Chapter 1: Unfortunate Fate
Dying at nine years old wasn't part of the plan.
Elias "Grim" Kingsley had barely begun to experience life when it was cut tragically short. A cold winter night, an overcrowded orphanage with insufficient heating, and pneumonia that no one noticed until it was too late. No one heard his final, labored breaths in the dark dormitory. No one was there to hold his hand as he slipped away.
No one had ever really been there.
"Fuck this," were actually his last thoughts as darkness claimed him. At nine, he already had a vocabulary that would make adults flinch, picked up from the older kids and the harsher caretakers who thought orphans weren't worth the gentleness of polite society.
They called him "Grim" at the orphanage—not just for his name, but for his perpetual scowl, his biting remarks, and his refusal to play nice with the other children or potential adopters. "Problem child," the staff labeled him. "Damaged goods," whispered the couples who came looking for sweet, compliant additions to their families.
He hadn't always been that way. But after years of being passed over, pushed around, and treated like an inconvenience rather than a child, the armor had grown thick around his young heart.
As his consciousness faded, Elias felt a strange pulling sensation, as if his very essence was being stretched across an infinite distance. Then darkness.
When awareness returned, he found himself floating in a vast, empty void. No light, no sound, no sensation of any kind. Yet somehow, he could perceive his surroundings. Or lack thereof.
"Well, this is unexpected," a voice said from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Elias tried to speak but found he had no mouth, no body at all. Yet somehow, his thoughts projected outward. "Where am I? What happened?"
"You died," the voice replied simply. "Rather tragically for someone so young."