Introduction

You know, it’s funny how life works out sometimes.

Or, well… I guess it’s funny how death works out.

Hi there! My name is Elijah Cassian, and I’m… well, I was the family idiot.

It’s not like I tried to be!

Some people are just born smart, you know?

They get all the good genes—the ones for quick thinking and clever comebacks and remembering to tie their shoes.

Me?

I think I got the genes for… being really good at staring at clouds. And forgetting where I put my juice box. And trusting my older brother, Leo, when he grinned at me and said, “Here, Eli, it’s just lemonade!”

Spoiler alert: It was not just lemonade.

See, I’m super, super allergic to peaches.

Like, my throat tries to tie itself into a pretzel and my body goes on strike.

It’s very rude of it, really.

So when I drank that water Leo gave me—the one with the peach extract he’d secretly squeezed in for a “prank”—my body decided to throw the biggest, messiest tantrum ever. It wasn’t a cute little rash.

Oh no!

We went straight to the main event: vomiting blood all over Mom’s favorite white rug.

It looked kind of pretty, in a really gross way. Like a modern art painting.

I titled it “The Consequences of Trusting Leo.”

The weirdest part?

I didn’t even cry. I just stood there, feeling this hot, awful pain in my tummy, watching my parents’ faces go from annoyed to… well, still annoyed, but with more yelling.

“Elijah, you idiot! Look what you’ve done!” Dad shouted. Mom was just clutching her pearls, looking at the rug like I’d murdered her favorite pet. Leo was trying not to laugh behind his hand. Classic Leo.

Then everything got really fuzzy and dark, like someone was turning down the lights on the world. The last thing I remember is the ceiling spinning, and then… nothing.

I thought that was it.

Goodbye, world of juice boxes and being called dense.

But then I woke up!

And it was… cold. Not snuggly-blanket cold. More like my bones had been turned into popsicles. My throat felt like I’d tried to swallow a cactus, and my head was hosting a tiny, angry drum circle.

I was in a hospital bed, which made sense.

Mom and Dad must have brought me here after my dramatic performance on the rug. I looked around the little curtained-off area, feeling that familiar, heavy loneliness.

Of course they’d left.

They probably had more important things to do than sit with their idiot son who couldn’t even tell peach water from regular water.

I was just starting to feel properly sorry for myself when the nurse came in.

She was all cheerful and bouncy, saying something about checking my vitals. And my slow, cloud-watching brain, which usually takes its sweet time processing things, finally delivered the information it had gathered.

She had big, round, gray-furred ears on top of her head.

They twitched.

And she had a long, pink, hairless tail swishing behind her.

A tail.

I blinked. I scrunched my eyes shut. Maybe I’m still dreaming? Maybe this is the peach allergy afterlife? A place where nurses are… mice?

“Good, you’re awake!” she squeaked. Literally squeaked. Like a little mouse. Because she was one. “You gave us quite a scare, Mr. Cassian!”

My mouth fell open. All I could manage was a tiny, “Wh… what are you?”

She just tilted her head, her whiskers twitching, and looked at me like I was the strange one. “I’m Nurse Millie! Your attending nurse. Now, let’s not fuss.”

She checked my pulse with her little paws—I mean, hands—and wrote on her clipboard, her tail giving a happy little flick. Then she bustled right out, leaving me alone with my popsicle bones and my completely shattered understanding of reality.

So, let’s review: I, Elijah Cassian, the family idiot, died from a peach. And I woke up in a place where nurses have tails and ears.

I don’t think I’m dense anymore.

I think I might just be… lost. Very, very lost. And honestly? It’s a lot more interesting than staring at clouds.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***