It was the first day of summer, I could not hear the birds as I opened my blinds to look out at the world. Not a living creature in sight, nor a single sound heard. Where could everybody be? I quickly got dressed rushing downstairs and looking in each room for a sign of my family.
“Mom? Dad?” I called out listening close for a response. Had everyone actually disappeared? Was I alone with the world to myself?
I awoke, my head pounding with the sounds of birds chirps coming in through the window. The smell of bacon and eggs traveled into my room.
“Austin, wake up, breakfast!” My mom yelled up to me from the kitchen.
“They’re still here. I’m not alone.” Sighing in relief I pull myself up, throwing on some clothes and going to visit for breakfast.
When I’m downstairs my mother is in the kitchen, a plate of food and my dad are already at the table. My brother’s in the other room playing games. Everything seems normal, but that dream felt too real, something is wrong.
I quickly eat and grab my school bag, rushing out the door. Once outside I could not hear a thing, only caws coming from up my street, I turned to see thirteen crows perched inside a tree. The closer I get I realize the tree is rotted and dying, the crowes stare at me, silent now. I wonder what they know. Their black eyes pierce through me as I stand there. Suddenly, one after the other they fly down at me and I run.
My friends Audrea and Eric are waiting for me as I come up to the school. Eric throws his arm around my neck and pulls me into him. “Why so glum? You look like you just saw your own death.”
“This just isnt my day. It seems like bad fortune is just following me around,” I sigh attempting to break away from him, but before I could, I begin to feel cold all over. I grow numb and dizzy falling to the ground and hold tightly to my chest.
Next thing I knew, I could see a man, sitting in a chair in an empty room. Saying nothing only reading the black book in his hands. Did he know I was there? I start to walk towards him but got no closer, and still the man showed no sign of knowing my presence. I could see his bony and pale fingers, as he turned the pages of his book, I decide to call out to him. “Sir?” No response, he only continued to read as if I didn’t exist. I start to yell louder, and louder until he finally closes his book and slowly gets up from his chair. I feel a chill throughout my whole body and my heart starts to race. Who is this man?
“You there. Young man.” He heads over to me and I noticed he was just a well dressed old man, his eyes were gray, his white hair combed back and his face wrinkled from time. “Have you realized it yet? Whats wrong in your life today?” Now he stood right in front of me staring me down with a perfect composure.
I suddenly remember how I had got there in the first place, “What is this place? Who are you?”
With a strong voice he responded with “This is a part in your mind I created so I could speak with you,” he laid his book on the table and straightened himself up, “I am Death.”
I start to shake as I take a few steps back. “Death? What would Death want with me? I’m still alive! I can’t be...” Before I could finish my thought I woke up in the nurses office. Another dream? Could I be going insane? This is all too much.
“Feeling better?” The nurse pushed out from her desk to the side of the bed. “You passed out so suddenly you’re lucky you didn’t hit your head in that fall.”
“Passed out?” Maybe it was my imagination. I wonder if it could be that simple. “Maybe it was just stress. I should probably go home to rest.” Pulling out my phone to call home, I notice theres nothing on it; music, photos, apps and contacts all gone. Just an empty phone like when I had just bought it. I throw my phone frustrated from the events today.
“This cant be right, why is this happening to me?...” looking up as the nurse attempts to calm me down, I notice she has no face. A smooth, skin surface was all there was, although there was no mouth, I could still hear her voice as if there was nothing wrong. Pushing her out of the way I run out of her office and out of the school.
Outside students were everywhere, none of them had a face, but I could feel them watching me. I had to get home, where something, anything, would make since. I sprint as fast as I possibly can down the road to my house past all the other buildings as they start to loose their color and deteriorate. Looking away in fear and denial of what is happening I begin to feel a familiar dizziness, the same dizziness that brought me to that old man.
As I begin to pass out I pull myself forward, determined to get home. A raspy voice echoing through my brain. “You can not escape boy. You’re trapped in your own mind, and even now, as your body begins to die, you are beginning to lose all of that which you remember. Soon not even the faces of your loved ones will show.” The words pound in my head as I enter my home.
“Mom! Dad!” I rush throughout the house until I find my mother making lunch in the kitchen. Glad to see someone I sigh in relief and go to hug my mother, only to notice her face was missing as well once she turned around.
“Can you remember what she looked like?” The voice, out of my head and now coming from the old man, who was now standing right behind me, his bony hand on my shoulder. “Could you even tell me something as simple as her eye color? This is not a dream young man. You can not change a future as natural as your own life ending.”

I feel myself being pulled down. As if gravity wanted only to pull me flat on my back. Coming out from all directions, needles and tubes make their way under my skin and into my body. I lose my ability to move and the room gets smaller… whiter… I seem to be in a hospital room. I look up and around me watching the people rushing to me; a sweet looking family were in the room with me, a lady was in the chair beside the bed, crying and holding onto a young boy and being comforted by a scruffy-looking man. Why did they all seem so sad? Why would none of them look at me? I notice death standing above them, though no one else was able to see him.
“Do you recognise these people? They were your family. Have you already lost so much of your memories that you can’t even remember something as simple as your own blood relations?” He came closer to me, I could feel my heart beat slower every step he took. “Your soul is mine now, young man. Now what shall I do with it?”