The hot dog tasted delicious to me. Mustard and ketchup dripped down onto my pink blouse as I gobbled down the food. I didn’t really care that I slopped on myself, my clothes were already ruined with blood stains. I washed down the food with a soda drink. As I ate I leaned against the front counter of the store trying to relax… at least a little bit.
The old man looked at me and smiled.
“Taste good?” he asked.
Trying not to be impolite, I chewed my food quickly several times and swallowed before answering.
“Really hits the spot. Thanks!” I said.
“That’s good. Customers always seem to like hot dogs.”
I had been eating and drinking for several minutes after re-entering the convenience store. The store caretaker had offered me food when I said I was hungry. I didn’t have any money to pay for anything, but he didn’t seem to care. My gut feeling about this guy was proving to be correct. He had a quiet and friendly demeanor, but seemed odd in many respects. Everything in my life had been strange since waking up, so abnormal was starting to feel normal.
“Say, I didn’t get your name. Do you have one?” I asked.
“My name is Adathan.” he replied.
Adathan?
That seemed familiar to me for some reason. I knew that name from somewhere, even though it was a very uncommon name. Perhaps that’s why it stuck in my head. I kept thinking about it, hoping that I might recollect its origin.
“Nice to meet you, Adathan! My name is Hannah… Hannah Jones.”
“Hello Hannah, do you require anything else?”
The litany of questions I wanted to ask bounced around inside my head. Where am I exactly? What is Limbo? Can I get back home again? Who are you? I had so many questions, but decided to start with something innocuous.
“Why am I stuck in a Mega Mart?”
He chuckled and his full belly rolled in waves. As he laughed, puffs of smoke blew out his nostrils. He held his tobacco pipe to his lips pausing as he realized that there wasn’t any smoke left to draw. He stood up from behind the cashier counter and pulled out an ashtray. Then dumped the remains of the spent tobacco into it.
“My dear, you aren’t stuck here, you can go anywhere you want.”
He then started refilling his pipe with more tobacco. Usually, I disliked the smell of smoke, but his tobacco smoke was more pleasant than usual. It had a sweetness to it that made me feel calm and relaxed.
“I drove for the last hour and this was the only place I could get to.” I replied.
“You can go anywhere you want, but a wisp is usually anchored to a single location when they first arrive in Limbo.”
“What is a wisp?”
“That’s what you are my dear. You are a wisp.”
I was still very skeptical about my situation, so I was having difficulty believing anything he was telling me. I knew that things weren’t normal, but it all felt like a bad dream. I was hoping that it was a nightmare that I’d wake up from eventually.
He saw the confusion on my face and continued.
“A wisp is a type of spirit. All those who arrive in the afterlife have a certain classification. You are a wisp, indeed a very rare type of spirit. That was why I had previously called you a fresh one. I haven’t encountered a wisp in a long time. You are a very rare spirit my dear!”
“What does a wisp do exactly? Do I haunt convenience stores or something?” I said sarcastically.
“No, nothing like that. In the afterlife, a wisp is a powerful spirit. You might not understand at the moment, but eventually you will. Wisps are able to do things that no others can do.”
“Great!” I said.
I still doubted anything I was hearing. I didn’t feel dead. I wasn’t floating above my dead body. No bright lights had I seen, and I didn’t hear angels calling to me. I was stuck eating a hot dog inside a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
“Do you have your token with you? That might help to get you settled.” he asked.
“What do you mean? What is a token?”
A look of concern crossed Adathan’s face as he realized I didn’t know what he meant. He looked around the convenience store and out the front windows, as if he was searching for something. He crossed around the cashier counter to stand closer to me. He was a huge man standing well over six feet and half feet tall with a wide overbearing physique. I hadn’t realized his height when he was seated previously. His long white beard flowed down to his gut. Adathan was wearing cargo shorts and sandals along with his Hawaiian shirt. He looked like an old hippy from the sixties.
“Oh, my dear, that’s unfortunate. Every spirit arrives in Limbo with their token, the fact that you don’t have one is a major problem.”
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“Adathan, what is a token!?”
“A token is the physical manifestation of your life’s essence. It gives spirits access to their powers, provides insight, and allows them to track their progress in the afterlife. It is essential and I’ve never encountered a spirit without a token.”
“What does it look like?” I asked.
“A token is a very personal item and is…” Adathan voice trailed off.
Suddenly, I felt a heavy thump coming from the ground. It rattled the store shelves. A can of soda pop fell to the floor, cracked open, and sprayed liquid in all directions. Adathan went rigid as a statue as he assessed the disturbance. I knew it wasn’t an earthquake, but whatever it was shook the foundations of the store.
Adathan moved with lightning speed to stand right next to me. He grabbed my shoulder in a protective way, as if he was readying to shield my body against an oncoming threat.
“Hannah, my dear, we don’t have much time, so please answer me quickly. Have you seen or spoken to anything else since your arrival in Limbo?” he asked.
