[ WP ] Death lives in your house . He 's been the best roommate you 've ever had . After tomorrow 's breakfast , he needs to speak with you .

Breakfast was always weird for me, it was probably the only time of the day that I ran into Death. Most of the time he? She? Umm, it was out of the house. I can only assume it was reaping the soles of those on a list received each day. 
 
 We never spoke. Death carried such few words. Whenever it entered the room, a cold chill came along with it. In the summer it was fine, it definitely kept the cooling costs down. In those winter months, I was freezing! It almost made me want to reconsider having Death around. 
 
 As I sat at our small four-seated round table in the make-shift dining room, Death entered. I placed my plate of toast down in front of me and took a bite. Death, as always, grabbed a bowl of dry Cheerios and sat across from me. 
 
 “ Good morning, ” I said, trying to sound a little pleasant. 
 
 A ghoul like response came back. “ Mmmrrr. ” 
 
 Death rolled out his scroll that contained the list of names. Weird that even with all this modern technology that even the Grim Reaper uses an archaic scroll rather than a tablet or something. 
 
 The scroll ’ s paper looked old. It had that golden brown, torn up page kind of look that you go for when trying to make a treasure map as a child. On the sides there were two fairly large gold ends holding the paper in place. Each morning, Death would roll out the scroll, look over it for perhaps ten seconds, finish his breakfast and leave. 
 
 This morning, something was different. Death stared at the list in what appeared to be just one spot for at least a minute. Then, as though a jolt of energy suddenly went through Death ’ s system, it rolled up the scroll, sat it down and ate the Cheerios in a somber fashion. 
 
 I could tell that something was wrong. Normally I wouldn ’ t ask, but I felt as though I had to at least show some sympathy and concern. 
 
 “ Death, is everything OK? ” 
 
 “ It ’ s fine, ” it responded. 
 
 Woah! This may be the first time we ’ ve actually had a conversation. I better not get carried away. Also, I think Death might be a man, the voice really bellows. 
 
 “ It ’ s just, well, you normally finish up and leave rather quickly, ” I mentioned, looking for another response. 
 
 “ No commute for me today, I ’ m already here, ” Death responded with no emotion in his voice. 
 
 I could feel my eyebrows furrow at the response. I began to look around the room frantically. Was I going to slip and die? Did I leave the toaster on and doom myself to burning alive? Maybe Death had to take a small walk this morning to his first reaping. I was panicking. 
 
 “ If you panic like that, you ’ ll only make it happen faster, ” Death said to me. 
 
 “ B… Bring what on? ” I asked, almost pleading. 
 
 “ Ha-Ha-Ha, ” Death let out a belly laugh. “ I think we better have a talk, Simon. ” 

