Steele fell to the ground. He stood up slowly, but then he fell again. He had no strenght left.
Although he managed to get out from this boiler room and ran from Nome, now he was dying of hunger and cold far away from his home.

“Great… so, this is the end…” whispered he.

“Indeed.” Somebody was right behind him. Steele turned his head. He saw black dog… or wolf.

“Who are you?” asked Steele.

“To be honest, I have a lot of names… but you can call me Death…” Death grinned.

“You don’t look like-“

“Ah, I see. Now, it is better?” Death changed from black dog to a dog skeleton dressed in black cloak.

“No.”

“Thing is, nobody knows how do I look like. My appearance depends just on your imagination. So you see what you want to see…”

Death suddenly turned into Jenna. “Yeah. Very funny,” said Death-Jenna.

“Heh,” Steele smirked, “It’s the last fun in my life, so what…”

And… Balto stood in front of him. “You pathetic wolfdog… you are my death. You ruined my life!” Steele knew this wasn’t Balto, but he found it really funny.

“That’s nice, but hurry up… you aren’t the only on my list.” Death sighed and then turned to its original appearance for good.

“Now, will I die?” asked Steele.

“Yes… or do you think I am chatting with you just for fun?”

“Hey, but that’s not right, I am too young and-“

“I don’t care what is right. I am just doing my job…” Death sounded bored.

“And what about the others?! Why don’t you take Balto instead of me?”

“Be easy… he is on my list, too. Like Jenna, Star, Kaltag… and everyone.”

 Steele sighed. His strenght was all gone. “I think you aren’t the one whom I should confess.”

Death nodded. “But do you want to confess at all?”

“No, why?” Steele wondered.

“Don’t you think you led a pointless life?”

“Being asked about this by Death? You are ending it; you don’t give a chance to me to make it better.”

“I don’t give a chance to anybody…”

There was a silence for a while.

“I will miss them…” Steele whispered.

“Really?” Death was used to laments like these.

“But there are the ones I won’t miss.” Steele smirked.

“Man, hurry up… you have – uhh - two minutes?”

“Will it hurt?”

“I don’t know.” Death shrugged its shoulders.

“What is after death?”

“I don’t know.” Death was impatient.

 
Well… Steele… you life was full of lies and deceit. But… did you wanted to hurt anybody? No…

 “So, Steele… your time is up… now, you will…”

Steele took all his strenght, leapt and knocked Death down.

“Not today! And remember: Only the good die young!”

Steele laughed and then he ran away.

Death stood up heavilyand sighed: ”Well, this is the first time something similar happened to me… but… I can wait. I have a lot of free time, Steele. See you in ten years…”