Introduction

     The summer between high school and college started off quiet for Isabella Dean and her new group of friends in Asheville, North Carolina. While they knew some of them were going to split off on new adventures in different colleges, they were so close that those distances were not going to matter all that much in the greater scheme of life for the group affectionately known as the BTGs or Black Tights Girls. The addition of Isabella Dean into their group during their senior year of high school infused them with a missing strength and mission that helped them grow to the next level of friendship and existence. Before she arrived, they were living in a gray area pushed and pulled about by the whims of a bully and her group of comrades. Upon the arrival of Isabella, the shift in the dynamics of St. Bart’s Catholic School was swift and immediate as Isabella took down Lucy Upshaw in a series of altercations that made it clear that Isabella was both a better fighter and a better human being.

     Isabella was introduced to the girls who were labeled the BTGs by Lucy and adopted that nickname, and Isabella quickly became one of them adopting their way of wearing the school uniform in every manner. She even appeared to be a missing sister of one of the groups, Amber Collins, with both of them sharing red hair and fair skin.

     As they grew to know each other within the BTGs, Isabella became interested in ghost hunting after she and Amber discovered that her house was haunted by a teenage girl and several other ghosts that appeared to be children. In addition to this discovery, Isabella and Amber rescued a group of children from human traffickers on her first Halloween in Asheville. Isabella’s own health was questionable throughout her first months in Asheville stemming from the accident that led her to be moved there by her mother. She had a hidden brain injury that became evident after starting to become more physically active with her friends. She ended up in the hospital for a short stay after an emergency surgery in which she died a short time on the operating table. During that short time, she experienced a life-changing event that she later just called her NDE or Near Death Experience. She was shown many things during her NDE that she shared and kept to herself, and this led to her being able to help her new friends, the newly adopted children from the human traffickers, and fight against demonic forces or ghosts. Her first experience with a demonic force was in her own house.

     She was aided in this confrontation by another new friend she and the others met while looking for help. Winona was the owner of a store that focused on natural foods, tea, and spiritual guidance. She called it the Natural Path Store, and the BTGs found themselves going there many more times including the summer after graduation. Word began to spread about how they tackled the demon in Isabella’s house because of a video that one of them shot. Cindy Henderson, the self-proclaimed doubter, of the group happened to take out her phone and captured the apparition of the girl, Mary Ellen White, and she also captured a very clear image of a dark figure in Isabella’s room just before they cast it out of the house. The video was seen by over a million people on the internet in various forms. Most of the people were amazed by the clarity of it as well as the believability of it. The few doubters were asked to prove it was a fake and could not do it.

     Winona began to call upon the girls to help her go on calls to check out houses, businesses, and local establishments to see what was causing bangs in the night or strange events. What they discovered was that many of the noises were caused by natural phenomena such as raccoons, squirrels, or mice.