PROLOGUE: ALEX
“To die would be an awfully big adventure.” -Peter Pan
It all happened so fast.
The car came speeding towards me from the left, the driver not even putting his glass bottle down long enough to see the kid he was going to collide with, not long enough to see that he was taking a life.
Glass from the driver’s side window began shattering, slicing up my face as well as the palms of my hands once I held them up, trying to shield myself from the unavoidable spray of jagged, deadly glass. I heard the ear splitting screech of metal on metal and the audible click of the seat belt locking itself up and stopping me from flying out of the car through the windshield and digging into my shoulder blade, cutting into the exposed skin from the glass shredding the thin fabric. My hands tightened on the wheel, my breathing laboured as I struggled to keep my eyes open.
I knew that if I close them, they’ll never open again.
It hurt at first, dying I mean. But soon after my last slow breath came a calming, hypnotizing numbness that spread through my veins until it reached my heart and clenched around it, restricting it from beating. I could no longer feel the blood trickling down the side of my face, even though I knew it was still flowing. The prominent throbbing at the back of my head had stopped. Gone. All of it. Taking the carefree feelings I had had only moments ago and ejecting them out, replacing them with pure sadness.
I didn’t have to move to know that I wasn’t even in my body any longer. It was like a sign was flashing before my eyes that read: Hey! You’re dead now! Congratulations! Closing my eyes for just a moment, I tried to decide what to do. What am I supposed to do, anyways? Do I just have to wait for the ambulance to drag my lifeless body out of the car, trying to be careful, thinking that I’m only passed out? Am I going to be forced to watch my parents and little sister Anna suffer as they plan a funeral?
Oh, Anna. She’s too young to have to go through this. She should be worrying about making friends, not making plans for her brother’s funeral. How will this affect her, anyways? Will she grow up depressed and feeling like she’s missing something, or will she move on and forget about me?
I was pulled out of my thoughts as my body was pulled out of the car with no effort. Stepping out of the car right after it, my mouth opened in shock.
“Alexander Reid. I’ve been waiting for you.”
