Chapter 1

- Kaysi's age: Age 10 - 3 Years later Flashback/Childhood memory -

"Hey, Kaysi, are you ready to fight the boys?" Tiff asked.

"You know it!" I shouted back. "Don't let them take the base!"

{Tiff, the Angel Scouts leader}—a team comprised mostly of girls, with two boys: Ryan and Bo.

"Kaysi, you keep them distracted. I’ll lead the girls to the base."

"Got it, boss. They won't know what hit them!"

Though recess changed often, it always followed the same basic routine: chase the boys, tag them with our cooties, and score points until the bell rang. The playground was loud, with kids running and yelling, chasing each other as they guarded their territories.

For us, the girls’ team, the base was the monkey bars. For the boys, it was the giant slides in the middle of the playground. The boys outnumbered us four to one.

- Side note: Cootie—A child is said to "catch" cooties through any form of bodily contact, proximity, or touching of an "infected" person or from a person of the opposite gender, typically.

"Tag! I got you, Josh!" I bragged. "That’s one point for the girls. How do you like that, Clayton?"

{Clayton, the leader of the Evil Soldiers}—the boys-only group.

Clayton smiled and said. "Circle, circle, dot, dot, now I got my cootie shot!"

"What is that, a cootie shot?" Tiff asked, puzzled by his action.

"Sorry, not sorry, but now I can't be infected by cooties now."

"What…? Dang, what do we do?" The boys have a new form of defense now.

I said, "Never fear. I got it. I have a weapon of my own!"

"What is that?! Danielle asked.

"A super cootie: a smooch from a kiss right on the cheek! It’s like a freeze ray—you’ll be locked in place and turned to stone."

"Heh-heh, that's so crazy it might just work. Go for it, Kaysi!"

"Target locked! Kaysi shouted. 

'"SMOOCH!" 

"Straight shot right on the cheek! Wha ha ha..." I laughed.

"Oh man, men—I’m going down!" Clayton shouted as he fell to the ground, wiping his face. "Now I’ve got to go burn my face off!"

"For crying out loud, B.J., you don’t have to be so dramatic," Tiff teased. "Looks like we just won the base!"

"I guess this is a win for us now," Tiff said jokingly.

Clayton’s jaw dropped. "That was a good counter. I could’ve never predicted that. So whose idea was this?" he asked.

"That was Kaysi’s idea," Tiff said.

"Then I think she should take over leadership from here on," Clayton said.

"I agree with you on that," Tiff chimed in.

"No way! What the heck? I’m not going to be a leader!"

"Why not, Kaysi?" Tiff rebuked. "Give me one good reason!"

"Wait, are you crazy? I can’t! That’s your job, Tiff!"

Tiff disagreed. "Let’s see, Kaysi. You’ve led us to many victories, and we've had you as our secret weapon."

"I’m still not doing it. End of story!"

"Dang it," Tiff muttered.

"So, about that 'secret weapon'..." Clayton cut in, interrupting our victory celebration. "I’m okay with it, but the new rule is you can only use that twice per game."

"What? Fine, but you can only give yourself the shot once a game."

"Okay, then." I need to add one more rule: "You're only frozen until someone gets you out."

"Well, that's fair. Now let's get going!" I blurted.

Tiff added, "I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re really pretty and have long hair like that anime girl. I still think you could lead."

"Oh, you mean Meatball Head?" I said, trying to ignore the rest of her comment.

"Yep, that's the one."

"Thanks, but no," I said with a chuckle. Did Tiff really need to say that?

RING… "Well, we’ll pick this up tomorrow, but with the new rules, things won’t play out the way you’re used to."

RING! The school bell went off…

- Present time - 

Kaysi: age 13

"Kaysi… Kaysi, are you good? Snap out of it?"

"Yeah, Beck, I’m okay," I said, waking up. I had fallen asleep at my desk.

My first year of middle school wasn’t too horrible, or so I thought. That was the least I could say about it. I met my friend Becky, who was my first friend at this new school.

I lost touch with my other friends after a big move in the summer. Our family had to move because the homes in the area were being converted into dorms for Hulman State College.

At first, I initially thought going into middle school would be fun. I couldn't have been more wrong.

