TWIB (Chapter 3) I cringe at the sound. It is a screeching noise and she knows that I hate it. Still, she waves her feline tail mockingly and scratches long streaks down the metal door. Esperanza is a haughty cat with an attitude. She was adopted a year after I became the maid here. Unfortunately, she believes that there is only room for one of us, and she is determined to destroy me. But that's okay. Because I hate her too. During our first year together, she walked her dusty paws right into the kitchen I had just cleaned. This became one of her habits ever since then, for some reason. I constantly am faced with the struggle to not throw her scrawny tabby self in the estate's lake. Mr. Feran doesn't like visitors and only has two clients. The woman he met with yesterday was not a usual client. I didn't think of this until now, as I attempt to pull up the floorboards in the corner of the attic, Esperanza doing her best to make me miserable. I could not keep my mind off of the glittering object all night, and I am frustrated as each of my attempts to remove it are unsuccessful. Esperanza strides in, and I swear, if cats could smirk, she would have the most smug expression I've ever seen. She looks at me like she knows something that I don't but she's too good to tell me. Sometimes I just want to..... What the....?! I look down. The floorboard is gone, and I don't even look for the glittering object. "Esperanza," I say, turning to her with a suspicious grin. "Did you just help me?" She looks up at me with those wide, gazing, unforgettable eyes as if she actually likes me. HA. I wish. I turn back to the floor. A strange looking amulet sits in front of me. It is circular, with intertwining metal vines forming a familiar crest. In the center is a shimmering crystal, shaped like a star. It changes color when I tilt it at different angles. Even stranger than that is its luster. It shoots light in all different directions, and the points of light seem to form words; I can't make them out so maybe they're in another language. "Hm." I don't waste any time or risk being caught; I rush over to a particular bookshelf and push it forward, revealing an almost circular crack in the wall. A slight smile spreads on my face as Esperanza chases the blue, red, green, yellow, purple, and white dots of light.

TWIB (Chapter 2) (SIX YEARS LATER) I wake up in a musty attic room, and as I cross the room to put on my uniform, I notice something glittering in the floorboards. I shrug and walk away towards my dusty, dirty, dresser. While tying my white apron, I hear an angry Mr. Feran walk into his office to meet a client. I make my way into the maids' quarters, I pass the office and hear a deep argument taking place. I hear a female voice with an accent. "Sir, we cannot risk it." the female voice says angrily. "If the girl finds it, we will be ruined!" I stand for a moment, pondering whom and what they are talking about, then quickly walk away, hoping that the swishing of my maid skirt isn't heard.

TWIB (Chapter 1) I felt a burst of hot, muggy, Florida air as I stepped onto the old-fashioned dirt road. It was quite dim at the Western Inn, and as I stood with my mother, my eyes flicked to a dark figure darting near the western wagons. I tugged on my mother's worn-out sweater, it was damp from the recent rainstorm. I quietly pointed to the dark figure, which was now being joined by another figure. "Mama?" I quietly asked. My mother's face went pale as she looked at the dark figures, and I soon saw why. My mother began to tremble as the figures turned and stared at her. The first figure, a woman with curly hair, pointed at my mother and yelled something in another language. (I now realize that it was Russian) "Mama, what's going on?" I asked and she turned, grabbed my hand, and quickly led me back to our hotel room, where she instructed me to pack my bags up and get ready to leave. After we were packed, she called a taxi. When it arrived, my mother made a face like she forgot something important. "Get in the car, hurry!" she told me. "But Mama!" I cried, but she had already disappeared back into the hotel. After waiting for her for 20 minutes, the taxi took off, driving me to Miami, where I was told I had family. I cried for hours, wondering where my mother was. Little did I know that this is where the adventure would begin...

The World In Between (Prolouge) "Get in the car, hurry!" Five words, but they mean so much to me. Most other 12 year olds don't have a conversation like this with their mom before never seeing her again. These few moments were the most dramatic and heartbreaking in my #life, but I still remember every detail as if it happened a week ago.