Sariah was never a stranger in the supernatural world, from as young as the age of 5 she saw things that other people around her failed to see, the strange differences to people that walked by, the way some felt like they were from another era entirely. Brought up in New York, Sariah was always surrounded by people, her parents were both in business and always busy, her child minder was sometimes the only face she saw for longer than a few hours or day. Sariah wasn’t a needy child however, she had always been the kind to do her own things, whether it be working on a science project, running around the garden or drawing, she was content with her own company.

In middle school Sariah didn’t have many friends, in fact for the most part of her time there she only had one friend she really spent her time with, Katie was quiet and reserved much like Sariah and they got along well, however the two didn’t spend time with one another outside of school, Katie was very secretive about her home life and rarely to never mentioned her parents other than to make excuses as to why she couldn’t hang out with Sariah outside of school.

Sariah excelled at many different subjects at school, especially computer science and athletics, she adored both with equal levels and would often come out top of the class in both. Katie however was talented in art and drama and fell short when it came to the more academic subjects. Despite being almost entire opposites the two got along well and eventually Katie confessed why she and her family were so secretive, Katie was talented in the control of fire, she called herself a phoenix and her parents were in hiding from her tribe.

Sariah didn’t understand or believe her friend at first but she was convinced when she watched the other girl generate fire from her fingertips. Sariah kept Katie’s secret, she knew that Katie was in danger from a kind of people named Initia and therefore her powers needed to remain unknown. For a few years as the two girls grew up they also grew closer hesitantly Sariah and Katie were permitted to spend time with one another outside of school, they did everything together, both working to eventually reach their dreams. Katie wanted to be a fashion designer one day and Sariah dreamed of joining a technical team in the army.

Katie however would never find her dream when she was brutally murdered at the age of 15. Sariah was stunned, unable to speak for weeks after her friend’s death, at the funeral she had remained silent staring forwards, only a tear rolling down her cheek showing any emotion at all. For months, she tried to answer the questions her mind screamed, who was responsible, how could this have happened. She used her excelled knowledge in computer science to dig through the whole of the internet for answers, eventually uncovering the deep rifts between the Initia and phoenixes. It made her furious to read case after case where the culprits had gone free, the supernatural lived by their own laws it seemed and it made her sick.

Despite her anger and distrust in the world around her, Sariah remained the good daughter she had always been to her parents, with time she felt more like herself, threw herself into her school work, determined that if Katie had never got her dream then Sariah would have enough for the two of them. Throughout high school she was a loner but the other people in her class would often come to her for help with their homework and sometimes the odd hacking job to get hold of some gossip or find out whether their partner was cheating on them, harmless stuff in the grand scheme of everything.

Sariah applied for colleges in the final year of high school, she was offered a scholarship at two different computer science programs and a place at MIT. Her heart however wasn’t looking to go to college as in the months leading up to her graduation she started the programme for joining the army. She had to miss school some days to complete all the entry checks but she always found a way to make it to every session, she even found herself making friends with the other recruits and passed near every one of the exams with flying colors.

On acceptance day Sariah had rushed to her mailbox and held the letter in her hands for a moment before ripping it open. Reading however her eyes pooled with tears as she read the results of her final medical examination, they had detected an irregularity in her heartbeat and therefore had no choice but to terminate her application. It was a crushing blow to the young woman who had wanted nothing more than this since she was young, she felt like she had let herself down, let her parents down and worst of all, let her best friend down and broken her promise.

Sariah however knew that she couldn’t let this be the end of her story, she knew that if she couldn’t fight the evils of the world physically then she could do it virtually. She agreed with her parents that she would take the placement at MIT and spent one last summer in New York before making the move to Massachusetts. It was a big adjustment for her but she found college was generally a good experience for her, there were a lot of like minded people whom she enjoyed the company of.

Her flatmates were also good at making Sariah go out and be sociable where she would normally prefer to stay in and read a book. Sariah found herself making friends left right and centre. The group would often engage in ethical hacking and not so ethical hacking together too. It was fun for her to test her skills up against others who were on her level and helped her to improve her skills.She was especially close with Noel, a friend of one of her male roommates, the two would often compete with one another and talk into the late hours. Eventually they started dating and were happy together. Noel and Sariah weren’t a particularly public couple, they preferred spending their time together watching movies rather than flaunting their happiness to everyone. She was happy with that because she couldn’t stand when couples were all over one another in public, it made her uncomfortable.

The two were happy together for over a year and when the new semester rolled around the two decided to get a room together instead of crossing the whole campus whenever they wanted to be together. The arrangement worked well at first, they would greet each other when they got in classes and enjoy each other’s company when they were together.

