Rewind

An old man sits in his chair, watching the same black and white film as he does every night, at the exact same time. His eyes felt heavy and his head slumped down as he fell into a deep sleep.

"Wake up" brekens a broad voice, "The time has come." it says again, the old man awakens to see a slender, dark vision in front of him. He picks up his glasses, that seemed to have fallen off his face, and puts them on to see this tall, black-hooded figure, towering over him. "I am Death and your time has come." He says

" You’re death?" asks the old man

"Yes. I apologise but the time has come. You must come with me." The old man pushes back into his chair and grips the arms, he says to Death,

"Do I not get anything before I leave this world?"

"You may have one, final wish. Anything within my power." said Death

"Anything I want?” questioned the old man

"Yes," Death replies with a cold dark breath

"Please, show me the best parts of my life?" The old man asks,

"As you wish." Death declares.

The TV faded black, then an old, projector reel styled, movie began playing, starting with a countdown from 5.

"Please, take a seat,” says the old man, gesturing to the armchair to his left. Death takes a seat beside the old man as they stared into the screen, both watching his life pass by in rewind.




The opening scene is at a hospital. There’s the old man, sitting next to a hospital bed. Where his wife lay weakly. He was holding her hand. She tells him to lean over the side of the bed, and as he does she whispers something in his ear. Then it's silent. Nothing could be heard but the sound of a machine flat lining.

After a few moments the movie flicks back, to the same hospital. Only this time death is not upon them, but life. Both the man and woman are there, looking well and younger. They walk into a pristine room and see a beautiful baby boy being softly cradled in his mother's arms. The old man smiles in remembrance of that moment.

"That's my daughter when she had her first baby. My first grandson." He states to Death

At that moment the movie jumps even further back to a warm June day. A church. Filled to the brim with familiar faces of old friends and family members. A young man stands nervously at the alter waiting. Then watches as his beautiful bride walks down the aisle. The old man keeps staring at the screen. His hands were trembling and a tear forming at the corner of his eye. Yet he wears the biggest smile.

Soon after the scene fades, to a young teenage couple standing outside an old cinema. The old man laughs, but the tear trickles down his cheek. Death looks at him,

"You seem happy, yet you cry?” questioned Death,

"This was our first date" The old man replied.

"Two tickets to Texas Chainsaw Massacre please," said the boy, as the man behind the ticket booth handed him two tickets with a smile. The couple sat at the back of an empty cinema watching the movie. When the girl got scared she held on to the boy's arm and buried her face in him. When she looked up their eyes came to meet and they shared their first kiss.

The screen faded to black and writing appeared, which read: 'and from that day on they didn’t kiss anyone else other than their own children and their grandchildren. Till the day they died.'

The credits rolled.




The old man wipes away the tears that he'd shed and turns to Death, he asks

"I thought you were going to show me the entirety of my life?" Death turns towards the old man and replies

"I did. From that day onwards was the start of your life. I may be Death, but i know an awful lot about life my friend. Now come with me and take my hand." The old man takes the hand of Death and follows him towards a bright light.

"One thing before we go on. When your wife whispered to you before she passed away, what was it that she said to you?" Asked Death,

"She said to me, do you remember when we went to see that movie? Well, i wasn't really that scared of it. I just knew you would never be the one to make the first move." The old man utters as another tear rolled down his cheek, but he smiled to himself.

He looked down at his hand. In it there was a tattered and torn piece of paper that read: 'One admission to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.' It was damp and tear stained. Death looked into the distance, as the light grew closer towards them.

The old man looked up to see a figure walking towards him. For a moment he was puzzled by the figure, until it held out a matching torn piece of paper. He looked up to see a familiar face; One that he had never once forgotten, but hadn't seen for a long time. His wife, she smiled at him and his face lit up, despite the tears gathering in his eyes. Death looked at them, then towards the light and walked towards it. The old man and his wife, hand in hand, walked towards the light, in Death's footsteps.

Death lead them into the light then disappeard off to his own space. Somewhere quite. He sits on the edge of a cliff, where no spirit goes, looking over the sea and onwards, basking in the beauty of the world. He turns to see a small flower peaking delicately through the cracks of the hard, dead soil. He picks the tiny purple flower with his boney fingers, but the colour in the flower fades quickly and it’s petals fall onto his lap. He thinks of the old man and his wife, reunited by death and mutters to himself,

“Some people are lucky enough to have and to hold beauty and love. Others just get to stare at it but never get to touch. Like me, everything I touch dies at my fingertips. I cannot love or be loved.” A small teardrop rolls down his bony face, from where his eyes would have been, and lands in his lap amongst the petals. Death arises and walks away, leaving the petals scattered where he sat.

A few days later the same purple flower Death had once held, grew back where the petals had scattered.