This is a sory i am starting to write and it is just the begining 13-14 pg.s so it is not too deep yet so here it is :
Characters:
Mana Tarot- a girl in eighth grade that can travel between worlds dealing with ghosts and cursed people, falls in love with Matt when he saves her life (for the fifth time); has visions of the past. Lives with her grandfather
Terry Dunes- Mana’s best friend who can “freeze time”
Matt Charden- the guy that Mana first sees and finds out to be a “Lost One,” fell in love with Mana when she was a little girl, he died 200 years ago. Mana third person he guarded, has memories of all.
Anders Welder- a person who seems to disappear when Lancing appears. Kitty’s boyfriend
Lancing- the leader of the mysterious “chaplain” clan
Kitty Tarot- Mana’s older sister and a “healing hand” lives with her grandfather
Jarrod Tarot- Mana’s and Kitty’s grandfather. Avoids questions about their missing parents. He is the person who assigns the Lost ones to the people they are to protect
Father Quinoquc Hale- Mana’s silent neighbor who only notices her and not the other people around her, not even his head priest, all he does is stare
Christopher Johnson- Mana’s best guy friend and collage level genius
Need to know:
Celestial light- what Mana is, there are others???
Freeze time- time appears to be frozen but actually is moving at a extremely slow pace, not noticeable that it is actually moving
Lost Ones- people who committed suicide and are assigned to people that need to be helped before they die before they had served their purpose to be living; they are the age they where happiest at and if seen start to grow older and disappear. If the person they are protecting sees them they are able to be seen by those close to the person they protect after a couple minuets. Can not be more then 7 feet way from the protectee
Chaplain- a clan of people who kill the people that the Celestial Light cures or helps; what they think of the Celestial Light is unknown
Healing Hand- a person who can heal other people; can’t heal themselves
Different- if you have the power of anything that is not normal. The Chaplain are also in this category.
Council- a group of people that keep order in the people that are different
Chapter 1: 7 Feet
Rain. Wonderful, now what? I go and play with my friends now? I thought as I sat in the backseat of my grandfather’s old car. I would have been sitting in the driver’s seat, but heaven forbid the old fart thought it was “too dangerous” for a thirteen year-old girl to be driving. Yeah, right. I had driven plenty of times in California (How else was I to plow the fields my parents had owned?). Where are they –my parents-, you might ask? Tough luck, I can’t tell you. I would, but I myself don’t know.
“Are we there yet?” I asked my grandfather as he drove onto an oversized boat.
“Mana, dear, will you stop asking that ridiculous question already?” He said this as calmly as anybody could if they had been asked the same question ever since the border of Oregon and Washington.
“Sis, you really need to do your research. This is the ferry that will take us to our new home. It will take us about 35 minutes to reach the island. We will drive off the largest boat in the ferry system and soon arrive at the house. When will you ever learn to be excited at anything new we do enough to try to learn about it, even a little?” My sister said as she dialed numbers into her new cell phone.
“That will be the same day you are able to convince grandpa tell us where our parents are.” I said annoyed. This is not the first time that she had asked me that question.
“Mana, Kitty, will you two please stop with the fighting? And no, I won’t tell you where your parents are,” he said when Kitty opened her mouth to protest that if he told us we would stop asking questions.
Good try. Next time leave it to me. I will get it out of him even if it kills me. Though as far I was concerned, I couldn’t die. I had been hit by a car when I was five, I received a concussion and got out of the hospital two weeks before the doctors had originally expected. I crashed the tractor when I was eight, and got through with only a fractured leg and broken arm.. And last but not least painful, I had fallen down a flight of stairs and landed on a couch that was in the process of being moved. That happened last year.
***
Driving in the rain on the small island that you are forced to move to, you should not have a pretty view. For some obscure reason the island seemed to be mocking me. There was a sunset and the rain seemed to create a rainbow over Mt. Rainier. Humph. I thought as I put my best pout on so my sister who seemed to be awe inspired thought for once we had something in common.
