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</div></div><br/>It was important to schedule a face to face meeting and get a baseline reading on anyone interested in joining the Texas Paranormal Community research team's investigation during the lock down, and usually that task came down to Trevan Bennett's discretion. He was the psychic's psychic, often getting vibes from others or having premonitory visions that often manifested for real, that other sensitives didn't pick up on. The reason Trevan weeded out potential team members was two-fold.<br/><br/><br/>The first reason involved the group's credibility and liability. Having some team member going off the deep end during a lock-down, oftentimes with no running water or electricity was a recipe for disaster and many a law suit that put other paranormal groups out of business. Carefully scrutinizing those who joined them on their forays into the supernatural lessened the group's vulnerability, and that of the interested party. Many times the TPNC visited hauntings that involved a demonic entity and inhuman spirits often latched onto people during the investigation--and that was a whole different issue that needed no explanation.<br/><br/><br/>Plus it was better to have as many logical, mentally stable people working during the investigation as possible. Trevan was hopeful about Tolek Zajac, not just because he had an attractive avatar. The name sounded foreign-born, and Trevan often lived his life vicariously through the experiences of others. He was open-minded, and enjoyed long discussions about different cultures, languages and cuisine. Sure, being American and eating apple pie, hot dogs and McDonald's was heaps of fun, but Trevan tired quickly of the same routine. He hoped to spark things up with Tolek Zajac on the team. If they had something in common, maybe they'd become good friends.<br/><br/><br/>Still, Trevan had some reservations about him. his main concern was Tolek's distance from Austin, almost two hours. He wanted to dissuade him from participating, even suggesting that perhaps he could look into a group closer to his home. Except Tolek sounded so very eager to meet him, and didn't think that there would be much of a travel problem he held on to his reservations so the meetup could take place. If it didn't work out, it wouldn't be too much of a big deal to check the forum again for another volunteer. Besides, Trevan wanted to see what kind of experience Tolek had before shooting him down.<br/><br/><br/><b>"Reckon we can meet up at Opera Cafe &amp; Coffeehouse then. How's yer schedule?"</b>Trevan remembered asking him over the phone.<br/><br/><br/>With an open schedule to work with, Trevan penciled in 7:30 PM tomorrow night.<br/><br/><br/><b>"Look forward to seein' ya then Tolek. Later gator!"</b><br/><br/><br/>Trevan thought Tolek sounded a little nervous during the call, but remarked aloud after the conversation was over,<b>"Well gosh, he seems like a nice fella."</b><br/><br/><br/>Hours after the enthusiastic phone call, Trevan was inexplicably flat on his back in bed with a blinding headache that incapacitated him for the next ten hours. Nausea made him feel as though he were being rolled back and forth upon the deck of a ship during a hurricane, becoming sick to his stomach a few times during the night. Trevan took some Excedrin for the pain in his throbbing head, which felt as though it were being squeezed by a vice. He finally fell asleep around 1 AM, and had just hit REM sleep when he felt a crushing weight as if an elephant were sitting upon his chest.<br/><br/>Trevan tried hard not to freak out from the sudden inability to catch his breath or move. Screaming was useless, and when he tried he soon discovered that his throat muscles were paralyzed and he could not breathe. Black spots filled his conscious when the horrible visions began one after another like a flip book, where it was slow imagery. Trevan broke into a cold sweat as the white tray ceiling in his bedroom filled with ominous dark clouds. Black shadows flitted across his vision, forming amorphous shapes. A sinister clawed hand, a demonic face that flashed a row of pointy edged teeth that looked like a shark. Then the image of a human face transposed over the malevolent one. A friendly, handsome male face.<br/><br/><br/>Just like the one he remembered seeing in the avatar.<br/><br/><br/><div class="bbImageWrapper lazyload js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FIGBBHzt.png&amp;hash=d76f40c27838ba5dff213cf35cc9b199" title="IGBBHzt.png">
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</div><br/><br/>Trevan was relieved that morning had arrived, and that he hadn't scheduled a morning meeting with Tolek. It gave him plenty of time to recover from the sudden onset of illness from the night before, and sleep in a little later than he normally would've. It was around 2:30 PM when he finally felt as though he had a substantial amount of restful sleep, and dragged himself out of bed to grab the breakfast he would have eaten before hitting the gym. The scrambled eggs went down and stayed put, so he added some bacon and cooked grits to his meal, ate and cleaned up his mess before grabbing a shower and getting dressed for the meet-up that would occur in a few hours.<br/><br/>He didn't know how he missed the notebook he kept on his night stand, which he was in a habit of checking when he woke up in the mornings. Most of the time its college-ruled pages were empty. But this time they were covered with red ink, and strangely enough--Trevan didn't even have a red pen in the house. He was downstairs watching ESPN Sports Center until 6:45 PM, and never returned upstairs to notice the messages in his automatic writing notebook. It captured the spiritual and paranormal entities messages when Trevan was asleep, using Trevan as their conduit. The paper was torn to shreds, but etched in the center of the page were three words.<br/><br/>He is Mine<br/>Trevan had already claimed a corner table near the fireplace, by the time Tolek arrived for their meeting, and made himself comfortable with a Salted Mocha Caramel latte, and a bearclaw. He was sitting with a bunch of papers to one side on the table and rushed to clear everything off, so Tolek could sit across from him. Ruffling his curly hair, he looked a bit flustered and remembered suddenly to introduce himself.<br/><br/><br/><b>"Hi there, you must be Tolek, right? I'm Trevan Bennett, thanks for meeting with me. Please, have a seat. Do ya want a drink or some food? I'm treatin' tonight?" </b>Trevan politely offered. The Opera Cafe had about everything-- from vegetarian fare to farm to table breakfast and brunch items.<br/><br/><b>"Hope you weren't put out too much for comin' out this way. If you'd like, I mean--if you want to join us on the lock-down, maybe you could stay at my place so you don't have to worry about driving out so far?"</b><br/><br/><br/>His offer was something to consider at least for next time, if there was going to be one.<br/><br/><br/>If he'd only been talking to only Tolek, and not an invisible entity attached to him, maybe.<br/><br/><br/>Now that his offer had been spoken into existence, it was an open invitation.