A man wakes up after death, realizing that his life was nothing more than a virtual reality video game which temporarily clears your memories beforehand. It is nothing more than an everyday leisure activity done by the people in the future.

Trevor inhaled deeply and stepped in between Serenity and the mugger. He felt Serenity's hand grasp his hip, tugging him backwards. She was screaming, but the adrenaline coursing through his veins had muffled everything. He looked into the barrel of the pistol, and then shifted his gaze up to the mugger.
The mugger cringed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

It was the bang of the gun that had unclogged Trevor's ears. It was the bang of the gun that signaled the end of his life. It was the bang of the gun that awakened Trevor.


He screamed as he sat up from the recliner. His heart was still pounding in his ears as he gazed around the small room that he was in. It was all so unfamiliar; there were paintings that he had never seen before in his life strewn about the room, and there was a fat cat in the corner laying on an unmade bed.

Trevor attempted to stand but had his head yanked back; there was something attached to his scalp.
A loud booming voice echoed in his ears, "Please wait as current memories are reloaded, please take this moment to reflect back on your experience."

Trevor reached up and felt a thick cord that was screwed into the top of his head. He ran his fingers along the cord and screamed in panic when he felt that it was actually dug into his scalp.

He frantically pulled at the cord as the voice in his head boomed again, "Please refrain from removing the cord. If there is an emergency, please reattach the -

The voice fizzled out as Trevor finally managed to remove the cord. He rolled out of the recliner, taking big gasps of air as he laid on the ground. It felt like there were no muscles at all in his legs. He tried to stand, but quickly crumbled back to the ground.

"Serenity?" Trevor called out. "Serenity?" He called again, finally sitting up from the floor. There were soda cans strewn about and what looked like dirty laundry. Trevor finally managed to stand, feeling the indention in his scalp. It made him nauseous.

"Serenity?!" Trevor screamed. The cat that had been sitting on the bed meowed again. It stood, stretching its legs, and then jumped off the bed and walked towards Trevor. He disregarded the cat and stepped over it as it attempted to rub against his legs. On the other side of the strange bedroom, Trevor found a door.

He called out his wife's name again before opening. He placed his hand on the door handle and twitched as the cold metal met his sweating palm; he twisted the knob and pushed through.

Trevor stepped into what appeared to be a living room. There was a couch pressed up against the wall and an extremely large television set across from it. Sitting on the couch was a short balding man with frayed hair on the sides of his head. He was wearing thick rimmed glasses. In his lap was a large bag of cheese puffs.
The man finally noticed Trevor. "Oh shit man, did you fucking die this quick?"

"Where's Serenity?" Trevor asked the stranger.

"She's right there man, what happened?" The stranger said as he pointed a cheesy finger to the other side of the room.

Trevor followed the point and there in the corner of the room, he saw Serenity sitting in a recliner with the same type of cord attached to her scalp.

"What the fuck? What is that on her head? What was on my head?" Trevor said as he quickly walked towards Serenity.

"Hey man, wait," the stranger said.

Trevor gasped as he finally got to Serenity's side.

She was young. So young. She looked exactly like she had whenever they were in college together 30 years ago. Her eyes were closed. It looked as if she were sleeping.

"Jesus Christ," Trevor said as he raised a hand and gently caressed her cheek. Trevor gasped again when he saw his hand. The skin on the back of his hand was taut. The scar that he had gotten when he was 12 from trying to skateboard was gone. He turned his palm over and gazed.

"What the hell is going on Trev, come on man, talk to me. Are you okay?" The stranger said.

"Who are you?" Trevor said, turning to the man.

"It's me, Dewey. Do you not recognize me?"

"Dear God no."

"Oh shit," Dewey said, "I think you glitched man. Did you rip out the cord?"

Trevor raised his hand to his head. He rubbed at the indention. "Yeah, I didn't, I didn't know what the hell that was."

"Jesus, Trev. Why'd you do that?" Dewey said as he pushed past Trevor. He grabbed onto the cord that was attached to Serenity's head and twisted.

"What are you doing to her?" Trevor asked.

"I'm waking her up, she's gonna enjoy the shit out of this," Dewey said.

"How long is it gonna take?"

