Why?

Death looked out over the midnight sea. The moonlight played across the water, turning it into twinkling diamonds that rolled across the shore in gentle, glimmering waves.

Ashley knelt down beside Death, where the sand met the sea, and ran their fingers through the waves. The diamonds stuck in the crevices of their hand as they removed it from the lethargic surf.

Peering curiously at the gems shining under the full moon, Ashley muttered beneath their breath.

“Well, that’s not quite the usual state of affairs.”

Death replied with a voice as gentle as the susurration of the tide.

“It has not been for you, certainly. But then, you have mostly been alive, and that is not the usual state of affairs for most things most of the time.”

Ashley shook the diamonds from their fingers, and they rejoined the ocean with a tinkle.

“Well, yes. But I didn’t expect being dead to turn the sea into diamonds. I kind of expected the world to stay pretty much the same, except for me to not be in it.”

Death turned slightly to face Ashley. It was an odd face, that seemed to have no real form. Ashley’s eyes slid off it when they tried to fix any particular detail into place. Sometimes it seemed a skull looked back at her; sometimes a small bald creature; sometimes a young woman with tousled black hair.

Despite this, it did seem that death was smiling kindly. That much was clear.

Death wore black, and they were pale. Dark clothes, with a pale, smiling face – that was all Ashley could be sure of.

“What’s wrong with – I mean, why can’t I – I mean, why don’t you have – ” Ashley struggled to find the right question.

Death turned and looked curiously at Ashley. Their eyes were blue. Their eyes were definitely a sparkling, bright blue. At least for the moment.

“Why do I look like this?” Death spoke, plainly.

Ashley nodded.

“I appear as people wish me to be. As they expect me to be,” Death answered. “It would seem that you have no clear conception of how I should look.”

Ashley looked a little surprised, then took a moment to reflect.

“Oh, ok. That makes sense.”

Death sighed. It sounded like dying in your sleep.

“I had hoped for more from you.”

Ashley turned to Death, surprised. They raised shocked eyebrows, and an earnest hand to their breast.

“You hoped for more from me? More than other people? More what than other people?’”

The strange blue eyes of Death turned back towards the ocean.

“You mortals accept the strangest things without question, and question the simplest things for reasons I cannot fathom.”

Death paused for a moment, thoughtfully.

“All but the children. They know that the only time to stop asking ‘why’ is when the answers run out. And then they know what to do next.”

Ashley frowned, confused.

“What to do next?”

Death chuckled, like a teacher who has finally been asked the right question by a curious student.

“Yes, what to do next. They know that when the answers run out, you have to find your own. Sometimes you even have to make them up for yourself. It’s how you humans get anywhere, really – by making things up.”

Death looked out over the sparkling sea, the pale moon making their indistinct face glow in twice reflected light. They sighed, and placed a gentle hand on Ashley’s shoulder.

“So what will you ask next?”

Ashley stared at the sand for a monent, and then back up at the moon, taking in the strange land as though for the first time.

“I think I’d like to try again,” they said, cautiously. “Would that be ok?”

Death smiled kindly, without taking their eyes from the ethereal seascape.

“Why wouldn’t it be?”