Death and the Maiden by Ray Bradbury. Short summary

5 seconds

The fear of death was so strong in the mind of an old woman that she decided to lock herself in her own house and not let anyone into her own dwelling. This went on for ninety years.

1 minute

On the far side of the world, outside the forests and mountains, is a ramshackle hut. It is inhabited by an old woman who has kept her house closed off from any visitors for the past nine decades. The reason for this isolation from the rest of the world was the fear of Death.

When one of the philistines decided to knock on the door, he heard only demands to leave and how he was called Death. And no matter how hard the man tries to prove that he is not Death, it still seems to the Old Lady that Death has taken on the guise of another person and begins to tell how many locks and how else the entrance to the house has been sealed. In addition to sealing the locks, the Old Lady has cut the wires. There is also no telephone inside the building.

The residents of the town next to this house tried not to approach this house unnecessarily. In the town itself there are many rumors associated with the Old Lady.

This was the case until recently, when a sunburned young man came out of the woods and decided to knock on the door of the little house that stood in the distance.