Lam and Carlene

There has perhaps been no more unusual partnership in the history of our planet, than that of Carlene and Lam. A time travelling, reformed, beehive wearing, Jazz vampire from the 1960s and a renegade, grey skinned alien from the planet Zeta Reticuli. Still their enduring friendship which spanned centuries demonstrates that all obstacles can be overcome. Indeed whilst sadly their true contributions to humanity were often overlooked (simply because for so long humanity could not cope with what was really out there.) One could argue that the foundations of the golden age we currently live in where humans and Zeta Reticulans are the best of friends were laid down with this vampire and renegade aliens relationship. 

Today in the 25th century as I'm sure contemporary readers will know, the Zeta Reticulans are all around us on the earth. Truly no other species of aliens enjoy such a close relationship with humanity than the Zetas. Granted a large part of this is because the Greys as they used to be known, have a greater knowledge of our history through monitoring it and in a way almost feel responsible for us. Still just as many humans live on Zeta Reticula as their kind do on earth, and the exchange of art, history and culture is far more common among our two species than anywhere else in the galaxy. There was even a Zeta Reticulan Beatles tribute band last year, which was the first ever tribute band to human music from extra terrestrials. (I actually went to see it. Despite having a completely different type of vocal chords to our own and standing about 4 feet tall and not using a simple translator. They actually did not a bad job.) There have also even been more than a few Zeta Reticulan/human relationships, with the most recent President of earth having a Zeta Reticulan woman as a wife. (There have however been no successful offspring produced from these pairings, as of yet.)

Still in spite of this touching friendship, things have not always been quite so easy between us, though the first real steps of this bond were arguably laid down with Carlene, Lam and the Freakish Family in the 19th century, though before we look at their relationship, we shall have to explore briefly the history of Zeta Reticuli.

Zeta Reticuli was part of an intergalactic federation of planets, which began before the beginning of recorded history on our planet. Ironically it was formed by two warring species. The Imperiosa, who were the descendants of small meat eating dinosaurs from one of the Raskian colonies that had developed sentience. Near the end of the age of the Dinosaurs, a race of aliens known as the Raskians abducted several species of Dinosaurs to use in a civil war. The winning side then deposited these great reptiles on numerous planets around the galaxy, including Venus.

Along with the Venusians who shielded their world with a magic forcefield that hypnotised any species that passed by into believing their world was uninhabitable. The Imperiosa were among the few sentient creatures to evolve from the Raskians displaced Dinosaurs. The Imperiosa, incidentally for decades were later known as the Reptillians by humanity when they were first sighted on our planet in the 20th century. The others were a race of humanoid aliens, that we would refer to as the Nordics due to their blonde hair, though in truth the species name was actually Lenas.

The Lena, Imperiosa war lasted centuries and devastated both planets completely. It eventually came to an end simply because both had to ally just to survive. After another few centuries of recovery. The Imperiosa and the Lenas who ironically had probably grown closer in the struggle for survival than almost any other two species except for humanity and the Zeta's, vowed to never let the same thing happen to any other race they encountered. At first they travelled to any inhabited planet they could and tried to impose their own will on the natives, forcing them to bring an end to any wars as well as use their technology and knowledge to cure any other ills that were affecting other worlds. Sadly in most cases their interference simply led to more wars and damage.

Following these disasters, the Imperiosa and the Lenas wisely changed their tactics and simply observed any world they came across, sometimes for centuries through different agents known as monitors who always made sure to keep hidden to prevent each planet's development from being tampered with. Once the natives of each planet had reached a stage of maturity, both socially and technologically that was deemed capable of coping with the idea of alien life. Only then would the Imperiosa and the Lenas approach and aid them in whatever way they could. Gradually over the course of thousands of years, a federation of alien planets was established this way by the Imperiosa and the Lenas. No planets where magic was the dominant force were included as part of this federation. Whilst the Imperiosa and the Lenas did not hate magic or persecute it, they were still terrified of it. There was actually another federation of magic planets anyway, though it existed in another galaxy. The Zeta Reticulans meanwhile joined the Imperiosa and the Lenas at a much earlier stage in the Zeta's development than most other races in the Federation.