My new friends tried to help me. Becky was clumsy and energetic, with pretty long, curly red hair.

She wore glasses on and off, depending on the project she was working on or if she was reading.

Her favorite color was light blue, reminiscent of ice. In the winter, she loved to look out the school's window and watch as icicles formed. 

She was very musical, playing the violin. Her technique was so good that it made her instrument seem to have emotions, almost as if it were "singing."

She treated that violin like a baby since her mother had invested a lot of money in it. Even though they were quite wealthy, they were not arrogant. They valued things and recognized their worth.

The next friend I made was Micah. She was talented in many areas. Though she was a year older than the rest of us, she showed maturity early on.

She was bubbly and hyper at times, but could also be quiet and focused.

Last year, Micah won the spelling bee. It seemed effortless for her, thanks to her intelligence. Her favorite book genre was mysteries—she would always solve the mystery before finishing the book.

She had medium-length, straight, caramel-colored hair and loved magical colors, such as the orange of a sunset.

Middle school was hard for me. I was a bit of a nerd, wearing glasses at the time, and I got bullied a lot. I had long, messy, chocolate-brown hair, which was until my mom thought it would be a brilliant idea to cut it to my shoulders. 

I was mad at her for that—I loved my long hair, and it darkened later in the years.

Some kids faced more challenges than others, having been raised on the poorer side of town. I also didn't have the best upbringing and made some poor decisions that got me into trouble.

One of those was standing up for others when I’d pick fights with bullies. I should’ve kept to myself, but I couldn’t help it.

In my first year, I tried to make friends with everyone, but middle school isn’t like elementary school. Sometimes, you just can’t make friends with everyone.

A girl once bloodied my nose just for talking to her boyfriend. I didn’t even know who he was, and at the time, I didn’t even know who she was either.

The bullying stemmed from some of my unique abilities. Being different drew some unwanted attention to me. 

I could see and hear demons. They were controlling some of the kids.

At the time, I didn't know what I could do, so I tried to help them, thinking they were lost spirits.

I wasn't alone... Becky could hear them, although she couldn't see them. Yet she kept that to herself in fear of ending up like me. I couldn't blame her.

Just as things couldn't have gotten worse, the number of demons increased.  They were everywhere. No one else in the school had a clue, and I could barely keep up with my schoolwork.

During Physical Education, we heard a girl screaming in the gymnasium locker room downstairs. A demon started moving items around.

The girls came running up the stairs, saying the locker doors slammed shut by themselves. Strange hauntings like this were regular at school, but it didn’t make it any less unsettling.

Some of the students tried to dismiss it as an occasional, regular ghostly haunting, but they were too scared to return and finish dressing.

The gym teacher went down to investigate, claiming it was nothing but a mouse. But we all knew what we’d seen and heard.

At first, I could only hear spirits in my dreams when they came to me. One night, a monster rose from my bed sheets.

I woke up crying and told myself that not all was as it seemed. There had to be more.

I encouraged myself to be strong and brave and go back to sleep. In my dream, as I ripped the blankets from the bed, I discovered a tape recorder playing the message "check the basement" repeatedly.

I believed it was a spirit trying to contact me. I went down to the basement and found an old pocket watch. Was this what he was trying to tell me? Was he stuck in limbo, contacting me the only way he could?

I took the watch and said a little prayer. Then, I buried it in the ground. After that, I must have done something right; no more sounds or dreams haunt me.

When I woke up the next day, I told Becky about everything that had happened in my dreams the previous day and what I had done when I woke up.

"Wow, that’s incredible," she said. "You must be getting stronger in your abilities and gaining new power."

After that, I became a more frequent target for malevolent and confused spirits. Some wanted help, while others just wanted to be seen. I didn’t know how to help them all. It was overwhelming and exhausting. On top of that, my grades were slipping.

I decided to ignore them for now.

Then, one day, a boy pushed me into the lockers, knocking my books out of my hand. Thump… went my books as they hit the floor. I could see he was being controlled by something, but I couldn’t make it out.

I had not yet fully awakened to the spirit realm, and I still did not know certain things.

My eyes were wide, and I was afraid of what was coming next as he stood there, pinning me, growling with his eyes blazing red.