I was sitting here, writing my latest short for a publisher (called "Suave Paranoia." Be sure to check local booksellers on the date of-oh, right, the story.) when I suddenly found myself staring at my little laptop, and started thinking of the corrugated cardboard box it came in, and then thought of who else liked cardboard boxes. I mainly wanted to write this because my last story was a bust. Toward the end, the story takes the form of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me a little, but only a little. Please, enjoy.

The envelope of darkness was a thick one, blanketing the room, suffocating those inside. A certain tiger lay on his back, his fore and aft legs twitching to the ceiling, as if in a midnight chase, maybe to find that lost explorer, or maybe it is a chase to beat the Devil. The unsettled boy next to him, however, had different subconscious wonders that night.

It was not a nightmare of monsters, nor one of terrible beasts that roamed the Earth millions of years ago. It is of the future, more specifically, his future.

Calvin was sitting in a dark that was deeper than his room. Somehow, he knew this was only a subconscious conjuring, but something was nagging at him. Something told him that if he died in this world, he would die in the real world.

Calvin first noticed something wrong when he found himself sitting in a nondescript chair. He frowned slightly and twisted to look over the chair. When he came back up, there was a table before him. It hovered over the nonexistent ground, but by only an inch or so. It would go no higher.

On the table was a deck of cards, and Calvin knew that whoever's they were, he didn't want to play Go Fish. The cards were marked on the back with a skull with a sword penetrating through the top left and a trail of blood leaking from the right.

Those are Tarot Cards. he realized simultaneous when he realized he was not alone.

A light seemed to fill the space around him, and yet the deep penetrating darkness remained. Calvin shivered, and in the real world did the same. The person across the table was hooded, he could see, with a cloak that was two times too big for him. Something dark and crimson dripped from the chest. Calvin peered forward a little and discovered why: a dagger was thrust deep into the mysterious person's heart. Calvin choked back a scream.

He finally did scream when a hand reached out and grabbed the Tarot Cards. The hand was a pearl white. The bones creaked and dust puffed out from the joints as they closed around the deck and pulled them forward.

Calvin shrunk against the chair, and discovered it had rapidly changed since he had last looked. Green felt cushioned his back and the feet resembled Gargoyle feet. Calvin started to ponder the transformation when the cloaked figure unveiled himself.

The skeleton was skeletal all over, apparently. The skull was that of the one on the Tarot Cards. Calvin uttered a cry and bent over the side of his chair to throw up into infinity and then maybe jump, but nothing came.

The sword gleamed in the light cast by nothing, cast deep into the skull. The end point stuck out of the chin by about eight inches. Blood dripped from the eye socket along with the dagger-stabbed heart. That was the only sound, the monotonous dripping of blood that seemed to come from nowhere and never stopped.

"Calvin…" a voice echoed from inside somewhere. Calvin swallowed again and stood up straight, prepared to jump if he had to.

The skeleton pulled from middle of the deck and placed it with its front down on the table. A second, third, and fourth soon followed.

"This, Calvin, is your future."

The first card was revealed. It showed a gold coin that Calvin had never seen before. It seemed to have the picture of a skeleton on one side. Like a holographic baseball card, the picture flipped to show the opposite side of the coin, which was a blood stained dagger.

"Wealth." echoed the skeleton and pulled over the second card.

This card was the picture of Hobbes and appeared to be leaping forward. "Friendship."

The third was an image of a computer. On the screen was eBay.com, specifically at the bottom of the page. The last two items for bid were shown at the top (both which read "Death is Coming! Death is Coming!") but what really caught Calvin's attention was the warning at the bottom in Latin. "Caveat Emptor…" bellowed the skeleton. "Let the Buyer Beware."

The fourth card was flipped over and Calvin tried not to scream or hurl again. It showed a picture of the skeleton, sword through the head, dagger in the heart.

"Death." said the skeleton in a flat voice. "Death. Death is coming, Calvin. Death is coming."

Then it happened, exactly what Calvin was expecting to happen. The cloak disappeared and the skeleton popped forward. Albeit he could see the steel blade sunken in the left eye socket two inches back, an eyeball out of nowhere started to bug out with jet black iris, and ditto with the right.

"Death is coming, Calvin! I'm coming to get you! I'm coming to get you! I'll get you! I'll-"

* ** *

"-get you if that's the last thing I do." Calvin uttered a cry and sat straight up, sending a crack up his spine. He breathed in deeply. In his head, the skeleton's words still rang.

In fact, they were below and to the left of him.

Calvin looked down reluctantly, expecting to see the skeleton, lying down where Hobbes should be, resting and yet staring into Calving with the bug eyes.

However, it was just Hobbes, on his back and his legs twitching. Calvin let loose a heavy sigh as he realized it had only been his friend uttering the words.

"Zzzz…I'll get you…if it's the last thing I do…zzzz…" Calving patted his friend on the head and settled back down to his pillow.

Before Calvin settled back into untouched dreams, he noticed that his pillow was drenched, as if he had been sweating…

…or weeping bitterly.