“I… I saw something in a courier truck. Inside the vehicle was a man, but he had tentacles coming out of his mouth.” I replied.
A grave look of concern crossed his face. Until this point Adathan had seemed like an ordinary pleasant old man, but his demeanor changed completely. He looked serious and grave concern washed over his face.
An old leather bound book appeared out of nowhere in his right hand and he handed it to me.
“Take this book. It can be your temporary token until you recover your own.”
He grabbed my chin delicately with his massive hand and tilted my head up so he could look me straight in the eyes.”
“Now Hannah, go and hide, I will protect you! Don’t come out for any reason!”
Another huge thump rocked the Mega Mart. It nearly knocked me off my feet. Dozens of items fell off the store shelves and I could hear glass breaking. A pipe broke near the fountain drink dispensers and water started gushing out onto the floor.
“Go Hannah!” Adathan urged.
I didn’t know what was going on, but I clutched the book to my chest and scanned the convenience store for someplace to hide. I quickly spotted a short hallway at the back of the store. I ran into the corridor and saw two doors on opposite sides. One door led to the public washroom. I tried it, but it was locked. I tried the other door marked with an exit sign and it was also sealed shut.
I had nowhere else to go!
Seeing a few crates of soda pop sitting on the floor I decided to duck down behind them.
From my prone position I could see Adathan standing near the storefront, his back to me, looking out the front windows. In his right hand he held a large golden sword with a distinct glow to the blade. I didn’t know where the sword had come from, but at this point nothing surprised me. He stood in an offensive pose and seemed ready for whatever was to come.
Through the darkness outside I could see something push through the fog. A large shadow moved up closer to the storefront. The head of a giant creature emerged from the mist. Its face was the size of a pickup truck and it had several rows of teeth across its gaping mouth. Its cranium appeared unworldly and was covered with thick black hair. The ears were pointy and it had many small horns dotting its forehead. The skin of the creature was colored a dark burgundy and slime dripped from every skin fold.
The beast pushed its head right up to the glass.
Its grotesque yellow eyes darted in a zigzag pattern as it searched inside the store. It spotted Adathan, reared back its head, and roared an inhuman bellow the likes of which I had never heard in my life. Spittle from the beast splashed across the windows and several panes of glass cracked.
I covered my ears as I froze in terror. The book Adathan had given to me fell on the floor and randomly opened onto the first page.
When I looked down, I saw text written on the page:
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Name: Hannah Jones
Points: 0
Power: 1
Death Level: 1
Type: Wisp
Location: Limbo
PRNL (points to reach next level): 99
Items: Black Car
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What the heck was this?
It was like seeing statistics from a role playing game. Previously, I had a boyfriend that played RPG’s on gaming consoles. I had played a bit with him, but never really got into it. I did know the basic concepts, so I could comprehend what I was looking at.
My name was shown at the top of the page and I was listed as a Wisp, exactly as Adathan had told me.
I quickly flipped the page over to see further inside the book.
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[Monster]
Name: Kerberus
Points: 190
Power: 9
Type: Fiend
Location: Limbo
Weakness: Fire
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Below the statistics on the page was an ink drawing of the monster outside the gas station. It was a mix of human and dog. Its head was oval shaped, but it had a dog’s ears. The back of the kerberus was covered in a thick fur and it had front arms tipped with deadly claws. The back legs looked like they belonged to a dog.
It was a hideous beast!
“You’re not allowed in here!” yelled Adathan.
The head of the beast smashed through the storefront. Glass and metal debris went flying in all directions. I ducked as a chunk of metal landed near me. The kerberus roared and again I was forced to cover my ears.
The monster reached out its claws trying to seize Adathan around his midsection.
The big man swiftly dodged to one side, swung his sword, and severed two of the beast’s talons. Bellowing, the monster smashed upwards into the ceiling and tore away part of the roof. The lights of the Mega Mart started flickering and electrical sparks splashed across the landscape. Adathan was sent flying across the store and I lost sight of him in the confusion.
Debris started falling everywhere from the crumbling ceiling. A live electrical wire crashed down in front of me.
“Ah!” I yelled in fright.
Jumping backwards I had narrowly escaped electrocution. I continued to back away to the end of the corridor. I didn’t know if it was even possible to be electrocuted in Limbo, but I didn’t want to find out.
My startled scream attracted the monster and it looked straight at me. Doggedly, the beast focused its eyes on me and started bulldozing through the aisles to reach me. It was then I realized that I was in really big trouble.
I was scared out of my mind!
My escape route was blocked by the live wire. No knowing what to do I decided to ram my body into the exit door. Nothing. I did it again - harder! It didn’t budge. I did the same to the washroom door, but it was shut tight.
My mind raced as I watched the creature crawl to the beginning of the hallway. It blocked my escape.
I was trapped!