1.

What if Death were just a man, a living breathing man who has a job to do, a man who comes knocking to your door to tell you that it is you he has come for, your time has come and you are the next person on his list, what would you do? Would you believe him? And if you did somehow believe such an odd thing then would you try and escape his presence, try to run literally for your life?

Escaping death or cheating death is something which is so often talked about, instances of it happening is often told of in song and story and in casual conversation, but can it really be done? Has it ever been done? Could it actually happen? What if Death were to make you an offer? If an offer of life extension, made by death itself, were to come your way, then would such an offer be worthy of consideration?

***

A tall thin man with dark shoulder length hair and dark clothing which includes a rather distinctive trench coat and a Fedora hat, crosses a street and as he does so he briefly places a hand on the shoulder of an older looking man coming his way, an older looking man whose only immediate intention is to get across the street.

As soon as the two men have passed each other the older looking man begins to struggle. He finds it difficult to breathe, his face begins to turn red, he grabs his chest, and he soon drops to his knees. Still out on the road, having been unable to complete that immediate intent of his, he is about to pass out when ...

An oncoming car only sees this man on his knees a split second before hitting him and knocking him onto his side. The driver freezes and becomes stuck in a brief moment having realized what it is that has just happened, his speed had not been great, and his stop came an instant too late.

That frozen moment soon passed, and the driver gets out of his vehicle. There is nothing he can do. The man before him is dead. It would soon be discovered that if that older gentleman had not been hit by a car ... then the heart attack, he had been having, would have taken his life.

***

Coming up to twenty to four in the afternoon, Benjamin Myers hears quite a loud shrieking scream outside his hotel room. It sounds as if a horror movie is happening right outside his door and perhaps it is. Ben quickly moves to his door and opens it in an attempt to find out what it is that is going on. Immediately upon opening the door, Ben takes notice of a certain passer-by, a tall thin man with dark shoulder length hair and dark clothing including a rather distinctive trench coat.

As this passer-by does pass by, he greets Ben with an 'hello' while he also raises his dark Fedora hat, an odd moment with which Benjamin does indeed take notice of for it is old school and rarely seen nowadays for a greeting to come with a tip of a hat. Anyhow, Benjamin is intent on discovering whatever it was which elicited the screaming he had heard.

It soon becomes apparent that a cleaning lady in the adjoining room had herself an accident. She had fallen and fallen quite badly at that. The scream that Benjamin had heard was one which came from another cleaning lady, a scream she had released upon coming across the frightening sight of her colleague laying in a pool of blood.

The following day, Ben makes his way to the office building of the newspaper he works for to type up and get his newest article ready for print. This is his first day back here in almost a week having only just returned from being away on assignment. A bit of banter is shared as Ben makes his way to his desk but before he can get there, he is distracted by what he sees on a screen near to him.

'What is that?' he asks.

'CCTV footage of an accident which occurred yesterday' replies a co-reporter, 'a man was hit by a car as he was having a heart attack.'

'Could you rewind that back there a bit?'

'I could, why?'

'Oh, just something I thought I saw'. The footage is rewound. 'Just there, see? That man in the hat touches the older man not so long before he drops to his knees.'

'Yeah, I see that, rather odd isn't it? You don't think it had ...'

'You couldn't zoom in on that other guy could you, the one wearing the hat?'

'Sure thing.'

'It's him.'

'Him who?'

'This is time stamped, right?'

'Sure, it happened a little after half past three.'

'He couldn't have been in two places at once ... listen thanks for that.'

'Sure, no problem' comes a baffled reply.

As soon as Benjamin sat at his desk, his phone began to ring. He didn't particularly want to answer especially with the fact that the caller ID was withheld but in his line of business, he cannot afford not to answer a call that comes his way. There could be a more than worthy story on the other end of that call, one which requires or even needs his attention.

'Hello, Benjamin Myers speaking, how may I help you?'

Silence, no reply, even the office appeared to be unusually quiet.

'Hello ... is anyone there?'

'Benjamin Myers. I am coming' a male voice speaks with a whisper.

