Peaceful Ends

A train zipped past, click click click, wind whipping Zack's hair, nose burning from how close the train got to… yeah. Even now Zack didn't like to think about it. About stepping out into the abyss, letting a sudden stop lift him up into the clouds above, about staring into that tunnel of death, being swept up in the winds of despair, and pulling the trigger. Why had she done it? Was Zack the problem?

But this time Zack had been too close, it had been too easy to take one step further and release everything. He'd wanted to. He had no life, without Selah. His sister, his baby sister, she had been his world. What did he have to live for? But he just couldn't. It was too big, death.

He stepped back, looked over at a dark skinned man with beautiful lips and long, muscular limbs. Not grotesquely muscular, but a refined, elegant sort of strength. The man wore an all black suit and carried a folder full of papers. He was studying a file, while Zack studied him, but then the man looked up.

Zack blushed as their eyes met and quickly looked away, eyes flickering over anything other than the man.

"Greeventile to Stoline," a robotic female voice said over the loudspeaker.

A train stopped at the station and Zack got on. Old musty seats stained with mustard, sweaty people in suits or sweats, frantically working, or frantically sleeping. The train car was hot and stuffy, the big glass windows letting the sun in, but not letting the heat out again.

There were open seats everywhere, but nowhere to sit. One seat was next to a nervous, twitchy looking woman in a wrinkled suit, trying to comb out a knot that hasn’t been washed in days, another next to a man laying out a sandwich spread on the table, no plates or napkins, just turkey to table, and another seat next to a man carrying to baby, toddler age children in his arms, one of them, the older one, tugging at his ears as he tried to find something in his bag.

Zack took a seat next to a girl who was tugging at her long blond braided wig, pulling it forward, using some sort of glue spray thing to stick it down. She had about three million bobby pins in her mouth and as she moved to take one out, one started to slip, then the others, and one by one they tipped over her lip, spilling into Zack’s hand.

The girl looked surprised, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, thank you.”

Zack smiled awkwardly, unable to make eye contact, “Mhm, yeah, no.”

The girl scrabbled for the bobby pins in Zacks hands, “Ha, sorry, sorry, thank you.”

Zack tried to smile, “I like to make this as awkward as possible for everyone.”

The girl laughed, finally getting the last pins, “Interacting with anyone is uncomfortable, especially strangers.”

Zack smiled more, nodded, “Yeah, I know, right?”

“So where are you going?”

Stop talking to me, girl.

“Stoline.”

“Ha, small townie.”

“What?” Stoline was huge.

“Yeah, I’m from here, Greeventile. I couldn’t manage living in a smaller city.”

“Stoline isn’t that much smaller.”

“You know what I mean, though.”

“Not really.”

The girl went back to working on her wig, “So, what’re you doing for work?”

“Nothing, right now.”

“Oh, fun! Yeah, I’m still in school, trying to become a licensed physiatrist. Super fun, I know.”

“What? Oh, yeah. Are you even listening?”

The girl just kept talking, didn’t stop talking, answering questions that Zack hadn’t asked. What the fuck was going on?

The man in all black stood up. Zack hadn't realized he was on the train. The man walked over to Zack and held out his hand. Zack blushed.

"I- Um, hello?"

Zack went to shake hands but the man held on and pulled Zack out of his seat.

"What? I- What are you doing?"

The man, face blank, eyes staring with a flustering intensity, pulled Zack into the aisle.

"Look."

The man pointed back to where Zack had been sitting. There was a man there, half asleep, giving one word answers to the woman.

"How did he… But I was just sitting there."

No duh, now you look like an idiot in front of this ridiculously hot dude. Nice job, dumbass.

"No. You never made it on the train."

"I'm here, what do you mean?"

"You are here, but your body isn't."

"What, so my 'body' decided to just go on vacation?"

"Of a sort."

Don't get mad, don't get mad. A hot dude is talking to you for once, don't get mad.

"Of a sort? The fuck does that mean?"

Great job.

"Zack Treido, you are dead."

Great, a hot wacko. Well Zack had dated worse. Like this dude would want to date Zack anyway.

Wait, "How do you know my name?"

"I am Havalda, an angel of death."

"An angel?"

"Yes, we have many angels for many kinds of death. I am the angel of self inflicted death. I used to not be. Other angels would take your kind-"

"My kind?"

"Yes, your kind. Other angels would take your kind, your kind were not distinguished from other types, but there are too many, now. I hope some day I will not be needed again."

Zack shook his head, "No, no I'm not dead. Something would've happened if I was dead."

Havalda grabbed Zack's arm, "There was."

Black wings expanded from Havalda's back, silky wings brushing some faces, those people looking around, but other than that, no one noticed this miracle happening in front of them.

"Zack Treido, follow me."

And in a blur the two shot into the sky, through the train roof, into the clouds. Then back along the tracks to the station. There were police sirens and medics at the station, some histericle woman crying to a police officer.

"Don't worry, she won't kill herself. But she came close. You looked so peaceful, it looked so easy."

Fear and regret twisted in Zack's stomach. He couldn't deny this now. They were flying.

"So I did it? I jumped?"

"No, you stepped."

Zack smiled, but the angel man wasn't, he was totally serious.

"You're real funny."

"I didn't mean to be funny."

"No, I- never mind. What happens now?"

"Now we go."

"Thank you. That's really clear. Where?"

Waves of tension were falling away, fear and pain, and worries that had been building up in his chest were sluffing off.

"To the land of the dead, of course. Who are we visiting before we go?"

Zack looked around, at the whole world, at his life, "All the people I care about are where we're going."

"Let's go, then."