text: .....“it's time to do deaths duty and pay the ferryman to carry their souls to their eternal resting place.” For the past two weeks, I have been seeing that message everywhere. First I started seeing it all over my social media accounts. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit. At first, I thought it was someone playing a prank on me, messing with my head. Till last week I was driving my mother to the doctors for her follow up when I heard it over the radio. It was playing over and over again, on every station, I switched to and my mother didn't even seem to notice it. Then it began playing over and over in my head. It was all I could think of. “It's time to do deaths duty and pay the ferryman to take their souls to there internal resting place.” Strange things started occurring when I went places. People started acting funny around me, especially old people. Some would eye me up and down as if they sensed something of me. If I came across a really old person they would come up to me crying begging me to take them. Others would beg me for more time. “More time for what, take them where.” Dogs in the street bark and growled at me, cats hissed at me. Then I woke up to a crow sitting on my window sill and ever since it's been following me around everywhere I go. As I drag myself out of the bed I notice my hand is swollen. It's throbbing and really tender to touch like it's infected or something. The crow that's been following me around is still sitting on my window sill, just staring at me. I thought he was just hungry so I tried feeding him. He wasn't interested. He seems to be waiting for something else. I struggle to put on my clothes, my hand seems to be getting worse. I think it's starting to smell. I decide to stop at the shop to get some painkillers for my hand. Standing at the checkout I point to the painkillers. The guy serving me goes into some sort of trance. I ask him if he is alright, his eyes fixate on mine. “It's time to do deaths duty and pay the ferryman to carry their souls to their eternal resting place. The crow will show the way. The crow flies and the light guides.” As he stands there repeating the same words over and over. I look down at my hand which is now completely black. No pain, no smell, just dead leathery flesh. I leave the shop as the cashier is still chanting the words at me. I get outside and the crow decides to dive bomb my head, narrowly missing me. He keeps doing it, till he has my attention. Then flies off cawing in the direction he wanted me to follow. Then I remember the cashier words. “The crow will show the way. The crow flies and the lights guides.” I follow the crow downtown toward the hospital. As I near the hospital I see a light coming from a window a few stories up. My little friend the crow perches himself on the window sill with the light shining from it. I make my way into the hospital. As I make my way through the halls my presence seemed to go unnoticed. I felt like a ghost haunting the halls of the hospital and the only people who paid me any attention seemed to be the dying. As I Make my way to the floor with the light, I sense it pulling me towards it. I reach the ward and I look up at the sign. “Paediatrics ward” I follow the light to a room and in the room, there was a bed with a little girl lying in it. She looked about ten. She had her whole family around her. Her mother and father were comforting her as she took in her last few breaths. I could still sense the hope radiating from her parents, that by some miracle her failing lungs and organs would kick back into gear and all this would just seem like some nightmare that they could all wake up from. For me, it all felt surreal. I felt like a fly on the wall getting a glimpse of one of the saddest and most intimate time this family will ever experience. I look down at my hand. What was once flesh and bone, was now just a shadow. I know what I need to do now. I know what those signs meant. It was so clear to me, like something inside me woke-up. My presence in this room meant that any hope this family had, I was there to take it from them. I walk towards the bed. The family oblivious to me. I walk over and I stand next to the girl. She looks at me and smiles; I smile back at her. I reach my shadowy hand into her chest and I feel her essence bind to mine and we walk off hand in hand as the noise from her heart monitor rings out through the hospital. As we walk hand in hand towards the light, it begins to dim. As the light disappeared the darkness started to creep towards us swallowing any light in its path. The little girl starts to cry. “I'm scared. I want to go back to my mommy.” The darkness consumes us. I feel the little girls grip on my hand loosen as if someone was taking her from me. She screams out. “Please, I'm scared.” I lose the little girl to the darkness and a thunderous laugh sounds out from its inner depths. “The Ferryman has been paid.” All of a sudden I'm back outside the hospital. My hand back to its black, leathery self. Feeling angry, scared and confused. I think to myself. How can I do this to people knowing where they go when they die. Then I hear that dam crow call out again. Swooping down at my head to get my attention. As I follow him I begin to get a very uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. As we get closer, I start to get sick with worry. As I near the house I see the light shine from the sitting room window. I take out my keys and put them in the front door. I walk into the sitting room and there is my mother sitting on the couch blue in the face coughing up buckets of blood. I look down, my shadow hand reappears. I walk over to my mother with tears in my eyes. She looks at me and smiles. “I'm a ready son. I'm just glad it's you that's taking me.” I look at her in total dismay. “I don't think you're ready for this.