The call ends. Ben just looks at his phone, makes sure that the call has indeed ended and soon goes about the rest of his day as he normally would. At home that evening, his phone rings again but stops before he could answer it. The missed call also shows no caller ID.

A knock comes to the front door. To say that there is surprise when Ben answers would be an understatement to say the least for the person at the door just so happens to be the man from the hotel, the same man from the CCTV footage. This man makes his way indoors before Ben has a chance to gather himself, as he does this ... he speaks six words.

'I told you I was coming.'

2.

'Sorry, you can't come into my home just like that' Benjamin Myers says to an arriving and somewhat familiar stranger who just makes his way into Ben's home.

'And why not? Would you rather have me do something else?'

'Yeah, I would rather have you leave.'

'You do know who you are talking to, right?' the stranger asks as he sits himself down on Ben's favourite chair.

'Look, I don't know who you think you are, but this is my home, and you are trespassing'. Benjamin takes out his phone and begins to dial.

'Don't tell me you think that the police can do anything to help you?'

This tall thin man moves slowly and with ease as he gets up and out of the seat with which he had parked himself into before making physical contact with Ben's phone.

'Get away from me, what do you think you're doing?'

The tall man sits back down. Ben's phone is not calling out; he takes a look and sees that there is no power.

'What? Don't tell me that your phone is dead' speaks this man raising an eyebrow and looking up at Benjamin who is standing a few feet away.

'How did you do that? This phone should be fully charged.'

'Well, it is not anymore. No need to check the battery, I can tell you that your phone is actually ... dead ... would it be safe to say that I have your full attention now?'

'OK, alright, who are you?' speaks Ben shaking the hand with which his phone is in while also taking a couple of steps backwards.

'Mister Myers I think you know who I am.'

'No, I don't know who you are, I wouldn't have asked if I did, and how is it that you know who I am?'

'Now, now Mister Myers, you do know who I am, you just do not want to admit it to yourself. As for how I know you ... well you see, you are the next name on my list'. Taking a lengthy list out from an inside pocket of his trench coat, the man opens his list up and points to a name. All the names that come before it are crossed out with X's. 'See, it clearly states your name, Benjamin Myers.'

'I am not and never have been a gullible person and you sir, if you are at all worthy of being called sir, and I highly doubt that you are, are nothing more than a cowardly murderer. If you think you can intimidate me by coming here to my home, then you need to think again.'

'Murderer you say ... convincing you of who I am is not my main priority even though I know that you really do know how things are, you have proven that in your accusation. You may just have a power on your side as it would appear my list has been altered. You are still on it so don't worry; I will be calling again. Just to let you know, there is no point running as you know already, I have no problem with transportation. I can always find you both quickly and easily. So, for right now I bid you a good day.'

Once the visitor has taken his leave, Benjamin calms himself as much as one can after having a moment like the one he had just experienced. He then moves to go put the television on only to find that every channel is showing images of the man who had come to visit, images that Ben is sure were intended for him and him alone. It is safe to say that the television does not stay on for very long.

Ben moves toward a socket in the kitchen to charge his phone and it indeed once again does begin to charge from zero percent power. His hands shake as he connects his phone to his charger. Had he met with death personified?

From outside a dog begins to bark quite loudly. A large dog, a dangerous dog is what the barking sounds like. Maybe the barking is possibly coming from an untrained Alsatian maybe or a Rottweiler. One barking dog soon becomes two barking dogs then three, four. Hell hounds, this is what has come, and Ben is sure of that.

Why him? Why now? Benjamin Myers may not be the greatest person in the world but he surely a long way away from being one of the worst. There must be many others more worthy of Death's attention though the one thing that Death does not do is discriminate. Old or young, rich, or poor, death eventually comes for us all. It is only a matter of when, where, and how.

Finding sleep at this point or on the night to come is no easy task but come sleep eventually does only to take Ben somewhere strange, somewhere very strange indeed. Maybe Death is not ready to take him just yet; maybe it has something else in mind.