1 Prologue

I have always wanted to live a normal life. I mean, what was so hard about that?

Ever since I was little, I have always been able to see 'them'. I wouldn't call them ghosts, but who knows? Maybe they were ghosts. Or gods. But if you think about it, if they were ghosts, our Earth would have been overpopulated by them a long time ago. Or maybe they just disappeared gradually as time went by.

I still call them spirits, however, and so does my mom. Spirits aren't visible to everyone. They appear and disappear as they please. Or maybe they were just there from the very beginning, and that I could only see them temporarily from time to time. I don't know.

They can take shape in many different forms: from mist to objects - the first spirit I've seen took shape as a gingerbread man. Now that I think about it, it's creepy.

As far as I know, Mom and I are the only ones who are able to see them. No, to be honest, only I could see them. Mom could only sense them. I guess that's what happens when your great grandmother was a shaman.

My mom is the only person remaining from her side of the family. Grandmother was an only child, and gave birth to an only child - my mom. I don't know what happened to Grandfather, but I can guess the same thing happened to my grandmother as my mom.

Divorce.

It's inevitable really. You can't help it if your spouse starts to believe that you have become mental when you start mentioning spirits, ghosts, and so forth. Dad even mentioned about sending Mom and me to an asylum "for our sakes". I don't miss him that much honestly.

When I was just a kid, I was able to talk - no, communicate with them. They didn't talk, not with their mouths (at least if they had one). I could just feel what they were trying to say. I don't know how to describe it.

Because of that, I was bullied and outcasted. I was a crazy kid that talked to thin air from time to time. At first, people just believed that I was talking to my "imaginary friends". As I grew older, people started treating me as "a mentally challenged kid, just like his mom". Took me one year to realize that I should have just pretended to be oblivious to everything.

Now, I was just your ordinary, average 17-year-old kid. Average looks, average height, average grades...there wasn't anything that I was particularly good at, except for being an outcast. It must have been a talent I was born with.

People still say that I have a weird look in my eyes, and that I behave funny too. Well, I'm so sorry. It's really hard to just not stare at a spirit hanging above your head. Especially if it's one of those weird ones too. I guess I still haven't outgrown my reputation for being a crazy kid. It got better of course, to being a weird kid.

No one bullies me anymore, but it isn't like they try to talk to me either. I don't bother them, and they don't bother me. It still gets lonely from time to time, but I rather feel lonely than having my future ruined with me "being crazy". I don't hope for much. My life is not that aspiring. I just want a normal life. It's not like I'm asking to be a millionaire or something.

So what's stopping me from that normal life?

That's a simple and easy question.

Me.

Me and my non-existent brain that now got me labeled as a stalker.

Yep. A stalker.

Great.