Chapter Text
The Surgeon hadn't heard Rodger in a while.
His current workspace was located directly next to the hallway of the boy’s living space, and he had grown accustomed to the small sounds of the boy's quiet life. He could often hear Rodger walking to the bathroom or just pacing the hallway in boredom. Sometimes, if the boy was loud enough, he could even hear him playing around with his soccer ball.
No such noises had been made in five days now.
At first the Surgeon hadn’t even noticed, it had been a particularly busy few days for him. But after the third day something had begun to feel off. Unfortunately it was only on the fifth day that he had realized what that thing was.
For the first time in a little over five days, The Surgeon rose from his chair, walked through the door disguised as a painting and entered the hallway of Henry’s house. Step by step, The Surgeon inched towards the door that he knew led to the young boy’s room. Or at least he assumed it did. He had never personally been inside of it, but by the sounds of life originating from it, he had come to suppose so.
The door was cracked open by just a few inches, but already, The Surgeon could see the drops of blood on the other side.
He stepped in.
The body had entered putrefaction, flies had long begun their feast on the dead tissue. If The Surgeon still had a proper sense of smell, the stench of death would have surely been unbearable. But as it happened, he did not, and in his line of work, he had seen much worse. Much much worse in fact. Somehow that didn’t stop him from feeling absolutely appalled by the sight of the boy.
What was left of Rodger was laying on his side in front of the large mirror. Like he had tried to examine himself in the moments before his demise. Moving closer, The Surgeon could identify the apparent cause of death, blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Rodger’s parietal region was an absolute mess, deep dents littering its surface. The Surgeon did not have to try hard to guess what they had originated from, after all, Henry had never been known for his patience. Rodger’s brain, what was left of it anyway, would probably be beyond repair.
If this was any other body that The Surgeon had come across in his time inside God, he would have declared it to only be good for spare parts. But The Surgeon had never backed down from a challenge, and he wasn’t about to start now, he had to try, at least for the sake of poor young Rodger.
He scooped up the broken boy and moved back through the hallway and into his workspace, setting Rodger down on the operating table. The Surgeon started assessing the extent of the damage. This would certainly not be easy, and the outcome was not guaranteed, but it was worth a try.
The Surgeon started readying his tools for a long and arduous operation.
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The first thing he heard was a steady beeping sound, and a soft scratching of pen on paper.
He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was bright blue, yellow and red lights, and an odd looking face in the middle of them.
The first thing he felt was pain.
He let out a sound somewhere between a scream and a sob.
The figure with the weird lights pulled out a big needle and stuck it to his body, injecting him with something.
“I apologise, clearly more painkillers are needed, this won’t take long to take effect.” The figure said, in an odd mechanical voice.
True to his words the pain soon subsided, leaving space for a weird airy sensation.
“Feeling better?” The figure spoke again.
He could only answer with a slight nod.
“Excellent, I’ll give you some time to get your bearings and then I’ll ask you a few questions."
He slowly entered a state between asleep and awake.
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He felt a cold sensation somewhere on his body, opening his eyes again, it was the figure from earlier, touching his forehead with the back of his mechanical hand. He was feeling a lot better than the last time he had been aware, but definitely still not good.
“Could I ask you those questions now?” The figure said.
He answered with a nod again.
“Good, first of all, are you able to talk?”
He tried to find his tongue. Was he able to talk? Well, only one way to figure that out.
“Y-yes.” He was finally able to spit out, his voice small and wavering.
“Amazing, I was worried that your vocal cords were too damaged, but it seems they are working as intended! That is far better than I could have hoped for, even your voice is correct.” The figure seemed very pleased.
“Now then, what is your name?”
His name. What was his name? He wracked his brain until he came across something that seemed correct.
“Mellow.” He said.
“Mellow?” The figure seemed less pleased this time, had he gotten it wrong somehow? He searched for a little harder but only Mellow seemed right.
“Yes.” Mellow answered.
The figure turned to his clipboard that Mellow only now noticed and frantically wrote something down.
“Allright Mellow, how old are you?”
This time the answer came easy.
“I’m eight years old.” The figure seemed pleased again.
“Very good Mellow. Now can you tell me what the last thing you remember is?”
Mellow was confused at this, what could the figure mean by that?”
