The Team

A Chapter by Jenny Leigh

An introduction to the characters.

My name is Edward Draven, and I am a ghost hunter, paranormal investigator, spook chaser, or just stupid as hell as my dad likes to say. I lead a small team of other people who enjoy investigating old buildings, cemeteries, and possible haunted private residences. We call our group Asylum Paranormal. We have been asked many times why we decided to call our group that particular name, and the answer is simple. Because anyone that chooses to do this would have to be bat s**t crazy. There are so many risks involved with every thing we do. Not just physical risks, but spiritual risks as well. I know you must be thinking what kind of spiritual risks could there possibly be in hunting for ghosts right? Well from time to time, we run across the not so friendly of spirits. Those who are angry in death as they might have been in life. They tend to lash out at the investigators. These spirits can, and some times do, become physical. Then there are also those that people refer to as demons. Nasty beings those are. I try to never have to deal with those cases, if I can avoid them. I will refer those cases to the nearest priest and more experienced teams. The last type is what's known as an attachment. Now some paranormal readings and parapsychologists differ on their beliefs with this one. Some say that it is usually associated with a demonic entity. Some say it can be a human spirit or demonic in nature. My personal belief is the latter. I have had many unwanted and unexpected "guests" come home with me.

Our team consists of myself, Draven- as I like to be called, Samantha Washington, Ryan James, Tyler Wilson, and the baby of the group Emma Carnes. Ryan and I were, and still are, best friends since middle school. When I started exploring old abandoned buildings, he was right there with me. We met Sam when we were in an old cemetery one night. She scared the hell out of us when she appeared out of the shadow of the church. She was there taking pictures with one hand and holding a digital recorder with the other. We first thought how strange she looked in her black steam punk style. Bleach blonde hair, bright red lips, black eye shadow, and dark eye liner around her dark brown eyes. I, myself, could be called "gothic" with my all black attire, gauges in both my ears, snakebite lip piercings, and jet black hair kept in a faux hawk. We got to talking to each other, and started meeting at cemeteries to investigate together. Sam introduced Emma to the group. Emma was a quiet, tiny girl. Compared to the rest of us, she looked almost like a kid standing at only four feet-ten inches tall. Tyler joined the group after he over heard the rest of us, in a restaurant, talking about a case we were going to. We were all the strangest looking bunch you would ever see.

Ryan was addicted to getting tattoos. Though he had been a football player in high school, you wouldn't know it to look at him just six years later. He had the same gauges in his ears that I had. His lip was pierced, but he had a labret piercing. He had a spike coming out of his bottom lip. Both arms were completely covered in sleeve tattoos. His back had a portrait tattoo of a dragon rising from flames with the wings out stretched. I asked him one time about the reasoning behind the dragon tattoo. His response was "Because man, no matter how people try to keep us down. We will always rise from the fire and conquer our enemies." I laughed in his face, gave him a confused look and just shook my head. Later I found out he really got it because he and another guy had gotten high on weed. When Ryan got bored he would either be "smoking" or "getting inked". Both of which were his words, not mine.

Samantha, Sam for short, as I have said loved her steam punk style. She was kind of cute, if you like pale complected people that keep their hair bleached as well. I guess I'm just a sucker for those big brown eyes, and the fact that I knew I couldn't have her. She made that clear the first time we all hung out together and I got a little tipsy. I made a pass at her, she grabbed me by the balls, and quickly informed me that her girlfriend wouldn't like it very much if she decided to switch teams. I thought her finger nails were going to tear my nuts completely off before she let them go. Needless to say, I've learned to not piss Sam off...EVER.

Tyler was a boy next door type. You've seen them in every town you go to. Brown hair, green eyes, and dark complexion. The kind that always helps the little old ladies to their car with their groceries. Yea, he was the polar opposite of me. I mean I'm not heartless. I will help people too. But to look at me standing next to Tyler, it's like looking at the sun and the moon. He liked to work with the equipment and experiment a lot. So we made him our team equipment tech man. Tyler wasn't a man of many words, but if he ever said that there was something strange on a monitor or he heard something, then you better check it out.

Finally there was Emma. Little Emma Carnes. Ryan fell in love with her the first time he met her. "There was just some thing about her big, blue eyes, her long blonde hair, and her tiny stature." he said. She was quiet most of the time. Emma didn't like to perform EVP's, also known as Electronic Voice Phenomena. It's when you use a digital recorder to ask questions to the possible spirits in a location, and wait silently for a response. She said when she hears her voice played back, she sounds stupid and like she's yelling at the spirits. Emma had a crush on Ryan but didn't want to say anything to him for fear he didn't like her. I was the one that finally set them up on their first date together. They've been inseparable ever since. To tell the truth, I was really hoping that Emma would settle Ryan's wild habits down.

next chapter

© 2016 Jenny Leigh

My Review

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Reviews

Stanley R. Teater

I must confess that if I saw this group approaching me I'd quickly cross the street. My loss. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better, and beginning a journey with them.

Posted 7 Years Ago

7 Years Ago

I'm almost done with the second chapter. Hopefully it turns out as good as this one did.

Poopewpachoo

Okay, so as is the case with all of your writing, I'm hooked. I don't know what it is, but you always seem to pull me in. This one did a lot faster than the others, though. Probably because it's a book of sorts and not just a short story, so I know I can look forward to more.

Now, on to the writing itself. I love it. I love the way you used this "prologue" of sorts to not only introduce the team, but to also give a brief look at what the next chapters will be about. You managed to create a bond within the characters with just a few paragraphs. As you know, I'm a sucker for characters. Their different and contradicting personalities made me love this.

Oh, and I have an answer to your previous question, but it's actually two that I liked and I'm not quite sure which one I prefer yet (I'll let you know after you post more chapters). Anyway, the two I really, really like right now are Draven and Tyler. I'm a total sucker for the quiet, mysterious type, but Draven is so darn entertaining, that I can't help but love both.

Again, this serves as a great prologue that got me hooked on the characters, as well as, the story since I'm curious to see how they work together as a team.
It's a solid chapter, in my opinion.
Keep up the good work, Jenny. I'll be waiting for your new chapters (honestly, please continue this) ^_^