Whatever-Luna Fictions

"And that was how the deal came into fruition," said the old man, slowly and deliberately.

It has definitely been a long time since this blog has been updated. Thus, I update! Although, this story is a short, one-post-finished story, because I'll need a little more time to pick up where we left off (in JUNE?? SERIOUSLY??) on Another Other. Dakara..

"Malin, can you get the basket on the table for me?" asked Alex to his beautiful daughter.

"No problem daddy!" the cute 6 year-old replied with a beaming smile.

He could have done it himself, but asking her to do it instilled the sense of independence in her, and for some reason, he felt that she was going to need it. He didn't want his only daughter to end up a spoiled brat like most well-to-do only children that he knows, he thought as he climbed into the big SsangYong Rexton.

"What do you think you're doing?" Marlia's voice penetrating his pool of thought. "Why did you ask Malin to carry the basket? Why did we hire Mak Eton if we're just going to subject Malin to child labour?" the suppressed fury evident in the soft but angry tone in her voice.

Mak Eton carried both Malin and the aforementioned basket into the backseat of the MPV and buckled the child's seat belt, tugging at it twice to make sure that it was securely fastened. With a kiss on the cheek, Mak Eton closed the door and waved goodbye to the seemingly happy family that was off for a picnic in the park.

Alex didn't get to spend much time with his family as the firm took up most (if not all) of his time. Unlike other jobs, his didn't allow a whole weeks' holiday as the firm he was working in, although highly successful, was relatively a small one in size. There were only 4 lawyers on it, and him being the youngest of them all, took up most of the petty cases that turn up, which were quite a bit. It was even hard to locate a free weekend on his packed schedule. So on rare occasions like this, when cases weren't flying in, were times that he wanted to spend with his family. Scratch that, with his daughter, Malin.

Malin seemed to change every time Alex looked at her, more and more beautiful every time he laid his eyes on her. Oh, how quickly children grow up, he thought to himself as he glimpsed at his offspring through the rear-view mirror and broke a smile only a proud father could give.

"So how's kindie Malin?" Alex asked as he kept his eyes on his daughter's through the mirror which at the moment, serves the sole purpose of connecting a father's eyes to his daughter's.

"Huh?" Malin looked up from her observations of the road in front.

This brought a slight chuckle to Alex's throat. He started again. "I said, how.."

"HEEYYY! TRUCK!!" Marlia's shriek cut his question short.

Alex finally took his eyes off the mirror and glanced to his right and sure enough, right on his right hand side a truck was coming at a considerable speed towards his side of the MPV.

He woke up after a considerable amount of time, about twenty feet away from the accident site on the lawn of somebody's home.

The Rexton was a wreck. It seemed that the whole of the driver's seat and part of the car's bonnet had been completely crushed. Gas and smoke filled the air, that pungent smell so associated with a busted engine and the smell of burnt tyres filled the noses of the onlookers.

However, by some miracle, the passenger's seat was still intact, and the door was open. Marlia was crying and wailing for help as she pulled out Malin, dear Malin from the back of the car. He saw a cut above her left eyebrow and upon seeing it, his legs burst into action.

"Easy there big fella!" an old man in a black suit blocked his path. Alex stopped right in time to avoid a second collision.

"Get out of the way! My daughter's hurt!" shouted Alex without giving the old man a second look.

"Oh, your daughter's hurt? How about you? You've just been in an accident. Are you okay?" asked the man calmly, hands clasped in front of himself.

"Of course I'm fine!" and upon saying these words, he realised it. Fine? How can he be fine? He felt himself, his face, arms, body. No blood. No scars. No cuts, no wounds, no bruises, no anything. Crap.

And with the obvious horror that was shone from Alex's face, the man in the suit snapped his fingers, and poof, they were in a room of infinite whiteness.

But that grin didn't last long.

Suddenly, a thick smoke seemed to come out of the ground just five feet from where the legs of his tiny chair met the ground. He quickly kicked himself off of the stool he was resting on, causing the stool to fall backwards.

When the clatter of the wooden chair subsided, a tall figure had already formed where the smoke had formulated. It was a slim figure with graying hair, wearing a well-tailored black Armani suit with a white shirt and red tie, the suit cut to perfection to the body which was wearing it. Now it was the man in the suit's turn to grin while Alex had put on a face of anger more than terror.

"What do you want?" blasted Alex in a controlled volume while turning away from the grinning gentleman.