Unlike most other species, socially the Zetas were felt to already be advanced enough before they had even left their planet, and they became among the federation's most prominent members in a fairly short time, more because of how peaceful they were. The founders of the federation even came to believe that the Zetas were the best at recruiting other planets due to their peaceful nature and the small, large headed, grey skinned, black eyed aliens did ultimately end up recruiting far more races throughout the federation's history than any other species.

The reason the Zetas were such a peaceful race was ironically because they came from an extremely hostile planet. Whilst we may know it as a paradise now, that only came after hundreds of years of terrorforming. Originally the planet (which we know as Z3 as it is the third planet from its sun in the Zeta Reticuli star system, though the planet has also been referred to as simply Zeta Reticuli too) was exactly like earth in terms of its position from its sun, but for some reason, near the start of the Zeta's development. The planet drifted ever so slightly out of its orbit. Not enough to kill all life, but enough so that it was trapped in a permanent ice age.

The Zetas were forced to work together to a greater extent than humanity ever was. Unlike us they had no time for petty infighting. Literally every single individual had to work towards the survival of their species.

The cold temperature also affected their biology. Rather than hair to protect them from the cold however, they developed a thick, strong grey layer of outer skin, almost like an exo skeleton (on top of their internal skeleton) that could absorb the cold completely without any trouble to their internal organs. The Zetas also became much smaller on average to survive on fewer resources. The average male Zeta Reticulan stands about 4 feet tall. Contrary to the popular belief throughout the 20th century (which came from abductions or close encounters.) The Zetas eyes were not black. In fact they resembled human beings, but they did have a black eyelid of sorts that could come down over their eyes, which they could still see through. This eye lid was capable of absorbing more light (which again was limited) on their planet allowing them to have sharper vision and see more clearly than other races in the dark, though it could also still be used to help them sleep like our eyelids.

Our earth meanwhile was singled out by the federation for possible membership some time in the early 19th century, though given our warlike and brutal nature. It was to be quite a long time before we were even considered for membership of the federation.

In fact the Imperiosa and the Lenas by the middle of the 20th century more or less gave up on our planet. At first they aided monitoring it in the 1950s and 60s believing that perhaps if all three species worked together then they could make a more in depth assessment. Sadly however the reptillians and the nordics after witnessing the folly of mankind up close, simply became convinced that we would destroy ourselves in an atomic war. The Zeta Reticulans however having infested so much research into our world still insisted on continuing to monitor it, though they were forced to do so on a reduced budget, resulting in the number of their crafts being sent to the earth reducing from the 1970s on. Eventually however by the 23rd century even the Zeta Reticulans gave up on humanity, though we will explore why later.

One Zeta named Lam however never gave up on humanity. He was among the first sent to monitor our planet in the 1850s. Unlike the other monitors, Lam developed a bit too much of a liking for our world and our people and frequently went against the rules of keeping a distance from the natives of a primitive planet. He made friends with several humans (all of whom simply took him for an escaped circus freak.) He went to taverns, sampled human culture in more ways than one and even used alien technology to help his human friends who were sick.

Luckily for Lam his friends among the other Zeta monitors of earth at that time helped cover up his activities to the authorities. Lam was a very personable, friendly sweet guy who was well liked by his team mates. He even convinced a few of these inexperienced Zeta monitors to join him in befriending some of the humans.

It should be mentioned that the another reason Lam got away with this behavior, was because the other monitors on the earth were very inexperienced.

The more capable and experienced monitors were busy dealing with the more advanced worlds whose transition had to be more delicate. As far as the federation knew, the earth was just a random primitive planet that was largely isolated and therefore wouldn't be in the process of joining for several centuries. Eventually however Lam's luck ran out, and he was responsible for a blunder so huge that even his friends could no longer cover his tracks.

One night when he was drunk after a whole day in his favourite tavern, The Rose and Crown. Lam attempted one of the few abductions he took part in on earth. Part of the Zetas and other monitors of the federation's job was to abduct natives, not to harm them, but to simply analyse their bodies to see if they contained any viruses or toxins that could prove harmful to the federation, or alternatively if there were any toxins in the Zetas or other federation species that could harm the natives.

In the past there had been many catastrophic instances of contamination from species being too quick to visit unknown worlds, both within and outside of the federation.

