The old man waved his hands, only for the black fog to immediately clear.
His feet no longer touched the solid stone ground, nor were there clouds overhead. In fact, the sky was completely devoid of any clouds.
"Ah!"
Due to the shift in solidity under him and the sudden onset of blindness from the change in environment, he fell, stunned.
His old(but non-existent) bones seemed to rattle with his movements.
The heat penetrated into his very soul. His senses finally adjusted as he slowly began to stand up.
"...this is a desert."
All around, heat waves rose up from white sand, and the sun burned white in the sky.
"Apparently hell has no color."
"Neither does life or death."
The Doctor whipped around to find a woman with a strange uniform. Over her head was a purple hood.
"Welcome to the afterlife, sir. I am an enforcer sent to lead you to the nearest town so you can learn to accumulate merits."
The old man squinted his eyes, but didn't answer.
"...Please follow me."
She began to walk away in a leisurely manner, seemingly towards nowhere. He continued to stand in the same spot.
Should he follow? Should he just wander?
He still had to save his wife... But how?
He watched her walk further. Finally, he began to trot in small, fast steps after her, stumbling along.
"What is your name, ma'am?"
The woman didn't answer him.
"Hey! I asked—"
"I know what you asked."
The old man was confused. Did he need to introduce himself first?
"My name is Doctor—"
"I suggest you stop there, sir."
She put her hand up quickly and kept walking.
"Yes?"
"Names are... somewhat of a special thing here—in hell I mean."
"..."
The enforcer suddenly stopped, and turned toward him. Her eyes seemed to gleam in a strange light as she leaned forward, close to his face.
"Don't ever tell anyone your name. Names of the dead shouldn't be spoken."
Doctor Howle swallowed dry air.
"...Isn't that just a superstition?"
The woman stood straight and let out a small chortle. She spread out her hands like the statue of a savior.
"What superstitons? What myths, what gods, what stories... what legends and lies we've told. We're in hell, it's all here."
The old man's eyes widened in disbelief.
Yes, he was now in the afterlife.
"I suggest you don't tell the names of the living either, lest they come to join you."
The enforcer squinted her eyes in schadenfreude and whipped back around to walk forward. The old man was stuck in his spot.
"My wife is coming. Sh-she'll be here in 900 cycles."
"Good for you, for her to join you so soon—"
"But it's not good! She needs to be stopped!"
"..."
"My daughter is about to have a baby and I don't know what to do!"
"What can you do? You're dead."
"But she's not... not yet."
"..."
"What do I do?"
"You're quite the optimist there, Doctor."
"Is there a way?"
"... there's always haunting."
"Haunting?"
"Are you the resentful type Doctor?"
"I'm not sure, ma'am."
"If you're not sure, then you're probably not. Haunters eat their own resentment to go to the surface, it's a natural thing they tend to do instinctively."
"But I need to save my wife!"
"You could always reincarnate." The woman shrugged. "But there's no guarantee of when and where—or who—you'll be. And you'll definitely be an infant, so what kind of help will you be in stopping your wife?"
The doctor stared at her back as the woman stopped walking again. This time, they were in front of a pit filled with old-looking structures.
Strange enough, other people, and strange beings, seemed to be fighting against the sand in the pit as it came crashing toward them from outside.
"It's just a pity... you'll probably never get that far."
The woman slowly turned around as a maniac smile spread on her face.
"Welcome to inferno, you ignorant old man."
Then she began to melt and join herself into the sand—which then wrapped itself around him and pushed him straight into the pit with the others.