The light was blinding. Although I knew better than to stare at it, I did.

Usually, a mind is an endless supply of information and memory. There’s nothing. Perhaps that scared me more than knowing my death came too early in life.

That could also be true for Kwon. Whose first thought this morning wasn’t standing on the side of the street, looking down at his body face first in a drainage hole. He’s young. Not quite as young as I was, but young enough. Around his body, the rain pooled, and I held out my hand to urge Kwon to look away. Behind us, everything turned into an inky grey. Like we’ve stepped into a different world entirely.

Kwon didn’t want to leave his body. It was known to happen. It took a moment for someone to acknowledge that they’ve expired. Ugh, I always hated that term. As if people could ever be comparable to food stored in a fridge.

This process, not new to me by any means, was still uneasy. It filled me with thoughts of finality. Kwon would never see this world again. It was over the instant I pulled him out of his body. My only regret—not letting Kwon give a proper goodbye. I didn't care about the bullshit Annabeth told me. Moving on required more than memories. It required knowing that the ones left behind had peace as well. 

"What’s your name?” I asked. Not for Kwon's knowledge, but it was part of the job and the one thing standing between his afterlife and ending up like me. An empty, broken shell.

“Choi Kwon?” He questioned, waiting. It was almost like he had been expecting a prize for some game he had won. Yeah, the game into an eternity of beautiful girls, drinks you never have to pay for, and whatever else was waiting for those who had lived decently. Decently enough.

In front of us was a metal door that looked new and out of place against the dark, abandoned building. Why was it always this building?

Below a faded-out sign reading Allan's sporting goods were two worn-out gloves and bats. There was something about it that rang to the strings in my heart. Perhaps a forgotten childhood past-time I shared with my father. A memory I'd never get back because I'd been doing this nearly a year and nothing felt familiar. Except for that sign and I still couldn't figure out why.

Kwon tugged at his ear, slightly shifting between his feet. It was natural to be hesitant. Who was I, but a weird man who pulled him out of his body and expected him to follow without suspicion.

“Where does it go?” Kwon asked filling the silent air that had fallen over us.

“If your memory is intact, to a life of peace.” I told him, feeling a pulse in my throat. Not all of the Souls could be so lucky.

“Kwon!” We both turned at the uncontrollable screaming. Binna collapsed by Kwon’s body. The ends of her black hair stuck to the top of her wet shoulders.

She was the girl Kwon spent his whole life waiting for. For a month of dating and mediocre sex. In all that time, he had been the happiest.

Before Binna, Kwon was a slacker staying home playing video games, barely making it outside for groceries. Then one night, after he'd been MIA his parents ordered the door to get busted open. He had been found with three-day-old bags under his bloodshot eyes and a bucket of urine on the floor by his feet.  But when Binna came into his life or rather the moment she responded to the call, he claimed he'd seen a light. I was almost positive that was the day he was meant to die. Somehow, he'd made it off my list.  

Kwon wasn’t an uneducated man. In fact, he'd been at the top of his class all through college. But an unmotivated man got nowhere. Binna showed him the outcome of hard work and will. He needed to become a man worthy of her. A year wasn't nearly enough to do that, but Kwon managed. Then death came knocking again and he couldn't avoid it twice.  

“Forget.” I instructed, turning Kwon's attention back to the door. It was harder accepting death when looking back. “You will see her again soon.”

He looked at me. His face had turned puffy, but he had been smiling—a mix of emotions in knowing that Binna would follow him. After all, her soul was due for collection at the end of the year.

“Cause of death?” I asked frantically just as the doorknob made a full turn. 

“Car accident.” Kwon answered with a confused look. “I died a week before my thirty-third birthday.”

Each question was asked in preparation. In the hopes that when I allowed him to open the door, Kwon wouldn't be walking back through in the body of another. I didn’t want him in the same position as me. One of the souls to make it through those doors, expecting an afterlife, but given an eternity of helping others cross the divide. 

Of course, I hadn't been the first, but I definitely had been the last. From what Annabeth told me. I was an odd case. No other Souls forgot, at least not since I started collecting them. That, I remembered as clear as what I had for breakfast yesterday morning. 

I closed my eyes, feeling the rush of warm air against my face, knowing Kwon had opened the door, meaning that Na-Ra would probably be greeting him when he made it through. The same Na-Ra who had met me almost a year ago today.