A steep driveway told me that we were almost there. Finally, I can go and write about this in my journal. I will title the page : The day I perfected my pouts. Yes, that will do just fine. I walked into the house and stopped.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked the guy –who was inconveniently standing in the doorway- that was now staring at me.
“You can… See me?” he asked completely shocked.
“Why not, you are right in my way, how could I not be able to see you?” I said now peeved, who is this guy? Someone who helps my grandfather? I don’t think so, he would have told me if he did.
Just then my sister pushed me through the doorframe and I fell. Falling is one thing; I have done it a million times. Falling into the arms of a complete stranger, hot and not to mention, buff, guy is a totally different situation, and the staring of my sister did not help.
“Mana, why are you floating?”
***
I looked from Kitty to the guy. Kitty looked freaked and the guy looked unfazed by the question. I will not yell, I will not scream “Bloody Murder” or anything like that, what am I saying? I’ll end up screaming anyway. I will scream in 5, 4, 3, 2 – I did not get a chance to scream. Want to know why? Because my sister screamed before I did.
“Who in heaven’s is … is that?!” She yelled at me, because I later I found out that he –the mystery person- had slowly appeared propping me above the floor.
“Yes, that is a good question. Who are you?” I asked the guy that had his arms above my chest and at my waist, still holding me.
My grandfather pushed by –with the stuff Kitty and I had brought- and just nodded at the boy and started to put the stuff away in our new rooms.
“Oh! Pardon my rudeness. I am Mathew Charden, you may call me Matt.” He said, helping me to my feet, and giving a large and graceful bow.
“Well Matt what would bring you here at this time? And how do you know my grandfather?” I said with large helping of sarcasm.
“Why am I here? Because you are here. I am the lost one that your grandfather assigned to you. I am here to protect you, you just never saw me. But now that you can see me I can do this,” He picked up my hand before I could think and he kissed it. He kissed it!
“I don’t care who assigned you. I want you out!” I yelled, he had almost taken my first kiss!
“Aww, come on Mana, he totally has the hots for you and all you do is diss him! Talk about being harsh, you kicked down the only guy that has ever showed an emotion that was even close to liking you!” That hurt. That hurt a lot. What I wanted to tell her was well sis that feels just dandy. Thanks for all of you help in the boyfriend department! I would have said that but I had a little sense of dignity.
“Oh! Well let me see here, all of the guys that have thought of that, the boyfriend thing I mean, are the guys that just happen to be going out with let me think.. Oh, yeah, that’s right you.” Yeah, yeah, that is not much better but I had to tell her that and that was 100% True. The guys that I like or that like me she just has to go out with. Harsh? Well that is why I like to be proud of the part for me that is now numb to guys. Impossible? Well I have achieved that. This guy did not phase me a bit, at least until the next thing he said.
“Miss Mana, there is a problem to me leaving. It is impossible for me to be more then 7 feet away from you. I am bound to you. Forever.” He said taken aback as if I should have known.
This creeped me out. Wait… didn’t he say grandfather sent him?
“Grandpa!” I yelled not caring what my voice did after this.
***
My grandpa can be slow if he wants to. This seemed to be a good time for him to move like a slug. Arrg! You are so annoying, just move! I thought, and as if he had read my mind he sauntered in at the pace of a slug with salt on it. About two long minuets later, he was in the room.
“Why did you call me from my cup of before bed coffee?” he asked casually. Isn’t coffee supposed to make you awake and thus faster?
“So, I see you all got acquainted. Sorry Matt about the jump, but I thought that I would be able to warn you before she saw you.” I stared at my grandfather. He had just confirmed that Matt was telling the truth, but please don’t let it all be true, I pleaded to myself.
This time it was Kitty that spoke up, “Grandpa, is it really true that poor little defenseless Mana is practically tied at the hip with this stra- Matt?” she was digging deep into the core of the things that annoyed me.
