Death Angel

Chapter 5: Daniel

I felt myself go weak, overwhelmed with sadness. So close, and yet so far away.

“Brace yourself, cherie,” Death said. “It wouldn’t  do well to faint just now.”

I steeled myself and looked right at Daniel. He looked distracted. His eyes were distant.

“He mourns your passing,” Death whispered. “It has barely been a few days.”

I mourned too. In truth, I pined for Daniel far more than I did anything or anyone else.

We had planned to marry in Alsace, on the French countryside. It wasn’t all that different from Illinois Farmland to be honest. We were the same after all, Daniel and I. We liked the same things. Where the young and moneyed enjoyed cricket and polo, Daniel and I snuck into the local bar with fake ids and played billiards all day long. We lumped ourselves in with the masses. “The proletariat,” Dad would jokingly say before my grandmother would chastise him for being so crass.

It had been my decision of course.

“Why Alsace?” Daniel had asked.

“Why not Alsace?” I responded. “You and I grew up in a world not too different, I said. “The American Heartland shares much in common with the French Countryside.”

“Think about it,” I would go on to say, “we could go into a small town, get freshly baked bread and cheese, glorious french cheese, not the pasteurized kind we get here, and pick wine from a local winery. Plus, Alsatian food is wonderful, or so I’ve heard.”

And Daniel would just laugh at that and say, “That’s why you’ll always be my girl, Van. I could never do this kind of thing with anyone else.”

“Let me do the honors,” said Death, sharply snapping me back to the present.

“Wait, just like that? Can’t I like, prepare more?”

“You’ve had all the prep time you need, cherie,” said Death with a smile. “Now come along.”

Death walked briskly and I followed clumsily.

“There’s a sight for sore eyes!” Death exclaimed as he approached Daniel and the older gentleman.

“A promising young Executive Vice President of a large pharmaceutical firm, and a man after my own heart, a mover and shaker. What sort of wheeling and dealing is going on I wonder?”

Daniel and the gentleman both turned toward Death smiling.

“Whatever it is, Richard,” said the older gentleman, “it certainly wouldn’t do to have you find out,” he said laughing.

“Why Steven, you drive daggers deep into my heart,” said Death with a laugh.

Death took my hand. “Allow me to introduce a guest of mine,” he said with a flourish. “This is Haley Wellington, one of my clients. Her trust fund is one of the largest accounts I manage.” Death then gestured toward both gentlemen.

“And this”, he said, “is Daniel Ashcroft, heir apparent to the Ashcroft Pharmaceutical Company, and Steven Rutherford, owner of the gracious estate we are in, and host of this party. Also stockbroker and M & A deal-maker extraordinaire.”

Both men shook my hand.

“Have we met before?” Daniel asked me. “You seem so familiar to me.”

I pushed down the lump in my throat. “I don’t believe we have”, I said, forcing a smile. “I was orphaned at a young age and since then, I’ve tried to stay out of the limelight. I let Richard do the wheeling and dealing for me.”