Aven stayed with me after the surgery, mostly because she didn’t have anywhere to go really. I told her that she must’ve ended up here because she didn’t make it to Heaven or Hell. It made me feel bad to lie to her like that, but I really didn’t want Aven tangled up in work and everything after dying. She deserved a better life than that. I don’t know what she would do, but at least for now she was just laying down, trying to recover.

I taught her all about the structure of The Afterlife. Lucas managed people like me, Rex, and Dallas. We were the Bosses. We managed the Reps under us, who were all assigned a Host to affect with whatever mental illness they were accepted to represent. Us bosses didn’t affect anyone, but our job was to accept new reps and manage them. We had to constantly file paperwork about new reps coming in and review monthly reports about their performance too. Lucas was really running this whole thing like a business. 

We had meetings and he was even planning to do rep and boss evaluations down the line. He was as excited as a little kid when explaining the whole plan. It was the brainchild of him and Rex, who was thankfully working on a way to mass produce paperwork forms and fill it out faster than by hand. He better pick up the pace before my hands break.

One morning, I was called away to Lucas’ office when the sun was barely up. As I strolled in, I took a glance at the engravings in the corner. There was still a spot there with “Binge Eating Disorder/Dysphoria” on it, but the photo was blacked out and Aven’s name was faded, though still readable if you leaned in close. 

“I’m surprised you showed up so early,” Lucas said, apparently impressed.

“You told me to be here around this time though,” I pointed out.

“I didn’t expect it though.”

“Oh shut up,” I laughed with a sly grin. “What do you need?”

“Just to give you this,” he said, handing me a thick book. I wasn’t ready for the sheer weight of paper that almost pulled me to the ground. There were probably a dozen or so bookmarks sticking out of it.

“Did you just hand me a dictionary?” I groaned, lifting the book.

“One for these mental disorders,” Lucas explained. “I wrote it myself to catalog the disorders of bosses and reps based on my own observations and experiments. I’ll be giving one to the reps and bosses so they can be informed and do their jobs better. Naturally, as it stands, the book is incomplete for now, but I’ll be updating it over time.”

“Please, don’t,” I grumbled. “I could already kill a man with this thing.”

“I left a few bookmarks in there for you. Just some parts you might want to look into.”

“Thanks for the light reading.”

*   *   *   *   *

I sat at the kitchen table until Aven woke up, looking through that book Lucas gave me. It was really interesting, actually. A bunch of information about these disorders and how they could be dealt with. In the middle of my morning reading, Aven hobbled into the chair across from me.

“What’s that?” she groaned.

“A book that Lucas gave me,” I explained. “It has a list of mental disorders that us reps and bosses deal with.”

“Oh, cool. Anything interesting?”

“Well…” I thought about the words under Aven’s name on the engraving. I turned the page to one of the bookmarks. “Binge Eating Disorder.”

“Binge… eating?” Aven mumbled.

“It looks like it’s associated with episodes of eating a large excess amount of food when under emotional distress or vulnerability.” I looked up. “Sounds familiar.”

“So that’s what my problem is…”

“Speaking of food, it’s time for breakfast!” I interrupted, slamming the book shut. “Eggs and toast sound good?”

“Yep.”

“Good, because that’s all I’ve got for breakfast.”

I started to bring out pans and food to cook with. In the middle of it, Aven leaned curiously over the mammoth book on the table.

“Can I look through this?” she asked.

“Be my guest.”

I finished making our breakfast and brought it over to see her engrossed in reading the thing in her hands.

“Find anything interesting?” I asked.

“Something called ‘dysphoria’ in here,” she said. “One of the bookmarked ones.”

“Oh? What’s it say?”

“Describes feelings of unease and discomfort about being in my own skin and identifying with how you are at birth. Can come with the belonging to be something or someone completely different.”

“Huh,” I scratched my head. “Like you wanting to be, you know…”

“Yeah,” Aven nodded. “It just doesn’t list any cure or treatment possability…”

“Don’t worry about it right now,” I said, taking the book and putting the breakfast in front of her. “That’s just for now. Who knows if we’ll find some way in the future?”

“That’s… That’s true.”

“Keep hopeful, c’mon.”

“Fine, fine,” she smiled. “We’ll find a way some day.”

“That’s my girl!” I cheered, stuffing some eggs in my mouth and making her laugh.

“Maybe science will find a way to make me fully female someday,” Aven shrugged hopefully. “That would be the dream…”

“Trust me, it wouldn’t,” I groaned. “Menstruating is absolute hell.”

“I wish my body could do that,” she dreamily sighed. “To be a woman…”

“What-” I snorted, almost flying eggs out of my nose. “I’ve never heard anyone want a period before-”

“Sue me,” Aven sighed, putting some toast in her mouth.

As I watched her eat, I noticed her just shoveling food in, barely chewing and almost gagging a couple times. Right when she was about to put a whole fried egg in her mouth, I stabbed it with my fork, making her jump.

“Slow down,” I told her. “Your stomach’s still sensitive.”

“Sorry…” she mumbled. Aven leaned back in her seat and looked up, then gave a small laugh. “You know, I’m only scared of one thing now.”

“What’s that?”

“That we’re gonna live a good life here, then Beatrice is going to show up and ruin it all again just for fun.”

“No way that snake bitch is showing up,” I rolled my eyes. “Beatrice is definitely going straight to Hell. No questions asked.”

“There’s always the question of ‘what if’ though.”

“I barely consider it a possibility. The Devil’s got a place for her down there. I know that for sure.”

