Summary: Written for Intrulogical Week 2022 @intrulogicalweek
Logan is stuck in Limbo until the Afterlife Registration Bureau processes his case so he can properly move onto a afterlife, whether that is heaven, hell, reincarnation or something else. While wandering around aimlessly, he's approached by a demon that introduces himself as Remus and offers him a quicker way to the next life.
Content Warnings: Afterlife, Limbo, Demons
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Dr. Logan Croft had lived a fulfilling life. His parents were supportive of him throughout his childhood and beyond, he got along with his siblings for the most part, he got a doctorate in astronomy like he always wanted, became a tenured professor at the same university, and lived to the age of 84 before passing on peacefully in his sleep.
Some might think that he had been missing a partner, but Logan would disagree. Even without a spouse he had a big family since both of his siblings were happily married and had children. They hadn’t lived very far from him and so he was often visited by kids interested in his work. And the time they weren’t around he devoted to his studies, getting lost in research and gaining new knowledge every day.
Of course not everything had been easy and happy. His mother had gotten very sick in her sixties and passed away not long after and his father had never gotten past his grief and eventually developed dementia. Logan ended up getting older than both of them had.
There had been fights, accidents, injuries, even some early deaths with both friends and family but at the end of the line, Logan couldn’t say he wasn’t satisfied with the life he had led.
Which made his passage into the next one seem even worse than it was.
Logan had been stuck in Limbo for a while now. How long exactly was hard to say, time doesn’t function the same as it had on earth. When he had arrived he’d been given some documents by the Afterlife Registration Bureau, told that it would take time for his case to be processed and then he would move on to either heaven, hell, some other type of afterlife or reincarnated (though he didn’t know if it would be on the same earth he knew or not, the papers were very confusing and he was a professor, he knows how to deal with complicated texts usually). Any attempts he had made to get clarification or updates have led him nowhere.
Along with the documents he’d been given a key. Since he was far from the only one who had to wait to move on to the afterlife proper, Limbo had a lot of different, village-like sections and apartment complexes. The apartments within were small, non-descript and empty except for the essentials but they were free of charge. Logan hadn’t mind it much at the beginning, but the blandness was starting to make him depressed.
At least he was back to his twenty-year-old self instead of the eighty-year-old he died as. He had been fit for his age, but it was good to have his full mobility and senses back. He still needed his glasses, though.
There wasn’t much to do or see in the section he temporarily lived in, but Logan was going stir crazy, so he decided to take a walk. He left the apartment, walked down the corridor to the elevator and rode down. In the lobby he met another tenant, they exchanged a short greeting but that was it. Most people Logan had encountered in Limbo weren’t keen on making acquaintances since they figured they would be moving on sometime soon and there was no guarantee that you end up in the same place. He wasn’t much of a socializer either, so he couldn’t fault them.
The outside looked very similar to urban neighborhoods he’d seen on earth, but with higher buildings, no traffic – despite there being streets, Logan had never seen or even heard a car since he got there – and almost no color. Everything was gray, black, white, or very muted. Plants were basically absent, and the few Logan had seen looked lifeless. Which might be just how they looked here; he didn’t know.
He passed very few people as he walked aimlessly through the streets. He didn’t fear getting lost as long as he stayed in the settlement, it wasn’t that big. He wandered until he got to the last few buildings and in front of him opened the endless nothingness of Limbo proper. Other sectors were out there somewhere but there was no sight of any of them.
They were completely isolated. A little bubble in an empty void.
There was one office of the Afterlife Registration Bureau in the sector where one could go for information about the current status of one’s case and to ask questions, but Logan hadn’t found them very helpful. They had mostly told him to wait and that everything will be explained once his case had been processed. When that would be, they couldn’t tell him.
Logan didn’t want to waste time thinking about the frustration about his current situation and so he kept wandering along the border between the sector and the nothingness, humming a song to keep himself occupied.
“Well, well, well,” a voice above him suddenly spoke up. “Aren’t you wandering on dangerous paths?”
Logan stopped in his tracks and looked up. A demon hovered in the air. He looked mostly human, brown hair with a white streak at the front, green eyes that glowed just a bit, light brown skin that was covered by only a crop top and booty shorts as well as a pair of boots. But red horns grew out of his head and just as red wings kept him in the air. He grinned, revealing sharp teeth.
He wasn’t the first demon Logan had seen in Limbo, but they were rare, just like angels.
“I do not see how this is particularly dangerous, I am staying on the road.”
