Afterlife Department

As Lewis Johnson predicted, Gerard Jackson calmed down after one hour. Looking at the disordered room, he was irritated. Having nothing, no one, to vent his anger to after Lewis Johnson left, he stormed out of his room and drove under the moonlight with nowhere to go to.

He didn't notice, after a while, his hands maneuvered the steering wheel to the direction of a park. Seeing the familiar sign still there even after more than four decades had passed, he felt complicated. Before he could react, he found his body has already gone out of his car and stood before the wide entrance of the park.

He saw some couples having a date with the dim light from the park's streetlights giving a romantic atmosphere for them. Added with the cold breeze blowing from time to time, the pairs snuggled closer, increasing their intimacy.

Gerard Jackson ignored them and strolled inside the park alone. He saw some beggars sleeping inside their makeshift homes made out of cardboards and boxes. As if the ghosts are at work, he tossed some money on their empty tin cans before he silently left as if he didn't do a kind deed.

When the cold wind blew again, his neck shrunk and he adjusted his scarf to cover his lower face before he drilled his hands inside his coat's wide pockets. He would never forget this seemingly ordinary park, for two of his life's big events happened here.

One, he helped a child. Two, he heard the truth about his birth from his parents.

When he was a child, he thought they were just a well-off family. Just a little wealthier than the ordinary families. Thus, he was very happy when his parents brought him to the park, an activity every family commonly does. He didn't know what awaited him was a bitter truth.

After they ate snacks, he ran to the public restroom to relieve himself. He was about to return to his parents when, not far from the public restroom, he heard a soft sob. It was coming from a shed, in which was located in an inconspicuous place he wouldn't have noticed had he not heard a cry.

At first, he was scared, since the first thing he saw was a banyan tree. He thought the cry he heard was from something supernatural. However, fortunately, he braved himself. Or else, he wouldn't have saved someone's life.

He saw a handsome child the same age as him was crouched in the corner after he peeked through the gaps of the broken window. He heard from him that he was kidnapped, and is about to be trafficked. Gerard Jackson didn't doubt the child, since he could clearly see the hideous wounds the child has suffered. He pitied him and, through one of the gaps, he gave him his mobile phone that was hanging on his neck before he left to ask for his parent's help.

Little did he know, that was their first, and last, time seeing each other until years later.

When he returned to his parents, he immediately told them about the child. He was panicky and anxious. Among all the reactions he had imagined his parents would have after they heard what he said, the thing they did was the least he had expected.

They laughed. He was dumbfounded by their reaction and became angry. However, they brushed his anger off and told him that the child he had seen must have been playing hide and seek with his friends. He refuted them, saying that the child has wounds and looked pitiful. They answered him that the child must be punished by his parents, then, for being mischievous and disobedient, as what every child their age is.

Gerard Jackson felt doubt for the first time. Was he mistaken? He told them he gave the child his phone. His parents just praised him for being benevolent, and his phone doesn't matter. He then felt comforted.

However, this feeling didn't last long when his parents told him a secret. They would be moving houses, and to a bigger house. What child would not be happy? He was very happy when he heard the news and he hugged them, which he always did. However, he didn't expect for them to be stiffen because of his gesture. When he looked at their expression, he suddenly felt uneasy. He saw their face held an awkward expression, but also looked cold.

Maybe they felt it was time. Maybe they cannot endure his intimacy. Maybe they finally lost patience. And so they told him that they were involved in the underworld, and they were being assassinated. His mother was pregnant with him at that time, so they had to hide for a long time. They both have to survive, for they will get their revenge against the people who harmed them.

It was too much for a child like him to digest all the information, especially when he was told that he will be their weapon in the future, as the product from both the families. With him leading them in the future, the both families are united, and will be stronger since they each have the support of the other.

Amidst the confusion, fear, and panic he felt, there was just one world that registered in his mind: investment. They treat him as their investment that will lead them to more benefits in the future. He wasn't born out of love, but out of interest from both parties. He is just a tool. A mere tool to be used later.

Since then, he had become restrained, especially when they returned to his parents' house. They really are a wealthy family. And, like any other wealthy family, it is inevitable for him to be bullied and suppressed by his cousins. Still adapting to the changes in his life, and still powerless, he lost to them many times. Had it not for his parents who accumulated power while they were hiding before, he would have continued to be stepped on.

From that experience, as well as his parents' teaching, he finally managed to learn how to survive in the dog eats dog world of the rich. He is quick-witted, thus he absorbed everything about the ways of the rich, as well as the ways of the underworld.

Living in the underworld, gradually, he lost his emotions. He only felt cold. His heart became numb to each crime that he saw that resulted to deaths, revenge that also lead to death, as well as the struggles of the weak whose death is inevitable.

"If you are weak, you have to endure since this is the world of the strong. If you are strong, become stronger since the one who doesn't change is the weak." These were the words his father told him before he tossed him and his mother to a nursing home after they became old. He ignored them cursing him, their complaints landed on his ears that had long since turned deaf for them two.

Ever since that day, he had resented them. Their biggest mistake is to treat him not as their child, but an investment. No child would like to be just an investment by their parents. No child would be happy knowing the affection his parents have towards him is because he is their investment. For them, their child is a tool. And so, he used them as tools to rise in power, then toss them away like one would after using a tool.

Because he was lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice his feet had brought him before the banyan tree. He remembered the shed where he found that child. That day, because he was given a shock by his parents, he had forgotten the child. However, as years passed by, he started to realize that the child was real, unlike what his parents claimed.

He realized, his parents definitely know what happened to the child. Yet, being so full of themselves, they ignored the child's situation. That added to his resentment towards his parents. So, like what they did to the child, he also ignored their complaints of him being not filial to them and sent them to a nursing home for them to live their remaining days. As to how they'd live their remaining days, it's their problem.

He slowly walked towards the shed which is behind the banyan tree. The moonlight slipped through the gaps of the leaves and the vines, giving light to the interior of the old shed, exposing what is inside.

Whenever he had time, he would come visit this shed. Each time, he'd see the familiar disordered furniture inside. Yet, he described it as empty. Because that child wasn't there. He wasn't there anymore. He doesn't know if that child had escaped and was saved, or he was caught once again and perished.

But, this time, he saw someone was inside. "For three hundred and sixty-five nights in a year, I see an empty space. Yet in that one extra night, in every four years, you came." He said as he walked through the already open door. "Yet, this is the only extra night I came. I didn't expect I'd meet you here – " he looked at the man who slowly turned to him and smiled. " – Lewis."