“I- what do you mean?” Mellow asked.
“I mean what is the last thing you remember, before you woke up here.” The figure asked again.
“This- this is the first thing I remember, at all.”
The figure was silent for a moment, and Mellow looked around the room, it was red all over and the walls were kind of fleshy looking. Littered over it were all kinds of weird looking tools, many of which Mellow couldn’t even begin to name, and some things that looked kinda like body parts.
The figure spoke again, drawing Mellow’s attention back to him.
“I was afraid that would be the case, the damage to your brain was very severe.”
“What do you mean? What happened? What’s wrong with my brain?” Mellow was beginning to grow very uneasy.
The figure looked at him for a moment, and then turned his head away, the weird multicolored lights turning with him.
“You were badly injured, I was able to fix most of you, but it seems that some things were lost in the process. Though this is truly better than I could have hoped for. I just wish it’s enough.” The figure was silent for a moment and then looked back to Mellow.
“How are you feeling now Mellow?
How was he feeling? He wasn’t hurting anymore, but he wasn’t feeling really good either, better than before at least. And very confused.
“Better I guess, but who are you? And where am I?
“I am a freelance surgeon, and you are inside of my operating room. I woke you up from anesthesia about an hour ago.”
“Okay, what’s gonna happen now?” Mellow asked.
“I believe you should rest some more, when you wake up again we can discuss the future. There is no need to rush, it would appear that we have all the time in the world.”
Before Mellow could say anything back, The Surgeon was injecting him with something again, and Mellow fell back into a deep sleep.
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This was not something The Surgeon had planned, he had assumed that either Rodger would have come back a little worse for wear, but otherwise normal, or that he wouldn’t have come back at all. But it appeared that what had really come back was somewhere in the middle of that. Was Mellow really Rodger, or had he created a new person entirely? Would the boy slowly retain his memories, or were they gone for good? Or was this again some kind of situation where what really was lingered somewhere in the middle?
It was no use, driving himself mad with existentialism, before he was even properly aware of the boy’s state of mind, that would have to wait until later, or never at all. No, his time was much better pondering some more pressing matters.
Like what he was going to do with Mellow.
…
There was no way he would be returning Mellow back to Henry, if this were to happen again there would be no bringing Mellow back, with or without his memories. Even if The Surgeon had made a few enhancements, especially in the head area, the risk was still far too great. God had also surely placed The Surgeon so close to Rodger’s room for a reason, so leaving him into the areas below didn’t seem like a good idea either. Keeping an eye out for him would also increase greatly in difficulty, with the size of the Hub and beyond. The Surgeon didn’t feel comfortable with abandoning him there.
That really only left him with one option.
Keeping Mellow.
Thinking over it, The Surgeon didn’t feel as appalled by it than he thought he would have. It certainly wouldn’t be ideal, but he would settle for the least of all evils. And maybe some company wouldn’t be outright terrible, with his Bride having been asleep for many years now. Her agony was only exasperated by the slow death of God, and keeping her awake was only painful now, for both of them.
He had come to a decision then, the boy would stay.
If he wanted to. He wasn’t a jailer, and unlike Henry did, The Surgeon would let Mellow leave if he truly wanted to do so.
But that conversation could wait until later. He had a lot of preparation to do.
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The third time that Mellow woke up was a lot more pleasant than the previous two. The Surgeon was happy to see that his recovery was starting so soon. Mellow still had a long way to go, but this was a promising start.
“Hello again Mellow. How did you sleep?”
Mellow blinked up at him a few times, huge blue eyes wide like saucers.
“Fine I Think. I feel kinda fuzzy.” Mellow finally answered.
“That is only to be expected, the painkillers are still working their way through your system. But don't worry, I am sure we can start weaning you off of them soon, you are recovering at a fast pace.”
“Okay.” The boy said.
The Surgeon gave him a quick once over, making sure everything was as it should be. Everything seemed to be more or less fine.
“Will you be alright on your own for a little while? I need to get a few things from outside and it might take a few minutes. I won't be far and if you need me I’ll come right back.” The Surgeon asked, cocking his head lightly to the side.
Mellow hesitated for a few seconds, and then gave an answer.
“Yeah sure.”
