Trigger Warning: Death, Murder, Cancer, Spooky Ghosts
Born Jennifer Althea Sterling, Jennifer has known from a young age that she was quite a bit different than her peers. She was born into a broken family, one who was more concerned with playing the system and having enough money for booze and cigarettes. Her father was incarcerated when she was four after he murdered a neighbor during an argument one night after one too many beers. This was her first brush with death. For days ahead of that, she constantly asked her mother why the neighbor had been hurt, but her mother didn’t understand. After the neighbor had died, her mother brushed off her daughter’s knowledge of the event thinking it was just a coincidence. She was about ten when her grandmother was forced to move in with them due to lack of money after the cancer treatments. The second she moved in, Jennifer got a sickening feeling in her stomach. She felt as though her bones and organs were being eaten by the cancer rather than her grandmother’s. One night, she went to tell her grandmother good night, but instead told her good bye. She passed away a few hours later. Her mother ignored the signs that her child was strange, though she was certainly aware of them. She was more concerned with getting out of the trailer park they were living in than anything else.
It wasn’t until she was in middle school that Jennifer actually realized there was something different about her. She was sitting in a desk when she felt like she’d almost been sent back in time. She could see past students sitting in the desk and feel their boredom. Though she was more than terrified, she began to look into what she could do. It took her a long time and a lot of trips to the graveyard to realize her innate knowledge of death and the otherworldly. She could sense when someone was about to die and even sometimes how they would die, that much came natural to her. Along with that came the ability to see strong emotions or memories tied to places or things, especially where a lot of death was involved. Students began calling her zombie because of the time she spent among the dead. But that was okay. At least she’d found a place she belonged. She had to train much harder to develop her sixth sense about the living, but the dead came naturally to her. After high school, she received a scholarship to go to a college in California. She was planning on becoming a psychologist when she met her mentor, Sylvia, and dropped out. Sylvia trained the girl more than ever, nurturing her psychic abilities to what they are today. It was her mentor who told her to go by Althea instead, claiming it made her sound much more mysterious.
It was around this time, that she was making something of herself, that she reconnected with her mother. Or at least, she tried to. Her father had recently been released from prison on a technicality when the truth came out; the man she’d always thought was her father was not. Instead, her father was a wealthy businessman, one who was dying. Thea was able to spend a few months with him, ones where she finally felt like she had a real parent. He left her everything when he died, including the warehouse that she now calls home. It was around the time of his death that she became involved with Ghosthunters, and as one of the first members, she takes her role very seriously. Though she knew the show wasn’t likely to guarantee her financial security, she had that from what her father left her; this was just for her.
Ghosthunters took off almost instantly, surprising her. Though they had thought the show would be possible with a certain audience on YouTube, it became popular very quickly. Thea’s name slowly began to rise in fame in the internet world as did the other cast member’s. And that became her new normal, attempting to prove the existence of the paranormal. Where Thea was once far too naive and trusting, she’s become more ambitious and guarded. She recently received an offer from a company to star in her own scripted television show. With her abilities and looks, she’s certain she’d make much more money ( not that she really needs it anymore ) and would have the opportunity to branch into bigger projects. But she’s fallen in love with the show she’s a part of and her cast members and really thinks they have the potential to make this something big. She hasn’t told them yet about the offer, especially as she isn’t sure whether or not she’ll take it. But either way, she knows she can’t let anyone know, not when the stakes are so high.
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