These abductions were also conducted to see how the average humans could cope with the idea of dealing with aliens on other worlds psychologically. The humans were never intended to be harmed in the abductions, though sometimes the mental distress could have a larger effect than the Zetas had predicted. There were also many culture clashes as well. For instance Zetas never wore clothes. They didn't need too as their skin was all the protection they needed. As a result when they asked humans to strip for some abductions, to simply analyse their bodies for germs. To the inexperienced Zeta's it was nothing, but to the humans it took on horrifying connotations. Furthermore the Zetas were a also a little bit confused about how the humans only had one mouth. Their kind actually has two, with the second being where the stomach is on a human. This feature had evolved in their race as both a defensive weapon and as a way of removing any poisons from the body, with the stomach mouth being able to regurgitate any harmful substances instantly. The stomach mouth wasn't like ours however in that it didn't have any teeth. Rather it absorbed and in the process crushed any food that was brought near it. The first few Zeta's infamously mistook our belly button for a tiny mouth of some kind. The aliens also had no idea what the human hair was for, finding it a poor protection against the cold. They assumed much like their clothes it was decorative, and that their skin must be tough like theirs, which often meant that they didn't adjust the temperature on their ship, resulting in the humans catching pneumonia and other illnesses from their abductions.

Finally the aliens were more than a little bit confused by human ageing. Their kind did not age in quite such a linear fashion. Aside from having much longer life spans, they'd go through four cycles. They'd start off young and then become old, and then de-age and become young, before becoming old and then finally dying. This was the species way of ensuring that their population always remained stable as infant mortality rates were sadly high in the early years of their development. Granted in later eras it meant that population control became a problem, but this was soon ironed out when the Zetas began to colonise other worlds.

Still again the inexperienced Zetas who were first sent to the earth and had no previous dealings with aliens even within the federation, and very little training were perplexed by how humans only aged one way, which sometimes led to some tragic misunderstandings, as the aliens abducted older people, thinking that they were stronger than they actually were or in the process of becoming young again. They underestimated just how frail some of these humans could be, which resulted in some abductees dying of shock and heart failure at the sight of the Zetas.

Lam tragically witnessed one such event when a kindly old woman was abducted by the Zetas, who simply wanted to gain her perspective on how her society had progressed in her life time, only for her to collapse of a heart attack as these strange, blank eyed aliens approached her. The Zetas had their black eyelids on whenever visiting alien worlds, as it helped their eyes adjust to the light of different planets. Sadly however this made them appear more sinister to us. Whilst Lam had not taken part in the actual abduction process which was often done through a tractor beam. He was still among the aliens that approached her on the ship, ironically to calm her down, which he would carry guilt over for the rest of his life.

Many believe this was another reason the other monitors tolerated Lam's antics as at the very least he helped them gain a better knowledge of humans and their culture through his friendships with them. Some have even argued that the death of this woman was what convinced Lam to make friendships with humans, in order to better understand them. Still it's worth noting that he was always a bit of a hedonistic, fun loving ladies man even back on Zeta Reticuli and this interpretation is probably just his followers trying to rehabilitate his earlier careless antics.

Truth be told the federation was simply overreaching itself at this point. It should not have sent untrained, inexperienced aliens to primitive worlds. These Zetas had incorrectly underestimated just how different humanity was to them due to how similar we were physically, as we both have a humanoid body plan through convergent evolution. (Or a Zetian body plan from their point of view.) Ultimately life can vary in any number of ways, some obvious, some less so. The Zetas weren't completely ignorant. They had a basic understanding of human biology, such as that the fact that we were warm blooded, breathed oxygen etc. Still they were clearly not in any way trained to deal with the complex differences between homo sapiens and their kind. The only reason this group of monitors were sent off with so little training to earth, was because the federation was desperate to get any planet it could to be part of it, out of fear of a rival power developing as much as benevolence. As a result of this arrogance, many lives were lost or at least ruined on earth and various other planets around the cosmos.

Some Zetas attempted to use memory wiping technology to erase any trauma from the ordeal of abduction, though even then this wasn't always guaranteed to work. Traces and nightmares could still linger, in some cases enough for the humans to piece them together afterwards. Some monitors attempted to get round this by using hypnotic suggestion, putting the human into a trance where they were unaware during it, but again not only could the memories still slip out. The hypnotic process could produce other nasty side effects too.

