The shape didn't move. It didn't make a sound. Max started to wonder if he was seeing things. He checked on Dan in the bed. Still sleeping. Hm. He turned his attention back to the shape.
"You!" he shouted again. He slipped out of bed, and crept slowly across the floor, trying to look as big as he could. There was definitely something there.
The floor was cold. Colder than it should be on a summer night. Max looked over his shoulder at Dan, still asleep in the bed. How are you not hearing this?
"Hey!" He shouted one more time.
The bulky shape finally moved. Slowly, cautiously, as if to show no malice, a hand reached up and pulled back a hood slightly. Max stared up into the skull that was the face of Death. Neither of them moved for a time.
"Oh." Said Max, at last.
"Yes." Replied Death, a strange soothing quality accompanied his chilling voice. There was a finality to it, but in that finality was comfort.
Max looked back at the bed, and only now noticed his body next to Dan's sleeping form. And it broke his heart.
He strode over, and quietly looked at the two forms in the bed.
He turned his head back to Death, and with watery eyes and a cracking voice asked the question he wasn't sure he wanted answered.
"Will he be o..okay?"
Death paused. He stepped over to stand next to Max. Death's bulky black frame dwarfed the two bodies in the bed. A boy and his dog.
"Not right away." He replied, with a soft rumble. "Not for a while, I'm afraid. But..." He looked down into Max's wet eyes. "But someday, he will be."
Silence hung between the two.
"Will I get to see him again?" Max asked, afraid of the answer.
"Perhaps. If he's a good boy."
Max nodded slowly.
"He is. He will be."
"I'm glad." Death said comfortingly.
Death stood patiently while Max said goodbye to his best friend. When he had finished, Death was somehow waiting by the door.
He cast one last glance at Dan, and smiled a big goofy smile. Be good.
And then he padded out the door with Death, his four paws making not a sound on the cold floor.
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