july, 21 1985
The sky was a brilliant shade of blue speckled with white puffy clouds and the sun was beating down, hard. There was a boy, who was about five or six years old walking in the abandoned part of town. He had strawberry blond hair and emerald eyes and a broad grin going from ear to ear. He bounded across a path in the small area far from his home as he started laughing at the slightest thing he found funny whether it was a joke he just happened to think of, or a funny looking animal, he was content with it. The boy had no friends, but as far as he was concerned, he was all the company he needed.
Soon, he came to a lot; he walked forward looking for adventure  as he pretended to be treasure hunter looking for bits and pieces left long ago when people still lived near the lot to take as his treasure. Little did he know that someone about his age, who just happened to wander by, started to watch him from behind an old building.
    “An interesting person,” a girl thought to herself calmly, “like me, I guess.” She wanted to talk to him, but she was too afraid of being labeled as a freak by him because  of her reputation in the town.
Suddenly, to the girl’s horror, the boy collapsed. The girl could sense he was dying. As she ran up to him, she started singing an old incantation; a chant of life.  After a while, the boy started breathing. When the girl turned around, standing behind her was a Grim Reaper.
    “You shouldn't have done that”, the Reaper rasped.
“What else was I supposed to do?” sobbed the girl, “Let him die?”
“Eventually,” whispered the Reaper ominously, “all humans die. You may have saved him for now, but his heart is too weak to keep beating for long. In fifteen years’ time, I will be back for him.” And with that, the Reaper was gone. The girl started to cry even louder as
the boy opened his eyes.
“Why are you crying?,” he asked innocently. As he sat up with little effort thanks to the girl's life spell.
“Don't you worry about it,” murmured the girl gently as she sat down cradling her head.
“Oh, okay.  Who are you, I don't know you, “he babbled on, oblivious to the pain the girl was in after just casting a hard spell.
“Well”, confessed the girl, “I don't usually come around these part of town. as she stopped crying, her mind on other things. “Where are your parents”, asked the girl. As the boy sat down next to her
Suddenly, the boy's attitude seemed to change from his normal carefree manner  that she had observed earlier, to a depressed one, and this shift seemed to make the girl feel the boy's pain before she even knew what he was sad about. “It doesn't matter” he said. Obviously not wanting to talk about it
“Why is that?” Inquired the girl pressing on anyway. The boy stood up,  “Because they never loved me, all they care about is there themselves.” He said. They both waited in silence for a few moments before he continued. “That's why I'm running away,” he muttered. As tears started running down his face
“You can't do that”, said the girl full of emotion, “you're lucky to even have parents.” At her reply, the boy stopped crying immediately.
“Where are your parents?” The boy asked quietly, wiping the tears from his face with his sleeve. I live with my aunt,” the girl said as a deep sadness started to overwhelm her. The girl’s parents had died in a car accident one year before and she had never gotten over their deaths. All of a sudden, all of the bottled up emotions she had kept hidden for so long broke free. The girl put her hands to her face, and burst out into tears.
At first the boy was shocked, he didn't know how to comfort her. Then he remembered the time when his grandfather died. He had never understood the meaning of death until that happened. When it finally did, he had never felt so sad in his life; he felt like dying too. But then, he remembered, his mother walked in the room and said something that was a great comfort to him. So, now, he said to the girl what his mother had said to him to make him feel better. Only then did the girl stop crying.
The girl and the boy looked at each other as if  they were old friends, just seeing each other for the first time in years. “What's your name?”, the boy asked.
“Lily”, croaked the girl tiredly.
“My name is Alex, said the boy. “I have a feeling we are going to be good friends.”

Over the years my niece and Alex became good friends to a point where neither wanted to live without the other in their life. Lily even fell in love with Alex when she was thirteen and Alex with Lily when he was twelve, though Alex was clueless of her true feelings since of course he couldn't read emotions like Lily. I have since then tried to break up their relationship for I foresaw only grief and loss to come out of it, but lily has always refused, always insisting that it was for the better, her staying with Alex.
Since the first day they met their relationship has been stronger than ever, though everyday lily would worry about the whereabouts of Aex, never leaving him alone in fear of the Grim reaper coming back.
I have tried over the years to convince her that Alex is too much trouble, that she would be lose him either way, whether she leave alex as a friend before his heart gives out, or wait until he dies and see her friend taken away from her, but she wouldn't listen. She insisted there was something she could do to help, and I was a fool for believing her.

july, 21 2001, 15 years later…

It was a dark, foggy night when it happened. I was in my small office space working on the latest report, when Lily, my childhood friend, walked in. “Alex, I need a first aid kit,” she moaned.  I looked up from my work and was alarmed to discover she was limping, and her arms and face were covered in shallow scarlet cuts. Her black hair was matted with sweat. .
    “What happened,?” I gasped worriedly. “Did someone hurt you?”
“No,” she snapped, “Never mind, just don't worry about it.” I was surprised by that answer; Lily wasn't usually so blunt.
“We need to get you to a hospital”, I replied after I had recovered from my shock.
“No!”, she yelled, “Do you always have to make a big deal out of everything? You can't make me go to a hospital!” I was upset by her answer, mostly because she was right, I couldn’t make her go anywhere. I was too upset to say anything as she walked away to her apartment. I spent the rest of the night worrying about her.
           
