bugpowderdust

I met Death in my dream again last night. He was in a small supermarket with me, smiling like a talk show host and speaking in his slippery eel’s voice. That night Death had short neat hair and a suit that looked like it had been worn all day, just like any other man sliding down into middle age you might pass on the street. It certainly helped him fit in with the early evening crowd, all young professionals stopping off on the way home from the office to lay in tonight’s ready meal. I don’t know if any of these people were real, other dreamers somehow drawn here, or whether they were just props from my subconscious. Either way, no one paid us any attention as we walked through the aisles.
“Look at this, willya?”, he said, holding up a plastic carton of milk and peering at the label, “Look at the date on that. Gonna be no use tomorrow. Things expire so fast these days, huh?” He threw the jug down, and kept walking through the crowds, none of whom seemed to care about, or even notice, the spill. I saw the milk splash against a pair of expensive wool suit trousers, whose owner didn’t even break stride, and pool out on the floor, quickly turning grey as people tracked the dirt of the streets through it, like snow a day after it fell.
I followed him into the frozen section. A butchered corpse was laying on top of one of the open freezer cabinets, great swathes of skin missing with splintered ribs pushing up through the flesh on its chest. Blood dripped and froze on the shrinkwrapped packages of meat below. “Oh, him”, said Death, waving a hand dismissively, “He didn’t get it. Tried telling him a story, but he just didn’t understand. It’s tough, but it happens. More often than you’d think.” He broke off and spoke loudly across the aisle to a young lady pushing her loaded trolley, “Hello! How you doing?”. She carried on with no indication that she had heard. “Hey, nevermind”, Death said, elbowing me conspiratorially in the ribs, “I’ll be seeing her again soon enough anyway, you know what I mean?”. He carried on laughing down the aisles.
Eventually we came to the checkout. I didn’t know what to do, but Death gave me a meaningful glance downwards. I followed it, and found I had a full basket. I couldn’t remember picking any of it up or carrying it around, but there it was. “Put it on the belt, boy, it’s time to settle up”, he grinned, with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. I obeyed, and started placing the unwanted goods onto the black rubber belt, where they were picked up by a disinterested cashier and added to my tally. When the last one went through she turned to tell me the total, but Death got in first. “Now I’m going to tell you the secret, okay? You ready?”. Before I could answer he leant in close, his breath cold on my neck, and began to whisper in my ear as the supermarket dissolved around me.