Chapter Two: The Day I Died

My lips parted as if I wanted to say something, but before the words left me, the ambulance jolted forward. I turned, searching for the man I thought I saw near the crowd. He wasn’t there anymore. It was as if he had vanished into thin air.

I swallowed hard and forced myself to follow Jason inside the ambulance. My legs felt like stone.

I sat across from him, eyes locked on the body lying between us. Jason held her hand tight against his mouth, whispering something I couldn’t hear. His face was pale, broken.

Then Jessica reached out and rested her hand on his.

My chest tightened. Tears burned my eyes as I tried to understand what was happening. None of it made sense.

At the hospital, nurses rushed the woman inside a room. I stood frozen until—

“Elizabeth!”

My mother’s voice.

I spun around just in time to see her running through the hospital doors, hair messy, face streaked with tears. “Elizabeth!” she cried again, reaching for me.

“Mom!” I ran to her. Relief flooded me until she passed right through me.

I stopped cold. The air left my lungs. My knees buckled as sobs ripped out of me. What was happening to me? Why couldn’t she see me?

My dad appeared, clinging to Jason’s arm like he might collapse. My heart broke, then hardened when I saw Jason clutching him back, pretending to be strong. Pretending like he hadn’t betrayed me. Like he wasn’t the reason my life was a tangled mess.

My throat burned. I wanted to scream at my dad not to trust him. To open his eyes. To see Jason for what he really was.

But all that came out were choked, frustrated cries.

“You’re dumb, aren’t you?”

The voice came from behind me. Deep, careless, dripping with mockery.

I whirled around.

He leaned casually against the wall. The man I saw earlier. He was dressed in a sharp red suit. His hair was dark, his features striking in a way that unsettled me, and his eyes glowed with an odd, otherworldly light

 His lips curved into a lazy, mocking half-smile.

“Others would be crying their souls out if they realized they were dead,” he said, tilting his head at me. “But you? You’re busy sulking over your cheating boyfriend.”

Dead

The word slammed into me.

I stumbled back, shaking my head. “Dead? Who are you? What do you mean dead?”

He unfolded his arms, eyes slowly raking over me from head to toe before dragging back up to my face. The deliberate way he looked at me made my skin prickle with anger.

“Exactly what it sounds like. That’s your body they’re struggling to keep alive. But you… well, you’re standing here, aren’t you?”

My knees weakened. I backed away, shaking my head. “No, no. Jason can see me. He must have seen me.”

“Jason?” His gaze flicked toward my husband, who was crouched beside the stretcher, his hands trembling as he clutched my limp hand. Jason’s lips moved frantically, begging me to wake up, begging the doctors to save me.

The man in red smirked faintly. “He can’t see you, sweetheart. Not anymore.”

I froze, staring at Jason’s broken expression. It was the first time I’d ever seen him cry. My chest twisted painfully. “Then why… why was he with Jessica? Why was he holding her hand like she, like she was me?”

The Red Man shrugged. “Love. Lust. Betrayal. Humans are predictable. But that’s not my concern. You have bigger problems.”

My eyes snapped to him. “What problems? I’m standing here, I’m not—” My words faltered as I glanced again at the stretcher, at the pale version of myself.

A harsh sob tore through me. My hands trembled as I tried to touch my mom, my dad, anyone. My fingers passed through them like mist.

And then it hit me. The way they walked past me. The way I couldn’t touch. The way no one looked me in the eye.

It was just like in the movies.

I really was dead.

“No, no, no,” I whispered, collapsing to my knees. “I’m the only daughter they have. My mom, my dad, they’ll be shattered. I can’t be gone. I can’t—”

My gaze darted back to Jason, rage cutting through the grief. Jessica was clutching him tighter, playing the helpless little angel.

“I can’t leave those two together,” I muttered, fury igniting. “There has to be a way.”

I spun to the red-haired man. My hand shot out grabbing his wrist.

And I froze.

I could touch him.

His skin was solid beneath my fingers, warm even. I stumbled back, eyes wide. “Who… who are you? Are you here to take me?”

“Take you? That’s flattering.

He laughed. A low, mocking sound that sent shivers down my spine.

Some call me many names. Reaper. Collector. Soul Keeper.” His smirk deepened as he leaned close “But you, little ghost, can call me… Red.”

My stomach dropped. My heartbeat or whatever passed for one now stuttered.

“It’s not your time to died yet and yet, here you are. Parked like a fool in the middle of the road. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I didn’t…” My voice cracked. Shame mixed with fury. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this.”

He leaned back, folding his arms. “For souls like you, there are only two options. Accept the end and fade, or…” His gray eyes locked with mine, unsettling and unrelenting. “…fight like hell to claw your way back.”