June 28, 2014
Tearing Tender Asunder

This week a young girl named Parwin Chaudhry went missing from her home. You won't have seen the news talking about it. You won't find her name or picture in the newspaper. You won't find her face on the side of a milk carton. You won't find an article about it online except here and maybe one or two other blogs that follow the same information as I do. I know about it first hand. You don't know that you know about Parwin. She was the girl that Myron and I visited along with her family having trouble with the poltergeist--I posted last week.

The O.S.I.R. took her and now she's dead. I cannot begin to fathom the devastation her parents must be feeling. I feel angry and frustrated. I feel so bad I could almost take the video of her abduction and spread it around far and wide for the whole world to see. It's hard to say which part of why I can't is most frustrating. On one hand anyone can put on a black suit and dark sunglasses and kidnap people. The power that the O.S.I.R. has to spin any kind of media involvement is as dizzying as it is frightening. On the other hand let's say it's believed that a government agency kidnaps children. Then the question is why? The answer is not something that we want out there. I don't want to be hunted by every prime person in the state or country. I don't want a civil war either.

Now there is the matter of how the O.S.I.R. got onto her trail. It wasn't Myron and I. We never go directly anywhere. We make sure we aren't followed. You saw I didn't give any sort of detail to indicate who the people were beyond a single female child family out of how many thousands. Instead they found her all on their own. Private online conversations between the couple and other family led to less than private information other places. Despite trying to keep it quiet, neighbors got wind of the strange going ons at the house. Just little bit by little bit pieces of the story were out there. Don't underestimate the O.S.I.R.'s surveillance.

Tags: civil war, murder, Myron Nath, O.S.I.R., Parwin Chaudhry, poltergeists, prime people, privacy, propaganda, surveillance.

June 21, 2014
Helping the Haunted

Josh here. Happy Solstice to those celebrating it. I had friends in Wisconsin that did. While we're on the topic. I talked to a bunch of Protectorate people and none of them are aware of any connection between events like the Solstice and different effects on the strengths of the gifted. I know people with a more mystical bent rely on the enhancements from dates, star and planet alignments, and geographical features called ley lines. No one believes these have real effects on our mental gifts.

There are a couple related things that do affect the gifted. State of mind and emotions can change some of the factors of the gifted. Some limit themselves unintentionally and only unleash their full potential in emotional outbursts. Again after talking to a lot of people--I'm starting to get a reputation as that nosy guy who asks too many questions--no one suggested emotion can make your gift stronger, just let you use your everything. Then there are a few people who can gather power from other sources to fuel their gifts. Those people tend to be responsible for at least some of the haunting phenomena I've talk about before. This leads me to this week's adventure in the field.

Myron Nath got a call this week. A family had what it was calling a poltergeist. You may recall I had my own activity. Well, this case wasn't that much different. The family had a young girl and the activity was centered mostly on her. Careful questioning determined that she was always in the house when things happened even though it could happen in other rooms than the one she was in. Myron has a theory of why that happens. It's just a little different than my situation. In this case the girl is unwittingly attaching her gift to items in the house and they are acting sort of like poltergeist grenades. That's a really bad analogy, but bear with me. Anyways things happen around the object rather than right where she is, but she is the one doing it subconsciously.

Myron and I went to the house early one evening. This was the first and only time I was there. He was dealing with the poltergeist just as if it was an angry spirit. He has a difficult job in not pinning the bad events on the girl (or other gifted person) too early, if he even lets on to others that the gifted person is gifted. He has to get a good feel for it. Some people could end up dead if he just blurted out the truth. He never knew for how many months that his assistant Sarah could have helped immensely in reading the other people. He still didn't involve her and I kept that observation to myself.

We were in the house. The family, including the girl were in the kitchen peering around the doorway into the dining room where Myron and I were. Myron was talking to the poltergeist and giving it what for. He was speaking loudly but not at a full shout. A school book lifted off of the table and launched at Myron's head. I saw sitting in a chair. Without moving I caught the book inches from Myron and settled it down to the table. It resisted only a little bit. Then it tried to lift up again, but I held it down. Myron didn't break stride except for a slight flinch.

A silverware set laid out on the table on a white cloth lifted into the air. They circled the room and darted in and out toward Myron. I knocked some of the pieces off course, but a lot of them weren't actually trying to hit him.

I can only imagine what the family thought. Myron was dressed the same as that first day I met him nearly three years ago. He wore that medium-blue shade, almost silky, suit with the sort of blue prism shimmering sheen, a crisp white shirt, a suit-matching blue tie, and those most perfectly shined black shoes I have ever seen since or before. He was as immaculate as the suit, not a hair out of place. He stood confident but still showing that friendly demeanor and he spoke passionately about the trouble that this entity was causing these good people. He did and was all of that standing in a growing field of chaos as more items joined the cutlery.

