“Dr Abernathy!” John could feel himself stir at the sound of his name. He opened his eyes, and was puzzled by all of the familiar faces surrounding him. John blinked rapidly to dispel the hazy fog of sleep. He wanly smiled at Paul, his every trusty assistant who looked pale with concern.

Paul wasted no time and John sighed as his assistant started questioning him. John closed his eyes as he listened to Paul. It turned out John had been missing for three days. When they found him he was half dead and severely dehydrated. “We never would have found you if it wasn’t for a local boy.” Paul said, his voice warm with relief. “He led us right to you! One of the nurses went to go get him. He was so concerned about you.”

John flinched at that news and his eyes shot open fearfully. He could feel flight or fight urging him to run. So John’s body instinctively jerked as he tried to get up from the bed to flee. The IV trapped him and he could feel hysteria building in his chest.

The door to his hospital room opened and John looked up fearfully to see the child in question.

It was indeed the precocious Mordecai. As John stared into the boy’s amused eyes, he finally remembered how he fell underground. The memory enveloped him as he fell into the boy’s ebony eyes.

“Do you want to play a game?” A handsome boy peered up at John as he stood at the archaeology site examining the coin.

There were a lot of rumors around the site and about what happened to his predecessors. John was intent on proving it all wrong and unlocking all the secrets the site held. The locals avoided it but the discovery of it to the public brought on droves of scholars until people started dying. Now even those tourists and scholars avoided this site. It became rare to see anyone else here, let alone a child.

“If you can hold my Acuzio for more than ten seconds, I’ll take you into the underground shrine.” The boy said as he held up a lizard and grinned charmingly at John.

John looked at the lizard in question. What was the harm in holding it? It seemed relatively harmless and if the boy had helpful information, why not? Most of the locals avoided answering any questions or gave vague responses about curses. “So, it’s a shrine?” He’d never gotten far enough to determine that. How did this child know it? The boy nodded and John’s confusion grew. John opened his mouth to ask another question but stopped himself. Why was he looking this gift horse in the mouth? A local was finally reaching out to help, “Okay I agree to play with you.”

The boy chortled as he lifted the lizard and placed him on John’s exposed forearm.

Instant burning agony had John screaming as instinct told him to get the lizard off. The sizzling crackle of his skin let off the most effluvium smell possible. He reached to get it off with his free hand, but upon touching it, he howled. Pain more intense than anything he had ever felt reverberated him to his core. The boy stood in front of him counting down. He clapped with each number as he jumped in time. “4, 3, 2 ,1! You did it congrats!” The boy easily grabbed the lizard and placed him on his shoulder.

John saw white as he fought the desire to pass out. He sank to his knees as blood rushed to his head. The ground beneath him started to shake and seemed to evaporate before his eyes. He tried to crawl away but the more he moved, the faster he sank.

John watched in horror as he started to disappear into the earth. The man desperately looked for help and his eyes connected with the boy. The ground beneath the boy’s feet was solid and unaffected. Undeterred by the trials of John the boy simply watched. Upon locking eyes with him the child’s lips twisted into an amused grin. “I said I’d take you there, but I didn’t say it would be pleasant.” That smile was the last thing John saw as his world turned black.

He must have woken up underground after that. Present-day John thought as he looked at his arm which became a testament for what he went through. It was bandaged as was his right hand. Just by touching Acuzio John had been burned, how was that possible? More questions arose one after another. What was real? Why did he not see his arm damaged underground? Did that mean that he could go back to the shrine? Should he even go back to the shrine? The boy had never been a gift horse but a trojan monster.

John looked up and saw Mordecai watching him with the same amused eyes. The boy was wearing jeans and a basic white t-shirt while Acuzio rested on top of his head. Mordecai looked normal but he clearly was not. Nothing about this kid was normal, not even his lizard made sense. “What are you!? Are you really a child?!” John’s words ripped out of him before he could stop himself. Everyone but Mordecai recoiled from John’s shrieking. The frantic man paid no heed to them; he only had eyes for Mordecai.

Mordecai casually shrugged, “Depends on the day. Make sure to get some rest, Doctor. I haven’t had this much fun in ages! I can’t believe you managed to surprise me. It’s been forever since someone has amused me this way. After you’re done with the extraction of the shrine, I’ll find you again to play another game.” Mordecai clasped his hands together and giggled, the picture of innocence. The boy’s dark black eyes started to glow like hot embers simultaneously ruining any hope that he was innocent. John wouldn’t be fooled again!

The last thing John heard was the boy’s laughter as he passed out exhausted and determined to escape this nightmare.

Temporary insanity due to excessive heat stroke and dehydration. This diagnosis gave John a bit more credibility with his temporary lapse of judgment. Screaming at the child who found him didn’t exactly earn John any brownie points. What it did earn the discredited loony doc was extended bed rest and a daily pill regimen.

