"Why are you so eager to die?" asks the woman, never turning her gaze away from me and somehow scaring me. Her wide open eyes make her look creepy.

I, trying hard not to stutter, answer, "Because it's the only way I can go home." Home. Something I've been looking for for years, and still I've never found it.

But why is this woman interested in me? Why the heck would she want to talk to such an uninteresting person like me?

"What's your name?" she asks again, this time out of the blue.

"Kerry Stillman. What's yours."

"Jessica Howard." She chuckles. Maybe she believes that Kerry is a girl's name. Blame that on my father and his awful name choices. She goes on. "Anyway, how did you find out that death is the only way for you to go back home? I mean, I found other ways home, but I guess-"

I cut her off. "I can't tell you. It's too painful. I don't want to scare you." Actually, that's a lie. She mustn't know about my pact with Death at all, or I'll go straight to Hell, with no chances of redeeming myself.

She insists. "Please, tell me."

"I said no!" I growl. "Now, please, leave me alone. I have much better things to do than hearing you banter, okay?" Her face turns pale, contrasting the dark hues of red tainting my cheeks and the blue of my veins on the verge of bursting.

She turns my back at me and mutters, "I guess it's farewell, then. Good luck with your journey." As soon as her words fade away in the darkness of the woods, she's gone.

Now I can finally find my way home on my one without worrying about anything but pleasing Death. And, yeah, this is going to be a hell of a journey.

[309 words]