[ WP ] Throughout all of human history , you have always been there to guide people after death . Today is your retirement .

Natalia had just gotten out of her last period class, Junior level English. It was one of those glorious Fridays and she had plans with her friends right after school. Hurrying down the stairs she dodged in and out of the way of the other kids in the hallway, on the way to her car. 
 
 In front of her silver 2014 Mercedes Natalia found two of her best friends, Maddie and Hannah. 
 
 `` Hey, what took you so long?'' asked Maddie in a playful tone as Natalia grew closer, out of breath from moving so quickly. 
 
 `` Sorry, English is across campus'', she panted. `` You two ready?'' 
 
 The three of them got in the car and pulled out of the parking lot. As they sped down the road, laughing at each other's jokes and hiding Hannah's phone and not giving it to her, just because it made her go crazy. Natalia was holding the phone, moving it further and further from Hannah's reach, when there was a loud crashing crumpling sound, and everything was black. 
 
 `` Hello Natalia'', came a calm voice from the never ending black abyss. 
 
 `` What? Who are you, what happened?'' Natalia stammered out, opening her eyes and seeing nothing. 
 
 `` You have moved on. There was a crash with your car, and your mortal body can no longer carry your spirit'', the voice continued in an even tone. 
 
 `` Wh-who are you?'' Natalia called out, trying to sound braver than she felt. 
 
 `` Look. This is the scene right now in the realm of the living'', came the voice again as the blackness turned into a bird's eye view of the wreck of Natalia's car. She saw paramedics there, and a fire truck. A few police cruisers blocking off the road with bright lights flashing. 
 
 `` You passed here upon impact, and your friend Madelyn will be with us shortly, if I am not mistaken. And I am usually not''. 
 
 `` I-I'm dead?'' Natalia asked the void, her voice quivering and all pretense of bravery gone. 
 
 `` You are'', came the voice again. Natalia looked around and saw that out of thin air, out of the blackest abyss materialized a figure adorned in a long black cloak. 
 
 `` You are left with two options'', the figure told her with the same voice as before. `` You may pass on fully to the other side'', he started slowly. 
 
 `` Or?'' 
 
 `` Or you can become like me, and escort passing souls to the brink of peace'', he responded. 
 
 She had just woken up here and did n't know who this person was and now she was being asked to choose something impossible. `` I, I....I do n't know!'' she screamed at last, every unsure and scared emotion she had coming to the surface all at once. 
 
 `` I'll, I'll become like you. I'll help move people on, or whatever'', she finally said at last in a low voice. Natalia was not ready to let go of what she had in the realm of the living. 
 
 `` Finally'', said the figure in front of her, his voice flushed with relief. Natalia watched as he pulled down his hood, revealing a normal, human man's face with short hair and light eyes. He shed his cloak and approached her. The man put the clock around her arms, her back, and finally pulled the hood up. 
 
 `` You are now death. And I am now free'', he whispered, and began to dissolve into the abyss until there was nothing left, but for Death standing in her new realm.