Instead of fighting this John accepted his pills happily. What he was downing might as well be candy for the happiness they brought him. Sweet blissful numbness silenced his brain and erratic memories with every pill.

Therapy couldn’t help because anytime John opened his mouth to confess what he endured his slowly healing arm began to burn. The more neurotic John couldn’t help feel like it was a warning.

It took some time but just as John was began to feel better he was soon questioned about the disappearance of Mordecai. No one locally claimed the boy and no one had seen him for some time. It was almost as if he had never truly existed. John had the scars and the coin however that proved it was all true. There were also more than a dozen eye witnesses to seeing the boy yet not even a camera caught his exit. The last thread of sanity snapped in John’s mind. In a room full of professionals he was the only sane one. No one else was willing discern the truth.

The tenuous foundation of healing and acceptance John had painstakingly crafted crumpled when he realized this.

Mordecai may have disappeared in his everyday life but the boy continued to haunt him. The last image of Mordecai’s burning eyes came to him at night. Slumber soon eluded the doctor as he remained too fearful to get out of bed to check. Was the trickster still watching him?.

All in all John was not okay.

Finally desperate to move on, John threw away the coin and fled to New York the moment he got a clean bill of health. He picked up a teaching position and abandoned any notion of going back to the shrine. He let Paul take on the task of clearing and documenting everything. At least that was supposed to happen, but tragedy struck when Paul entered the shrine. John could recall that bone chilling phone call with precision as Paul shakily described how it all disappeared before his eyes.

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Mordecai said that he could take from the shrine, he didn’t say anyone else could. John was becoming far too familiar with the trickster, and he loathed this understanding that was growing between them.

It had been six months now however and he hadn’t seen the kid. John was free!

So, John decided to attend a ball posing as a fundraiser. The richly decked out elite would show up and donate when the mood struck. John would be there ready to collect for Paul.

Wearing his finest suit John scanned the droves of people dressed even more richly than himself. Among the loud whispers and thick scents were guarded smiles and judgy glances. It was horrible but normal life, not tricksters and dragons. John breathed it all in and he relaxed his shoulders and started rubbing elbows.

Time passed and John tried a sip of wine. He made a face at the sour unimpressive taste. That wine Mordecai gave him spoiled him for life when it came to any other drink. It had been six months, but he couldn’t get it out of his head.

“It's not to your liking?” A woman’s soft throaty chuckle inquired and prompted John to turn around. His denial died on his lips when he saw her. Long sunset hair tumbled down the woman’s back and shone in the lights. The fiery color drew attention to it and John’s eyes followed it down before looking up. The woman’s dark brown eyes were amused as her lips curved into a small smile. She lifted a well arched eyebrow and tilted her head, “Well?”

John gulped when he realized he had been staring at the woman’s hair and rudely ignored her question. “No, it’s not that I…” John said as he stumbled over the right words. This wine was supposed to be aged just right. The wealthy wouldn’t have anything less than the best in their cups. “I…”

“Just had better?” The woman said as her smirk grew. John chuckled nervously as she said the words he was thinking. “So, have I. Just try not to look so pitiful.” She said with a playful tone. Her bell-like laughter tickled John’s ears but he was no longer moved as before. Her smile looked familiar. John’s mouth grew dry as he tried to soothe his heart that rapidly picked up its thrashing.

“You’re Doctor John Abernathy, right? I’ve heard so much about you.” The woman said with a softer smile on her face.

“Yes I am.” John cleared his throat and tried to focus on what she was saying. He was being silly. There was no way her smile looked familiar. This was the first time he met the woman. “Uh what should I call you?”

The woman's laughter shook her frame and her silver blue dress shimmered. “Oh, I’ve been called many things. It might be more appropriate to call me Aphra in this form.”

John’s polite smile froze as he stiffened in shock. He watched in horror as a lizard peeked out from behind the woman’s neck.

“Oh doctor, I said I’d find you again for another game. You didn’t get to claim your prize last time, but I have created a new one for you…where are you going?” Aphra’s last words barely reached John as he took off running.

The man knew it was pointless, but he had to try right? He ran out of the venue knocking over people in his haste. He made it to the street and tried to hail a cab but when that failed started sprinting down the street instead. Be it rain or tears his vision was clouded and that would be why the poor man never saw the truck coming.

John’s body went flying and he could hear bones snap and crackle under the pressure. When he landed, he gasped sharply and let out a whimper. The noise around him dimmed as he laid on the hard wet ground.

“Oh dear.” Footstep approached and John groaned at their familiarity. “Look at what you’ve gone and done.” Aphra said with a tsk and a sigh. “How boring Acuzio he went and got himself killed. Oh? You think we should help him?” John watched Aphra crouch down and poke him in the cheek.