Lam, who never abducted any humans by himself before now, and had only taken part in a very few, found the whole process to be disgusting and an abuse of the federations power over less advanced life forms. (He only signed up for the agency to see other planets.) He almost always passed the buck when it came to abductions, but after being warned that he had to pull his weight or he would be sent back home. Lam was finally forced to earn his keep and abducted a laut who used to hang around the Rose and Crown. He hoped it would just be a straight forward abduction, IE ask him a few questions about aliens and then move on. Little did Lam know however, his target had been turned into a vampire since he last saw him. The Rose and Crown was a popular bar for strange creatures and freaks (hence why Lam went there in the first place.) It wasn't quite a monster club. At least not until the early part of the 20th century, but it was the next best thing and Lam's planned abductee had run afoul of one of its few vampiric patrons.

With Lam having paid very little attention to the lore about supernatural creatures on earth. The vampire after being abducted easily escaped from his restraints and overwhelmed the grey alien. The ensuing fight caused Lam's saucer to crash back down to earth, straight into Westminster bridge.

The aliens were then forced to repair the building (which with their advanced technology took less than an hour) and then wipe everyone in the nearby area's memories afterwards which led to much larger consequences among the human population. Whilst the aliens were just about able to stop Lam's mistake from altering the development of humanity. Lam was still sentenced to the worst punishment imaginable. Life imprisonment on the federations prison planet Yaskor.

His friends however aided Lam one last time, by helping him fake his death. Whilst they urged the now renegade to leave the galaxy, Lam instead went back to earth that he had grown attached too and kept a low profile. There wasn't really much for Lam back on Zeta anyway. Whilst he did have friends, his family had passed away many years prior. (His parents had him in their last cycle of being young, which was unusual at that point for his people.)

Eventually Lam returned to England, after the Zetas began to focus more on America. Whilst England was at the heart of the British empire, their previous activities meant that it was more difficult for them to stay hidden there. Not everyone's memory of the aliens had been wiped. At least some retained flashes of the aliens crashing into and then repairing the building, and a conspiracy theory soon built up over alien invasions. In response to this the Zetas set up shop in America which became the aliens main base of operations for over 100 years after.

Lam meanwhile having spent more time on the earth than any other member of his kind, meant that his eyes had adjusted to its light to the point where he didn't need to have his black eyelids over them. This, coupled with a fake nose, thick clothes including a hat and gloves, helped him pass for a human for the most part in the streets. He got by meanwhile through a forged identity of Barney Sagan and a small detective agency he set up.

In the year 1865 however, the aliens life changed, when a witch (who had retained her memory of the crash via magic.) Soon realised what Lam was and tried to harness his unique alien blood. Fortunately however the grey alien was rescued from the witch by Carlene, a reformed heroic vampire. She too had set up a detective agency in the area, with the two even being rivals. Lam had always suspected there was something wrong with her, but after this incident, they not only combined their agencies into one, but became best friends. Both could relate to being outsiders among their kind. Not only was Carlene a vampire, but she was not of this time either. She had actually been sent backwards via magic from the year 2007. Much like Lam she was trapped here, with seemingly no way of returning home.

Aside from the standard powers of her vampire breed, super strength, speed, healing, immortality, senses and the ability to adhere to any substance. Carlene ironically learned a lot about magic from Lam in his personal future, from the 70s and the 00s to the point where she constructed a special magical weapons chest which she placed on the top of her head. It took the form of the beehive hair cut she always used to wear. (This had been a very popular hairstyle for women in the 1960s and was Carlene's signature look along with black eyeliner, when she was a singer.) The weapons chest was also bigger on the inside and allowed her to carry dozens and dozens of weapons at a time.

Arguably Carlene's most useful powers however were her resurrection abilities. She was one of the few vampire breeds that could be brought back after death. However each time she was revived, her physical appearance was altered slightly. She always felt her nose was too big, no matter how much else changed. Granted back when she was alive, nasty music critics tended to comment on how she could joust with her nose, so it was clearly a sore spot for her. Still the Carlene stranded in the 19th century looked very different to the Carlene of the 1960s, despite her immortality.

