Chapter 1
I’d made Caleb angry.
So angry that nothing I did could fix it.
Even when I told him I was sick, he wasn’t worried like he used to be.
After I got off the train, I called him. “Caleb? I’m in Seaport City for a heart check–up, Can you can you take me to the hospital?
His voice was a razor’s edge. “Your heart condition was fixed years ago. Leo, stop playing the victim!”
A dull ache bloomed in my chest.
“It’s just a follow–up,” I whispered.
He let out a cold laugh. “Fine. You wait there.”
I curled up in a corner of the train station and waited.
And waited.
Until my heart gradually slowed to a stop.
And Caleb… he never came.
01
Before I closed my eyes for the last time, I never imagined I would die so suddenly, so unceremoniously, in a train station waiting
hall
All I felt then was a deep, pulling drowsiness. I’ll just rest for a little while, I thought
Just a little while, and then I would see Caleb.
I pictured him standing over me, scolding me for not staying put at home, for running off to Seaport City to cause more trouble.
I slowly closed my eyes, rehearsing my excuses for needing him to take me to the hospital.
Because you were always the one who took me to my appointments.
Because all the registration info is on your phone.
Because if the doctors ask about my childhood surgery, you know the details better than I do..
Yes, that was it.
It had nothing to do with how much I missed you.
Nothing at all.
But when I opened my eyes again, I saw my own body, slumped in the corner of the loud, crowded waiting hall. My head was tilted against the wall my eyelashes resting peacefully on my cheeks, perfectly still.
As if I were just sleeping.
Suddenly, my phone vibrated, slipping from my hand and clattering to the floor. I reached for it instinctively, but my hand passed
right through it, grasping at nothing
I stared at my translucent fingertips.
My mind, slow and thick, finally processed the truth
00:28
Chapter 1
I was already dead.
I had died quietly, invisibly, in the middle of a bustling train station.
Died while waiting for Caleb to come and get me.
The phone screen lit up, displaying a message Caleb had sent a minute ago.
[Still waiting?]
[Guess that proves you’re not sick at all.]
[Leo, you lied again.]
I didn’t lie.
I said the words, but no sound came out. It was real. I wasn’t feeling well.
I was born with a congenital heart defect, which was surgically corrected when I was six. But for the past three months, the dull
ache in my chest had returned, along with occasional bouts of cyanosis–my lips and fingertips turning blue from lack of oxygen.
If this had happened before.. that incident, Caleb would have been frantic with worry. He would have rushed me to the hospital
without a second thought.
But he didn’t trust me anymore. He was convinced I was a manipulator, someone who would do anything to get what I wanted.
Because I’d been frail my whole life, Caleb had become a surrogate parent by the time he was a teenager. He was mature, serious, and meticulously protective. He worried if I might get hurt, if I might catch a chill. He controlled the thermostat in my room, the
layers of clothes I wore when I went out.
A single cough, a slight frown from me, and he would be on high alert.
I basked in his attention, his care. I was spoiled by it. I would cling to his side and declare petulantly. “I’m never getting married.”
Then I’d wrap my arms around his waist, squeezing tight. “And you’re not allowed to get married either, Caleb. You have to stay
with me forever!”
He would just laugh and ruffle my hair, his voice soft. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
But then, seeing my pout, he’d quickly relent. “Alright, alright, I wait until after you’re married. How about that?”
I wouldn’t say anything. I’d just tilt my head back and gaze at him, wishing that moment could last forever, but also secretly hoping for something to change.
Something did change.
Just not in the way I’d imagined.
I should have looked at you longer then, I thought, staring at my own corpse
I never even got to see him one last time.
People streamed past me, their suitcases rattling on the floor, but no one gave my body a second glance. A person sleeping in a waiting room was the most normal thing in the world.
Just then, I saw a small hand reach down and pick up my phone.
