Friends

Her body drifted in the water like leaves. She looked down at herself too young to understand. All the colors of life had bleed together into shades of grey. Only the whispering wind and rustling leaves dampened her cries. The water gently lapped against the corpse her hair spreading out like droplets of ink. She saw death's reflection in the water. As tall as the tallest tree and black as the blackest night with an empty cowl and a lantern strung up in boney fingers. She closed her eyes hoping to wake up from a nightmare. she didn’t. Death grew closer its tattered cloak like living tendrils in the wind. The girl wanted to scream and squeezed her eyes shut even harder. She waited to feel its fingers wrap about her as if some otherworldly possession. She didn’t. Death’s cloak covered her naked spirit from the cold breeze. When she looked up into its cowl she found no fear only an empty sadness. Death pointed the lantern into the twisted forest waiting. Hand in hand she was helped across her body happy to follow her new friend.