I was six when I saw my first ghost, but it wasn't until I was ten when I figured out why I could see them but nobody else I knew could. I'm what they call a Seer. There are only five that I know of,not including myself, that can see the dead. My parents had no idea I have this ability, they just believed I was crazy. I tried to tell them when I was younger, but that resulted in me being sent to a insane asylum. It's not like a regular asylum. This asylum is only for kids kids/teens that see things. Like we see ghost, some of the other kids see things. The only difference is they have psychological problems and we don't. This is where I've lived since I was eight. I'm almost seventeen now and I can't leave until I'm eighteen.

I live in a room with three other girls, Kenzie Reid, Domineec Gaultier, and Sarah Kidmann, just like me. Kenzie and Sarah are both sixteen and Domineec will be eighteen in nine months and twenty four days twelve hours thirty eight minutes and how ever many seconds, she feels the need almost every minute how much longer it will be until her birthday. Down the hall the two boy's ,Judson Burnette and Paul Haith, share a room. Paul was only fifteen, but he acted more mature than any of us. He's what you would call our leader. Judson just turned seventeen two days ago.

Most of us have extra special ability's besides seeing the dead. Sarah is the only one that doesn't have a extra ability. Domineec can read peoples minds, Judson can travel through time, I can turn feel and control peoples emotions, and Paul has the rarest of all gifts. He can control electrical devices. All these come in handy when were faced with something, or someone, that might threaten us. Which believe it or not, there are a lot of people that want to end our existants.

The day I first came to the asylum is a day that I will never forget. One reason is because it was the last day I saw my parents.






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"Mother, where are we going?" I asked as we drove down an unfamiliar road. I usually have a good memory of roads and people, but the road that we traveled down now I never seen before in my life.

"Were going to visit some friends, Shawna." I could hear the sadness in my mothers voice. Mr. and Mrs. Newell are my parents. We are the richest family in town. I live in a four story mansion with my mother, father and twin brothers. My brothers were not making this trip with us today, they had to stay with my grandparents.

"Oh, okay."

I watched out the window as the trees whooshed by. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew my father was waking me up.

"Honey, were here. Time to wake up." He put one of his warm hands on my cheek.

I opened my eyes and looked over at my father. His blue eyes sparkled as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Why are you crying, father?" I asked as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"Uh, um.. I'm crying because your so beautiful."

"Oh father, don't be silly. Where is mother?" I had just noticed she was no where in sight.

"She went inside. Come on we must hurry."

I climbed out of the car and he lifted me up in his arms. I was really to big for him to be holding me like this, but I could sense something was wrong so I didn't protest. As he walked up the long sidewalk I looked at the building. It was not a house. I looked like some kind of hospital.

The building was about fifty feet high, had five stories and painted white; There were windows all over it. In the front there was seventy-two steps you had to walk up. My father set me down when we reached the steps. I stopped on the third step and hesitated to continue. I noticed a girl looking down at me from a third storey. She had a frustrated look on her face that made me uncomfortable I had to look away quickly. I ran up the steps to catch up with father.

We walked in the through the doors that were as tall as five or six of me.Mother was standing talking to some ladies behind a large wooden desk. The room was painted a pale yellow and had cherry wood for the floor. There were four small couches scattered around the room.

"Were ready." Mother said to father as we approached the desk. Tears were streaming down her face as if somebody had turned on a faucett and it wouldn't shut off.

"Okay." Tears were now streaming down his face also.

"What's wrong?" I demanded.

"Everything's okay." Mother said bending down to my eye level. "Listen Shawna, your father and I need you to know that we love you with all of our hearts and what were doing is for your well being."

"Okay." I answered. I couldn't make sense of what she was saying.

"Look honey, we love you and we always will." Father said.

"What's going on?" I screamed. Tears now streaming down my cheeks. I didn't understand what was happening.

"Look your going ot come live here with us now." A lady that stood behind the the desk said sternly. Her frizzy orange hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in three months. Her hazel eyes seemed to cut in me like a knife, or it might have been the smile that crossed her face when she saw the pain her words caused me. Evil was in her and I could see it. I didn't want to stay here with this lady. I wanted to go home and curl up in my grandma's lap and eat her home made chocolate chip cookies and have her tell me this was all just a nightmare, that it wasn't real. But part of me knew this wasn't a dream this was really happening. I was being forced to live here.