"Maybe 5 minutes tops, depending on how far yal got into the game," Dewey replied, trying to contain his laughter.

"This isn't funny. What the hell is going on?" Trevor yelled.

"Trev, man, I don't know how far you got in the game, so I don't know what technology you remember, or even what year you and Sere picked. Umm, you know what video games are, right?"

Trevor nodded.

"Okay, uhh, what year was it? What year do you remember?"

"2014."

"Okay, uhh, yeah, I think I read about that era in history class a few months back. Yeah, okay. Now, go ahead and sit down and I'll try to explain this to you. This is so fucking cool, Sere is gonna flip."

Frank grabbed a hold of Trevor's arm and guided him over to the couch. "Sit sit sit, you goof."
 
Trevor sat down, and Frank did the same next to him after throwing the bag of cheese puffs to the side.
"Okay," Frank said, "what you think was real life was actually a very popular massive multiplayer online virtual reality game, MMOVRG, or 'movers', as the gaming community like to call them. You and Sere were playing, hopefully co-op. She didn't cheat on you did she? Or did her psycho-ass stab you?"

"No, no, we were getting mugged," Trevor said. The words felt alien in his mouth. They left his tongue feeling numb. "We had just gotten done with a dinner date, we were just walking," Trevor continued speaking, using his hands to rub at his own face. He jerked his hands away when he found that the wrinkles that were once covering his face were gone.

He looked over to Dewey, "How old am I?"

"Uhh, shit man, you're 21st was just last month, here, stand," Dewey said, pulling on Frank's arm. He pointed with a still cheesy finger towards a mirror that had been hanging on the wall.

Trevor stood and gazed into the mirror, eyes widening in disbelief when he saw that the man that he had saw in the mirror that morning while shaving was now replaced with a young adult who still had the random zit sprawled across his forehead.

He brought his hand up to touch at his forehead, but found that he had trouble lifting it. The room began to darken, his nose became runny, and his head started to spin. He wobbled a few steps back. Dewey put a hand on his shoulder.

"Trev, stay with me man, oh fuck I'm not gonna be able to carry you if you fucking pass ou-


Trevor opened his eyes. He was back in the recliner in the messy bedroom. Standing to his side was Serenity. She was smiling at him. Seeing her so young made Trevor's heart flutter.

"You saved my life, you nerd," she whispered to him.

Trevor tried to sit up, but felt his head jerk back. He reached a hand up and felt the cord was again attached to his head. His first instinct was to remove it.

"No, don't do that," Serenity softly spoke, gently removing his hand from the cord. "It's gonna be okay, please trust me. You're going to hear someone speak, and you'll remember everything. Just relax, close your eyes."

Trevor began to hyperventilate. Sweat beaded out on his forehead. All he wanted to do was sit up and hold her in his arms.

A loud booming voice echoed in his ears, "Please wait as current memories are reloaded, please take this moment to reflect back on your experience."

"I need to get up," Trevor said, trying to pull away from the recliner again.

Serenity pushed him back down with a firm hand. She leaned forward and kissed him.

"Beginning reload," the voice echoed.

His eyes widened.

While visiting earth, a demon severely injures himself and finds himself completely at the mercy of a local pastor that stumbles upon him.

"Only one slice of pepperoni Father Louie?" the zitheaded clerk asked.

"Just Louie right now," Louie said as he loosened his collar. He had forgotten to remove it after that evening's sermon. "I'm trying to ease up on the grease, Kurt."

Kurt snickered, "But it would mean that you'd meet God all the much sooner if you had the extra slice.."

Listen here you little shit, Louie wanted to say, but he held back. The last thing he needed to do as a new pastor in the city would be to start his own rumors.

Louie is a child rapist! Louie is fat! Louie is just, well, kinda weird.

"Well, Kurt, doesn't mean I don't want to enjoy the life the Lord gave me first before I do meet him, don't I?"

Kurt paused a moment. "So, you do want the extra slice?"

Louie sighed. He had decided to allow himself 5 publicly spoken cuss words a year, and he was about to spend his first one. It was January 3rd.