Carlene was born in the year 1934 in Camden in London. She became a singer with her band "Dangerous Hamsters" in the early 60s. Whilst they never quite achieved mainstream success, they were critically acclaimed and enjoyed a very devoted following. They were also well respected within the industry as well, with Carlene even playing as an opening act for the Beatles at the peak of her success, who were all big fans of hers. Well at least that's what she said. In fact she said that John Lennon had called her the greatest female vocalist he'd ever heard. Oddly enough when she later lived in New York in the 1970s, she never took Lam up on his offer to meet up with their mutual acquaintance John Lennon, who Lam got to know after accidentally flying his craft too low over Lennon's apartment in New York city circa 1974. Lennon was fascinated by the incident and talked about it several times afterwards. Fortunately Lam was able to talk to Lennon and his lover May Pang, who had also witnessed the event and convinced them both to keep quiet for the sake of their species, though Lennon left out the details of who Lam was, he did still bring up the UFO incident many times. Lennon meant no harm as given his persona, he believed that people would just think he was joking, though Lam still always got a bit nervous whenever the story was told.

Sadly however, Carlene's band soon attracted the wrong attention from a deranged fan named Alex. He had actually been there right from the very beginning of their career and had always had a huge crush on Carlene. At first she thought he was sweet and was happy to have such seemingly loyal fans, but soon his behavior started to get out of control when she became romantically involved with the guitarist of the band, Harry.

He started to accuse her of being a lying bitch, leading him on, and even threatened Harry (who he had disliked from the beginning.) Carlene eventually got a restraining order against her former number 1 fan, but sadly that didn't stop Alex when he was turned into a vampire. Alex had been chosen to become a vampire specifically because of his demented, violent behavior. (Carlene wasn't the first unfortunate woman to become an object of his "affections" so to speak.)

The vampire that sired Alex was part of a gang of bloodsuckers who were building an army in the London Underground. As soon as Alex was turned, the first thing he did was attack Carlene on her way home from a club in the year 1966. He turned her into a vampire, hoping that she would be his bride for all eternity.

Instead Carlene, motivated by her rage at Alex for ruining and controlling her life, slew her sire. She then escaped from the underground base of the vampire gang he was part of, with the help of a local vampire hunter they had captured and were torturing, Stacey East.

Upon being freed, Stacey and Carlene worked together to bring down the vampire cult, after which Stacey told Carlene to travel to the city of Darrow. Having long been a haven for vampires and demons. Stacey however told Carlene to go there specifically to meet her old boyfriend, Marcus Cushing (one of the last surviving members of the Cushing family of vampire hunters) who she felt could help Carlene.

Decades ago when Stacey lived in Darrow, she and Cushing had hunted the paranormal together and she had clashed with him, and others over the fact that he believed it was possible for demons to control their violent urges.

Carlene, who hadn't fed on a single person during her battle against the cult and wanted to continue to abstain had genuinely challenged East's beliefs. She was still skeptical, but felt that at the very least Marcus (who had since become a detective) would be a better person to understand what she was going through.

Detective Cushing as he was known became a father figure and mentor to Carlene in Darrow, helping her come to terms with what she was, as well as training her to use her vampiric powers for good. Aside from Cushing, Carlene was also assisted by the ghost of a local woman named Lily Rose, who haunted the Darrow cemetery where Carlene lived. She had transformed a large Mausoleum into a rather comfortable living quarters, complete with a tv set, some recliner chairs, whilst below was a crypt that contained, eventually a bar, a pool table (which was Carlene's favorite game) and a jukebox! The jukebox was actually given to her by students from the local Darrow university, who Carlene had saved from a vampire attack and donated it to her as a thank you. 

The Mausoleum actually belonged to Lily's family, but she did not mind Carlene desecrating it. In fact she even helped the vampire. Lily's family known as the Leick's were among the most powerful in Darrow during her time, the 18th century, and continued to be up until the later half of the 20th century. Sadly however their wealth and influence came through cutting deals with the supernatural. Lily was initially ignorant of where her family's wealth came from, but soon learned the truth when a young man named Jason tried to burn down her house in revenge for his parents being sold to a local vampire. Lily took pity on him, and even helped Jason escape with the two becoming lovers as they battled both Lily's family and their supernatural allies for many years until they were both captured. They were betrayed by a young woman named Kirsty Wilson who had come down from Dundee as she had inherited a fortune from her wealthy aunt in Darrow. After recklessly losing her fortune, Kirsty had fallen in debt with the Leick's. Lily and Jason helped Kirsty escape from their clutches and advised her to flee Darrow. Even here they found Kirsty to be a hateful, obnoxious, individual, but sadly even they truly had no idea how greedy, cowardly and self serving Kirsty truly was, and she subsequently betrayed them to the Leicks in the hopes of getting in with Lily's family. Lily's own father then handed Jason over to a particularly vicious band of vampires who hung, drew and quartered Jason, right in front of Lily. Fortunately Lily managed to escape from her chains before they could turn her, but she was unable to escape from her family castle and killed herself to avoid being turned into a vampire.

