Chapter 1 - The Impossible Pulse
The room fell into a suffocating silence.
No one dared to take a single breath.
Rachel stared at the casket, her heart pounding violently against her ribs.
Her eyes were fixed on the arm that now rested protectively over her daughter's fragile back.
It was impossible.
Thomas had been pronounced dead by two separate doctors over forty-eight hours ago.
His skin had been pale, cold, and utterly lifeless when they brought him to the viewing room.
But now, under the dim amber lights of the funeral parlor, his arm had undeniably shifted.
Lorraine, Thomas’s older sister, was the first to break the paralysis that gripped the room.
She took a slow, trembling step forward, her high heels clicking loudly against the hardwood floor.
"Thomas?" she whispered, her voice cracking with a mixture of raw terror and desperate hope.
Madison did not move from her father's chest.
The little girl simply closed her eyes, a peaceful smile spreading across her tear-stained face.
"I told you he wasn't gone," Madison murmured into the silence.
Rachel finally snapped out of her frozen state and lunged toward the wooden box.
She grabbed Madison by the shoulders, intending to pull her away from the corpse immediately.
But as her bare hands brushed against Thomas’s skin, Rachel let out a blood-curdling gasp.
Madison was right.
His skin was not the freezing temperature of a corpse waiting for burial.
He was radiating a faint, undeniable heat.
Lorraine shoved past the stunned relatives and pressed two trembling fingers against the side of Thomas’s neck.
For ten agonizing seconds, there was absolutely nothing.
And then, a faint thud echoed against her fingertips.
It was incredibly slow, sluggish, and weak, but it was there.
"Oh my God," Lorraine screamed, stumbling backward and knocking over a tall vase of white lilies.
The glass shattered into a thousand pieces across the floor, breaking the spell over the rest of the guests.
"He has a pulse!" Lorraine shrieked at the top of her lungs.
Chaos erupted in the funeral parlor as guests began screaming and scrambling for their cell phones.
Rachel collapsed against the side of the casket, sobbing hysterically as she stared at her husband's face.
His chest, which had been completely still for two days, began to rise in a shallow, barely visible breath.
"Call 911 right now!" an uncle bellowed from the back of the crowded room.
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Madison simply snuggled closer to her father, completely undisturbed by the absolute madness unfolding around her.
She knew he would never leave her alone in the dark.
