What's in the Dark

The Family

  Picture is Jesse
My feet make impact with the training dummy. I'm supposed to be at lunch but I'd much prefer to stay here and train. We never go on missions but knowing my luck the day I don't train we do. I'd rather be prepared than dead. I guess I should probably explain what I'm training for. My name is Jesse, I'm part of a team of teens who help keep the world balanced. We're whose called when something can't be explained. You know those stories you were told as kid? You know with witches, vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, zombies, etc. They are all true. We call them all Wondermarks. The company I work for is called You Didn't See Anything, or Y.D.S.A. We were chosen not because we're "special" or any thing like that, We were chosen simply because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We saw something we shouldn't have and they couldn't erase it from our memories.
Usually when someone sees something you shouldn't have we just use an Islen. Islens erase your memory, not all of it of course just whatever the agent chooses. We have had issues in the past of agents accidentally erasing too much. There's also those cases we don't catch so they go around telling stories. Usually those sort themselves out. Obviously if someone comes up to you spouting stories about seeing a monster you're most likely to assume they're crazy. The problem is when everyone goes around telling tales of ghouls and beasts because the more who confirm it, the more believable. The reason our memories weren't erased is because we're too young. I guess anybody below the age of 22 could end up with terrible brain damage from the Islens. Obviously we don't have a bunch of toddlers fighting along our side. Generally kids below 10 are left alone because that's the ages of imagination and parents and others usually brush off the kids stories as tall tales or an overly active imagination.
The bell rings signifying the end of lunch. My team members come bustling in. I have a team of 4 not including me. We each specialize in something different. Zachariah is our team captain, nobody voted or assigned him he just took the role. He's the oldest of the group so we all look up to him like an older brother. He's 18 and has long green hair he usually wears up. He always keeps his hair maintained I've never seen his roots grow in or his hair fade from his usual mint green. We rarely fight they prefer to have the adult team go out, but that doesn't mean each of us doesn't train in our specialty. Zachariah's an amazing thrower, usually daggers but he also has a few throwing stars in his belt he always wears. Zachariah hates his name shortened to Zach, we respect his wishes so no one on the team calls him that. Zachariah is here for the usual reason he saw a zombie, those damn zombies aren't smart considering, you know them being dead and not having consciousness and all, so they don't try to hide themselves. Zombies are the most common reason for being here.
Next on the team we have Delilah, she's really skittish and shy, but if you were in her shoes you probably would be too. Her parents were scientists who would experiment on her because they were obsessed with enhancing the mind. She had never left her parents lab until we had rescued her. See what happened was her parents were a little too curious, while trying to find someone who would help them move along their research they hired a ghoul. See ghoul's are smart little fellows. This particular ghoul had made them think she was a scientist also researching expanding the usage of the human mind. But what the ghoul actually specialized in was tricking humans, so she could have her next meal. They excelled at that. So not only did her parents experiment on her she watched her parents get killed and eaten right in front of her. She had been locked in that lab for 14 years. It's incredible she's not crazy. She's 15 and her hair is long and white. The white is caused by the experiments her parents did, she hates it but I think it's beautiful. Her parents did succeed and opening her mind a little more. She has telekinesis and telepathy. She also has mind control but she can't use it on everybody only people who are weak-minded. She's been with us for a little over a year now. She trusts us but is still skittish with us the only person she really opens up to is Ashh.
Ashh is fiery and a little aggressive. But her mother was a Cherufe, humanoid creature made of rock and magma, her dad had weird taste in women. It's illegal for Wondermarks to mate with humans but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Sadly Ashh never met her parents. It's hard to keep it a secret that you have a part Cherufe child because in the beginning they don't know how to control their powers. When the Y.D.S.A found out they took Ashh from her parents so she's been here her whole life. I'd be angry too if I had to live here my whole life. Now she has more control of her powers. Her anger gets out of control a lot, so she can't control them then. She's usually, ironically enough, cold to everyone except Delilah. She's loving towards her and protective. It's not like she hates the rest of us or something, we know she loves us. That's just who she is. She's 16 and usually is wearing a leather jacket. She keeps her hair short and it's jet black, she gets that from her mother but her icy blue eyes she gets from her father. I've seen a picture, but only once she keeps it hidden under her pillow. I was looking for a beanie she borrowed that's when I saw it, sure she has her fathers eyes but everything else about Ashh is her mother. Her fire, literally and metaphorically, her small face, her short height, everything. She has a fierce beauty about her and Charlie has noticed. The way he looks at her, it's like he's looking at the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Everyone knows except Ashh, she's oblivious to it.
Charlie is the last member of our team, he's here because his father works for the Y.D.S.A. Ashh and Charlie grew up together. They were best friends for a while but they started to drift apart. The issue was Charlie loved the Y.D.S.A so much it was almost obsessive. He dreamed to walk in his fathers foot steps, while Ashh loathed it. One night it had caused a huge fight. Charlie said something he'd probably regret forever. He said "You only care so much because your mother was a filthy Wondermaker." Everyone saw the hurt flash across her face and then it was quickly replaced by pure anger. Ashh couldn't control her anger and that was the night that Charlie lost his hair, he used to have hair that was almost as long as Zachariah's but Ashh's anger was too much hand she accidentally caught his hair on fire. It didn't burn all the way off but it did mess his hair up to the point the only way to fix it was to buzz it off. So charlie has a buzz cut now. That was the last straw Ashh refused to talk to him, she still doesn't and if she does she's cold, colder than usual. Charlie is the youngest of the group, he's only 13. He's extremely smart that's his specialty he usually doesn't do hand on hand combat. He does the hacking and the computer work.
Then there's me, I'm well, me. Like I said before I'm Jesse. I have blonde hair and I specialize in kicking ass basically. I used to be in the circus as an acrobat so I'm pretty flexible. I'm here because one night when I was 12, I was sleeping in my tent when a noise awoke me. I exited the tent to see our bearded lady had ate most of the camp and was working on my mother. It turns out she had a beard simply because she was a werewolf. I ran, I ran as far as I could, I ran until I ran into something. It was a fence surrounding a big official looking building. That building it turns out, was the New York, Y.D.S.A, Headquarters. I've been here ever since.
So that's the team. That's us. This is my family and I love every single one of them.