Daniel, 24, was a man with no one. No mother, no father, no siblings. For as long as he could remember, he'd been alone, navigating a world that never stopped to ask if he was okay.
Routine wrapped around him like a gray blanket: work, little sleep, fast food, reading novels or playing video games, and another day like that. His life was a repeated sequence of numbers, emails, and meetings that slowly wore him down.
He worked harder than anyone else in the office, not because he wanted to stand out, but because he had nowhere else to go. He was the last to turn off the light, the first to arrive. His boss rarely noticed him. His colleagues ignored him. Daniel was just another cog in the machine, invisible, replaceable.
That night, under the white light of the monitor, his body simply said enough. A dizzy spell, a sharp pain in his chest, and then... nothing. A profound silence enveloped him, no alarms, no goodbyes. He died alone, as he had lived.
But death wasn't the end. A gentle breeze caressed his face. It wasn't the office air conditioning, it was something more... natural. The smell of wet earth and grass enveloped him. He opened his eyes with difficulty and saw a completely different sky, bluer, brighter. Strangely shaped birds flew overhead.
He lay in a forest clearing, surrounded by gigantic trees that looked like something out of a fantasy painting.
Confused, still feeling the echo of the emptiness that had been his previous life, Daniel slowly sat up. Something burned inside him: an unknown energy, warm and powerful.
His body was no longer weak or exhausted. For the first time, he didn't feel insignificant; he had died, yes. But this time... maybe he would truly live.