She was not sure exactly where she was. All she could sense up to this point was that her back hurt a bit. She blinked lazily, staring up at the clear blue sky high above her—she hadn’t seen blue sky for a long while. It had been raining a lot. Why did that fact seem so important?

“You’re awake,” a voice said beside her and she tried to tilt her head but found that she couldn’t move. It was very sunny. She had not seen the sun in a long time.

“I am,” she decided, though she hadn’t been aware she had been sleeping up until now. She gave up trying to move her head and instead watched the clouds drifting by high above her.

“How do you feel?” the same voice questioned. The voice sounded sad and distant, and she wanted to look at the speaker, but her body would not obey.

“My back hurts,” she said vaguely and scrunched her brow, trying to pinpoint the other emotions churning inside her. She couldn’t lock down the disparate feelings. They felt too unfamiliar for her to relate. “I feel… tired…”

“That is typical,” the voice replied matter-of-factly. She pursed her lips together in thought. Slowly, it added, “Can you move?”

“I don’t really want to,” she admitted quietly. There was a cloud high above her shaped like a horse. She’d always wanted a horse.

She realized vaguely as she saw a cloud shaped like a house, that her mind was in a strange jumble of emotions and thoughts.

“It’s time to go,” the voice said and she could not deny the sadness in it. Finally, she forced her head to the side.

She could see only darkness as if someone had draped a cloak over her eyes.

“I can’t see you,” she said quietly.

“I know.” She could almost hear the frown in the voice. “It’s time to go.”

“I don’t want to go,” she said, but wasn’t sure from where she was leaving and to where she was going. She didn’t know who she was with. “I want to stay here.”

“It is typical to feel tethered. But we must go,” the voice said calmly, as if humoring her. Perhaps her companion had dealt with things like this many times before.

“It’s funny,” she said and her voice sounded strange even to her own ears. “I never thought this could happen.”

“Life is strange,” her companion said, sitting perfectly still while she stared at the clouds high above. Her companion wore a long black cloak and the hood prevented her from seeing the hidden face.

“Yes,” she agreed and she sounded sad.

“Do you remember what happened?” the companion spoke.

She licked her dry, chapped lips. She could taste blood. Distantly, she felt her hand move and touch her lips, but she couldn’t see any blood when she pulled away. She frowned thoughtfully. Her body felt weak.

Inside her mind, she could see events swirling and whirling, trying to arrange themselves into order. She felt as if she did know what happened but, perhaps, she was avoiding the truth.

“I was coming home,” she realized.

“Yes,” her companion agreed.

“It was raining hard.” Thoughts trickled by her like water. Memories danced in the ripples and she tried to swim after them. “The light was red and I was crossing the street. There was a white car. It didn’t stop.”

A morbid realization. She did not hurt anywhere, except for the slight ache in her back. She sat up and looked at her companion, trying to pinpoint where the face would be. She could only see a black cloak. She paled.

“I’m dead,” she said bluntly. “Aren’t I?”

“You are allowed one wish,” the Grim Reaper said instead of answering her. But she knew the answer. She was dead. Death personified had come to usher her away into the afterlife. He added, “But choose wisely. Choose carefully.”

She stared at him in surprise. “Do I really…?”

“One wish.” Death was humoring her again.

“Anything I want?” she asked and she sounded hopeful for a moment.

“A wish that does not interfere with the living,” her companion clarified.

“Ah,” she said and she laughed mirthlessly. “I see.”

There was a pregnant pause in which the girl seemed to be thinking carefully, weighing her options, and determining what it was that she really wanted. Her companion sat patiently, for Death had spent hundreds of years granting wishes to saddened people, and the Grim Reaper knew to wait for the last wish uncomplainingly.

“I’d like to see them one last time,” she said finally. “Just to say goodbye.”

“They will not hear you,” Death said emotionlessly.

“I know that. I can’t interfere.” She sighed sadly. “I just want to see them. I’ll say goodbye. Maybe they’ll feel me.”

“Choose your wish wisely,” the grim warned.

She shook her head. “I want to see them. I want to say goodbye.”

“So be it,” Death said sadly and extracted a long, bony hand from a cloak sleeve. The hand waved tiredly in the air, and the dreamscape and clouds quivered and disappeared.

She hung, suspended in air, for the longest time. It felt like an eternity. She was falling now. Her companion was beside her, ushering her through the darkness.

They landed without a sound. The house looked familiar. The house looked warm and comforting. Her house. She would never live here again.

“Are they home?” she asked.

“They do not yet know of your death.”