“Good, I will be right back.” The Surgeon turned around, and noticed a slight change in his workspace; in the place of the fake painting that had served as the entrance to Henry’s house, stood a white door.
This wasn’t the first time his workspace had shifted inside of God, but he wasn’t going to lie and say that this wasn’t an inconvenient time for it to happen. He had been planning to take some of Rodger’s old things from his room. The Surgeon could only hope that they hadn’t shifted too far.
Opening the door The Surgeon was greeted by a space he hadn't seen before, an increasingly rare occurrence after his many years spent searching every nook and cranny of the inside of God.
The space was dark, and dusty. But with his light he could make out a small kitchen, a dining table and two chairs, and a small sofa and armchair. On the other side of the room were two doors, identical to the one leading to his workspace, and on the left wall stood a door that looked distinctly like a front entrance to a house. To sight looked like something plucked straight from the surface, nothing like the usually odd and liminal places The Surgeon was so used to.
“Wow Mr. Surgeon. Your house is really dusty.”
Turning his head The Surgeon could see Mellow, slightly craning his head to see inside the new room before them.
“Yes, I apologize. I… moved here very recently and haven’t had time to clean up yet.” The Surgeon said.
“And please move back down Mellow, your injuries are still healing. I don’t want for my work to be reversed by your impatience.” He added.
Mellow had the sense to look apologetic and moved his head back down.
“Sorry Mr. Surgeon.”
“I forgive you, just try to be more careful.”
“I will be.” Mellow said softly.
“Good.”
He stepped into the new room, looking around for a proper light source, when he noticed a light switch next to the “front entrance” he flipped it on. Surprisingly the room lights up, illuminated by a simple lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.
This place can’t have been lived in a very long time, yet the power still works. The Surgeon supposed that in God anything could be possible, it was astounding that he was still surprised by it, years and years after having been devoured.
On his left was the small dining table, and on it sat a small house key, presumably for the entrance. The Surgeon took it, and sure enough the front door was unlocked by it.
Opening the door The Surgeon was once again met by a space he didn’t recognize, a large dark open space, much like the space by the Hub elevator, it stretched endlessly as far as his optical receptors could make out. The only thing he could see was an entrance to a dumbwaiter, that was most likely a way down from here, maybe even to the Hub.
The dumbwaiter was small, if The Surgeon sat down, he was sure he could fit into it without any large issues, but anyone bigger than him would have trouble. The last inhabitants of this house must have been very small in stature.
He could imagine how a small entrance to this place would be beneficial, especially with keeping out any unwanted large yellow lizards.
Going back inside, and locking the door behind him, The Surgeon decided to see what was behind the last two doors.
The first one seemed to be a small bedroom, it didn’t contain anything more than a simple desk and a chair, and a small bed with a mattress. The other room was a bathroom with a toilet, sink and a bathtub.
The small dumbwaiter pulled up explained why The Surgeon had never been here before, anyone without wings would have a hard time finding their way here. This house reminded him a lot of Henry’s house, it was one of the few mostly functional houses inside of God. Though Henry had made that house livable by himself with the things he had been able to order from the surface. How this home had ended like this was still a complete mystery to The Surgeon.
But in the end, that didn’t truly matter, and this was better than anything he could have hoped for, trying to hide Mellow from Henry, while actively living almost inside of his house would have been a herculean task, this was a great stroke of luck.
No. Not luck, this must be a blessing from God themself. There was a reason he had been originally placed next to Rodger’s room, and now they had surely been placed here for the same reason. There must be something truly special about Mellow for God to intervene like this, while they were actively dying.
Maybe Mellow was the divine intervention The Surgeon had been looking for? Maybe-
The Surgeon quickly pushed those thoughts down, it was too early to get his hopes up. There had been nothing unusual about Mellow thus far, excluding his revival, but by now that was completely normal to The Surgeon. There was undeniably something different about Mellow, but that was something The Surgeon would find out more about with some research and time.
Now the main priority would be to get Mellow back to prime condition, and then to get him comfortable in his new home.
In their new home.
The Surgeon has never thought of himself as a family man, but perhaps inside of God anything could really happen. So many new ideas were running through his mind, it was truly exhilarating to experience a change so drastically different after such a long time of doing the same thing day after day. The possibilities seemed endless-
…
But first he would have to find a broom for their new dusty home.