He sheltered her in His leathery wings, although she never knew it. She reminded Him of His favorite children throughout history, but He watched them all die.

He made a decision. He could not let that happen.

When the girl was a child, her father took her to a bar and left her alone. He didn't return until he had had far too many drinks. When he deposited the girl in the backseat, stumbled into the driver seat, and started the car, Death knew what would happen. He had seen it too many times before.

He didn't let it happen.

They would tell the girl for years her father had an unexplained heart attack, "just one of those things that happens".

As time passed, Death grew more protective. The girl was an adult when she entered into her first relationship with a handsome boy. He was everything to her, and they often hung out with the girl's group of friends. Death became jealous of this other man in the girl's life, and decided to take action. The doctors would tell the girl that they had all been partying too hard, and it was a miracle that she survived drinking the concentrated alcohol. They never caught who replaced all the drinks with hard liquor.

The girl was devastated. In the following years, she never made another friend in fear of what might happen. Once cold winter night she loaded bullets into a gun and pointed it at her head.

She pulled the trigger.

The noise was deafening, but she was uninjured. She inspected the gun to find only blanks.

She tried to take her life several times after that. She tried shoving a knife into her chest, but it turned to rubber in her hands. She tried jumping off a bridge, only to find that she splashed down into a kiddie pool in her backyard.

Death was proud of himslf. He thought that the girl would be his forever.

The girl knew that Death would not let her go.

So she picked up a rifle and headed for the nearest school.

-

When it was all over, Death finally let the bullet enter the girl's head.

Death cried.