Note: This chapter is written in Natalie's POV. Hope you like it.

We pulled up in front of my school. I hate that building. Hate it with a passion. Schoolwork has always come easy to me, but socializing hasn't. I have always been the odd one out. This world sucks. If you don't conform people act like you are an alien, like you don't exist...like you have no feelings. It's not like I have no friends-I do have a couple close ones, but nobody dares to even go near us. We are the untouchables. I've always envied Alex; she's popular and seems perfect. I know the truth though, she's not always flawless. She's still my best friend, and I hope that I'm hers. Lately though, she's always with Jeremy. He's all she talks about. He's become her life, and now he's the reason she's about to take it away.

Tru gets out of the car. As she walks through the main doors, it looks like the building is swallowing her. I get the strangest feeling that she won't come back, that the building's locked her in. This whole day, and yesterday have all seemed like a dream to me. Everything's been weird since Mom...you know...died. I can barely seem to comprehend it in my mind, let alone say it aloud. It's not just because she's gone, but because of what she left me with. Not just a devastated Dad, sad, yet still self absorbed sister, and a family torn apart, collapsed under the weight of loss without the glue to put it back together again. No, not that, I mean the power. At least that's what I think it is. She told me about it when she was dying. It was lung cancer that took her. That was Mom's only flaw, she was a smoker. She was lying in the hospital bed and she called me to her. Just me. Alex and Dad were always curious and even suspicious of the fact that I was the last to see her. I remember it like it was yesterday.

"Natalie," Mom had said to me her voice raspy and wheezing, "it is time for me to leave this world. I think you know it too." Tears had filled my eyes, and I'd squeezed them shut, feeling the warm drops slide silently down my cheeks.

"Mom, no!" I grabbed her hand. She took my hand in both of hers, holding it tightly.

"There's nothing you or I can do about it, honey. It's out of our control. But there's something that you can do in the future, to help people that aren't like me, that aren't ready to die yet."

"But you aren't ready to die yet," I had protested.

Ignoring me she had gone on, "You must fulfill your destiny. It is the custom, being the youngest daughter, that you shall receive this gift and curse rolled into one."

"What are you talking about?" I figured my mother had gone mad in her state between life and death.

"You'll soon figure it out for yourself. There's only so much I can tell you now in the time that I have. If only I had known how serious this would get, I would have told you much sooner. It is your destiny, your calling, to save people, as it was once mine. In time your ability will gather strength, you must learn as you go. I tell you now as my mother told me. It will be hard at times, but you must not ignore what you are meant to be, what you will become."

"Mom, please, what do you mean? What is this? You can't be serious!"

But the look on her face had confirmed that she most definitely was.

"I can't hold on any longer, my beautiful girl," she said, her voice a whisper, "I love you very much. Tell your father and sister that I love them too. That I will miss them, wherever I'm going."

I had sat there, a look of utter despair and helplessness on my face. "No mom, no! No!"

"Shhhh, baby, she said. I leaned down and let her stroke my hair. "Don't forget what I have told you. Don't deny who you are and what is meant to be..."

Then, as she exhaled, her very last breath, I felt the most tremendous sensation. A rush of warmth and vibration. The room had seemed to spin and my vision went black for a second.

"Mom, what was that?"

Silence.

"Mom?"

Silence. I looked down at her pale face. Her blue eyes held a look of love and sadness. They were unblinking.

"Mom, please wake up!"

Silence.

"Mom, NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOO!" my voice broke up in sobs. My screaming had brought in Alex and Dad who had been waiting outside the room, followed by a doctor and two nurses. The nurses tried to pry me off of my mother, who I had been clutching with all my might.

"Come here, dear," said someone, "you've got to let go."

I began kicking and yelling. "No I don't!" I'd screamed, "I'll never let go!"

SLAM.

The car door tears me from the terrible memory. Tru's back. It feels like it's been hours, but it couldn't have taken her more then 10 minutes.

"She never came to school today. Oh, and I asked that you be excused from classes today. I told the school I was your babysitter, hope you don't mind."

I half smile at her, grateful. I'm still not completely sure who she is, how she does what she does, or if she can help me understand what my mother meant by "fulfilling my destiny. "

"Now, where's this Jeremy guy's house? We have to get there-and fast."

Yep, so that's another chapter. Sorry that the scene with Nat's mother dying was kind of soap opera-ish, but it just seemed to work out that way.