I don't know if it was a good thing or not but I stood up, shouted the word enough, and knocked everything out of the air. This time Myron jumped and let out a yelp. I may have caught him just a little with the force I generated. Things tried to lift and I held them down, just blanketing the area. It was like a much bigger version of when I made the bullet go astray that would have hit Sarah. The girl fainted. I guess I wore her out, or she'd been at it longer in the day, or maybe I scared her, but I swear out of the corner of my eye I saw her glare at me and frown then make a face like she was exerting herself to overcome me.

While the parents took care of her I softly told Myron that today at least I thought the girl was aware she was behind the activity. Myron said he knew what to do. When the girl came to Myron had talked the parents into letting us talk to her alone. It didn't take any effort or pushing. Maybe they were beginning to suspect, or maybe they just thought it was the only way she would talk to anyone about everything going on. So we had a chat and Myron explained she made the things move and got the girl to try and keep a lid on her gift now that she was aware of it. He also said if she didn't, that bad men would come and take her away. Some of you are going to think that's really harsh, but sometimes the truth is harsh. The O.S.I.R. doesn't care how young a target is. Myron will check back with the family and if needed he can put them in touch with a trainer, under the guise of a therapist, or if worst come to worst block her gift until she's responsible enough to use it.

Tags: haunted, ley line, Myron Nath, O.S.I.R., Parwin Chaudhry, poltergeists, The Protectorate, RSPK, Sarah Jayne, Solstice, Wisconsin.

June 14, 2014
Mental Team Attrition

Josh is back. That's me. Or at least as far as I know. I'm taking it easy after a long week of physical and mental training as a part of my recovery. I should be ready to get back into action soon. Not that I think you are, but you shouldn't worry because other teams have been filling in the gap left by our team.

I don't see where anyone said, but Myron was hit pretty hard by what happened. As much as it wasn't his fault you can't blame him for feeling bad about it. I don't know if he'll be going out with us again. We've all had a rough go of the job at several points. Myron was shot, now has shot a new friend dead, and I think I'm as much to blame as the Domine. I twisted Myron's arm to join the team. I got him to go out frequently with us on dangerous jobs. He'd have rather stayed in back than be on the front line. He's only there for me.

He used to go into what seemed like hauntings, alone, after conferring with the owners or the likely cause of the activity (in this case I mean people who do not know they are gifted). The only one he worked with was Sarah, and she mostly manned the office with only the occasional interview. He was the only one that he put in danger. That's the thing of it. In no way would I say that he is timid or scared to act. He's careful, thoughtful, and peaceful. All good things in my book. It really means something when he puts himself in harm's way for you. Maybe I should suggest he take a back seat, and work more behind the scenes and after the fact. It may be an unfair way to do it, but he is good at clean up, compelling people to ignore what they have seen and think nothing of it, or to even steer them clear in the first place before things happen.

Tags: death, Domine, haunted, Joshua Rhoads, Myron Nath, psychic, Sarah Jayne, suffering.

June 7, 2014
Burnt Identities

Hi, it's Sarah.

You can lose it all in a few seconds. Jenny Brumal hung onto her real identity as a safe haven. She could at any time throw off pursuers and go and live a normal life. It wasn't always easy to get clear of those hunting us. She spent much of her time on the run as Jenny to keep the prime people in her life safe. That's why she could talk so passionately about both sides of life, the free and the persecuted. She saw it clearer than any of us. I didn't hold my old life safe for long despite my best efforts. Myron has never hid what he does though it was often dismissed as malarky, a scam, or ignorant flights of fancy. You know all about Josh's sudden status change a couple years back.

Only a few short weeks ago fighting Domine's victims, Josh had been hit and was bleeding all over. Jack and Myron were carrying him to the car. They got him in the back and Jack drove off. That left Jenny and I. We were going back to the other car when an SUV roared out of an alleyway and struck Jenny sending her into the street where a car just barely stopped from hitting her again. She was awake and she told me to call an ambulance and let them know her real name. She could hide that way since our mission was all Protectorate related.

I decided that it was one of the controlled people in the SUV. I got nothing off of the driver even though I wouldn't know that until later when I had the time to think. It happened so fast, I was emotional, I didn't see the driver. Once I had time to sort it all out I knew I had felt what Jenny felt. I knew I felt what the first witness felt. I shouted at some woman to have the decency not to film Jenny in agony on the ground. I'll admit I made that woman feel sorry for doing it. She probably wouldn't have otherwise. What I didn't know is that someone else was filming it. Someone down the street a bit, who was filming before the SUV came at us. It was a setup and this week they sprung it. The video went viral and in moments Jenny's old life was burned to ash. You know what happens next. To her friends. To her family.

The video clearly showed Jenny's face. It captured the plates and numbers on the ambulance. It showed me. They went from me to her to the ambulance to the hospital to her social security number. I have no doubt that it was done on purpose. It was a trap. If I had been right beside her we'd probably both have been dead and the video would never have surfaced. We were targeted. We were ambushed when Josh was hurt and then a second plan fell into place when we tried to escape. Whoever is behind the Domine is after us, trying to get us out of the way. We have to stop him or her.

Tags: Domine, identification, Jack Tourmaline, Jenny Brumal, Joshua Rhoads, Myron Nath, The Protectorate, Sarah Jayne, surveillance, trap.