Life for me started off in the middle of nothing Kansas, just outside the town of Lawrence. I was the youngest of two children and the only daughter born to David and Rose Nolan. My brother, Jake, is three years older than I am. Life was good when we were little kids and as close to normal as we could ever know. Dad worked hard. He was an electrician and a plumber. He also took on work as a mechanic. Mom was a stay at home mom, but we tended to spend a lot of time with various relatives or neighbors.

 

When I started school, mom decided that I was old enough to start learning more. She started teaching me how to handle small weapons, such as knives and she started teaching me how to defend myself. I was spending time with my mom and I was learning things that other kids didn't know. I thought it was great and I didn't mind keeping the secret one bit. One day, Dad found out about it an flipped. He and mom had a huge fight that seemed to go on for hours. When the yelling stopped, life as Jake and I knew it, was over. The happy home I knew and loved, crumbled to the ground and we were thrust into the middle of a divorce and custody battle that was over very quickly.

 

 

As a little girl I didn't understand, but the truth of the matter was that mom gave up custody of us. She let dad have whatever he wanted in the divorce and agreed to his terms without any argument. See, my family is filled with heroes. Not the kind that you see in cartoons and on the big screen, but everyday heroes that put their lives on the line to save people that can't save themselves from the unknown. The supernatural beings that often haunt us in our nightmares. Unfortunately, those beings aren't what imaginations dream up and Hunters are around to bring reigns of terror brought on by these things to an end at any cost. My family, on mom's side anyway, has been doing this for generations. The problem is, that Hunters tend to stay as far off of the radar as possible. The methods and means to track some of these creatures and then dispose of them aren't always legal. There are lots more people in the world that wouldn't understand as opposed to those that would, including members of law enforcement. She couldn't take that risk. She had to make a choice. With dad threatening to reveal her and the whole family, well, the implications and the exposure of the Hunters would be horrible and deadly. Giving us up was probably the hardest decision that she ever had to make.

 

Dad finished raising us in Northern California. Life began all over again. He figured that distance from everything we knew and everything that we may one day become would be our only savior. He changed though. By the time I was ten, the father I once knew to be very loving and compassionate had become cold and withdrawn from Jake, and me. It's very easy to say that we hated what had happened, but there was no going back. Mom was not completely cut out of our lives, but I can count on the number of times I saw her in the following years on both of my hands. I was expected to take dance lessons, join the Girl Scouts, play the piano or flute. I refused. For Jake it was baseball and other sports. Dad wanted to teach him mechanics and stuff like that but the man was horrible to deal with. As we got older, both of us started to rebel. Too much of our mother in us, he'd say. Jake moved out as soon as he turned 18. He joined the army and he was gone from my life. There were a few letters and some phone calls but he didn't come home. The next year, mom died while out on a hunt. I was sixteen and even more determined to try and follow in her footsteps. My father was more determined not to allow that. Before, most of his wrath was taken out on my brother but after Jake left home and with me at my most rebellious, the fights between he and I started. I started going to a gym on a daily basis. Started Kick boxing and studying about weapons. I researched supernatural beings. At seventeen, I graduated High School.

 

There was a downward spiral after that. I was in with an interesting crowd. Partying constantly. Drinking as much alcohol as I could get my hands on. My relationship with my father wasn't good. It took about a year for me to bottom out then make the slow climb back to my feet. I hit the kickboxing even harder than before. Started taking shooting lessons. I got a job in a crappy little restaurant as a waitress and hostess. The cook there taught me a few things too. Dad agreed to pay for college so I took classes. I moved into my own small studio apartment and things were looking up for the first time in a long time. I entered a kick boxing tournament and even got a couple televised matches.

 

Dad had a massive heart attack at the end of 2011. I was Twenty years old, just a few months shy of turning 21. Life went down hill again. We fought constantly but I had no idea how to deal with his death. He was dating someone at the time, and her name was on the house so she stayed there. I wasn't going back. My boss at the restaurant turned into a dirt bag who liked to harass staff members. I quit before things got overly bad. I quit school too and then my car died. I had to get out of there. California no longer had anything for me. It was time to get away and make a new life somewhere else

 

.It took some time but one phone call changed my life all over again. I got a hold of my cousins. The sons of my mom's sister. They'd found this new place where a hunter doesn't have to live in complete secrecy and they're almost accepted as just a normal part of society. That's because the supernatural population is so very vast. Anyway, Simon sent Derrick to get me. Soon after that Derrick gave me a job at his bar, The Grumpy Gator Bar and Grill. He's got two partners in the place and now, I'm part owner too. I've made some friends, put down some new roots. Jake caught up to me again. We fight like crazy but it's good to have my brother back.

 

Dad was also a player apparently. He fathered other kids while he was with mom. I learned that I really didn't know the man at all. So now I'm twenty two. I'm a complete mess in some areas, which is a story for some other time, but I've got a job, friends, family that I can stand. Food, clothes, a roof over my head, a truck and money in my pocket. Mom once told me that I'm special and that I was meant to join the family business. Hunting things and helping people. And, I mean to do just that. A lot of things have happened on the road so far and many are soon to come.