1. Leo
CHAPTER 1
Leo
Death is peaceful.
I had always been afraid of the concept when I was growing up. Loved ones dying and never being able to see them again. My dying and going to eternal darkness.
But right now?
I feel more peaceful than I ever have before. It’s dark for a moment, terrifying and cold, until I see the light. The one that everyone talks about—the light you are supposed to walk toward, and that’s what I do.
Every step is slow, like my feet are acting as magnets against the ground. When I finally approach the end of the tunnel, and the light grows bigger, I see my mother’s face—a wide, beautiful smile paired with loving eyes, as if she is unaware of what I’ve just done.
I tried to help Veronica escape.
She betrayed me.
She stabbed me.
All the emotions come swirling back like a storm, and they hit me incredibly hard—so hard that they push me away from the light and my mother. Her face drops only slightly, but not out of confusion. There is a calmness to her expression.
It is the face that is telling me it isn’t my time. I reach out to her, but I’m too far away.
Being forced backward by these emotions happens too quickly, and as the light shrinks and the darkness consumes me again, my entire body buzzes. A shockwave rolls through my system, then a pause before another one seizes me.
After the third, I’m staring at a light again, except this light is closer and way too bright. Multiple eyes stare down at me instead of my mother’s blue ones. My chest starts moving, and that’s when I realize that I’m breathing.
I’m alive.