Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

would be disappointed she wasn’t getting anything from his estate, but screw
her. She’d been mean at the funeral.
“Okay,” he said. “I’m ready. How do we do this? Do you … chant or
something? Sacrifice a goat?” He grimaced. “I really hope you don’t have to
sacrifice a goat. I get squeamish around blood.”
“You’re in luck,” Hugo said. “We’re fresh out of goats.”
Wallace sagged. “Great. I’m ready to be alive again. I learned my lesson.
I promise to be nicer to people and blah, blah, blah.”
“The joy I feel knows no bounds,” Hugo said. “Raise your arms above
your head.”
Wallace did just that.
“Now jump up and down.”
Wallace did, the cable rising and falling from the floor.
“Repeat after me: ‘I want to be alive.’”
“I want to be alive.”
Hugo sighed. “You gotta mean it. Really let me hear it. Make me believe.”
“I want to be alive!” Wallace shouted as he jumped up and down, arms
above his head. “I want to be alive! I want to be alive!”
“There it is!” Hugo cried. “I can feel something happening. It’s really
coming. Keep going! Jump in circles!”
“I want to be alive!” Wallace bellowed as he jumped in a circle. “I want
to be alive! I want to be alive!”
“And stop. Whatever you do, don’t move.”
Wallace froze, arms above his head, one leg raised, his flip-flop dangling
off his foot. He could feel it working. He didn’t know how, but he did. Soon,
this would all be over and he’d go back to living.
Hugo’s eyes widened. “Stay like that until I say so. Don’t even blink.”
Wallace didn’t. He stayed exactly as he was. He’d do anything to make
this right again.
Hugo nodded. “Good. Now, I want you to repeat after me again: ‘I am an
idiot.’”
“I am an idiot.”
“‘And I’m dead.’”
“And I’m dead.”
“‘And there’s no way for me to come back to life because that’s not how it
works.’”