A bright flash of light forked through the darkened nights sky, soon to be followed by a terrifying boom that echoed throughout the heavens. Millions upon millions of tiny rain droplets, which were no bigger than green peas, rocketed towards the cool dry earth below. Small plants and the leaves of trees were violently jostled around by the continuous down pour. The only things to be unaffected by this storm were various homes, businesses and other large solid structures that scattered the land.

In the back portion of a shopping center stood a Target retail store. It had recently closed down for the night and the last of its employees went home. There was no need for a night crew because of their shipments being delayed by storm activity in the surrounding counties. The only person inside of the store though, was an elderly security guard. He stood inside the store gazing out into the rainy weather, pondering if he could have done something different with his life.

"Great, only eight more hours to go." thought the man as he looked down at his wristwatch.

He turned around and started to sluggishly walk down the main isle of the dimly lit store. Just the thought of the next eight hours made him grit his teeth together. Oh how he despised walking around the store making sure no one would break in. There was no music playing so the only tune the old man heard was the metronome like pitter patter on the metal roof. At the end of the main isle was the electronics department. Despite how he felt about his job, he always enjoyed this area, The department always left on the video game systems that customers would use to try out demos, so this was his form of entertainment for his work shifts. The old man picked up an Xbox 360 controller, and selected a demo of an upcoming UFC title. The small twenty two inch L.C.D. tv which he was facing lit up with the games intro screen and it blared fighting themed music. Music, finally!

"Thank god, something else to listen to." he mumbled out loud.

"Thank god, something else to listen to."

The old man paused playing and looked around. He could have swore he just heard an echo. Shaking his head, he continued playing his video game. No more than two minutes into the game, the old man lost a fight and the screen went back to the main title screen. Looking down at his hands with disappointment, he knew these types of video games were very different than the old Atari he grew up with. The old man decided to give it another go and looked back up at the screen. He was shocked to see a reflection of a dark figure standing right behind him! He spun around but no one was there.

"Hello? Who ever is here better show themselves, you are trespassing!"

The old man tried to briskly walk around the electronics department hoping to find whoever was in there with him. He turned down the last isle of the department and felt something strike him in the back of the head. Pain shot down through his spine and throughout his body and caused his arthritis ridden legs to give out. The old man hit the floor with a thud. Being semi conscious, he turned himself over and looked at himself in a lower glass cabinet.

"What the hell hit me?" he thought.

He turned his head to see a small trickle of blood coming down from the back of his head. As the old man reached up with a shaking hand to wipe the blood away, the dark figure suddenly appeared in a poof of pewter colored smoke and thrust a long sinister looking spike into the man's head.

Outside the store, the storm continued to rage on, barely able to drown out the cry of victory from the dark figure inside.

To Be Continued…