Mortality

[Melbourne, Australia. Year: Christmas Eve 2019]

Beep. Beep. Beep.

His chest rising and falling with every beep emitted from the monitor. Alex studied his own features. They placed the surgical tape over his eyes with their long lashes.

Nurses shaved his head for easy maintenance. He used to have long dirty blonde hair which was tied in a ponytail.

His house of a body, but nobody was home.

"Come to think of it, I wasn't so bad looking," he said to the only companion next to him, Kanghui, who seemed more fascinated with the hospital gadgets.

One shrill screech of a machine among the eight he counted in the room, and a nurse came running in to check the three slim plastic tubings attached to a three-way chamber of a tiny plastic hallow needle inserted into his heart.

"Central venous catheter. That's where they are running those saline bags and morphine with propofol directly into your body," Kanghui pointed to the tall metal stand with two bags of different sizes and a machine pump holding a large syringe.

"Is the omniscience part of the package?" Alex asked sarcastically.

He wasn't very interested in those devices that supported his body. All looked too painful to imagine if he was actually inside his body.

She shrugged. "If you call studying medical textbooks and observing clinical procedures in the hospital omniscience."

Alex turned to face her with furrowed eyebrows. Why did she need to bother about studying the textbooks? She had powers beyond his understanding. Heck, even Yata.

"Whatever technology humans come up with, we study it," she answered as though she read his thoughts. "It's entertaining, since humans make most of their significant discoveries by accident through partial theories."

"What do you mean?"

"Gunpowder was once a Chinese medication aimed at relieving symptoms related to the heart. Wonder how they knew this? Some poor sod tested it by mistake on himself. He got lucky while others… just die."

"Trial and error, I guess," Alex mumbled.

"Yeah, well, some of these lifesaving technologies had a gruesome origin," she noted with a morbid interest that made him cringe.

"Ok. I don't want to know more."

For the past few days or perhaps weeks trapped in that shrine, Yata had only given him an impression that they, the supernatural entities of the spiritual type, like a ghost or even a deity, didn't give a damn about humans. Not one bit.

Yet, Kanghui acted like a nerd, studying the ventilation machine. She appeared more like a scientist than a powerful deity.

Alex had never been religious, unlike his superstitious mother, who worshiped the gods of their ancestors and his father, who attended church.

His father baptised him as a baby in the church, but that didn't stop his mother from bringing him along to burn incense joss sticks in a temple to the Chinese gods of her ancestors.

Her child-like inquisitiveness made him curious as he watched her observing the two pumps screwed onto the metal pole where two bags of clear fluid and one white bag were hanging from the hooks.

"What are you looking at?" He asked.

"The medications they used to sedate you," Kanghui replied. "Propofol and morphine. Curious why propofol instead of phenobarbital?"

Alex didn't care to know the name of those drugs or even what they do to his body.

"Say, if I didn't mark myself on whatever thing on that site… what would have happened if I died?" He changed the topic.

"Free for all who come by. Result is different, depending on who comes by. Some don't have the third option of reincarnation. They trap the existing energy, but I know little about the reasons or how they process," came her swift reply.

The shuffling of feet outside his cubicle drew him away from those troubling thoughts to the two familiar faces peeking in.

It was his university classmates, Terry and Takeshi. Alex used to call them TNT for fun when they went out. Their eyes were visibly teary, and their noses were red from sniffling.

"Yes, you two can go in. Alex's father told us." Alex heard a nurse's voice. "They are still in the meeting with the doctors."

Takeshi bit his lip, hesitant to approach with something in his hand, while Terry went up next to the head of the bed, looking around the sterile-looking room with its machine.

"Hey man, I don't know what to say and I don't know if you can hear me. But you know, that site in Japan where we did the dig… Well, Professor Fujita and team send their best wishes. They called to ask about you. You know, you were right… it is a worship site of a very early Yayoi period - the carbon dating is in progress. So not a tomb, but little information exist about that chief deity…" Terry halted as he took a deep breath.

Takeshi took a few steps in and placed an omamori, a Japanese shrine charm, on the table while Alex watched on.

There was no point in trying to reach out to them.

Kanghui had granted him a certain temporary ability to see the human world beyond their dimensional shield, or whatever she called.

His hand would only slip through their bodies, as he tried to touch his mother's face a few times, to no avail earlier.

"Dude, we know you love history and archaeology," Takeshi said as he pulled himself together. "Fujita said that you might be interested to know that they also found hints of auxiliary deities - the Jomon gods, Mishakuji, you know those snakes."

Alex rolled his eyes at the mention of the Mishakuji. If Takeshi knew they were real, he would run while screaming like a little girl. Those were no gods, but just a couple of snake entities.

"Oh, and we found spider insignias. So animism, maybe older than Shinto?"

Alex turned and looked at Kanghui, who seemed like she was trying to stifle a laugh.

"That's why Yata is there?" He asked Kanghui. "He isn't really five hundred years old, is he? That's too young for the Jomon period."

With a smirk on her face, she said, "That's Yata's female fore-bearer. Yata and his brothers only came to us five hundred years ago."

"His great great-great grandmother or something to that effect? How come she isn't with him?"

"Spider relationships don't work out the same way as humans. She would still consume his energy if she can," Kanghui replied.

"Hold up… WHAT?" Alex frowned.

"Spiders don't have this feeling of ancestry or blood links. Why do you think his brothers and him are hiding out in my territory, instead of hers?" Kanghui raised an eyebrow.

"Because they are hiding from her?"

Kanghui nodded.

Another commotion outside the cubicle with the sound of his mother sobbing and pleading caught his attention. He followed the shuffling of Takeshi and Terry, who went over to the entrance of his cubicle to peek.

"D-DON'T L-Let t-them take him off… life support… t-there's hope…," his distraught mother was tugging his father's collar while he was trying to calm her down.

"N-no, I… can't… l-let go of my son. My boy… Oh MY BOY."

Takeshi stared at Terry and whispered, "don't tell me it's goodbye for him."

Alex stared at his weary looking father, who seemed older now.

Terry grimaced as the three watched the intensive care unit doctors dragged their feet out from the meeting room nearby. The defeated look on their faces and the shaking heads were confirmation of Alex's impending demise.

"We better leave, but let's say goodbye to him."

Alex watched on as the two went to the side of the bed where his body laid. They took turns holding his hand.

"Alex, you are a good friend and we will remember you. We… are very sorry to… see you in… this state. Takeshi, what should I say? Do you think he can hear us?"

"I don't know. It's difficult… but I hope there is something… wait, is he Christian?" Takeshi looked flustered.

"I don't know. But yeah, we will miss you. Maybe see you on the other side one day…," Terry said as he glanced at Alex's parents entering the cubicle.

An awkward moment passed before Alex's father said, "Terry, Takeshi. Thank you for coming. My wife and I appreciate it."

Terry and Takeshi mumbled their goodbyes and consolations. "We better go…"

"It's okay if you want to stay… it will… b-be… t-the last time y-you…," his father choked on the words.

"We can help to buy some coffee…" Terry offered as Takeshi nudged him to shut up and leave.

"Bloody chickens, they can't even see me off," Alex grumbled, knowing that it would be the last time he will see them in the hospital.

"It's hard for humans to watch a death," Kanghui said unsympathetically.

"Too hard for them to say goodbye?"

The rare smile broke over her face, and her cold eyes twinkled with mirth. "It reminds them of their own mortality - that no one escapes death."