"Why?" I mouthed. I couldn't make myself talk. My lungs were tight; I couldn't get any air at all. It was as if all the oxygen had been sucked off the earth.

"It's not forever. It's just so they can help you. You know with your.....problems." Mother had trouble saying the last word.

"There's nothing wrong with me. I'm fit as a fiddle. If I can go home I'll never mention what I see ever again."

The lady with the frizzy hairs eyes widened when I said "what I see". It was as if she had just found a million dollars and it was all hers.

"Shawna, you need professional help and your father and I can't give you that. You only going to be here for one month just to see if they can help you. Don't be scared. Their going to be nice to you, there's nothing to worry about."

Something in my mind was screaming for me to run, I turned and was going to make a dash for the door, but before I could a cold clammy hand grabbed my arm.

"Don't even think about it." Fizzy-head said.

"Think about what?"

"Running. I saw that look in your eyes. Now say goodbye to you mother and father and let's go."

I turned to see that they were now both at my eye level.

"I'll try my best to get rid of this thing so I can come back home." I said tears streaming down my face again.

"I love you Shawna. You will always be my little girl."

"Honey, I want you to know that no matter how far apart we are, you will always be in my heart. I love you so so much."

"I love you both so much you can't even understand. You will both always be in my heart."

"Yes, yes we understand you all love each other every much." Frizzy-head said trying to rush us in to hurrying.

I hugged mother and father around their necks at the same time. "I love you." I whispered in their ears.

"Love you more." Father replied. Mother was crying to much to respond. I let go of them and they both stood up.

"Here." Mother said handing me a little green box with a pink bow on top. "Were always with you."

That was the last thing she said. They both turned and walked away. She was looking over her shoulder every five seconds tears still steaming down their faces.

"Be careful and I love you." I whispered as they disappeared out the door.

The next time I saw them they were in cassettes and it was at their funeral. And I didn't actually get to see them, both the caskets were closed. To much damage was done and they couldn't fix the bodies. Their car ran off the road on their way home from dropping me off and hit a tree, they were both killed instantly. I blamed myself for about two years after the accident. "If I had never been born able to see these things then this would've never happened. I wouldn't have been dropped off and they wouldn't have been killed." I told myself this over and over, but part of me knew it wasn't true. That's why it took me so long to figure out what I was, because I would never talk to anyone in the asylum.

Until, one day when this little short black chick with blue eyes comes up to me and told me it wasn't my fault. I was so confused. Here I am, I've never talked to anybody in the asylum the whole time I've been here and this random chick comes up to me out of the blue and tells me that "it wasn't my fault?"
How did she know what I was thinking? How did she know what I was blaming myself for? How did she know anything about me?

"I'm Domineec." She introduced herself. "I know that you blame yourself for your parents deaths, but you had nothing to do with it."

"H-h-h-how do you know that?"

"I'll tell you, but not here. We need to speak in private."

That's when I learned all about being a Seer. Our job is to help the lost souls go into the light. I still sometimes blamed myself for my parents death.





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I sat on my bed with me knees up against my chest. I wrapped my arms around my legs and started crying.

"Help me." A young girls voice whispered.

I was to upset because of my flashback that I didn't want to deal with any ghost right now. Let her find her own way! I thought. I reached under my pillow and pulled out my iPod and headphones. I crammed the ear-buds in my and and turn the music up as loud as possible.

"Shawna! Shawna?" Sarah yelled and shook me to get get my attention.

"What?" I screamed back pulling one of the ear-buds out.

"Didn't you hear that?"

"What?"

"The ghost. It came asking you for help, but of course I could hear it to. You must have had your ear-buds in and didn't hear it. It sounded like a young girl....."
She went on and on and on. That's one thing you have to give her credit for. She might not have an extra ability, but she can sure talk you ears off.