"A good evening to you too Mr Henders," said the man in the suit calmly while bowing slightly, almost to mock the person in front of him.

"Whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it!" said Alex, almost shouting and awaking the neighbouring dogs sleeping near the trash cans surrounding them.

"Well, whether you want to hear it or not, that's not in my control. However, you know that I came here for a reason, and I trust that you also know what that reason is. With all the reminders I've been sending you and all, it should be clear," said the suit-man with a lowered voice either to let the sleeping dogs lie or just for the dramatic effect, he really can't decide.

"Reminders? What reminders??" said Alex now looking into the man's deep-set eyes. They were burning, not literally, but still, they were burning.

The middle-aged man's face suddenly changed into one of mild, deliberate confusion. "Come on, don't tell me you didn't notice the people on the street that have been able to see you? And when you stubbed your toe on a rock near Malin's house. Reminders, Mr Henders," said the man with eyebrows and a finger raised.

"Yeah! I've been meaning to ask you about that. What does it mean? You said I would stay invisible and invincible!" exclaimed Alex to the point of waking the dog nearest to them. It raised it's head, saw nothing and went back to sleep. Alex could still feel the blood in his shoes.

"I told you Mr. Henders, they're reminders. To remind you that your time is almost up," said the man with a straight face.

"What???" now Alex didn't care who or what he was waking now. "I thought these deals last 10 years!!!??"

The man in the suit noticed five dogs awakened by Alex's exclamations and with a sigh, he snapped his fingers. They were poofed to another place. A place that was barren and just all white, except for a black table and two black chairs on opposite sides of the table. They stood behind each chair.

Alex had been there before, not too long ago. And sure enough, there was that thick set of papers on the table, just like before.

"You really must read the fine print Mr Henders. Don't they teach you that in law-school?" said the man with a sigh and motioned Alex to his chair.

Once Alex had reluctantly taken up the offer, the man joined him opposite the table. "Usually, it would be 10 years, but the circumstances that you requested unfortunately decreased your time in the world. First of all, you asked to be in a child. Do you know how hard it is to find a healthy looking seven-year-old in hell? I can assure you that it's no needle in a haystack, Mr Henders, it's much harder. That took 5 years off of you. Then for the invisible to everyone but one person clause took 2 years while the invincible clause took 2 (since so many souls have requested it before). They're all stated here, here and here," said the man pointing to pages 228, 376 and 444 in the document.

Alex immediately regretted the deal he sealed and the hasty decision he made when he signed that paper on page 1.

"But I need more time with my daughter!" said Alex desperately, involuntarily banging at the table. His eyes began to water as he tried to push away the memory of the tragedy that took Alex Henders away from his daughter, Malin.

"What?" replied Alex, obviously too far away to hear Malin's soft squeak.

She held up a finger to her best friend, "One minute", it's supposed to mean. She quickly put on her outside clothes and ran down the stairs, stopping at the bottom to check if Mak Eton, her maid was around. After confirming that she was nowhere in sight, she apprehensively opened the door to see Alex already waiting right on the doorstep, sitting with his back towards her.

"What took you so long?" said Alex with a grin as he turned to face his bestest friend.

"What are you doing here? Do you know how much trouble I'll get into if my Mom found out? How did you get here anyway? And how did you get here so fast?"

"Whoa, aren't you gonna invite me in first?" Alex said as relaxed as ever, the grin still there.

Malin took his arm and raced with him upstairs. Just before she could close her room door, a voice from the kitchen said "Malin? Aren't you going to come here and eat? Mak Eton made your favourite."

"Er, maybe later Mak Eton. Right after, er, I finish my homework," said Malin unconvincingly as she closed the door.

She exhaled in relief, only to see Alex jumping on her bed.

"Come on Malin, join me!" Alex said as he bounced on the pink and white floral motif of her bed.

"You can't do that!" Malin now with her pale skin suddenly turning a bright red. "Get down from there right now! You want us both to get in trouble?"

"Party pooper," said Alex as he climbed down the bed, to meet his friend face to face. "So what are we gonna play first?" asked Alex expectantly.

"No, we're not gonna play! Play time is over!" Malin heard herself say. She has never been angry towards Alex before.

"Okay then," Alex shrugged, as he turned around and jumped out of the open window. "Bye!" Malin managed to hear him say.

She sprinted a whole 5 steps and, panic-stricken, searched the ground for her friend. He was nowhere to be found. She heard a knock on her door. She turned to see Mak Eton.

