The Dead Reaper

PROLOGUE

Life and death.

Body and soul.

Past and Future.

What if the afterlife exists and the ghosts of the past, present, and future coexist in our world?

That's the question we ask ourselves since the very beginning, but the answer is still unknown, hidden in the depths of our minds and tangled up with countless thoughts.

But does the answer even exist? Or is it just our own thing, just like the existence of gods?

Well, it's hard to say. For ordinary people at least.

In this story and this world, the meaning of death is put under a big question mark, beeing even more complex than in our wildest beliefs, but not for all...

Some people live long, colourful lives.

Some people live lives long but awful.

Some people don't live long, but their lives are full.

Some people don't live long and die unfulfilled.

But there are also people who die before they could even experience life. Before they would be able to take their first breath.

Sometimes they just die before being born.

And that's precisely when the miracle happened.

There was a big commotion in the hospital sending midwives running in circles from the hospital bed to the large table and back again.

It's still one in a milliard situation...

The woman on the bed cried with almost physical pain making the nurses even more worried and fastening their pace.

... but sometimes...

'You can sign the death certificate.' said a doctor glancing towards the midwife holding an infant in her arms. She nodded. No emotions on her face. Just like that, just a normal day of work.

... sometimes someone dead can take another step forward.

The infant as if sensing it was beeing written off, opened its eyes.

The midwife was shocked senseless, dropping the child and backing off frantically. The doctor crouched down for examination, assuming that incident was a post-mortal muscle movement. It would be an understatement to say that he was deeply astounded when he heard loud crying.

Mother rushed out of bed getting tangled in the sheets and almost falling head towards the floor. She took the cold infant hiding it in her arms and letting tears of joy drop unhurriedly from her eyes.

The hospital staff was dumbfounded by this accident, letting it become part of history.

'That was a miracle.' said the doctor to the parents. 'It wasn't a medical mistake. The infant died during childbirth.' was all he said for his defence.