The changes to Noel’s behaviour were so small that most people wouldn’t have even noticed, you had to look closely to see the paranoia that crossed his features every time that Sariah spoke to another person that wasn’t him. You had to know how to trace back almost untraceable footprints in his code to realize that Noel had been hacking Sariah’s phone to monitor who she was talking to and where she was going. Slowly his behaviour got more and more obsessive and instead of remaining silent he started vocalizing his paranoia.

Noel played on Sariah’s feelings for him to get her to do what he wanted her to, she stopped going out to see her friends and instead waited around at home for him to come back. She did everything she could not to make him mad because he scared her when he was mad. She allowed herself to remain under his thumb because the moments that he was himself, he was everything she loved about him, he was smart and handsome and he was sweet and cared about her feelings.

It went on for far longer than it should have, Noel became more and more possessive and Sariah allowed him to act that way. Sometimes he would grab her by her hair when she did something he didn’t like or push her up against the wall to remind her that she was his and everything she did was under his control. Sariah told herself that she would leave but every time she talked herself into it he would talk her out of it once again, she felt trapped and she had pushed away everyone that she could ask for help from.

It was that day that he dared to throw his fist in her direction that something in her finally snapped and she fought back, in his shock he was knocked to the floor by her push and she took the opportunity to run, she ran until her lungs were about to explode and even then it didn’t feel like enough distance. “No more” she had whispered to herself as she had come to a stop gasping for breath. Her eyes welled with tears as she realized how much of a fool she had been, staying and allowing herself to be bullied into silence.

With the help of a councillor from the university, Sariah took her ex lover to court and was issued with a restraining order preventing Noel from ever being able to get near her again. By then however the fear of what had happened instilled a certain fear of trust in her, for a while she couldn't even stand to be near men and she quickly learned how to steer clear of anyone who gave her unwanted attention.

Sariah threw herself back into what she knew best and excelled beyond everything she had done before, her focus was clear and she didn’t allow anyone to distract her from her goals, it was the only thing that ever made sense to her in that moment. Her hard work however was awarded as she started pulling her grades up beyond most of her classmates, whenever someone found code they didn’t think could be cracked they would pass it to her for testing, if anyone could break through it, it was her.

Sariah graduated from MIT at the age of 23 with an honors degree in computer science, her parents cried when they watched her cross the stage and for once in her life she felt like she had everything together, she had worked incredibly hard to get where she was and it wouldn’t be wasted. She knew the army wasn’t an option but she would find a way to protect people another way, to help prevent the supernatural world from taking more lives.

She bounced from job to job the first couple of years, never really finding something that sparked the intelligent fire in her, she tried software development but she was never as good at building things as she was tearing them down and corporate support was far too easy for her liking. A few years after moving on from Noel she started dating again, though it was never anything serious, most ended when she said so and a few when she found they were cheating on her, Sariah didn't let herself love any of them, loving someone meant letting them hurt you when they left and she wouldn't let anyone have that power.Despite her level of trust when it came to relationships, Sariah did well at work, it was the one thing she could focus herself on when the whole world was falling apart so when Sariah was sent a job offer in the city of Evermore stating little more than the applicant requiring extensive knowledge of computer science on her doorstep she was intrigued to say the least.

Packing up her life she made the trip to Evermore city, known as the central hub of the world for the supernatural. Sariah didn’t have issues with the supernatural individually but she also knew they should be held accountable for their actions. In Evermore she took on a position in the human organization, their job was to gather intel on the city’s supernatural population and ensure that the city didn’t fall victim to their whims. The organization helped to negotiate contracts for the residency of each of the factions and ensure they held their end of the bargain.

Sariah questioned the logic of some of the contacts, especially the vampires being allowed to feed on the humans, but with the help of Violet and the extensive amount of resources on the supernatural that the organization held, she learned the ins and outs of each. For example, the vampires couldn’t actually survive without human blood, so the organization supplied them with people whom were consensual to being fed on.

Sariah’s job was to survey what happened in the city, gather information for the organization before anyone else knew it, cover up stories where needed to prevent the secrets from spreading across the city and working with the local media to cover important topics. Most of her tasks are on the upper level, however there had been times with the support of the local police form, that she has hacked secure systems for required information.

The work was rewarding for Sariah, a way to fight against those who brought shame to the world whether they were human or supernatural and a way to use her talents for good the way she had always wanted when she was younger. Living among the supernatural however was easier said than done, for everywhere she turned, she would find herself faced with streets of people who weren’t like her at all, it was a strange and scary feeling. She found it hard to see past what people were but she knew that she had to give people a chance, under everything that was different there was a human soul, just like her best friend had convinced her when she was younger.

Cornelia Bradford

Orion Valkyrie

Sofi Zahara