Josh sat down on the couch in front of the TV and grabbed for the remote. Taking it in his left hand, he turned on the TV and reached for his Pepsi on the table. Just as he curled his fingers around the moist can, the screen on the TV showed the face of a skull. Josh leapt back in fright, dropping his Pepsi in the process.
The skull was wearing a dark black cloak that seemed to gleam like obsidian. The eye sockets were empty save for two dark, never-ending abysses that stared straight at Josh. The camera zoomed out so that Josh could see the rest of the being’s form. The cloak reached all the way to the ground and wrapped around the entire body. In its left hand was a tall scythe, with a blade that was silver yet flecked with bits of rust.

Suddenly the words “The Grim Reaper” and “Press A to Start” appeared on the screen. “D*** it, Jimmy!”, Josh yelled at his son in the other room. “What’d I tell you about taking your games out of the system? You nearly gave me a heart attack!”.

Josh stood up and stretched his back. He immediately fell back down on the couch in pain. Josh was getting older and was starting to suffer from back problems. The pain was making him dizzy. Looking around, trying to recover, his eyes darted to the hallway opposite his TV. For a flickering moment he thought he saw the same “Grim Reaper” character he had seen on the TV. Then it went away. Josh passed it off. It’s just the dizziness getting to me, he thought.

Josh stood up again, this time remembering not to stretch. He turned off the TV and then walked to the kitchen to get something to clean up the Pepsi.

He grabbed for the paper towels and walked back to the living room. Josh ripped off a paper towel and bent over to clean up the mess. Suddenly he collapsed and fell into the sticky soda. More back problems. Groaning, he looked up and was about to call his son when his eyes stopped on something. It was that same cloaked figure as before. Josh had just enough time to look at it before it disappeared.

Josh was stunned. This was no coincidence. He had seen the same figure three times now. There must be some meaning behind it.

He stood up and took off his sticky shirt. He picked up his paper towels and proceeded to clean up the mess. Josh walked to the kitchen to throw away the paper towels. He called to his son. “Hey, I’ve got to go out and get some groceries so that we can make dinner tonight, okay?”

“Alright, dad. Can you get those cool Halloween Pop-Tarts with the skulls on them, please?”

Josh stopped himself from immediately shouting NO! “Maybe another time, Jimmy.”

“Oh alright,” his son replied.

Getting another shirt from the laundry room, Josh walked to the door. He was trying to block the thought of the cloaked figure from his mind while trying to make a grocery list. He had to remember to get the onio-

WHAM!

The door fell down as a burglar in all black clothes walked in with a gun raised. His face was that of a criminal, and thoughts of crime could be seen in his eyes.

The man fired off several rounds from his pistol at Josh. The shots left the gun and entered Josh’s body. The last thing Josh saw was the burglar’s face transform into that of the cloaked figure, and then a raspy voice said “It’s about time we met. I’m the Grim Reaper.”

And then everything went blank.