Everybody dies once in their life, but nobody knows when that is. It shows in your eyes.

Everybody dies once in their life, but nobody knows when that is. It's a mystery that's been so well protected that not even the worlds greatest scientists or wealthiest men have found out. But they do know this: it's there. All you have to do is look at someone's eyes and you'll see it. A countdown so big that it's impossible to miss.<br><br>You just need to know how to look at it. A countdown is just a number next to another number. The second one is how long the countdown is, and the first one is how much time is left. For example, 6 hours and 43 minutes until new years would be 06:43. That makes it easy to tell how long until a person's countdown ends, because your mind knows how to read time. But what about 1000 years and 2 months? or 50 centuries and 7 days? How long until those are over? Not very long, relatively. A person with a countdown of 1000000 years, 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes and 28 seconds until they die is old. A person with a countdown of 1 second until they die is young. A person with a countdown that's already over is dead.<br><br>As a child it troubled me that I couldn't read the countdown. All the other kids seemed to know what it was straight away. I remember my best friend as a kid, his countdown was 88 years. My parents reassured me it would eventually come, but even as a teen I couldn't read it. It wasn't until I was 18 and watching a speech at college from Stephen Hawking that I found out what his countdown was. I don't know why, but I just saw it. 7 years, 117 days, 5 hours, 15 minutes and 30 seconds. A week later I saw another one. Our professor, 73 years and 233 days. I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness every time. I still couldn't read every countdown, but once I saw one I could see lots.<br><br>I was one of the first people to raise the alarm when Stephen Hawking died. I was touching his shoulder, about to tap it, when I noticed his countdown was over. I started going crazy, calling for people. When they asked what was wrong I said "Look at his eyes". They didn't understand what I meant, so I took them over to him, pointed at his eyes and said "there, how long until he dies." I heard a sob behind me and I turned to see a young girl, who I later found out was his grand daughter, crying. She had been the only other person in the room who could see the countdown. It was the first time I had seen another person who's countdown was in the teens. 13 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 3 days.<br><br>I was asked to identify the bodies at 9/11 because I was one of the few people who could tell who was alive and who was dead. All they had to do was look into their eyes. If the countdown's over they're dead. They once thought a guy had survived, but was severely injured. When they went to talk to him it turned out he was gone. A fireman was trying to get a little girl out of a burning building. He had just reached down to pick her up when a big piece of burning metal fell on his head. He fell to the ground, screaming in agony. A few seconds later he fell silent. I walked up to the body. 22 years, 11 months, 2 weeks and 3 seconds. I looked up at the little girl. 145 years, 10 months, 1 week and 2 days. A paramedic picked up the little girl. 64 years, 7 months, 5 weeks and 3 seconds. 3 seconds later the countdowns were over and they were all dead.<br><br>I wasn't allowed to talk about it, so I made up what the countdowns were. I told them the fireman would die in 22 years, the little girl in 146 years and the paramedic in 65 years. They all thought that they were so lucky that they got to live so much longer than expected. A police officer walked up to me and said "You know, I think you saved some lives today." 19 years, 3 months, 2 weeks and 5 seconds. Five seconds later he fell to the ground, dead. I wasn't surprised. When you notice how short some countdowns are, you expect people to just fall over and die randomly.<br><br>Sometimes I wish I couldn't see the countdown. Especially when it's short.