Hereafter by Jennifer Snyder

what this moment truly was—the last time I would see him—sunk in. Panic jolted through me. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to him just yet. I left my mother’s side to fling myself in his arms.
    I closed my eyes after a few moments of enjoying the feel of him and shook my head. “I don’t want to say goodbye. I feel so selfish.”
    “You’re not and I don’t want you thinking any differently,” he said.
    A sob escaped my throat. “It’s not fair.”
    “Since when has life or death ever been fair?” He chuckled, the sound of it echoing through me.
    “I know. But what kind of life am I supposed to have without you?” I cried. “Why did you want to see me through this? How could you stand it? If our roles were reversed, I don’t think I could have.”
    Jet hesitated in answering and then sighed loudly. “Because I could tell it was what you truly wanted—life, that is. Hell, it’s what all of us who are already dead want. The sad thing is we never realize it until it’s gone. I wanted to not only see you through all this—” He gestured to our surroundings and to my mother. “—but also to spend as much time with you as I possibly could before.” He paused and put a hand to my cheek. “I’d do anything to see you truly happy, Rowan, even help you achieve something that would take you away from me forever.”
    My eyes bounced to his. I felt his heartache threaded into the syllables of his words, and they tugged at my soul. All I felt when I looked at him now was heartache and I hated it. I hated this place for taking away all of the love I’d had for Jet and replacing it with heartache and bittersweet pain in our final moments.
    How could I leave him? I had only been what I am for a few months, but in that short time, I’d learned how lonely death could be. How could I condemn him to an eternity of that horrid loneliness without me? I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. His sadness mixed with mine and pulsated through my soul.
    “Isn’t there any way that we could do the same for you? Can’t one of these souls here take your place as a Reaper?” I whispered between kisses, hopeful.
    “I don’t think it works that way for me,” he answered, leaning his forehead against mine.
    I closed my eyes tightly and leaned into him. “I wish it did.”
    “Me too,” he whispered.
    Val cleared her throat beside us. “You know the time frame for this to happen isn’t unlimited.”
    “Go ahead. I’ll be fine. If you can remember, I was a Reaper before you,” he added with a forced smile.
    Mom took my hand in hers. “Come on, honey.”
    I clamped my lips together in the hopes of keeping in my sobs as I squeezed my mother’s hand and stepped away from Jet for the final time. I thought of my father, and the images of him drunk, broken, and lying on my bedroom floor flashed through my mind once more. I thought of Kami and how I wanted to right our friendship, to grasp with both hands the olive branch she had extended during the last little bit of my life.
    I was staring into Jet’s sapphire blue eyes when the room suddenly went white. I gazed at him, knowing that I needed to accept, knowing that he wanted me to accept, but still I hesitated.
    “Go, Rowan… Start over… live ,” he pleaded. “For me.”
    I smiled through my tears. “I will… I accept.”
     
    Something happened the moment those final two words fell from my lips. The air around us constricted as the whiteness became flooded with color again. Green grass lay beneath my feet suddenly, and trees with flower buds and lush leaves reached up to touch a clear blue sky. The edges of a flowing river caught my attention in the distance, and I sifted through my mind for this place and how I knew it—why it looked so familiar.
    A moaning filled the silence. It took me only a moment to realize the muffled noise had come from Jet. His face had become contorted with pain and anguish. I watched as he clenched and unclenched his fists. His