*   *   *   *   *

A few days later when Aven was strong enough to be out and about, I took her to work with me in the Council building. I introduced her to a few of my reps, who she got along with pretty well, actually. Everyone in the Council was happy enough to see her again.

“Glad to see you’re doing well,” Lucas nodded.

“T-Thanks,” Aven sighed.

“I love your dress!” Sophie chirped.

“It’s so soft!”

“The sunflowers are pretty!”

“Where did you get it?!”

As the twins badgered Aven, I just sighed and leaned against the wall. Rex and Lucas were there chatting too. Aven sure was one popular girl, apparently. Kind of annoyed me just slightly though. They knew she wasn’t a boss, and I didn’t want her around that kind of life if I could help it.

“What?” Aven asked, tilting her head at me.

“Huh?” I said, looking around. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah you did,” she insisted. “Just said you didn’t want them talking to me.”

“But I…”

“Again!” she exclaimed

Aven looked over to Lucas and then the twins. What’s going on with her? Oh jeez, I hope she wasn’t having a panic attack or something. And this better not be an excuse to binge-

“Get out of my head!” she cried, running away while clutching her ears.

“Aven!” I called out. “What-”

“I think she was reading our minds,” Lucas coughed.

“I thought you took all of her magic,” I huffed.

“I had to leave some,” he said dully. “Who knows what would’ve happened if I took all of it? I just took enough for her to have less than a rep.”

I didn’t want to waste time talking, so I chased after Aven and found her hiding in a corner of the hall, curled up and covering her ears.

“Aven,” I said softly, holding out my hand. “Aven, come on, let’s just go.”

“They’re so loud…” she sobbed. “The voices in my head…”

“Then focus on my voice, girl,” I soothed, grabbing her hands. “Focus on me, Max, your bestie talking to you right here. Let’s just go meet some others, ok?”

“O… Ok,” she nodded, grasping my hand and letting me get her up.

*   *   *   *   *

“Are you going to be ok?” I asked Aven before walking out of her room. She was laying in her bed after I had tucked her in.

“Mhm,” she nodded.

“Sweet dreams, honey,” I whispered, blowing out the lights. “You’re gonna do great things once you can get back on your feet, ok?”

“Thanks, Max.”

“See you in the morning. Good night.”

“Night.”

I migrated to my own room and flopped into bed. Between Aven and work, I barely had some downtime nowadays. I gladly took the sleep that I could get. On top of that, I woke up feeling so refreshed too. I rolled out of bed and went to wake up Aven, hoping maybe we could go out to eat breakfast. When I opened her door though, the bed was empty.

“Hm, someone’s an early bird today,” I huffed, shutting the door. “Better not have gotten breakfast without me…”

When I walked out into the kitchen though, I reeled back. Aven was on the floor sobbing into a pillow to muffle her voice. She was clutching her stomach and gave me a terrified look with her eyes.

“What happened?!” I exclaimed, dropping to hold her.

“I… Binge…” she sobbed. “Stomach… Rip…”

I rushed her to the hospital before she could say another word. I found out the nifty magical power of teleportation, which we all apparently could do. But all I could do was hand her to the doctors and wait.

How the hell did I not prepare for something like this?! I should’ve known a promise wouldn’t be enough to keep her away from food binging… It was definitely at least partially my fault for not even trying to prevent it… Yeah, I was thinking negatively, but I spent that morning rushing the closest thing I had to family through a set of hospital doors. I think I had a right to be a bit mentally messed up.

When Aven got out of surgery again, I got her room number and made my way there. When I strolled in though, she was struggling against restraints that strapped her down to the bed by the wrists.

“Stop it,” I commanded with as much authority as I could muster. Aven stopped and stared at me in the doorway.

“Max, I-”

“You promised me, Aven. You promised.”

“I just want to leave!” she cried, going back to struggling against the restraints.

“Don’t you dare break out,” I threatened. I can and would throw her over my shoulder like some Eastern monk.

“You’re going to do what?!” Aven exclaimed, struggling harder. Dammit Aven, stop with the mind reading. “I can’t help it!”

“Stop struggling, or-”

At that moment, Aven’s wrist restraints snapped and she wasted no time making a break for the door. She moved surprisingly fast for someone out of surgery. I stood my ground, and when she passed me by I grabbed her and did that promised shoulder throw. Well, more like I got her onto my back before I realized she was too heavy for me to throw. Instead, we just both fell to the floor with Aven on top of me, crying out in pain. She had nobody to blame for that but herself though.

“That’s just mean!” she cried with tears in her eyes.

“It’s true,” I groaned, locking my arms around her from behind as she tried to get up and scramble away. A couple nurses came in and helped me drag her back to the bed, putting new restraints on her.

“Let me go!” she cried. “Let me go! Let me-”

“Stop acting like a child! You’re in there for a reason!”

“I…” That seemed to get her to stop. “I’m sorry…”

“Oh Aven,” I sighed, sitting down next to her. “You’ve got to learn how to stop hurting yourself like this. You can be dead, but I bet that hurts like a bitch, right?”

“Mhm,” she nodded.

“How about we talk to Lucas about if we can work on getting you better, ok?” I asked softly. “He’s researched so many disorders so far that he’s bound to have some ideas.”

“O-Ok,” Aven nodded.

“C’mere, girl,” I said, leaning in and hugging her. Even rubbed her back for good measure. “I got you.”

“Hey Max,” she mumbled. “Thanks. For… everything.”

“Anytime, Aven. Anytime.”