"Fuck off pizza-face," Louie said as he slapped $2 onto the counter. The surprised look was well worth the first use of the cuss word. Louie smiled as he turned away, lifting the greasy slice of pizza to his mouth. He exited the small pizza parlor, wanting to look back and cherish the look on the face of Kurt, but he felt it'd look cooler if he just continued to walk out.

His small apartment was a few blocks away. It'd take him 30 minutes to arrive if he followed the streets, but he knew it'd only take him 15 if he just cut through the alleyways. It was well worth it to him; he'd avoid the bustling traffic of the city and the noisy pedestrians walking to and fro chattering on their new smart phones to their "bae". Definitely well worth it.

Louie was down to the crust of the pizza when he arrived at the last alleyway separating him and his apartment. There were a few dumpsters lined against the brick walls of the neighboring apartment building and Louie had to make the quick decision of whether to stuff the pizza crust down his gullet or lose what was left of his appetite when he inhales the rotten odors emanating from the trash bins.
He decided to compromise by taking the pizza crust and biting off half and throwing the rest to the side. Father, that is littering, but he shrugged. That rats had to eat too.

A hand shot out from the side of the dumpster and grabbed onto Louie's pant leg, nearly causing him to choke on the chewed up crust in his mouth. He gagged on the crust, leaned forward, and vomited all over the person who had been sitting behind the dumpster.

"Jesus fuck!" Louie sputtered as he finally recomposed himself. He took several breaths and wiped the tears from his eyes, the taste of pizza mixed with stomach acid still on his tongue. "I'm so sorry, I-

And Louie froze as he saw that what he thought was a bum was actually what appeared to be a bum, but with bright red horns protruding from his forehead. He was laying face first in the moist muck that was now mixing with freshly chewed mozzarella.

Louie went rigid, wondering if Kurt had somehow managed to slip LSD onto the pizza without him noticing. The thought was pushed aside when the bum with horns tugged at his pant leg again.
"Hey," the bum muttered, "can you help me?"

Louie blinked his eyes several times, wishing that the horns would disappear with each blink. But they remained. He blinked some more, but it helped none.

"Uhh, I, uhh, you have, ehh," Louie stuttered.

The bum reached up to his head, grasping hold of one of his own horns. He turned his head to the side, laying his cheek into the vomit. He let out a slow wheezing sigh, "I'm already losing form. Please, I need you to help me."

Louie would have vomited again if he hadn't already done so. He took a few moments to assess the situation. It would've been easier to have just kicked the bum in the face and run off to his apartment, but there would possibly be consequences for kicking a demon in the face. Louie decided it was best to just be honest.

"I'm a fucking priest!" Louie slightly yelled in a weak attempt to assert dominance. He figured his best plan of offense would to be to quickly show that he was in power.

"I don't care," the bum said in between coughs. Each inhale had to have been mixed with fumes of Louie's vomit.

"I, uhh, but, there's the whole thing, with like," Louie stammered.

"Just help me, please, I don't harm anyone," the bum said.

Louie looked around the alleyway, hoping to God that there was someone else watching, someone else to help share this ridiculous burden, but there were was no one to be found.

"How do I know you're not going to just gut me or something, something demons do, I dunno what you guys do, but it couldn't be good for people like me, ya know?"

"You won't know, but you have my word, I won't do anything," the bum spoke, his voice now beginning to crack.

"Yeah, you know, I watch the movies, I know how these things go. I'm going to help you, and you'll do demon things to me," Louie said, now becoming agitated. Out of all the people in the world he would be the one to end up having an encounter with a demon.

"Then just walk away, someone else will probably come by," the bum muttered. He let go of Louie's pant leg.

Louie sighed. "Look, I wouldn't even know how to help you."

"Just go," the bum said, slapping at Louie's leg, "just go, someone else will come. Someone else more capable of wearing that damn collar than you."

The words stung at Louie like a flurry of wasps that were claiming territory on his chest. "Shit, I'm going to regret this," Louie spoke as he knelt down and grabbed a hold of the bum's frail arm. He grunted as he picked up the bum into a kneeling position, placed the bum's arm over his shoulder, and they stood up. "But if you do gut me or some sick shit like that, at least I know I'll be going to the pearly gates."

"I guess, that's a good way to look at it," the bum sputtered.
The two made their way to Louie's apartment.