John despairingly recalled a memory of his older brother. A strange child, his brother, who often prodded bugs with sticks as he watched their last breaths. To Aphra that was probably all the man was. A bug flailing on the ground as the last drop of life evaporated from existence.

“He’s on death’s doorstep now, why should I bother? I was just starting to have fun in this form too.” Aphra said with pout and John grimaced.

“What are you?” He asked although by this point as everything grew darker around him, he knew. He wanted her to say it and prove he wasn’t just going insane. He hadn’t lost his mind and was correct about everything.

Aphra looked at him and chuckled. “You’re not using your last breath to ask for help? How curious. I’m amused again, Acuzio. Maybe I will save him to play some more.”

“Don’t.” John used every ounce of energy to make this final plea.

“You don’t want to play with me? Why does no one want to play with me? Acuzio, that is rude.” Aphra said sharply scolding the lizard, but John could barely make out her shape let alone the lizard as he drifted into eternal darkness.

It was with relief that his light was snuffed.

Or so he thought.

“John Abernathy!” A shapeless shadow blob called out his name and John opened his mouth to correct it. He was a doctor! Doctor John Abernathy! “The Keeper will see you and sort out your next life.”

How strangely bureaucratic the afterlife turned out to be, John thought as he stood up. It was divided into regions run by different deities. He ended up with one simply known as the Keeper for some reason. Anytime John asked why he was sorted this way he was met with silence. It was hard to be stared at, well assumedly stared at, by blobs that had no discernable shape or reason to them.

They shimmered around like gaseous blobs yet welded the power to run the afterlife lobby. A lobby overrun by all the souls of the departed.

That’s right John’s life was snuffed out and instead of peace was promptly placed in a lengthy lobby. Like any lobby, it was filled with people bored out of their minds just waiting their turn and for a glimpse of entertainment.

John kept his grumble to himself as he entered the office he was directed to. The door slammed shut and he flinched at the noise before turning back to look at the desk. He was in a much nicer office than before. The black walls had splashes of color due to the ornate birds that looked like they had been sloppily stamped by a kid. The mellow lights provided by the candles lining the walls barely lit up the room. They did make the birds shimmer and John could feel his eyebrows draw down at how they glimmered.

The sight of these birds brought a bubbled of panic as his brain began to spin. John gulped as he stuff these emotions down. Aphra was a trickster, not God who helped run the underworld…right?

With tentative eyes, John looked at the rest of the room. There was only one piece of furniture that stood out and it was a huge black desk.

A man sat at the desk and his long dark hair curled unkemptly around his face. He wore a purple suit that shimmered in the low lightning. The man grinned at him as he looked up from a file that had John’s name on it. “John! So happy to see you again.” John froze as his mouth fell open. Was that Acuzio perched around the man’s neck? John began to tremble as he shook his head afraid of his new reality. “Feel free to call me Mordecai instead of Keeper. After all, we have such history between us.” The man’s lips pulled back into a savage grin as he said these words.

John wanted to run but his knees gave out as he fell to the ground.

As if Mordecai didn’t see his panic attack, the man continued to speak, “I have so many fun games planned for you, John. I think you’ll get a kick out of them! And since you’re dead you don’t have to worry about dying again which I’m sure will be a relief.”

John shook his head. Death was supposed to be his relief! How did he get stuck in the afterlife with his woes?

Mordecai stood up from his desk and slowly approached a dark black cellarette. John blinked his eyes rapidly. That wasn’t there before was it? As the man tried to recall what the room looked like when he entered, Mordecai's words disrupted him.

“I hope the last six months were a good time. I got held up with familial duties and wasn’t able to come to see you. You look like you used the time wisely John.” Mordecai said as he pulled out an all too familiar jar of wine. This stone fertility jug was bigger than the one before and yet Mordecai only had one glass for it.

The sight of the drink made John parched as he watched Mordecai open the jar. The mouthwatering scent tickled John’s nostrils and he licked his lips nervously.

That wine tasted better than anything John had ever had, could ever have. He couldn’t forget it and in the last six months, he found himself unable to enjoy food or drink. Everything he put into his mouth tasted like it was two months past expiration. No more joy could be garnered from a cup of herbal tea or his favorite BLT sandwich. Due to this lackluster interest in food, John lost a lot of weight. The man had to resort to drinking his meals because he would choke when he tried to down anything solid. All he wanted was the cloying taste of perfection. But it was gone from his life until this moment.

Without realizing it John moved forward as he watched every drop pour tantalizingly slow into the glass. Time slowed down and even though in the background John could hear Mordecai speak, it was ridiculously slowed down and inaudible.

John watched Mordecai lift up the glass with bated breath. Instead of drinking it or offering it to John, Mordecai swirled the wine.