Prologue

I have a question for you—yes, you, the one reading this. Have you ever wondered what happens after a person dies? Perhaps your answer is yes. Perhaps it is not. After all, it depends entirely on what a person chooses to believe. Some people rarely think about death at all. Life keeps them too busy to spare it a second thought. Others believe that death is simply the end. A final moment, followed by endless darkness stretching into eternity. And then there are those whose beliefs are shaped by religion. They believe that after death, a person is judged. Some souls are sent to hell—a place of punishment for those who spent their lives committing sins, deceiving others, betraying trust, or causing suffering. Others are welcomed into heaven—a place reserved for those who lived with kindness, honesty, and love in their hearts.

But among all those possibilities, I wonder if at least one of you has imagined something different. What if an afterlife truly exists? What if, after death, a person arrives somewhere in between? 

A place neither heaven nor hell.

Neither darkness nor light.

A place where the dead... continue to exist.

Where unfinished stories find their endings.

Where unanswered questions finally receive answers.

Where wandering souls search for the one thing they could never find in life.

I know what you're thinking. It sounds like nothing more than a fantasy—a dream born from novels, stories, and imagination. And perhaps you're right. But what if I told you such a place really exists?

A place known only as the IN-BETWEEN.

And right now, within that endless world, a single soul is waiting and waiting for another soul to arrive. Will her arrival change anything for him? Or will his story continue exactly as it always has?

"Sia, huh..."  A boy's quiet voice echoed through the vast emptiness. 
"So, you're the new soul who's about to arrive." 

He waited patiently within the IN-BETWEEN, watching for the moment when the girl named Sia would finally appear.