Lily's spirit wandered around the resting place of her body for two centuries, in a dazed state with it only being her guilt over failing to stop her family that tied her to this earth. When she saw Carlene desecrate her families crypt however, she was snapped back into consciousness and soon became Carlene's best friend. Sadly Lily was barely able to leave her cemetery and therefore couldn't help Carlene directly, but her knowledge of magics, the supernatural and indeed Darrow itself proved vital to Carlene again and again. 

In time Carlene became a hero to the people of Darrow, battling demons, vampires and common criminals on its streets throughout the remainder of the 60s. During that time she made many notable enemies.

Among her most evil and dangerous foes included the zombie serial killer named Thomas, though he was better known by his gruesome nickname, "The Fiend of Darrow" (which considering what kind of town it was said a lot about the extent of his crimes.) No one knows exactly how many people he killed in life, as he often liked to claim responsibility for just about any unsolved crime, but it is believed to have been over 30 victims.) 

He was eventually hanged for his obscene crimes in the 17th century, but according to the most accepted legend, Thomas was revived by a witch with a grudge against the city of Darrow to be a curse on the town. There are others however who argue that Thomas was never human to begin with, and much of his origin beyond his original heinous crimes is still shrouded in mystery. Either way the zombie carried out his brutal killings for centuries afterwards. He was slain many times, but always somehow managed to return and sadly though she bested him many times. Even Carlene was not able to put the vile zombie down for good. 

Another major enemy was The Silent Clown, a hideously deformed and insane vampire. In life he had been a children's entertainer and a very sweet, kind hearted man. Tragically however a party he was performing at was attacked by a horde of vampires, and everyone there was killed except for the man who would one day become the Silent Clown. For some reason the vampires decided to spare him and subjected the clown to horrific torture and disfigurement before turning him. They cut his nose off, and his lips so that his mouth permanently resembled a hideous grin. His breed were already somewhat inhuman looking, possessing greenish, white skin and yellow sharp teeth. Most would argue that the vampires don't need an excuse to torture someone such is their sadism and cruelty. Others however have suggested that perhaps in contrast to someone like Alex being selected, the vampires could sense the Clown's innocence and wanted to corrupt it. 

The Silent Clown as he came to be known due to his lack of speech began targeting children. Perhaps it was just a distortion of his previous life, or perhaps he somehow blamed children because he had been captured at a child's party? Either way, The Silent Clown travelled from city to city, devouring the children. One unfortunate child however was always kept as a ghost and made to serve the vampire, helping the clown lure away and capture other children. The clown's breed of vampire, much like their vandal cousins could manipulate and even harm and destroy ghosts, though they did not feed on them like vandals. 

The Silent Clown had visited Darrow many times prior to his first battle with Carlene, having always managed to evade the authorities and even the other supernatural forces who viewed him as a wild card. 

Carlene however was drawn into conflict with the monster, when a young girl she had befriended at the Union named Julia was abducted alongside her brother by the demon. Julia was able to escape with the aid of the Clown's latest ghost servant, who briefly managed to severe the vampires control over him, whilst sadly her brother was devoured by the clown. Carlene with the aid of Detective Cushing not only saved Julia, but freed all the children the clown had captured and burnt his base to the ground. Sadly however the vampire escaped and would continue to battle Carlene many more times. Carlene meanwhile remained in contact with Julia, though she tried to stop her from getting involved in her battles against the supernatural. Julia however was determined and in time she essentially became Carlene's sidekick and a formidable vampire hunter in her own right. It would be Julia that finally slew the Silent Clown, near the end of Carlene's time in Darrow.

