Years Squandered Chasing Eternity

20260421

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

“No, no, no!” Wallace held up his hands in a futile warding gesture and stumbled backwards - seemingly oblivious to the fact he’d just stepped through his desk. “This isn’t right! This isn’t fair! I need more time!!”
Death sighed. A sound made of weariness itself shrivelling away to nothing. “I don’t choose your time, or place. I’m merely the collector.”
“But… but…” Wallace looked down at his sprawled body. The noxious fumes had left him in a horrific state. He mumbled, mostly to himself, “I was sure it’d work this time.”
“I’m afraid it never would.” Death said, as gently as they could. “The Elixir of Immortality doesn’t exist.”
“Balderdash!” Wallace bristled. Old habits die hard. Far harder than humans, who are really quite fragile.
“Believe me, the office would’ve sent a memo by now.” Death reached out to pat Wallace’s shoulder, but he flinched and scuttled away to the far end of the room. As if running was an option.
“D-don’t I get a, a saving throw of some kind? I’m allowed to challenge you to a game of something, right?”
“That offer is available to those who could still recover.” Though nothing was visible beneath Death’s hood, they were definitely eyeing Wallace’s grisly remains. “I’m afraid you were beyond saving before I got here.”
“Then you should’ve come faster!!” Wallace spluttered, then quailed under Death’s featureless stare. “I… I’m sorry, I just…”
“I understand that this is a shock. And that you must find the prospect of being dead particularly disappointing. But I’m afraid your time has come.”
Wallace kicked at the floor. Swore under his ghostly breath. Glowered at his body, as if blaming it for what happened.
And Death waited. As patient as they were implacable.
Finally Wallace mumbled “I always knew it’d end up like this. That I’d never accomplish anything. Ugh. I thought, if I could just get more time…”
“The time you have is but one factor.” Death’s tone was sympathetic yet held a stern note. “Plenty of people leave a mark on the world with far less time than you were given. You turned your back on accomplishing anything to chase fantasies and wallow in escapism. And in doing so you squandered your time and fulfilled the prophecy you claimed to want to avoid.”
“I did want to…! It’s just, life felt so, so short and overwhelming and…”
“And so you tried to pin it down, like butterflies for study. But living is a process, and life is an art. You cannot capture either in any static prison.” Death took Wallace’s hand, and though he grimaced, he didn’t try to pull away. “Hopefully you will find what comes after less overwhelming. Come.”
“What, what if it is as overwhelming? Can I, I don’t know, come back here and haunt my nice quiet basement?”
It’s a special kind of flat stare which is given without a face.
“…We’ll discuss your options on the way.”

Prompt was “It is not the length of a life that matters, but the content of that life.”