by Ivan Kal
Morgan blinked at that. Little g? Then he frowned at the name and the way the man said it. “Is that name supposed to be some kind of a reference or an inside joke?” Morgan asked. “Because if it is, I have no idea what it means.”
The man closed his eyes and covered his face. “Calm, calm… What do they teach these kids in schools these days…” The man muttered in his hands. Then he finally took a deep breath and looked at Morgan in a way that someone might look at a child. “It doesn’t matter. I just liked the name.”
Morgan narrowed his eyes. There was a glimmer of something in Oxylus’ eyes, but he had no idea what it meant. “Whatever you say, Oxy.”
Oxy narrowed his eyes at Morgan but then took another deep breath. Morgan felt something, and then glanced down the tunnel at the bright light. There was something there—something pulling him forward. It was almost as if he could hear a song somewhere in his head, promising things that he couldn’t really understand, as if they were just at the edge of his understanding.
Then he turned to Oxy as another thought occurred to him. “Wait, are you some kind of a ghost, a ferryman or something like that? Here to take me to the afterlife?” Morgan asked, turning back from the light.
Oxy grinned at him. “Nope, I’m not a ghost, seeing as I am not dead, unlike you. And I am not here to ferry you to the afterlife. If you want to see what is beyond, all you have to do is walk into the light. I am here to make you an offer before you decide to go through or the light pulls you in.”
Morgan glanced at the light nervously. “What kind of an offer?”
“A new life,” Oxy said with a glimmer in his eyes.
“You can bring me back from the dead?” Morgan asked, surprised, and then immediately felt fearful. He had played enough games to know all about zombies and other crap, and he did not plan on selling his soul or binding himself to some strange dude in a diving suit.
“Yup, I can give you a new life. And before you ask, I mean new life. I am not going to send you back to your little world and your old life.”
“Why not?” Morgan asked, just a bit crushed. Already he had started thinking about all the things he would change in his life if he got to go back.
“Because I gain nothing from you continuing your life on Earth. And let’s face it, you weren’t doing much with your life anyway.”
For a moment Morgan prepared to deny Oxy’s words, but he stopped himself. The strange god-but-not-god man in a wet suit was right. Morgan hadn’t really done much with his life. He had already repeated a year at college, and would probably drop out by the end of the year. Or rather would have dropped out, had I not died instead.
“What are you offering, then? And just so you know, I ain’t selling my soul to you, and this better not be some Sauron type of shit where you seduce me and then corrupt my soul!” Morgan told him in what he thought was a resolute tone of voice.
The man chuckled. “You have nothing to worry about. I don’t want your soul, nor do I want to corrupt and dominate it. All that I am offering is a new life on a new world, a new reality.”
“Uh… Say what again?”
“I want to give you a chance to start a new life on another world.”
Morgan blinked; that did sound appealing. Especially since he was, like, totally dead, and like totally not about to go into a strange singing light. No way in hell or heaven am I stepping through that shit.
“Why me?” Morgan asked dumbly, as he tried to figure out the answer to the same question. It wasn’t like Morgan was anything special; well, maybe to his grandma, who always said that he was her special little boy, but he was fairly certain that her opinion didn’t matter much to the not-God-dude.
“Okay, it’s simple really,” Oxylus explained. “I would take you—or rather your soul here,” he said, gesturing at Morgan, “and then I would give you a new body and send you to another realm, my realm. You see, when I was younger I’ve really liked video games similar to what you’ve been playing while you had still been alive. Then, when I had a need to do some experiments, I made a universe from scratch as my playground. A universe that follows the rules similar to those in those kind of games. I would transport you and you can live out your life there. Once you die you will get back here to your tunnel and, well, you can go through there if you like, see what’s on the other side.”
Morgan blinked slowly as Oxy’s words seeped into his brain. “You are telling me that you, a dude that says he is technically a god, played video games?” he asked incredulously.
“Of course I did. What? Gods can’t play video games?”