“Yes, that is true, and it may sound bad, but Matt has 200+ years of experience.” Grandpa said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Jarrod, all you are doing is making Miss Mana and her sister confused and also making me sound old, yes I died over 200 years ago but I was only fourteen and at heart I still am, though this is the last time that I am going to be able to be a Lost One. I will now grow up and basically die.” Now that I thought about it I started to realize that the chances of me actually surviving the accidents that have happened to me was slim, and all of them where all safely landed or I was injured to the smallest degree.
“If what you are saying is really true, then how did you save me when the tractor fell, or when I was hit by the car?” I asked because I remember not seeing a gorgeous fourteen year old holding on to the tractor so it did not crush me, or pushing me so I was out of the way of the Truck.
“Don’t you remember the bunny that you reached out for while you were falling, and you happened to land in a way so that you where hit the least? I put the rabbit there And the truck thing was easy, all I had to do was get you as low as possible so that you where practically laying on the ground. I placed a flower and a sparkly bracelet so you would bend down. The only problem was that you looked up and hit you head on a pipe.” Matt said as if it was something to brag about. My grandfather looked at me as if I was strange. I stared at him back to see if I could scare him off. I didn’t work, but it seemed to give the case of the giggles.
“Have you ever been told, that you look so much like you mother when you glare?” He asked me, not trying to hide them any more.
“Never,” I retorted, and left the room to insulted.
“Hey! Wait for me, you are pulling at the connection, you just can’t feel it, but I can.” Matt said chasing me through what appeared to be the dining room, and to make me feel any better, grandpas giggles had caught onto him and he was now laughing hysterically.
I don’t know what my sister’s reaction was to this because she had always taken pride of looking like our beautiful mother, who had long silk like hair that was brown with a red tinge, soft silver-blue eyes and was very tall. I was always told I looked like my late grandmother, the wife of the grandfather I am staying with now. My grandmother had brown, almost black hair, “she had stunning blue eyes,” my grandfather would say, and she was short, well shorter then my mother. Kitty and I look like almost exact copies of them.
When I glanced behind me I found Matt walking and finally grabbing my shoulder and spinning me around.
“What… was … all… that… about?” he said taking a break at every word to catch his breath.
“What was all of what? And why are you so tired at a little walk around the house?” I asked him, I had never told anybody about the bunny or the flowers, so he was starting to convince me that what he was telling me was the truth.
“I get out of breath if the connection of 7 feet is pulled at. Now that I am thinking about it you should go to bed. It is already dark, and you seem to be going in circles with out knowing about it, so I think that you are tired.” He said leaning on my shoulder. He is really into this 7 feet thing isn’t he? Well I’ll play along with it until I go to sleep.
***
I rubbed my eyes and looked around my new room. It was spacious and a pale green and blue. The room was perfect, my grandfather had told me that he spent some time at putting the things that I would need in it, I think hat he out did himsel- There is one major problem in this room.
I looked at the couch that now housed the sleeping Matt, and noticed that it was conveniently placed at the end of my bed. I will prove once and for all that the 7 feet rule is able to be broken. I walked into the bathroom and looked behind me. There exactly 7 feet away from me I saw a floating Matt, who seemed to be having a nightmare, with all of his tossing and turning. This is really creepy, I need to know everything. If he is really bound to me then at least we can be on the same page. Though it will be after I am dressed.. I shivered and walked into my private bathroom and closed the door.
When I walked back out I found a very unhappy Matt.
“Why did you do that? I had a nightmare of you drowning in a giant sink! Why didn’t you wake me up?!” he said walking around the room waving his hands in the air. I started to laugh when he tripped on a rug.
“Why would I have woken you up? You looked so peaceful.” I told him as he started to hop on one foot from the pain to the trip that he just had. “And what is the deal about the “Lost One” thing you told me yesterday? Are you Really bound to me or what?” the door bell rang. “Wait here, er... come with me.” I said as he showed me a look that I thought to be a very good you got to be kidding look. Well at least he isn’t drab.
