Richard Marshal was a retired fireman after he broke his good leg real bad after a building collapse. He was getting up there in age regardless and perhaps this stroke of misfortune was rather fortunate for him. The benefits were good and the early retirement was nice. It was just rather quiet at home nowadays.

Richard rolled his wheelchair to pick up the food delivery on his doorstep with his reach extender. He knew it was unhealthy to order take out all the time, but with his leg and his wife passing it was just too hard for him to cook. He would reminisce often at his wife scolding him for adding too much or too little salt. What he wouldn’t give just to be scolded one more time.

He unpacked the food, a burrito bowl, which at least looked healthy. He had to slow down on the real junk food after putting on at least 20 pounds, he never really gotten around to weighing himself but the heft of his stomach definitely told him he was getting fat.

He ate slowly as he contemplated life with the sports game playing in the background. He didn’t enjoy sports the same way he used. It seemed like the world had grown less colourful after his wife passed and entirely grey after he broke his leg. Lonely dinners was the worse. He would count the days his kids would visit, but he was too proud to tell them he was lonely and wanted to see them.

Richard sent a text to the family group chat, telling his son Ryan to stop eating junk food hypocritically, and his daughter Sarah to remember to sleep early and not ‘work so darn hard’ for that no good boss. His messages were left on seen, and no reply. He made a weary smile and thought ‘well at least they read my messages.’

He tried to enjoy the sports game, but his eyes grew tired. Must be the age getting to him he thought as he feel asleep on the couch with the TV on in the background. The shouts of the commentators and noise of the game slowly faded away.

When he awoke the house was entirely dark with only the TV emitting light. The game was long over and some rerun of golf which he hated was on instead. He turned the TV off and looked for a light switch.

He rolled slowly and flipped it on. He was tall enough that even when sitting down it didn’t require too much effort to operator light switches, no need to buy and waste money to make it accessible, like that fancy chair rail to get up the stairs. He still sighed at the waste of money that was, but his daughter Sarah insisted, and that ‘it wasn’t much money to her’ with her fancy office job. It really made Richard bittersweet at Sarah making more money than him, seemly some of those old values were still stuck after all these years.

*click* … *click* … *click* *click*

The light switch was broken and Richard muttered a silent curse to himself. He rolled to the kitchen and looked out the window. Sure enough the neighbours still had their lights on.

“Fuck.” Richard now curse loudly as he didn’t have a fancy chair rail for the basement where the circuit breaker was. His intuition told him it was probably just a jumped circuit. He sighed to himself and went back to the living room and laid on the couch. He looked at his watch, a gift from Ryan that he wore for 20 odd years now, it read 1 am. Richard decided to handle it in the morning and go back to sleep instead. What harm could sleeping 1 night on the couch do?

It was then he heard a window slam open. Richard jolted awake, his heart now pumping slightly with adrenaline. ‘Upstairs it sounded like’ Richard thought as he immediately got on his wheel chair and quickly fished his gun out of a nearby desk drawer. He heard slow footsteps, 5 beats a part from each other. They were slow, but loud, as if deliberately announcing their presence. Richard could barely make out the staircase in the dark. It was at that moment Richard noticed the TV was on and static shown. ‘I swear I shut that off.’ Richard thought, but made no effort to turn it off again. He aimed the gun at the staircase with both hands waiting for the intruder to descend.

The footstep grew louder and in the corner of Richard’s eye he could see the TV show an image of his dead wife. But when he glanced, it was gone back to static. Richard thought his mind must be playing tricks on him or that this was a nightmare and he was just dreaming. But the faint pain of his leg, the feeling of the gun as well as the beating of his own heart was too vivid to be a dream.

*Thump*…*Thump*…Thump*…

And then there was silence. They must have reached the staircase. Richard couldn’t see the intruder from this angle, the staircase wrapped around to go down and Richard tried to look upwards to make out at least a shadow, but it was too dark.

Suddenly an eerie shriek rang out. The sound of someone screaming as if they were being burnt alive. Richard heard it twice in his career and he could never forget the sound.

Richard was drenched in sweat now his heart racing a million miles. The heart’s rhythmic sound was the only thing that could be heard in the thick silence.

The TV flicked on and off repeatedly as if it was following the rhythm of his heart beat then the lights all turned on. And Richard felt safe enough to call out.

“I know you are here. Come down with your hands up and no one has to get hurt. I got a gun and I will shoot you otherwise.” Richard shouted.

No response could be heard. But after a minute of silence a groan could be heard. It sounded like someone gasping for air. Then silence again.

“I’m warning you, I already called the cops.” Richard threaten again. To which no response at all this time.

The lights suddenly shut off again only the TV remained on with its static image. Thick silence again descended with only the sound of Richard’s own thumping heart cutting through. Then a shadow dropped down from the second floor and leaving a loud *thud*.

Richard panicked and attempted to shoot but the trigger won’t budget. He fumbled for the safety and tried to shoot again as the shadowy figure started to move from the ground. But again the trigger refused to budge. Richard watched in silent horror as the shadowy figure stood up and moved forward. The TV flicked intensely and the light reflected upon the shadowy figure. It revealed a burnt corpse akin to one that could be found in the aftermath of an arson. The corpse approached Richard.

In Richard’s mind he heard ‘why didn’t you save me’. And he hesitated for a moment before calling his wife’s name out loudly “Danny?”

The corpse approached with it’s arms out stretched.

“Danny is that you?” Richard called out not knowing if the fear made him insane.

The corpse stumped forward and collapsed at Richard’s feet.

“I’m sorry Danny, if I were there that day things — things might have — “ Richard started rambling with his voice shaken.

The corpse hand gripped tightly on Richard’s broken leg. The dark hand a grim contrast to the pink burn scars.

“Danny I —“

And before Richard could say another word. A loud crunch could be heard as the corpse bit into his leg ripping through skin, muscle and bone.

Richard tried to scream in pain, but no noise came out as an intense hunger overcame him. He heard his stomach grumble loudly and felt like he was starved for days. The feelings of hunger was so intense it temporarily drowned out the pain in his leg.

Again he tried to scream as the corpse continued to devour him, but again no noise could escape him. He could see his blood flowing out of him as he started to feel woozy and his breath became shallow quick breathing.

The corpse stopped, stood and looked at him after it finished eating his leg. Richard starts feeling more and more faint as he felt the blood draining from his leg.

“Well that’s kind of fucked up.” A charming man’s voice said. “He’s watching and not even finishing his meal.”

“Aye, a picky eater I reckon.” A rough man’s voice said.

Richard could roughly make out two more figures before he fainted.

***

Victor and Mars stood curiously as they watched James standing there waiting.

“He sure has a particular taste doesn’t he?” Victor inquired with a joking tone.

Mars ignored Victor and looked at James with a serious expression.

Then after a few minutes had passed since Richard died. The soul started leaving Richard’s body and James reached out for it, the soul was a bright white.

Mars and Victor both had the same look of horror when James lounged for it. Unsure if they should stop James from eating another soul. There was no rule on whether a horsemen was allowed to eat souls or at least that they knew of. Mort tend to only explain rules after transgression or attempted transgression.

As Mars and Victor watched hesitantly they suddenly got goosebumps as James was about to put the soul in his mouth. James froze in motion as the soul floated out of his hands and zipped past the three.

“Perhaps, I wasn’t specific enough when I asked you two to ‘watch’ James.” A cold voice came from behind Victor and Mars.

Victor and Mars gulped hard in unison.