After she told me all about the little girl she heard she switched subjects and was telling me about the really cute mail carrier. How his eyes shine when he smiles and how his sandy blond hair hangs down in front of his eyes and he has to do the little hair flip thing that guys always do .All I had to do was "Oo" and "Ah" at the right moments and she never noticed I wasn't really paying attention.. After she talked about him for around ten minutes she told me about Paul's idea to escape. This I was interested in. I turned my iPod off so I could have my full attention on this subject.

"Paul thinks we should try at midnight tonight. He said that with all of your powers combined it should be a piece of cake."

"Say we get out, what are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go?"

"I don't know. I'm sure we can find jobs and get an apartment."

"As much as I would love to get out of this place, I just don't know. I don't have a good feeling about it."

"Aw come on Shawna! Your the one that always says that you wish you could get out of here. But when somebody comes up with a plan to break out you don't want to try? What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know."

"Do I need to go find Domineec so she can find out why your acting so strange?"

"You want to know why?"

"That would be why I asked."

"I had....I had another flashback, okay?"

"Is that what this is all about? Your still blaming yourself for your parents deaths? We've all told you it wasn't your fault."

"I know it wasn't," I lied. "That's not what it is. I started thinking about my twin brothers."

"You have twin brothers? Why have I never heard about this? Who else knows?"

"Calm down." I said placing my hand on her shoulder. "Your the first to know. I never talk about them 'cause I don't like to remember my life before I moved in here. It was so terrifying. Seeing dead people. Trying to tell my parents, but they wouldn't listen." I pause to calm myself. I talke my hand off her shoulder and place it in my lap. " I remember being different. I remember telling people what was going on, but nobody would listen or they would stare at me like I was some kind of freak."

"I know what it's like. If you don't remember I went through the same thing. People staring at me like I was crazy. Not having any friends because they thought I was syco."

"What I don't understand is why my brothers didn't get the power, too. Why was it just me?"

"I've asked myself that questioning countless times. I always wondered why did my sister not have the power? Why didn't my mother have the power? Why didn't my grandparents, my great-grandparents, my great-great-grandparents? Why was it only me?" She looked as if she was going to bust into tears any second

"I wonder?"

"What?"

"What if, I might be going out on a limb here but, what if like were all related in some strange way."

"Oh, whatever." She said rolling her eyes.

"No. I'm serious. What if ,somehow, were all related."

"I don't know. Sounds weird to me."

"We see ghost and you think my idea is weird?" I chuckled.

"Get real, Shawna. You think were all related in some weird way? No offense, but your to pale to be a black or even pass for a mexican. So I guess that means your not related to Domineec, Kenzie, or Paul. That leaves me or Judson and since I have an English accent your not related to me. So you must be related to Judson."

"Who's related to Judson?" Kenzie asked as she walked into our room.

"Shawna."

"Shawna! Your related to Judson!" Kenzie Squealed.

"No. No. I'm not related to Judson. I was just saying that it's weird that only we have these powers. Nobody else in our family does."

"I've wondered about that a couple times. But I've never came up with an answer."

"I suggested that maybe were all related in some way. And Smart-Ass over here was saying that I can't be related to Paul, Domineec, or You because I'm neither black nor mexican."

"I'm not mexican." Kenize defended. "I'm Italian."

"Oh, I never knew that. Sorry." Sarah apologized.

"S'okay. I didn't mean to get so defensive. It's just that my whole life I've been mistalken for a mexican, not that I have anything wrong with Mexicans. Don't get me wrong I love Paul and he's a mexican. Before I moved here I had mexican friends. I wonder if my father was a mexican. My mother never talked about him, which I couldn't really blame her I would hate to have to talk about my ex-husband that cheated and ran off with my best friend. But that's beside the point. It gets annoying sometimes, to be mistalken for something your not. I'm an Italian and I love Spaghetti."

Sarah and I both laughed about the last part.

"Everybody, please go to the lunch room we have an announcement. Thank you!." A woman with a really heavy Jersey accent named Lori came across the intercom.

"Guess we better get going." I suggested.

I was the last one that left. I turned and looked back in the room. "Find your own way!" I whispered. Hopefully the ghost heard me. I was serious! I'm so tired of helping these ghost. My dream is to be normal. Never having to help another ghost cross over, never having to pass own their messages. Sounded good to me.