The beehive topped vampire also faced the black Tyrannosaurus during her time in Darrow. Again nobody quite knows where this monster came from. Some think it may have been a weapon created by the Dragons to use against the gods that got out of control, but there have been sightings of it all over the world for centuries. The black Tyrannosaurus is larger and stronger than any real Tyrannosaurus. (Which is no mean feat.) However its greatest power is the hell dimension contained within its stomach, where those it devours are condemned to an eternity of suffering. Many of their faces appear constantly in its stomach screaming. In fact the Dinosaur has no roar of its own. When it opens its mouth all that can be heard are the screams of its previous victims. It also has the ability to release certain souls from its stomach to use as weapons. The black Tyrannosaur is believed to have settled underneath Darrow at some point after World War 2. The sewers of Darrow contain many horrors and strange creatures and dark magics that were imprisoned there in the early days of the city when it was run by vampires. Very few are brave, or stupid enough to even attempt to enter the sewers, but the black Tyrannosaurus became the apex predator of the underground. It was not a personal adversary of Carlene like the others. For the most part the Dinosaur was content to hunt the other demonic creatures of the sewers and Carlene was happy to let it do so. 

However she first came into contact with it, when a group of demons kidnapped Julia and held her for ransom in the hopes of forcing Carlene to help them. Their base was situated in what they thought was a safe area of the underground, but the Tyrannosaurus, not wanting anything to move in on his territory attacked and killed most of the demons, causing Julia to flee where she became lost in the sewers until Carlene, barely saved her from the Dinosaur. 

Carlene later came into conflict with its followers who brought, rare live Demons and magical creatures from around the world for the Dinosaur to hunt. The Dinosaur appeared to remember Carlene after these two encounters and would often fly into fits of uncontrollable rage whenever it saw her. 

Another major adversary of Carlene's was the evil witch known as Lystenia, who ironically had once been a great hero like Carlene herself. Sadly an attempt to prevent a dark spell from spreading over the English countryside in the early 1900s led to Lystenia absorbing its power which both corrupted and drove her insane. Lystenia then spent the next several hundred years using her magics to cause trouble, and inflict horrific curses on people. She and Carlene fought for many decades until Carlene was able to remove the dark magics from her soul, after which Lystenia came to her senses and ironically became one of Carlene's best friends, eager to make up for her past sins. 

The demon sorceress Sekensa however proved to be truly beyond redemption. She had an affinity for demons, so much so she was able to travel to hell dimensions and back and absorb the power from the darkest hell worlds that no one else on earth could reach. However she soon came to realise that in order to absorb the most powerful magics of hell, her soul would have to be condemned there, so she allowed one of her servants to kill her, in the hopes that after a few months they could then perform a resurrection ritual. 

Sadly for Sekensa her followers were tracked down and killed by Lily's family (not out of altruism, simply because by that stage they now controlled most of the supernatural activity in the town and viewed Sekensa as a renegade.) She suffered in hell for 80 years, until her spirit was able to reach another person in the city who had similarly suffered as a result of Lily's family, with Sekensa influencing her to bring the witch back, in Darrow cemetery where he body had been buried. 

The resurrection spell allowed many other horrors from hell into our world, with the cemetery being overrun. However Sekensa's spirit was finally able to enter our reality and now fused with the dark powers of hell, she sought to inflict revenge on the city of Darrow, becoming one of Carlene's most dangerous and evil foes in the process.

Carlene also faced the legendary Ghost Guards many times too. In fact it is through her dealings with them that we know the little we do about these creatures. 

The Ghost Guards as they have become known are aliens from another world who travel from planet to planet using spells and enchantments. Eons ago they built up a vast interstellar empire, however it eventually fell, like all empires do eventually, but these aliens however decided to use more dirty, underhanded means. They felt that it they could not conquer the living, then they would conquer the dead and travelled from world to world, abducting ghosts and using them as slave labour. 

Through some basic magics a ghost could be made to interact with the world around it and be bound to a creatures will. These kinds of magics were nothing to the Ghost Guards. Furthermore most natural creatures either exorcised ghosts, or even denied their existence such was their own fear of death. Therefore the Ghost Guards could abduct spirits from all over the universe and use them as slave labour without most being aware. The Ghosts themselves meanwhile had no way of rebelling and in many cases were duped into thinking this was their natural afterlife anyway. 

In time the Ghost Guards species built up an even greater society that was able to keep itself isolated from the rest of the universe. Still they needed a constant supply of fresh spirits from all over the galaxy to maintain it. 

