character bios

Hiram is just three credits shy of his A.A. Three math credits. Except Hiram can’t do math, and he’s petrified of the only man who teaches the class he needs, Mr. Ross. Hiram’s been trying to get those credits for over a decade. At some point, he began to live in the tunnels and basements and sub-basements of Ill Valley College. He forages food from the cafeteria, moves through the ducts and pipes, lurks in the shadows and watches, and worries, and prays for the day when he’ll graduate. In the meantime, he’s seen a lot of strange things going on at the school...but who could he tell...?

Jessica Libra is the drop-dead gorgeous Asian-American librarian, petite yet voluptuous, fond of short skirts and stiletto heels. She seems to be an outstanding reference librarian, and yet...when you get right down to it, nobody knows much about her past, and nobody knows quite what she does during all of those late nights when she says she’s working overtime....

Alisha Morales, third-generation Mexican-American, is the Assistant to the President. She’s worked at the college for a decade, and she’s very good at what she does. Tall, dark-haired, dark-eyed, beautiful, her friends know she’s seeing someone in secret, but they can’t get her to tell them who. It’s just one of many secrets she has.

Dana Parkstone is 18 years old, with long, dark hair and deeply brown eyes that are mysterious, compelling. She was an Honors Student in high school, and has a quick, always questioning mind – sometimes she drives people crazy with her curiosity. She has plenty of casual friends, but somehow has no deep friendships, and no significant romantic relationship. No guy seems to be able to see her as anything more than someone to talk to in class. She keeps her inner emotions in check, not trusting anyone to be let into her world. Many years ago, her grandmother was one of five women murdered in the Bent Farm murders, a case that was never solved.. Recently, Dana has discovered her grandmother's diary, and reading it closely has suggested that there was more to those murders than anyone thought. One entry in particular leads Dana to think that the answers to these mysteries may be buried at Ill Valley College. She has enrolled as a freshman to discover the truth behind her grandmother's senseless death, a truth she believes she'll find at Ill Valley.

Leslie May Peterson is a 24-year-old single mother. She is about 5’4", and she has short blonde hair and blue eyes. Her husband left her for another woman, and has vanished, not paying her any child support. Leslie May lives with her parents now, and waits tables to make ends meet while she takes classes. She’s determined to enter the Nursing program, to better herself, to raise her daughter Kristie on her own. Right now, though, she feels overwhelmed.

Paul Reed is a custodian at Ill Valley. He’s been there almost since the founding of the college. He is tall, thin, leathery, his blue eyes still impossibly bright and clear, his curly hair gray now, but thick. His hands are large, the knuckles swollen, and he moves with surprising grace, like a dancer – or a predator.

Nick Rivers is a Biology teacher at Ill Valley. Tall, dark-haired and dark-eyed, with a neatly trimmed mustache, he is a popular instructor – he has a sense of humor, an easy laugh, a dynamic classroom presence and a liberal grading policy. He is handsome, works out three times a week, and always claims to be too busy with his research – which keeps him on campus sometimes late into the night and all through the weekend -- to have much of a social life.

Tré Robinson is an eighteen-year-old African-American student from Minnesota. He hopes to play basketball at a Division I school in two years, and has come here at the urging of his high school coach. He is tall, quick, handsome, powerfully built, with skin the color of burnished copper and a sweet, infectious laugh. Lately, feeling alienated in Ill Valley and homesick, missing his family desperately, he hasn’t had many chances to laugh.

Jack Rollins is a tall, solid, intense twenty-year-old with short dark hair and stormy blue-gray eyes. He’s made a few mistakes along the way, and has come from a less-than-nurturing home life. He’s determined to turn his life around, to turn his back on what he was, to remake himself. This semester he is grim, brooding, quick to condemn anything that reminds him of his less-than-exemplary past. He won’t associate with his old friends, and doesn’t speak to his family. He’s a Criminal Justice major.

Kilroy Warlock is a middle-aged Ill Valley dean that does much more than care for the welfare of the school. Though not well known amongst the faculty, staff, and students, Warlock nevertheless is one of the top officials in the Genetic Experiments. He handles much of the internal affairs concerning the project, but has plenty of hired help. While those involved with him know he is a strong figure, many do not know what part the evil Dean plays in the main experiments.

Quinn Zycloe is a hit man currently employed by Dean Warlock. He is no ordinary hit man, as his weapon of choice is a sickle, is in his late twenties, and walks around in a long blue coat. Only Warlock knows anything about this one-eyed man, and even his knowledge is sketchy. All that is really known is that he is very intelligent, with a medical background, and is extremely dangerous.