Death Is Only The Beginning Novels & Stories

He'd eventually found an opportunity to kill me. After my death, I'd lingered as a ghost, unable to move on. I had followed Jack and Kate, watching them live their twisted, off-and-on lives. In the end, they were happy together. It wasn't until Kate botched another surgery and an enraged patient stabbed her in the heart that I saw darkness again. And when I opened my eyes, I was back here, the day before that ill-fated surgery. … Staring at the sterile white ceiling, I could still feel the ache in my abdomen from the pre-op injections.

"But that's sudden. We just got into a partnership. You're just going to throw it away?" I pulled her fingers off me and stepped away. "It's in its final phase. My partner can handle the rest. I have another project to handle." My stepping away hurt her heart. She stared at me, dazed. Lauren extended her trembling hand, and it hung in midair. Her instincts told her I was not coming back, but she asked, "When are you coming home?" I shook my head and put on a smile. "Never." Sorrow crept onto her face. She stared at me in disbelief. She kept trying to grab me, but I kept moving back, so she stopped. Like an abandoned puppy, she did not have the courage to move forward to someone who had just

Darkness swallowed me whole, and the last thought that cut through the void was cold and final: We’re dead.

I nodded, clinging tighter, my screams echoing silently in my mind. Death, they say, is inevitable…. But in some happenstances, we embrace this cold but relieving indomitable. Sensualizing its finality and basking in its advances. For the taken, death is bliss. For the left behind, death is loss. Thank you all…. This episode is dedicated to my dad… may his soul rest in peace…. It’s my life experience and how I felt.

“When he dies, your journey begins.” I straightened instantly. “When he dies?” I echoed, dread curling tightly in my chest. “When he dies, your journey begins.” My heart began to race. “Who?” I shouted. “Who is going to die?” He did not answer. He only kept chanting the same words, again and again, his voice swallowing everything else. “When he dies, your journey begins. When he dies, your journey begins.” “Who is going to die!” I screamed. My eyes flew open.

In the end, I collapsed onto the small bed my parents had bought for me together when I was little and slowly closed my eyes. My tears soaked the pillow. The pain was so overwhelming that all I could do was curl into myself as I repeated the words I remembered in Mom’s voice over and over again in my head, trying to comfort myself. Go to sleep, Daisy. Once you’re asleep, it won’t hurt anymore. … Maybe heaven really heard my prayer, because when I woke up, the pain was gone. However, my body felt strangely weightless, floating in midair. I understood immediately then that I was dead, and my soul, seemingly pulled by some invisible force, drifted until I found myself beside Mom.

the masked man concluded. The lights on the bus flickered on and off. The dark front screen lit again with the same red font as the voice echoed: [Approaching the next stop. All players, get ready.] “Does that mean all of you are dead?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. I could not process or believe any of this. Death means the end. That was how we grew up believing death was. The masked man nodded. “You’re all dead! You’re lucky to be invited to the survival game and have the opportunity to win a second chance at life.

He looked at me a little concerned. "I'm not leaving unless you come with me," I told him and squeezed his hand. He smiled back at me. "I don't know if you remember what happened the first time I visited your home and what I am, um, I'm Death and I'm immortal," I stated firmly and watched an array of emotions cross his eyes. "What does that even mean, you kill people and cannot die," he asked incredulously. I bit my lip and sighed.

On the day of my mother's funeral, I sat outside the chapel, crying so hard I could barely stand. Three days earlier, my father had told me she'd died in a car accident. He said her body was so badly damaged that I shouldn't see it. I wouldn't be able to handle it. I believed him. I put on a black dress and sat beside her casket all night. Ten minutes before the cremation, my phone buzzed. A notification popped up for a hotel livestream. I opened it and froze. My mother was on the screen in an evening gown, smiling as my younger sister, Nina Whitmore, handed her a glass of champagne. My father sat beside her, his eyes red. "From now on, Nina doesn't have to live in Evelyn's shadow or suffer

Life and death are part of nature, after all. "Avery, I miss you…"