Chapter 2: The Unraveling
I Walked down the carpeted stairs and opened the door. I still wasn’t quite awake yet and the screaming that came from the people out side convinced me that it was okay to shut the door in their face. Wait a minute, that was a girl my age out there. There was never a person my age that lived in my neighborhood. Now I felt bad for the people that I shut the door on, so I opened it again and said, “what do you want?!” This might have not been very nice, but it was a Sunday and it was also summer. I wanted them to feel they woke me up, even though they didn’t. People here are too perky.
“We are the Bainbridge Island Joy Joy Club! We are here to make you feel welcome to the Island.” Said a girl that the one that I noticed.
“Hi, umm who are you people? And how did you know I was here?” I asked the girl, because she seemed o be the head of the group.
“Oh! I’m Terry,” she had clack hair that was obviously straightened, and her skin was an olive color. “This is Christopher, though we call him Chris,” Chris was short with shaggy blond hair, and shorter then Terry but not by much. Terry continued to introduce the people in the group when I noticed that she started to glow a faint pink.
“Um, Terry are you feeling well?” I asked her as she suddenly blinked in my vision, though the pink was still there.
“Huh? Yeah! Hey is it okay if Chris and I stick around a little? I need to sit an I would love to talk about where you came from,” Terry said as she shooed away the rest of the joy joy Club.
Terry and Chris entered the house in awe, they apparently had never see a big house that belonged to an old guy that had style.
“Mr. Tarot never said he had such a cool grandchild. Is he here right now? I would assume so, because his favorite shoes are here.” Chris said with a well mannered ease.
“Uh… Yeah, want to see him?” Terry and Chris nodded rapidly, “Grandpa? You have visitors!” I yelled.
My grandfather walked in and threw out his arms to hug the new comers. “Terry, Chris what brings you here?” He asked them as if he had done it every day.
“Well actually Mr. Tarot, I don’t feel too well, and it has been happening ever sense the time I got a major headache. Do you know what it is?” Terry asked grandpa.
“Let me ask my granddaughter here, Mana do you see anything strange or unusual?” He asked obviously hinting at something.
“I think she is too pale, but then why does she look pink?” I asked, because she was almost covered in the pink glow now.
“Yes, yes. I think I know now. Matt would you help me?” Grandpa asked, looking at the edge of the door way. Matt walked out of the shadows and nodded to me with a wink and tapped the back of Terry with a hand that was now glowing a faint blue.
The pink disappeared and for the first time this morning Terry looked relieved.
“Mr. Tarot who is Matt? I don’t see any Matt. Is he one of them that you direct?” My grandfather gave Chris wide grin. “Wow.”
I now started to like these two wanted to ask them if they would like join us for lunch, when Terry squeaked and stared at me –well actually past me- and pointed. If you followed the finger you would find the destination to be Matt. Matt was playing with the long strands that fell from my braids. This is so embarrassing! Yes, Matt might be cool and all but she doesn’t know that.
Chris had apparently see Matt too because he walked up to him and shook his hand.
“Hi, I think you already know my name, but I am pleased to see you.” Chris turned to me, “It is a honor to be you friend.” What is he talking about?
Grandpa was looking at me and saw my expression.
“When a person has a Lost One, and they can see the Lost One the people who are friends or close to the person the Lost One is protecting are able to see it.” My grandfather said as he herded us into the sitting room. As we waited for my grandfather to come back with the tea he said he was just starting to heat up, I was poured with questions about Matt. Why don’t they just ask him?
My grandfather came in with a tray of four cups, four cookies, and a tea kettle. “Here you are,” he said handing out cups to us, but not to Matt. “So, I know you all have questions, even Chris and Matt,” he said nodding to the two boys. Yeah, favor them why don’t you, I thought as I poured all of us tea.
