Nathan Richards was born to play The Game of Lost Souls—and he learns of his starring role on the day he turns thirteen. The Mayan god Kukulkan chose Nathan as humanity’s champion and gave him three tools with which to play the game: the ability to travel the frequencies, the ability to see and communicate with lost souls, and a board game.
What Kukulkan didn’t give Nathan was instructions. He has to learn about the frequencies, different layers of our reality shaped by the thoughts and emotions of every person who ever lived. He has to figure out what to do with the lost souls, spirits who have unfinished business that keeps them from moving on to the frequencies they belong in. He has to guess at how to play the game, which turns out to be the most dangerous thing of all.
And he has to accomplish all of this while surviving seventh grade, dealing with his annoyingly perfect cousin and avoiding his own personal bully.
Nathan must learn quickly and choose wisely, because unless he wins against Kukulkan, the world as we know it will end on December 21, 2012.
How to Tell If the Person Talking to You Is a Lost Soul
- They give you the creeps. Not a foolproof indicator; lots of living people can give you the creeps.
- No one else seems to notice them. Again, not a sure thing. How many times have you accidentally run into someone because you didn’t see them standing there?
- They’re dressed like someone’s filming a historical drama. This is a better indicator, since we don’t film a lot of historical dramas in Chicago.
- You feel a chill when they try to touch you. Good bet they’re a lost soul—unless it’s winter.
- You can only see them in a reflective surface. This is the best way to tell, because it’s only true for lost souls.
- They want something from you. 100% of the time! It’s all, “Get revenge on my enemies,” “Tell my sister to let the dog go,” “Find my winning lottery ticket and give it to my daughter,” “Move my bones so I can haunt someplace new,” … it never ends.
But really, you don’t need to worry. I’m the only one who can see them.
The Frequencies
The frequencies are as tricky to explain as they are to travel. One way of looking at them is as recordings of our world, with some of the details left out. But sometimes the frequencies seem completely different from our world, like they’re based on someplace else entirely. One thing that is true of all frequencies, however, is that they share the “emotional resonance” of humanity. Any place or thing that is important to a lot of people shows up on multiple frequencies.
Here are a few examples. Rivers always show up in multiple frequencies, because people have always relied on them for survival and travel. Buildings rarely appear, except for really old temples and churches. A place like Pearl Harbor or Woodstock or a world’s fair would persist through multiple frequencies because they evoked such strong emotions in so many people. Even things like religious idols, family heirlooms and technology that changed the world, like the printing press, would exist in multiple frequencies.