Lily grew distant from me through the next couple of weeks. She wouldn't talk or eat or sleep, and I saw her with new wounds every day. This upset me very much, I had known Lily for many years and had grown to care about her. I began to realize that it couldn't be an accident that she was getting injured so often, that someone was hurting her, and I’d finally had enough. I decided to follow her and see what was really going on.
    The following night it was quiet with hardly a cloud in sight. The amber streetlights cascaded faintly down, leading the way. As I walked, following Lily's footsteps, staying in the shadows and out of her sight, I noticed we were in a part of town I didn't recognize, though it seemed vaguely familiar, as if I had been here once in a long time ago.  Suddenly, I heard a loud crack from under my feet. I had stepped on a plastic bottle. I remember the few second after that well: Lily stopping and looking around. The terror I felt at being caught until I realized that I was under the cover of darkness and that she could no longer see me. Eventually she started walking again. After about ten second I followed her.
    Soon after, we came to an abandoned lot far from any kind of civilization. Then she stopped. So did I.  Moments felt like hours as I held my breath, desperately trying to keep still and out of sight. After a while, the strangest thing happened. So strange, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me: the darkness in front of Lily started to take form.  At first, the figure was shadowy, without a clear outline, with two glowing red eyes. The shadow slowly took the form of a man. Then it morphed into some unknown beast. Again and again, it shifted shape, taking the form of different creatures probably long gone from this earth. Suddenly, the creature spoke. “You can't stop me from taking his life,” It taunted quietly. “It is his time to die.”
‘You know nothing,” raged Lily.
“Nothing?” mocked the creature. “You are but a mortal, what do you know?” 
Lily was quiet for a moment. Then she started babbling in what sounded to me like  Latin or maybe Greek. Her incantation seemed to have some effect on the creature, as it screeched a high pitched, bone rattling scream that shook my nerves. the creature tried to scratch at Lily in response, but it could only get so close before being thrown back by an unseen force. But it still managed to hurt her  by barely scratching her from within the force field Lily had somehow created. Seeing her bleeding knocked me out of my trance, and I sprang out of hiding.
    “Stop! Don't hurt her!” I screamed. Lily looked my way, horrified, as the force holding the creature back seemed to disappear.
“So,” the creature smirked, “He finally arrives.”  The monster slowly started walking towards me. Before it could get within four feet of me, Lily jumped in between us. “Wait!” She said, the desperation straining her voice. “Take me instead!”
The creature looked thoughtful. “So, you're willing to make a deal?”
“Yes,” said Lily obediently, like a child talking to a very strict adult.
“Very well then,” said the creature, holding out his claw of a hand.
Lily looked at me. “I'm sorry,” she said her eyes full of defeat. She turned around, and before I could understand what was happening she took the creature's hand, and they were both gone.
              
“noooooo where is she,” Alex yelled into the night. “what the hell is going on!” he screamed as, out of nowhere rain came pouring down. As his hair matted down with water and he dropped to his knees before his eyes a shadow could be seen running his way. Alex was too disoriented to do anything before a tall figure in a black hood and grey jeans approached him. “Where is she?” the figure asked angrily, “what happened”. Alex didn’t answer, he just stared into the distance behind the figure, too shocked for words. She’s gone Alex said as the figure took off its hood revealing a lady with red hair and chocolate brown eyes just like Lily’s. “Come,” she said we have a lot to talk about.

year ??????
                                                      
I've never been the same, since that day.  The loss of Lily sent me into a depression, and my family started to worry after a while. I've started to pick up some of the pieces since then, lily's aunt explained everything.
The creature at the lot was a Grim Reaper, most likely here to take my life, I knew I was sick, but I thought I had more time left. Lily made a deal with it so that it could take her life instead. The only reason I am here is because of her. It should have been me.
    Only people close to death can see a Grim Reaper, I don't quite know how Lily was able to see it, since she wasn't close to death, though. It might have been because she is magic . Maybe that’s how she kept Death away for so long. She bound  the Reaper every day since that first night she came home with the scratches, just to keep me from dying. I don’t know how she wasn’t able to sense me when I was following her since she did have a sixth sense, she was able to sense presence of people and what they are feeling, maybe she was just too focused on her mission to notice anything else.
The grim reaper was definitely very persistent in its efforts to kill me, It should have only come once and then given up . Grim Reapers are here to do a job, they shouldn’t care whether I live or die. The only reason why it would be so persistent is if I had cheated death before. If that were the case then it didn’t do its job correctly, a grim reaper's job is their existence, their only reason for living. if that were the case then the reaper would hunt me relentlessly until I was dead. In some cases a trade can be made, a life for a life, which is what Lily did for me so the monster would no longer try to take my soul.
I can never forgive her for this though. It was greedy for her to let me live, I loved her and she loved me, I know she did, that's why she was willing to make such a sacrifice for me, but she left me behind and I can never see her again.
     I've begun to realize why Lily said “sorry” to me in her last few seconds of life. She knew I would feel pain at her loss. She knew I would go through all this grief, yet she still let me live. I never really told anyone about that night, and I suppose I never will.