offered the hand to the cyclist.

The man didn’t flinch at the sight of death, but seemed relived when a hand was offered. Death heaved him up, the man looked down at his body, still under the car. Realisation dawned on his face.

The man looked up at death. “Is there no one that can help me?” Death simply stared at the man, and the man nodded in acceptance. Death then embraced the man with one arm, and brought him under the brolly. They both began to walk away from the scene.

“Can they not see us?” The man asked curiously. Death smiled, and shook his head.

“They only care about your body in this moment, and the fear they have at witnessing their own mortality. They do not wish to see me, and so we walk away unnoticed”.

The man took one last look behind him, and could see the truth in what death had said. All eyes were on the accident, no one watched them leave. The two walked further, until they both stepped through an invisible veil, only passable by unteathered souls, led by death himself. As they disappeared a Green butterfly fluttered out from the veil rising up into the sky, signifying another soul has departed from the land of the living.