“No, no, I just didn’t expect it is all. Right on!” Morgan extended his hand for a fist-bump. Oxy just stared at him with a blank expression on his face. Right. For a moment, Morgan wondered if he was imagining all of this, if he was perhaps dreaming—or maybe I’m in a coma. But he knew that he wasn’t. He didn’t know how he knew, but there was something inside of him that told him with no uncertainty that he was no longer living. He was dead, and he was supposed to walk toward the light, and staying where he was would result in him disappearing into nothingness. He pulled his hand back and returned the man’s gaze.
“So what do you say?” Oxy asked.
“I feel like there is a lot that you are not telling me,” Morgan said slowly. Something about the man in front of him frightened Morgan unlike anyone else ever had. More even than that one time when a spider fell on his keyboard and walked over his hand and Morgan screamed like a little girl. Morgan shuddered as he remembered—frickin’ spiders, man.
“Well, of course I’m not telling you everything. I’m older than some universes. There is a lot that I know.”
Morgan swallowed audibly. He couldn’t really wrap his mind around anything being that old. Then again, the dude might just be lying to me, he thought to himself. He opened his mouth to speak, but Oxy spoke first.
“Look, I really have no time to explain everything to you. You are dead, and you can go toward the light and the afterlife—if it exists. I am not planning on going to check. Or you can accept my offer and get to live again, it’s as simple as that.”
Morgan was certain that it wasn’t as simple as that, but he also knew that he really didn’t want to walk into the light. He hadn’t been very religious before he died, a great shame to his mother, but he really didn’t want to go through and then see that all the stuff she’d been telling him was the truth. With my luck I would end up in hell; I’m pretty sure that stealing is a sin. Frickin’ Marcus and his dumb bubblegum. He would much rather extend his stay in the land of the living, thank you very much. It wasn’t really a choice for him.
“All right, I’ll give you my answer if you answer two questions. First, what do you get out of this? And second, why me? I seriously doubt that you give this offer to everyone that dies.”
Oxylus sighed impatiently and then nodded to himself. “Fine. I said that I am running an experiment—what I get from this is information that helps my research, and that is as much as I am willing to say. As to why you…well, I am trying something new. Until now I’ve been making this offer to people I believed were more suited to my needs, warriors, soldiers, and the like. Those, I thought, could give me what I wanted, but the results I’ve been getting aren’t all that impressive. Now I am trying something else, and I am extending the offers to people like you as well. I am offering a new life, and if you gain enough strength and if you reach the end of the Tower of Power, I shall grant you a great reward.”
“People like me?” Morgan asked, confused, and then he understood. “You mean gamers?”
“Yes, and hopefully this won’t be a waste of my time. Now, what is your answer?” Oxylus asked.
Morgan mulled it through one last time, even though he knew what he was going to say. A chance to live again, and in a world where everything would be like in his games? That wasn’t a choice at all. “This reward you offer, can you bring me back to Earth?”
Oxy rolled his eyes. “I
can’t think of any reason why you would want to go back there, but sure, if that is what you want.”
“Then I agree.” Morgan nodded, spit on his hand and put it out for a handshake.
Oxy just stared at Morgan’s extended hand without reaching out, then looked Morgan in the eyes and blinked at him as if he were insane.
Right, Morgan thought to himself, pulling his hand back and wiping it on his pants. How in the hell did I even manage to spit on my hand if I’m dead? Morgan wondered.
Oxy then tilted his head and pointed his palm at Morgan. Then he grinned, and Morgan felt heat radiating from the center of his chest—but then it changed, as if something in the core of his being shifted. “Great,” Oxy said, and stepped closer. “Now, I am in a bit of hurry, so we should get this over with. Oh, and I will need a piece of your soul first.”
“What?” Morgan asked, but he had no chance to react before Oxy slammed his hand through Morgan’s chest. Morgan glanced down only to see Oxy’s hand elbow deep inside his chest. “Mother fucke—” Then there was only pain.
