Chapter 1

On my sixth birthday, my parents took me out to celebrate and never came back.

My older sister kicked me out of the house years later, calling me a scheming, toxic jinx.

On the day I died, I could not stop myself from dialing her number one last time.

"Keira, I'm dying," I pleaded into the receiver. "Can you please come save me?"

She was at the movies with her golden boy, Weston.

Her final words to me were ice cold.

"Talk to me after you're dead."

Just as she wished, I really did die.

1

I was dead.

In the pitch-black darkness, the screech of tires and the screams of pedestrians echoed around me.

Agonizing pain tore through my body in an instant.

With trembling hands, I used my blood-soaked phone to dial my sister's number.

All I received was her cold brush-off: "Talk to me after you're dead."

Then, the line went dead.

She had hung up on me, shattering my last shred of hope.

If she had told me to hold on, even for a second, I would have fought to survive.

Now, I was simply too exhausted and in too much pain.

Dying felt like a relief.

The phone slipped from my fingers as my sight faded into nothingness.

A moment later, a strange lightness washed over me.

I began to float.

Light returned to my world, and looking down, I saw my own mangled corpse.

It was a gruesome sight, covered in a mess of mud and crimson blood.

I followed the paramedics as they transported my body to the hospital.

The doctor searched through my ragged clothes and pulled out my ID card.

"Poor kid," the doctor muttered, shaking his head. "He's so young. His family is going to be devastated."

A police officer took my ID to run it through the national database to locate my next of kin.

My spirit trembled with faint anticipation. Was my sister finally going to see me?

Moments later, the officer returned and gave the doctor a solemn look.

"The deceased has no living relatives on record," the officer said quietly.

"However, he signed an anatomical body donation agreement. We can contact the local medical school to take the body."

Hearing this, everyone in the room bowed respectfully toward my remains.

A bitter realization washed over me.

After our parents died, Keira legally severed all ties with me.

I truly was all alone in this world.

I didn't even have a single family member to claim my corpse.

Yet, I still remembered what Keira had told me when we were kids.

She said that after death, donating your body as a silent mentor was the noblest way to give back to society.

The day I turned eighteen, I signed the donor registry with the Red Cross.

I just never imagined my body would be used so soon.