Prologue
Meki was 17 years old when his soul ascended to the heavens, leaving behind his parents and Kije, his sister. This is not Meki's story. This story is about the grief that shook and finished the family that he left behind.
And about Death, who brings Kije back to life.
Something tore Kije out of her sleep, claws ripping her out of her dreams and her peace. The sky was falling, and she scrambled to her feet with her chest heaving as the dust and rubble of her roof fell around her in pieces, roaring and raging in a furious eruption.
Her brother's head was under a slab of concrete. They had been sleeping in the same room on different mattresses, and the roof had fallen.
A keening wail tore itself out of her throat as she fell to her knees, scraping her hands and knees over the fallen rubble, crawling. "Meki, Meki." Her heart was breaking.
Her mother, no, their mother, threw open the room door, her eyes wide and her face crumpling in devastation as she too fell to her knees, calling out her son's name. But he was already gone.
Kije's mother cried out for her husband, and Kije realised with growing horror that he too was half buried under the debris, but he was alive, coughing and sputtering dust as Kije and her mother dragged him out from where he was stuck. The right half of his torso seemed to have caved in, but he too droppe beside his son, not realising that his own head was bleeding profusely.
He shakily stood, enveloping his dead son in his arms as he barked at the driver to take the car out. Kije watched numbly as Meki's limp arm hit a door frame, streaking it with blood. She could only watch as her mother and father left with their dead son, cheeks stained with tears, eyes filled with anguish as they tried to save their only son.
She was all alone now, the sudden silence of the house closing in on her. Her mind and thoughts had turned into a hurricane as she stood, phone in hand, for something to make sense. Kije could hear her heartbeat in her ears, pulse hammering like a war drum as she gasped for air to process the fact that Meki, her Meki, had left her.
But something was switching off inside her. She could feel it go out; some type of light, some type of fire, some of the good that she knew she once had was gone. An unbearable desolation crawled in, cold and merciless, sealing off her heart from her mind like a door slammed shut. She wasn’t just numb—she was absent. Hollow. Whatever it meant to feel alive had vanished, and all that was left was silence.