Carlene certainly wasn't the first to encounter the Ghost Guards, but she did learn more about them and even became an enemy of theirs. Her first dealing was when the monsters attempted to abduct Lily, which Carlene foiled. The creatures vowed that they would abduct the spirit of anyone that Carlene got close too in order to spite her, a fear which stayed with Carlene and even led to her becoming reclusive for a few years after she left Darrow. 

Another horrifying enemy of Carlene meanwhile was The Ghoul of Darrow, who was no ordinary Ghoul. Using a combination of magics and his own supernatural powers, the Ghoul was able to fashion magical coffins that could keep the victims alive for years and regenerate parts of their flesh after he tore our their organs, or certain body parts to feast on. Many of his victims, whose coffins were kept hidden all over Darrow were kept in a state of perpetual agony for years on end. 

Carlene's greatest adversary's however were Lord Paul and Eliza Stansfield. The former was a descendant of Lily's family. By the 1960s, they had become the most powerful family in all of Darrow and controlled most of the criminal and supernatural operations in the city, with Lord Paul controlling all of their operations. Over the course of her time in the 1960s, Carlene finally managed to bring down the deranged Lord Paul's empire, and he continued to face her many times later, becoming obsessed with making the vampire pay. In time his magics slowly corrupted his body turning him into a hideous monster physically as well.

Eliza meanwhile was a vampire of the same breed as Carlene. Like Carlene she had tried to control her thirst at first for the sake of her husband and their daughter. Sadly however it eventually became too great and she killed her husband. When her daughter saw what she had done, Eliza ripped her throat out and became one of the most infamous and brutal vampires on record. Everywhere Eliza went she caused chaos and convinced the vampires to take control. Naturally Darrow which was not only a hotspot for the supernatural, but was now effectively ruled by the human Lord Paul, was a very special project of hers. She and Carlene soon came into conflict in her attempts to stir up trouble, and whilst Eliza viewed her as a small annoyance at first, in time she became obsessed with breaking the beehive topped vampire. 

Some believe it may have been because the fact that Carlene could control her thirst, forced Eliza to face what she had done to her family. Before she had always written it off as vampires were incapable of controlling their bloodlust, but now seeing one who had, meant that she perhaps bore some responsibility as well. 

Eliza targeted Carlene's loved ones and was responsible for some devastating losses, which eventually led to Carlene murdering her archenemy. Unfortunately however Eliza was resurrected, but her resurrection was botched somewhat thanks to Carlene, leaving her trapped into a hideous, emaciated, disfigured form. In this body Eliza became more than just an ordinary vampire and her hatred of Carlene soon took over her entire being. Much like Lord Paul she continued to battle Carlene for many decades afterwards. 

At the start of the 1970s Carlene following several devastating losses at the hands of her enemies, left Darrow and headed for America. After a year alone, she first met Lam from her perspective. Ironically he became a mentor to Carlene at this point in her life. (Keeping the fact that he knew her when he was younger secret to preserve the timeline.) By that stage Lam had become a powerful sorcerer and was very dedicated and no nonsense, often clashing with Carlene's younger more rebellious nature. The two eventually moved their operations to New York where they gathered another team of vampire and demon hunters. Carlene however later left New York some time in the 1980s, and eventually ended up in Aviemore in Scotland at the start of the 21st century. Here she reunited with Lam and they helped form another team of demon hunters including Lindsey (future companion to Professor Fang) and former agent of Rentros, Daniel Winn. They would also be assisted by the Loch Ness Monster (an old friend of Lam's)

Finally in 2007 she was blasted backwards in time by a powerful magical force that threatened the Highlands to the early 19th century.

Back in the 19th century meanwhile, Carlene now had to be the one to guide the much younger Lam into tackling the supernatural. Lam had previously focused more on solving human crimes in his agency before Carlene arrived, and so ironically the much older version of Carlene had to teach him magic in exactly the same way, as he had once done to her, or rather would do. One area however where Lam and Carlene always clashed, regardless of whether he was mentoring her, or she mentoring him was that Lam would never kill humans unless he had too, whilst Carlene viewed killing an evil human no differently than killing a vampire or a demon. Despite their strong friendship, both very nearly came to blows over these differences many times.

Along the way Carlene and Lam built up a small but effective team of similar misfits and supernatural creatures in 19th century London just as they would do a century later in New York. Five in total who earned something of a reputation among the locals who referred to them simply as The Freakish Family and in the next chapter we shall explore their history and influence.