“Sure, for now you are. But if you stare into the void long enough, you might just be drawn in.”
“Is that so? Thank you for the warning. I will take care not to look for too long.” Logan nodded to the demon, figuring the conversation ended and was about to continue his walk when the demon suddenly hovered in front of him.
“Why the hurry? Don’t want to chat a bit?” he grinned.
Logan raised a brow. “I figured that you would not be out here without a purpose and needed to be on your way. I am open to conversation.”
The demon laughed, loud and shrill. “You’re a funny guy! My name’s Remus, what’s yours?” Logan did not understand what the other found so hilarious about his answer, but he didn’t comment.
“My name is Logan Croft. It is a pleasure to meet you.” He held out his hand for the demon to shake. It was gripped with enthusiasm, and he could feel the sharp fingernails of the other digging into his skin. Thankfully, when he pulled away there was no blood.
“Say, Logan,” Remus said, drawing out his name with a teasing smile, “would you be up for spending some time with me soon? I would love to take you out right now but as you correctly guessed, I have somewhere to be.”
“I am not really interested in spending time with a demon. Especially before it is decided where I will be spending my afterlife. I wish you a good day.” Logan attempted to step past Remus, but the other simply floated back in front of him again.
“What if I can help you get there faster? To the afterlife, I mean?”
“Why should I trust that you’re telling the truth? You are a demon, are you not? As far as I am aware, you trick people." Remus acted like he was shot in the chest, throwing himself back into the air, hovering on his back with a hand on his heart.
“How can you accuse me of such horrible things?” he cried. “You don’t even know me!” Logan didn’t react beside raising another brow. He grew up with siblings, he was used to theatrics. Remus glanced at him and giggled when he saw his expression.
“Well, I can’t really blame you for being cautious. But I’m telling the truth! It’s an old custom that if a soul conquers seven challenges set by a demon, it earns a place in the afterlife of its choice.” He grins at Logan again, showing off his teeth. Logan wasn’t convinced and remained silent.
“Oh, come on, necktie!” Remus sighed. “What do you have to lose? It’s not like you are doing something else other than waiting around for the ARB to get a move on. Be proactive, sloth is a sin, y’know. Relieve some of the boredom for both you and me!” he said with a wink.
Logan chewed on his bottom lip. The demon wasn’t wrong, he didn’t have anything else to do and he would be glad for a distraction. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a trick.
“You are not attempting to steal my soul?” he asked for clarification.
Remus snorted. “Nah. There isn’t a point. You’re already dead, there isn’t anything I can do to make you end up in hell now.”
Logan looked him up and down one more time before he shrugged. Might as well.
“Alright. I will attempt your challenges.”
“Wonderful!” Remus did a loop in the air in celebration. “Then meet me here same time tomorrow.”
“That will be difficult,” Logan argues, holding up his watch that had stopped working. “I do not have any means to tell the time down here.”
“If that’s all,” Remus hummed. He took Logan’s arm before the other could react and tapped the watch three times before letting go. “There, fixed.”
With interest, Logan inspected the watch that had changed a bit with Remus’ magic. Remus pointed to where the small hand currently was.
“Just come here when that is back in this place. Unlike the old one, it’ll only make one round per day.”
“Very well. I will see you then, Remus.”
“Looking forwards to it, Wristwatch,” the demon grinned before taking off. Logan looked after him for a few moments before starting on his way back to his apartment. At least he had something to look forward to now.
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“Jannie! I’m home!” Remus called as he entered the house he shared with his boyfriend.
“Welcome back,” Janus answered from the living room. Remus grinned, taking off his boots before following the voice and throwing himself in his partner’s lap, kissing him.
“You are in a good mood,” Janus comments with a smile, pressing another kiss to Remus’ forehead. “Did you have run-in with your brother?”
Remus shook his head. “I found a stuck-up looking guy in sector G to entertain me for a bit.”
“Entertain you, hm? What exactly did you tell him?”
“That he could choose his afterlife if he passed seven challenges I give him.”
Janus raised an eyebrow. “That rule isn’t in effect anymore, Remus.”
“I know,” he grinned.
“Don’t go too far,” Janus said, rolling his eyes. “If he doesn’t get anything out of it, at least make it fun for him as well.”
“Was planning on it. I like him already, so I don’t wanna piss him off too bad.”
“What is your plan if I might ask?”
“Gonna take him out to eat tomorrow. Get to know him a bit better and find out how to tease him best,” Remus grinned, mischievously.
