Memento Mori - I am Death

This picture is eerily similar to a dream I had years ago, in which the figure of Death as a lovely woman dressed almost exactly like this appeared. There was the same small clearing in a darkened forest.  The difference was that she was seated, and in front of her, there was a small table. 
 
She was young, like the woman here, but the side view of her gave the impression of Whistler's Mother, with a careworn face.  She was still, like a seated corpse.
 
What I saw on the table filled me with horror and terror exceeding every other nightmare I have ever had.  It was not so much what I saw, as what it meant.  I knew the meaning from my waking thoughts of the day before.
 
There was a small box on the table, like a lidless cigar box.  Her right hand had reached into the box.  Her hand was impaled on a large spike that arose from the center of the box.