Chapter 39: The Sorrow of the Many
**Kait**
It’s not as though I’ve never experienced death before. I have, in fact, many times. It began with Nan, though I hadn’t seen the moment she died. Then, it was a drunk driver who hit the car of a mother and her child. When I arrived on the scene, the mother clutched her dying baby.
As the child drew their last breath, I saw that tiny glimmer I thought was a soul leave their body.
And now, with Azalea, even when I saw her pale and frozen face, I knew she was gone long before I entered the room. I felt her absence like one would feel a cold chill as if the heat had suddenly fled the space. But with this, it was like the essence that made her was gone.
Later, I asked Marcey, and she smiled gently, that sweet, sympathetic smile, and said this was a gift meant only for those who could see. I hadn’t known then what she meant, but as I stand at Azalea’s graveside, I think I do.