Prologue

We've all seen them, the glimpses, at the very edge of our perception. these beings are the inhabitants of a world which shadows our own, veiled from sight but only just. glimpses are created not born, a glimpse is a person who died before their intended time, before their strand of fate had run its course. because of this their spirits must continue to exist until either their allotted time runs out.
the world in which they linger in known only as Spire, named for the court where glimpses are judges once their time has expired. here they are judged by the embodiment of life and death, a single black flame which changes colour only when judgement has been passed, a blue flame represents the presence of a worthy soul, destined for heaven however a green flame denotes a corrupt soul bound for the depths of the underworld.

Glimpses are poor beings as they perceive all around them, the flow and ebb of time. they must watch as their loved ones grieve for their loss, move on with their lives and live without them. glimpses perceive yet they cannot touch an agony which pains them all as they are so close at hand yet still so far, they also experience no hunger except for the touch of another being.
however do not feel too sorry for the glimpses because this is a story of how their veil was lifted and how they were able to reach out to their loved ones and even seek resurrection.
This is the story of William.

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William was a rarity among the glimpse as he was born in Spire, his mother had been several months pregnant when she had been killed by a stray bullet from an armed robbery, the events all happened so quickly that William's mother had died along with William, before the emergency services could arrive. this meant that when William's mother arrived in Spire, she was still carrying William and would continue to do so for another 3 months before William was finally born. the birth was a momentous occasion in Spire for in a land ruled by death the birth of a new soul was rare indeed. however mother and child were left with little time to bond as sadly his mother had been destined to die during child birth and was taken before the court mere moments after William's birth. his mother was found to be worth and was taken away to the heavens weeping as she was forced to leave her child behind.

This left the populous of Spire rather confused as to what to do with the boy, as he would need to be taken care of and no one was sure how long the child would linger in spire, there were several offers from women of varying ages to take care of the boy all offering up valid reasons as to why they should be the one to carry out the task, however such commotion caught the ear of the Lord of Spire, Death himself, or Brian as he had taken to calling himself in recent decades. see the helpless infant death felt an odd connection with the boy, something similar to the feeling of meeting those of your kin, intrigued Death gingerly lifted the child from one of his potential  mothers and spoke only four words before taking the child to his manor. and the four words that he spoke carried more power than even Death knew when he uttered "He belongs to me"