Thank you for your time

Thank you for stopping here. Thank you so very much for your time. You think you are just going to read a little story. A brief snippet of terror to scare you before you fall asleep.

You think it will be quick. You think you have nothing to lose.

You're wrong.

When you look up from whatever screen you are reading this on, you'll realize the mistake you've made clicking on this.

There's no way you believe me right now, which makes it even more satisfying.

You see, I have a talent. I'm a time-eater. And I’m very good at what I do. Most people don’t even feel it. They don't even notice what I’m taking from them. They just think I’m one of those people who talks and talks while they listen endlessly and nod politely, waiting for their turn to finally speak what's on their mind.

People from the Jehovah’s Witnesses came by last week, for example, thinking they might convert me to become a member. By the time I was done talking, they were on death’s door. The youthful twenty-something faces that I had invited into my home had become pale and cracked, wrinkled and ancient before my eyes. I watched with increasing glee and satisfaction as their skin became sallow and papery. They died before they could reach my front door, attempting to escape once they noticed what I was doing to them. What I was taking from them.

I see you doubting me, thinking I am joking. But you can't see the lines as they form quickly upon your face. You can't see the blood drying up in your veins. You can't see your brain beginning to atrophy and the liver spots and moles sprouting on your skin like mushrooms in a damp field, filmed with time lapse photography. I’m good at distracting you from those things.

You will, though. You will see and taste death's advance upon you in an instant and the pain will be exquisite.

I will relish in your agony and bathe in your discomfort. I will devour your youth and take you screaming from it, dropping you off on death's door so he can finish what remains of you.

Death and I are very good friends. Almost brothers, some might say.