Afterlife Dilemma

Peace. Quiet. Serenity. Yes, it was a typical day in the afterlife, the home to the god Oasis. It was pleasantly warm, as every day was. The sun's light bounced off the cloud-like terrain, and a nice summer breeze was blowing.

The ruler of the afterlife was quite the busy person. Oasis was busy with her many counselling sessions. If she could help it, no one would suffer under her care. To ensure this, Oasis has taken it upon herself to console souls who've had particularly bad lives; one's that'd haunt them even after reincarnation. Over the centuries she'd gotten fairly good at it, too. Even despite her own arrangement of mental health issues. Some might say her problems would hinder her, but she'd argue it gives her more empathy.

Today's session was going on longer than expected, but Oasis continued on anyway. He could wait. They had eternity ahead of them, so Oasis might as well help someone who could still live. Still, being late threw off her schedule. The afterlife's second in command, Sandra, was very particular about schedules. Perhaps she had less empathy than Oasis, or maybe she just handled the responsibility of a god differently. Either way, she wasn't happy with Oasis's tendency to put others needs above the needs of the afterlife. She had already made her way to Oasis's session to get her back on schedule.

"Oasis, Hun, it's 4:47" Sandra said, with a hint of urgency and annoyance.

"What? Already? Goodness me, it's later than I thought." Oasis replied. "I suppose we'll have to wrap things up here. Thank you for the reminder, Sandra"

"Uh huh. That's my job" Sandra sighed. "Just try to pay more attention…"

With that, Sandra exited the room, Oasis following shortly after. She made her way to one of her private storage areas. There were many places in the afterlife that were only accessible to Oasis. Technically speaking, she had created it, so it's only natural that she'd have more access to it.

This room was unlike any other in the realm. Far off, away from any settlements, was a small cellar esque door. The door opened up to reveal a seemingly endless staircase. Oasis took a deep breath and began making her way down. The white, fluffy, cloud like material that made up most of the afterlife got darker the further down she went. At the bottom, it was almost like storm clouds. The light was dull, but not dark. Just dull enough to prevent shadows from being visible.

The staircase lead into a long hallway, with a door to the right and another hall to the left. Oasis walked to the door and went inside, closing it behind her. Sure, no one was following her, but this project was one of the afterlife's biggest secrets. Only the gods knew about it, and they were both determined to keep it that way. Word of this getting out would cause mass hysteria!

The room was bare, with no furniture aside from a cheap looking desk. On the desk was a toolkit, of sorts, as well as a few empty glass vials. It was time to get to work, and Oasis had to work fast. She wouldn't hear the end of it from Sandra if she wasted time.

Stepping up to the table, Oasis grabbed a small needle from the toolkit. With the needle in hand, she pricked her finger slightly, enough to draw blood. A brilliant glowing blue liquid dripped from her finger, causing the entire room to light up. She took one of the glass vials and let the drop of blood flow inside. Oasis put the needle back, and began adding ingredients to the vial until she had a vial full of a viscous blue liquid. Once she was done, she put everything away neatly and exited the room, vial in hand.

Now, down the second hallway. Halfway down, she stopped and took another deep breath. Her heart was pounding with anxiety. Why now? She had been doing this every week for years, yet every time she felt a brief wave of panic just before reaching the end of the hallway. She already knew how this would play out. He'd made some sort of witty remark about her perpetual exhaustion, offer to run the afterlife, then whine and complain about the situation until Oasis finally left. That's how it's always been, why would it ever be any different. After a quick breathing exercise, Oasis forced a tired smile and continued to the end of the hall.

At the end of the hallway was a cell. A prison cell. The only prison cell in all of the endless realm that was the afterlife. There was no need for any more, though. There was only one enemy in the afterlife.

"Ahh, there she is" a voice sang in a taunting manner. "Late again, are we?"

"My apologies" Oasis replied. "I got wrapped up with something"

"As always. My dear, we have eternity ahead of us. What's the harm in taking a vacation? I could watch over things while you rest" the voice sang in reply.

Inside of the cell was the last of the three gods, DC. He was lounging on the ground in a cat like manner, with an unnerving Cheshire grin on his face. The deep scars on either side of his mouth made his grin all the more unnerving. His three eyes looked over Oasis as she walked into his field of vision.

"Look, we both know the routine. I'm running late, can we make this quick?" Oasis asked softly.

The black cat remained in place, only bothering to glance at her while replying. "What, am I not worth your time? Why bother with me if you're so damn busy?"

Ah yes, there it was. The complaining. DC had been imprisoned for years, yet he somehow managed to find a new thing to complain about every week. Oasis was almost impressed with his pettiness. For someone as old as DC, he sure did act like a child. Then again, this was still new to him. 10, 20, even 100 years would seem like forever to a mortal. To a god, however, that was nothing. To him, it was like he'd only been here a few days.

"Come here, now. Let's get this over with"

"And why should I? I sure as hell don't wanna do this. Give me one reason to cooperate?" He hissed

With a snap of her fingers, followed by a brief glow of her aura, the cell DC was in shrank to half its size. This change pushed DC closer to the bars, giving Oasis easy access to the chains around his neck and wrists.

The chains had a dark red pattern that cut through the otherwise pure white material. She grabbed ahold of his left arm, causing him to shutter at the touch.

"Hey, be gentle now" DC said in a flirtatious manner.

This would have made Oasis blush, if he hadn't been reusing the same joke for years. Same joke, different wording, always with the same flirty tone. At first it made her uncomfortable, but now it was just annoying. Oasis ignored the comment and continued with her work.

The red pattern of the cuffs began to glow as she held the vial closer. Slowly, she dripped some of the liquid from the glass onto the chains, making sure to get none of the solution on his skin. The cuffs glowed a bright green, before fading back to the dark red. DC gritted his teeth as if he were in pain.

This continued until Oasis had used all of the solution on all of his chains. His playful, taunting expression turned completely blank and lifeless as it happened. By the end, he was just staring at the wall with a cold glare in his eyes. Oasis never knew what to say after this. She hated seeing anyone in pain, but this was necessary. He had to be neutralized. There was no other way.

"Well…" Oasis paused, looking to see if DC would turn to look at her. He didn't. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow for our counselling session, then"

DC remained silent, continuing to glare at the wall. Oasis waited an almost uncomfortable about of time before turning to leave. She walked down the hall in silence, just like every week, until she heard him speak. He had never said anything to her after the weekly neutralizing, so it caught Oasis by surprise.

"You can only push someone so far, my dear. Everyone has a breaking point. You can't keep me here forever"

The cold, heartless tone of his voice sent shivers down her spine. DC's voice was normally suave, taunting, and playful. She could tell he really meant what he said. As much as she wanted to reply, she continued walking down the hall and up the stairs in silence.

As serious as it was, did his threat have any weight behind it? Or was it just empty words? As much as she wanted the latter to be true, she couldn't shake the feeling that something big was coming. Perhaps it was time to use her foresight. Looking into the vast array of futures can bring much stress, but that didn't matter to her. She had to know. She had to be prepared for anything that the future held.