"Did you call me just now Malin? I'm sure I heard you say something," inquired the maid ever so softly, so as not to cause her to drop tears again.

"Er, no. I was just er, practicing my er, story-telling in front of the mirror," she said as she again felt guilty for lying to the closest person to her in the family, if she can be regarded as kin.

Mak Eton smiled sweetly, showing the lines of experience on her face. "Come, join me in the dining room. It's already nearing 5 o'clock and your mother would not be happy if she were to find out you haven't had your lunch yet."

Malin followed, her face still red and her heart still in her throat.

"There's one!" exclaims Malin, spotting a maroon Myvi passing by.

"That's not red! Maroon doesn't count! No cheating!" says Alex with arched eyebrows paired with a smile.

"Aww, gimme a break.." Malin begs ever so mildly to her best friend in the whole wide world.

"No! There's a blue one! Yeah, I'm leading now!" The score was now 17-16 and Alex can't resist rubbing it into his best friend in the whole wide world's face.

They both had been at it for half-an-hour now, and the game would probably go on until Malin's mother came and fetched her, but they didn't care.

Malin would see Alex everyday after school waiting for her just outside the gates and they would do anything any healthy 7-year-old kid would do while waiting for Malin's mother to come fetch her.

Everyday, Alex would have a new game to play, or a new story to tell, or an ice-cream to share. Never was "boring" used to describe the "after school period". Malin, in her school uniform, and Alex, in his green long-sleeved t-shirt and khaki shorts. Nobody got in their way (except Malin's mother when she comes to pick her up) and they felt like they had the whole world to themselves.

"There's two! Haha, now I'm leading!" joy filling every syllable of the words coming out of Malin's mouth.

One of the red cars was her mother's 5-series, concluding the game that afternoon and oficially making Malin the victor of the spotting duel. Malin entered the car and waved her best friend goodbye, and caught the facial expression of fright on Alex's face. She had disobeyed a promise that Alex had asked Malin to pledge the first day they met and became best friends, "Never talk or wave at me when your mother is present."

Marlia, Malin's mother said with a scowl, "Who in heavens are you waving to?"

"My friend, Alex. Didn't you see him mum? He was right there beside me when you picked me up," Malin replied.

"Don't make up stories Malin! You were waiting on your own, like you always have. Which brings me to the questions, haven't you made any friends at school? It's been almost a year since you entered," enquired Marlia while they drove off.

A week passed as the man, still very much amnesic, struggled with his memory. He didn't get much, except for the boy.

While sitting in a bed all day long might seem enthralling to some, he found himself bored a good 90% of the time. He spent the remaining percentage passing the time by by observing the sad white-yellow ceiling, the ever-present dripper, the "beeping thing" as he now calls the pulse monitor, and also the people on the other side of the four glass walls of his room. You don't call a place where only one patient stays a "ward", right?

People in white robes going back and forth, scrutinizing him with their eyes and more often than not, scribbling something on their clip-boards. The room was illuminated by four mild spotlights, but he can't make out anything that was within 5 feet of the glass cage that he was in.

He felt like zoo attraction more than a medical patient. He asks Anne where he was, but Anne had a template answer ready each and every time: "Sir, you need your rest.."

But then, on the eighth day, Anne

~to be continued~

Maybe it was the Formeldahyde fumes and painkillers that were playing tricks on him, but the man seriously pondered how he got there on the bed of a cheap general hospital in the first place.

When he opened his eyes for what seemed like the first time, no doctors were by his side to tend to him, no nurses by his side to check how he was doing. Everyone seemed pretty happy running around doing other things than to notice him, but then again, who was he to be noticed by anyone?

Yes, who was he?

He was completely baffled, dumbstruck, but at the same time, not too bothered to go into a panic driven rage either. He lied there on the bed with stained sheets that he found himself upon and tried to remember.

"Sir, are you up?"

A voice broke his now 10-minute long meditation. Startled, he stared at his enquirer.

A nurse. Fully dressed in the scrubs that you have come to expect nurses to wear, she was most probably in her mid-30s. From the look on her face, she has had a long-day, but is very well motivated for the job. Judging by the way she stood so comfortably, she must have been working in the hospital for more than 8 years now.

"Sir? Can you hear me?" the nurse asked again in a mildly more urgent tone. He nodded, mouth slightly ajar.

"May I know your name Sir?"

He hesitated, but just for a moment as he only had one answer to that one.

"I don't know my name."