I awakened with a small jerk, my nose bumping my wrist. One eye opened slowly, squinting at the light, I lifted my face out of my arms.

I was seated at a plain table. The kind you can buy for $50 from any Walmart. The seat beneath me was plastic and uncomfortable. I could feel the sweat beginning to pool in my ass crack already.

“Huh” I grunted, looking around at the room. It was an empty room apart from myself, the table and two chairs, one of which I occupied. One solitary door promised escape from the cream-walled overly bright room.

The last thing I remembered was jumping. I wasn’t sure why, or how I’d gotten there. My mind was foggy, like when you awaken from a dream, unsure of what was real and what was not.

As I sat puzzling my memory I heard the handle on the door click. It opened inward as a tall, cloaked man stepped into the room. His hand on the knob was pale and thin. But as he sat down I gasped, for where his face should have been was a dry, empty human skull. Not only that, but it moved, the jaw shifted jarringly, not a natural movement.

The... creature? The creature seated itself across from me and locked his fingers together on the table, and now I saw that they too were skeletal, without a hint of flesh upon their chalky exterior.

“So... this is strange” the voice was a dry croak, like one would experience when under the effects of the flu, but at the same time the thing spoke casually, with grace, like one well practiced with words.

“Who... what are you?” I whispered, totally still, too frightened to move.

The creature looked at me... I think, for a time. At least, the empty sockets where a person’s eyes would have nestled were pointed in my general direction for far longer than I was comfortable with.

“Yes, I imagine you’re rather put out... old friend” it gazed at me again, perhaps awaiting a response I was too afraid to give. After a moment it seemed to notice I wasn’t going to speak.

“That tends to happen when one’s brains are smashed into the sidewalk. The process of disconnection rather addles the spirit”

“W-Where am I?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper

“Well, you’re very much dead. Let’s not be under any illusions there. Your plan to marry your innards with concrete through the ordinance of gravity was quite successful”

I lifted my hands to look at them. I seemed whole. “Dead?”

“Yes, quite. And I-” he twirled his hand elegantly “am the Grim Reaper... Or rather you would know me as such”

He tilted his head in curiosity

“You really don’t remember do you? Hmm, I had thought you different from the rabble. How curious”

“I don’t understand what you mean. You’re talking like you know me. This feels like... like a prank or something. Do I know you?!”

The Grim Reaper, as he called himself, stood and walked to the door, as his hand gripped the handle he gestured for me to follow. “Come now, I could tell you what you want to know, but showing you would be much more enjoyable”

I got up and followed, for what else could I do? Surely it was a prank. One of those moronic tv shows with a close friend and the host standing nearby, ready to leap out and laugh at my fear and confusion. But as we stepped beyond the door any hope of that left me.

Outside the room was a vast factory, and we stood on a high floor overlooking it. Machinery whizzed and whirred, robotic arms and drills and saws grated away at indistinct items. And amidst the aisles of conveyor belts scurried multiple small, childlike people.

“Welcome! To my factory of Death” the Grim raised his arms, clearly proud of what he surveyed “This is where I build it! The machinery and weaponry that supplies death and destruction to your world. Every rifle. Every grenade. Every armour piercing round, comes from here. Your greedy warmongers are all too happy to buy it from me”

I walked to the railing and looked down. The factory extended almost as far as I could see. I felt memories, long dormant, stirring.

“Why are you showing me this?” I turned to death, the pieces slowly coming together in my mind, I needed more time to remember.

“Because you, you my old friend, should not be here. You bamboozled me, many many years ago. You fooled me and forced me to make a deal. I was to never come for you. You had my protection, you had safety and immortality”

His skeletal fingers stroked a non existent beard in contemplation.

“And yet... here you are”

As I looked into the black voids that were death’s eyes, the final memories fell into place. I knew what I had to do. I knew why I had leapt to my doom.

“One can only wonder why?”

The Grim anticipated me, perhaps he saw something in my eyes as I lifted my arm and a handgun materialized in my palm. He was already moving as I told him.

“To kill you”