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Chapter 1

Death has a tangible aura that can never beelse

Sos in the air when so just outside their body It thickens the atmosphere around theravitational pull

Of course, I wasn’t thinking about death at all that night—not until I walked in on it

I wasn’t thinking about lass of the city bus, watching the darkened streets pass by outside Neon lights flickered in the s of dive bars, their bright colors sliding in and out of focus as I blinked my tired eyes My feet ached badly, and I knew ht and make it hard to sleep

I’d spent all dayorder after order Although dozens of people had coh the little truck stop diner, not many of them had tipped I was still too short on cash, and I needed to hand sohts on He’d been fired fro us afloat nohat I brought home

Since my mom’s death when I was seven, it’d been just hter, I was his caretaker and ot frustrated and the wrong kind of drunk—the punching bag

A sigh left my lips as the ancient bus creaked to a halt, and I pushed open the back doors, stepping out into the quiet night Half the street lahborhood were busted—shot out or burnt out—and I kept my keys clutched in my fist as I shuffled toward home

Dad had deot off work—it was now stuffed insidewith the bottle of vodka he loved so much

I hated both those fucking things

My fingers twitched to grab them out of my backpack and chuck them in the trash before I went up, but I wasn’t stupid I didn’t want a fight Not after standing on my feet for fourteen hours

I climbed wearily up to the third floor, and once inside, I closed the door softly, leaning back against the warped wood and closing my eyes

It was in that moment of quiet that I first felt it

The unmistakable aura of death

As if soen out of the room, out of the whole apartment

I openedshallowly as I listened to the silence The apartment was too quiet Usually, the TV blared at this point in the night, and if Dad had heardhim a drink

“Dad?” I whispered, but the deathly stillness sucked the word into void

Maybe he just passed out Maybe he’s asleep

My stomach pitched as I pushed away froht was off, andwas off Wrong

My hand traced the outdated wallpaper until it found the switch and flipped it, bathing the rooht

The sight in front of s My dad was slu over the side One ar the floor

“Dad?” I rasped

I kneouldn’t answer—the i place—but my mouth forht, and his eyes were half-open, staring unseeing, the whites tinged with yellow Evidence of the liver decay that’d eaten him from the inside out

I sed down bile, running a shaky hand over my face as the numbness wore off and the full effect of his death slah my chest

Shock Grief Confusion Fear

Relief