She took a hesitant step forward before glancing over her shoulder at Death. The hooded figure nodded and she moved towards the front door. She smiled sadly.

“This was my favorite place to be,” she said to her companion, not caring if Death listened or not. She wanted to speak. “This was the one place I felt safe and loved.”

“Enter,” Death commanded, following behind her. She passed through the door.

She inhaled but could not smell the welcoming scents of her home. A small amount of sadness clouded her mind and she shook her head. Everything here felt like a dream. She felt like an intruder, invading something private.

She climbed the stairs. She approached the first door on the left. “This is my little brother’s room. He’s probably at basketball practice, now.”

She entered the room and her companion followed after her. She sighed sadly again. She looked at the remnants of her little brother’s life. The tiny replicas of planes and ships; the movie posters; the dirty clothing; the messy bed…

She heard the door burst open and felt a basketball soar by her head. She turned around and watched her brother enter. She smiled silently as he flopped down onto the bed and scratched his head, ruffling his ragged, shaggy hair from his eyes.

She closed her eyes and slowly backed out of the room. “Goodbye, brother.”

“My older sister’s room,” she clarified as they approached the next door. “She’s going away to college next year. I remembered I cried when I learned she was going to the other side of the country. She wants to be a doctor. They have better schools for that on the east coast. Or at least that’s what she says.”

She opened the door and entered. Her sister was sitting at her desk, reading from a book. She turned the page and did not look up when her little sister entered.

“Hello, sister,” she said, despite the fact she knew she could not hear. She approached the girl and looked over her shoulder, gazing down at the chemistry textbook her sister held. “Still studying, huh?”

Her sister said nothing. She turned another page with a sigh.

“I’m going away now,” she told her sister gently. “I’m leaving. I’ll miss you. I don’t want you to stay here when you find out. I want you to go east and study medicine. You’ll do great. Don’t cry.”

Her sister remained passive. She gazed dully down at the tiny text on the page, unaware that her sister’s ghost stood next to her.

The dead girl’s heart clenched but she took a deep breath and turned away from her sister. “Goodbye.”

She left the room and wiped her brow. She felt tired.

“One last person,” she told her companion and gave the hooded figure a hollow smile. “This is harder than I thought. But I’ll stay strong. I’m going to say goodbye to my mom now. She’s probably outside working in the garden. There was a frost this morning, and she’ll want to make sure the tomatoes are okay.”

The Grim did not answer her. Death followed after her silently as she descended from the top story of the house and moved towards the back door, where her mother worked beyond.

“Mom’s great,” she told her companion with a far away look in her eyes. “She works so hard.”

She saw her mother’s figure on the other side of the yard. She moved quickly towards the woman.

“Mom,” she murmured and her eyes filled with tears as she gazed down at her mother, working hard in the garden. Sweat dancing over her brow as she dug her gloved hands into the soft soil, extracting weeds and dead plants. “Oh, Mom.”

She sniffled and wiped her nose, feeling an onslaught of emotions as she stood before her mother.

“She works hard,” she repeated to Death. “She doesn’t know I’m gone yet.”

“No,” the Grim agreed.

She sunk to her knees and tried to catch her mother’s eye. But she knew that her mother couldn’t see her. Her bottom lip trembled and she felt her heart clench in her chest. She ducked her head and sniffled again.

“I lied,” she whispered. “My house wasn’t my favorite place. It never was. I would give anything… anything… to be able to hug her again!”

“You have already received your wish,” her companion said. “You cannot have a wish that interferes with the living.”

“Mom!” she cried out, not hearing Death’s words. “Mom. I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“It’s time to go,” her companion whispered and a bony hand touched her shoulder. She reached out a hand fruitlessly, trying to grasp her mother but passing right through the diligently working woman.

“Mom…” she whispered brokenly.

“We have a long journey ahead of us,” the Grim said in a voice that would have sounded tender on anyone else. “Come, child.”

She pushed herself off the ground, still looking broken. Her eyes were red and tears still rolled down her cheeks. She was leaving her favorite place. Forever.

“I’m ready to go,” she murmured and glanced over her shoulder, watching her mother for the last time. Her bottom lip quivered again, but she did not cry nor did she run towards the woman she loved so dearly. “Goodbye,” she whispered and her voice quavered, “goodbye.”

She turned her back on her home and walked alongside her deathly companion, her heart broken and her spirit yearning for solace. They moved slowly, as if wading through water. She tilted her head upwards looking through the clouds of the living to the bright azure sky beyond. Silently, the girl and Death faded from view, disappearing into nothingness.