“Pardon me, but if you don’t mind I’ll start with the questions. Why is Miss Mana able to see me? This only happens when they are different,” Matt said looking at me, “Who no, - what is she?” What is she? What am I, a thing?
“Yes, well I have an idea though, I still need confer with the council about the move,” grandpa said as if yet again I was a thing.
Terry stared from me, to Matt, then to my grandfather where her eyes locked. “What are you talking about Mr. Tarot? Mana looks like an ordinary girl, she acts like an ordinary girl, doesn’t that mean she is an ordinary girl? I might be a little strange here and there and might blank out a little from here to there but that is only… well you get what I mean. So what this guy appeared right in front of me and happens to know all of her secrets, the world is normal isn’t it?” Terry asked a little panicked ever sense she paused.
“All of us here in this house are different in their own way.” Grandpa looked to Chris, “You are astonishingly smart. You might deny that on your tests but you seem to put the conclusions together twenty times faster then any other human in the world. Mana is a mystery, but her sister is obviously a healing hand. And that might not make sense, right off the top of your head, but think about it a little. She never had a pet die on her, your dog fell off the roof and was the only one there for about ten minutes. Your dog would have had a broken collar bone, if not for your sister.” He turned his head to Terry who seemed to have a face that had a look of hope on it. “You my dear just described the symptoms of being a person with the ability to freeze time. You said that you where out of it, but really you must have meant that you did that in the eyes of the people around you. That queasiness that you felt was a curse that was put on you so that you could not control your power. That is why you are so afraid of it, one minute people where talking to you then the next they where frozen in time.” Tears flowed from Terry’s eyes, and grandpa said this.
“You mean that I am not alone? That I am not the only person that is different? Is there hope? Is there hop for me to b normal? I feel like that I have friends one minute and the next they are… gone.” Tears now flowed openly threw Terry’s dark brown eyes.
That’s so sad, I thought as tears flowed down my cheeks too. Not that I am a crybaby or anything, it’s just that when I see someone crying I start to cry with them. I want to be normal again too. Ever sense my parents disappeared everyone around me started to look at me like I was a leach, not that I was offended then, it is that now that I think about it they really did have something to stare at. Matt sat on the couch next to me and draped his arm around me and gave me a half hug. I didn’t do what should have done; all I did was cry even more. I looked around the room to see Kitty at the doorway crying too.
“I want our parents back. I want to go home. I want to be a family again,” Kitty said sitting between me and Terry. She hugged Terry and comforted her, looking at grandpa who had a sad smile on his face.
Chris gave a small sniff, “girls, what good are they for?” he said wiping a tear that had escaped his eye.
***
The rest of the morning contained more tears and comforting words. Kitty drove Chris home and Terry, Matt and I walked to the coffee shop that was nearby. If you saw us together you would have sad that we where best friends sense kindergarten. The only thing that is different between us is that she has a name of what she can o and I don’t, I realized as we walked along the beach.
Terry talked about the school she goes to and the people in her class and stuff like that, and Matt nodded non stop showing his complete understanding. We walked past a roadside grave stone that looked really old. Somebody was standing behind it and staring down and the writing. It wrote: Tuck Evergreen, died young and unexpectedly. He was a loving brother and friend, a father and a son. Left this world in June, 23, 1887, he was 27.
The man standing behind the grave marker gave out a smirk and started to follow Matt, Terry and me. After following us for about a mile, he started to give off a black glow. This glow was covering him quickly so that when I pointed him out to the others he looked like a silhouette.
“What are you talking about Mana? The only thing that is there is a soda can. We could pick it up if you really insisted,” Terry said, very confused. Why can’t she see him? He is right there!
“Matt do you see him? Matt, what are you doing?” I asked, Matt was digging in a pouch frantically.
so, there it is, congrats if u made it all the way through
Susuwatari-san Community Member 
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