Melanie Martinez

Chapter One

Every child has The Sight, the ability to see the supernatural, the ability to see beyond our world. Children are innocent so The Sight comes naturally to them. So if a child is saying there are demons in his room, there are in fact demons in his room and you should listen to that child and get the hell out of that house or invite a specialist to cleanse your home.

Children do eventually grow out of the sight. As soon as they grow older the sight leaves them, well not all children, for some kids the sight stays with them forever. They see ghosts and demons till they turn ninety.

A child's imaginary friend is just a friendly ghost friend they made along the way but of course, adults think that friend is all in the child's head.

I had the sight as a child, I would play with ghost animals and run from violent ghosts who threatened to kill me if I didn't stop disturbing their peace. But then I lost that sight at the age of ten. I could no longer see my ghost friends and my mom had explained to me that it was a part of growing up. She does not believe in ghosts at all.

I didn't want to grow up, I wanted my friends back. Why were they disappearing before my eyes what does my growing up have to do with the fact that I can't see my friends again? I was sad hectic and I was panicking.

Billy and Grace are twins from 1914, they died at the age of nine and they said that they were killed by their uncle who was possessed by a demon. But of course, no one thought of that people just thought him a madman.

Billy and Grace were my best friends. We'd do all the things normal kids did. Play hide and seek or tag and have tea parties. Our friendship had been going strong for years. It was when I grew older than them that I began to notice their image disappearing before my eyes. They explained that the sight was leaving me because I wasn't chosen by the gods. I wanted the gods to choose me. I didn't care about the power that came with being chosen I just wanted to be able to see my friends again.

But of course, something happened. I died. My death got my sight back.

I was at the beach playing with the sand while my mom was on the beach chair enjoying the shade. She warned me not to go too close to the water but I didn't listen and of course, the water stole me and carried me like a weightless feather in the air but this time I was in the ocean.

I remember forcing myself to get to the surface, battling the tide but it was winning. I cried for help while the tide drew me back in. I remember giving up and inhaling water. It was a painful experience. It felt like I was swallowing nails.

Drowning? I do not recommend.

And then I saw her, death ready to take me away from the land of the living she was so beautiful, death was painful but beautiful. I was looking at a goddess reaching out to me. But then that goddess disappeared. I couldn't see her anymore.

The next thing I knew I was on shore blurting out water.

"She's alive!" the hot lifeguard yelled and my mom kneeled next to me and wrapped me up in a hug. That woman was filled with mixed emotions. She was both angry and relieved that I hadn't died.

"I told you not to go near the water," she said in my ear. "I'm never losing sight of you ever again."

"I'm sorry Mommy."

"It's okay sweetie." I look around me and I see the look of relief on a lot of people's faces that I hadn't died. Wow, even strangers were happy that I did not die. Well, I was a little girl and the thought of a little girl dying is disheartening.

It was after that encounter with death that I saw that my best friends weren't wavering away. They told me that it was because I had died and come back to life now I have one foot in the land of the dead and the other in the land of the living. They call people like me an in-betweener. An individual chosen to solve matters in the supernatural world.

I honestly didn't care about all that, all I cared about was seeing my friends again.

As the years went by I grew older than my friends. Well, they are older than me technically but they don't look it, they're older because they've been on earth longer than me, but they're stuck as children forever. I still see ghosts and the supernatural world but turns out that all that wouldn't have mattered because I was moving from California anyway leaving my best friends behind.

They could easily come with me to another state but the thing is they have to use this supernatural mirror that allows ghosts to jump from one place to another, and that mirror is really hard to find.

I'm fourteen this time.

"Will you still come visit us if you have the chance?" Grace asks, she's dressed in a dress little girls her age would have worn in 1914. A high-collared blouse and knee-length skirt with socks and sandals. She has rosy cheeks plastered on her white skin and he blond hair is in pigtails.

"Yes, Grace I promise."

"You promise you won't forget us?" Billy asks, his hair the same as his twin but short and there's a hat on top of it. He's wearing knee-length baggy shorts and long woollen socks with sandals.

"How will I ever forget my first friends?" I hug both of them. I'm really gonna miss them. They made my childhood extra special. When I was missing my friends from school and I had no one to talk to at home Billy and Grace kept me company.

"I love you guys," I whisper to them before packing my bags and leaving for Louisiana.

I wouldn't have had to leave California if my dad wasn't a cheating bastard. Turns out he has cheated on my mom four times with different women and the fourth time is the last straw. He has been doing that since I was a kid and I hadn't noticed.

I can notice ghosts but not the fact that my dad has been causing my Mom pain for years. Mom filed for a divorce and he begged me to forgive him and he wanted me to tell Mom to forgive him. I looked him straight in the eye and told him he was dead to both me and mom and I walked away.

When I told him that he froze, his face turned white and he's a black man. He looked like a dagger went straight into his heart. No father would want to hear their daughter say he's dead to her. That's like killing them over and over. Well, he should have thought about that before he slept with a woman other than Mom.

It was pretty shocking to me because they looked like such a happy couple and I had indeed heard stories of men cheating on their wives I just didn't think my dad would be one of those men.

But he is so it's whatever.

I love California so much but I won't hesitate to leave with my mom to wherever. She deserves a second chance to be herself. And Dad needs to be by himself to think about what he's done. I don't know if that's what he's gonna do honestly I do not care. If he's ready to change he knows where to find us.

We're going to stay in the Manor my Grandmother left us after she died. It was in her and Granddad's will to give the Manor to her firstborn daughter.

Grandpa died long before I was born but the first funeral I ever went to was Grandma's. mom was in tears but her younger siblings Uncle Joe and Aunt Vida looked like stiff rocks I think something happened between the three Wright siblings because they don't talk to each other anymore. I have asked Mom why and she's dismissed me leaving me to create theories in my head.

I was six when we were at that funeral. Everyone wore black, including me and people were in tears I couldn't understand why they were all crying because I could see Grandma standing right in front of me with a smile on her face.

She used to keep her grey hair in a bun but now it was free and her dark skin shone so brightly the sight made me proud to be black.

She put a finger on her lips and she waved goodbye with her other hand and I waved as well.

Grandma moved on to the afterlife. Old people don't stay on earth as ghost they move to heaven, it depends on how they lived on Earth. If you're good you go to heaven, if you're bad you go to hell but I'd like to believe she went to heaven because she smiled and walked away. She disappeared when a bright white light shone around her. Of course I was the only one who saw it, me and the kids who were there but somehow we didn't talk about it, we didn't even tell anyone what we saw. And kids talk too much, they will never keep quiet about the extraordinary thing they witnessed. So why didn't we bring it up?

If it's your time to die then you go straight to either heaven or hell. But if it's not then you stay around as a ghost because you have a lot of unfinished business. And that's what I and other in-betweeners are here for. To help ghosts move on to the afterlife.

Mom and I have left California and we've learned to Adapt in Louisiana I even made new friends on my first day of school. I made ordinary friends and extraordinary ones.

After school,I was met with two sixteen-year-olds who were also in-betweeners. They told me they were going to help me train and use my powers to protect humans from evil spirits and help ghosts move on.

They knew I was an in-betweener because we all have a connection. And we all know when an in-betweener is near.

So they've trained both me and Nelson Diaz, my arch nemesis (I hate him so much) to be the best in-betweeners in Louisiana. With the help of Kevin and Bukol, we war off demons, perform exorcisms, kill monsters and help ghosts move on. It all seems easy,

...but it's not, being an in-betweener is hell.