Grief is a black hole that swallows you up.
A bottomless pit where no light can enter.

Once you are submerged in the depth of grief, heartbreaking sadness washes over you and taints your soul, with a mark that can never be removed.

You can't fight it, you can't stop it, all you can do is give yourself over to it.

Sat there on that beach watching the black angry sea that has consumed my dad like a hungry beast, grief bleeds into my body.

With each moment passing it gets deeper inside of me, until it's pumping in my veins and around my body, and I fall into the deep dark hole that is loss.

Your mind shuts down, no longer able to absorb your surroundings and what is in the moment, you are frozen in a earth shattering pain that wriggles in your mind like a maggot.

Noises blurs together and swirls around you like an unexplainable tornado, nothing making sense or able to penetrate you.

I'm lost in my mind, trapped in my own grief. I'm falling further and further into the abyss, unable to hold on to anything that may be able to ground my mind from the pain that pounds and beats it's way into my head.
Until I saw it.....

As if I'd been awoken from a terrible nightmare, my body starts to shake uncontrollably, my heart frantically races in my chest as I watch a large black wolf wander out of the sea, but to my disbelief it isn't walking through the water- but rather upon it.

Silence falls around me as the giant beast's paws land on the pebbly shore.

As it slowly paces towards me, it grows larger and larger, it's animalistic features contort and bend out of shape as it transforms in front of me. Frozen by fear and broken by grief, I simply watch on until the beast has transformed now into a man and is standing in front of me.

He towers over me, he must be nearly 6ft. With eyes as black as the sea, he stands there simply staring at me.
His hair is neatly combed back so I can take in all his features, a sharp jawline with a face that would make any woman swoon. He is dressed in a suit that is royal blue that fits him as if he was born to wear it, with a single red rose in his breast pocket over his heart - the red so vibrant, the vision of a bleeding heart comes to mind.

"May I sit beside you," he purrs, with a strong Nordic voice that reminds me of my dad and tugs at my heart.

I nod, unable to form words.

"It's never really is goodbye, Oscar".

I look him up and down. How does he know ? Did he see dad walk into the ocean?

"How do you know my name?" I stutter, confused by his words.

"Because I know you, I knew your father. I know everyone".

I become disinterested in his cryptic words that give me no comfort. I carry on watching the sea, until I notice that the sea gulls that are usually circling and gliding up high above the sea are now frozen midair, the crashing waves paralysed in mid crash.

"Who are you"?"

He smiles a wide grin that spreads across his face but never hits his black eyes.

"I've been asked to pass on a message, they are reunited. They are together once again; your mother and father".

"What are you ? Are you a friend of Liten Vampyr ?".

He chuckles. "I'm aware of her and our paths have crossed but usually I'm there for one of her victims, not for her. You might say I clean up her mess. I am the one who takes you on to what is next".

He grabs a stone and playfully throws it into the water, counting as it skims across the still-frozen sea, just like my dad would do with me when I was little.

"Are you an Angel ?".

"No Oscar, I'm Death".

"Death is something that happens, not a person." I snarl.

"I'm not a person, I was never born, I will never die, I will simply always just be, as long as the earth keeps turning. That is my path, to lead souls over into death to where they need to be, and he needed to be returned to your mother".

Tears trickle down my cold wind-whipped face; relieved they are together but sadness they've both now left me.

"The pain will cut deep Oscar but with time it will hurt a little less until it's a dull ache. I know this is no consolation but remember pain is just the heart reminding you of the love you felt with them. You will, with time, understand this".

With the howl of the wind that rings in my ears as if Mother Nature had awoken, the waves start to crash again and he was gone. As if he was never there.

His work here is done, for the moment.