Full Story

Sylvi was born in 1996, Norway, in the Innlandet town of Gjøvik.
She was the only child of Lena and Kristian Dee. They were, in their community, known as a bit of a strange family - quiet and reserved, with some unusual habits. Despite this, Sylvi was not unpopular. She had a small but fairly close group of friends. One of her best friends while growing up was Asbjørn Dokken, her cousin.
Kristian was an architect by trade, Lena, a part-time spirit channeler. Her openness about this was a big part of the Dee family’s image - she was renowned for her abilities and the validity of what she did was always hotly debated. Sylvi grew up surrounded by criticisms of her mother, sceptics and naysayers with particularly scornful opinions. Sylvi trusted and believed her mother.
In fact, it was expected that some day she herself would become a skilled medium, just like her mother. The Dokken bloodline carried with it a heightened supernatural sense, including the ability to commune with spirits and act as their vessel.

Sylvi was a quiet child. She liked to sit inside and play videogames, but she was fascinated by her mothers work. Lena thought it was inappropriate to tell Sylvi too much while she was still a young age, but Sylvi was very intrigued. She often pestered Lena.

The family lived in a small house. They lived comfortably, but Sylvi’s parents would sometimes struggle to make ends meet. Kristian was often unlucky with the various architecture firms he worked for. He’d been messed around a lot, and he often settled for low-paying jobs far below his skill level. That’s why, when an old uni friend of his gave him a job offer with a very appealing salary, Kristian found it very tempting.
It would, however, mean him and his family permanently relocating to the United Kingdom.

Sylvi, now 11, didn’t want to. Understandably, she didn’t want to leave her friends and family behind. She was very close with her grandparents, especially her paternal grandma, Tyra Dee. She had a tight-knit little group of friends and was a very happy kid.
But Sylvi, as she often did, thought on it. She’d always been fascinated by things that were new. In fact, she was specifically intrigued by foreign countries and cultures. The more she thought about emigrating, the more exciting it sounded. Her dad had even said he’d be able to build them their own house from scratch, with a big bedroom for her and even a swimming pool. Her bedroom was small.

Lena and Kristian were shocked one evening when Sylvi told them that she’d changed her mind.

In 2008, Sylvi and her parents upended their entire lives and moved to Denman, a small town in Staffordshire, within the west midlands of England. Their new house, pristine and nearly complete, was nestled amongst the trees on the outskirts of town. Sylvi had missed her father sorely that year. Either working his new job or building their home in Denman, he was hardly in Norway, but now the family was together for this new adventure, and everything was perfect.

Of course, it was difficult, living in a foreign country. It was different - more different than Sylvi expected, and once the excitement of her new bedroom and their new surroundings wore off, she felt very homesick for Gjøvik, and the people she left behind. England was grey, and felt so dull and unfamiliar in comparison to home.
Sylvi’s English was alright, but not perfect, and fellow pupils in her new school could tell. She became shy and people teased her for her accent.
The first friend she made in East Denman Secondary school was Farhana Khan, who Sylvi bonded with - she herself had only been living in England for 2 years. Through Farhana, she made other friends, such as Tati, Kirsty, Jamie, and Sasha. Thankfully, she settled well within this little group of 6-ish, and the dust from the upheaval of moving countries began to settle.

For the next one and a half years, everything was straightforward in Sylvi’s life - mostly. As she matured, whilst other teenagers became withdrawn and closed off, Sylvi did the opposite - she really began to come out of her shell, more outspoken and less afraid to rock the boat. She stopped caring about what strangers thought - about her weight, about her nationality, about her kooky mother. She was no longer the quiet child she once was, and she wouldn’t apologise for any of it.

One morning in April 2010, everything changed for Sylvi.
Leaving nothing behind but a vague explanation on a notebook sheet of paper, Sylvi’s mother had left in the night, taking a small amount of her belongings.
’I have to do this for the whole family - for everyone you know. I’m sorry I can’t tell you more. I love you.’

No amount of searching brought any light to Lena’s whereabouts. She’d vanished, and just like that, Sylvi’s mother was no longer in her life.

Needless to say, this changed the course of Sylvi’s teenage years. She was heartbroken, confused, and struggled without her mother. She couldn’t fathom why Lena would abandon them like that. Sylvi became short-tempered, and even more stubborn, opinionated and outspoken. The more time passed, the more Sylvi began to resent her mother. She loved her dad, but he wasn’t what she needed at that time. Neither of them were the sort to talk about their feelings, and they began to drift apart. On top of that, Sylvi had no other relatives anywhere nearby. Angsty, rebellious, and becoming increasingly confident that she was not heterosexual, Sylvi needed support, and she wasn’t really getting it.

She was very grateful for her group of friends. But there were some things that she just couldn’t discuss with them. At her age would be the time in her life that she’d be expected to start forming a supernatural connection with the departed, and becoming a trainee medium. However, Sylvi felt nothing. Her dad was clueless and usually tried to distance himself from the Dokken’s spirit channelling. Sylvi was too embarrassed and nervous to ask Kjellfrid, her intimidating maternal grandmother about it. She tried to talk to Asbjørn, but he was frustratingly blasé about the entire thing, telling her it would ‘come in time’, and that there were more things to life than their families' inborn ability. To Sylvi, it was a part of her. It connected her to her mother, it made her feel worthy. She needed it. Doubt started to settle in her mind and she even wondered if the gift could have skipped a generation. Even the idea made Sylvi feel worthless.
This wasn’t the only thing that Sylvi wished she could speak to her mother about. Sylvi was gay and nervous to come out. She told Asbjørn, she told her grandma Tyra, but she was scared to confide in her school friends. She knew how badly that could go sometimes - she saw what happened when Martha Anderson, a popular girl in her year came out as gay.

Sylvi, in fact, found herself quite fascinated by Martha and her situation. She’d never known an openly queer person before. She admired her resilience and her honesty. All of these things in mind - Sylvi desperately wanted to talk to Martha. It was the only way she could think of to go forward.
Sylvi approached Martha - told her that she found her courage in the face of adversity inspiring. That she greatly appreciated seeing someone who wasn’t fake, who was true to themselves. She didn’t come out to her, but Martha was smart, and easily read between the lines. Martha was touched, admired Sylvi’s forward-ness, and the two of them stayed in touch.

They spoke often. Sylvi would walk home with Martha. They’d speak over instant messaging and hang out on weekends, shopping, sharing interests and hobbies, and talking about their lives. They became good friends.
But being friends with Martha came with a few caveats. One of these came in the form of Addison Ellis, Martha’s best friend nowadays and the school’s No.1 weirdo.
Addison was strange, and didn’t really seem to like or be like other people. Antisocial, misanthropic, and at times, hostile and confrontational, they did not want Sylvi to be a part of Martha’s life. As it happened, Sylvi didn’t like Addison very much, either. But still, they seemed to follow Martha wherever she went - Addison was part and parcel of Martha’s life, whether Sylvi liked it or not.
Additionally, Martha was not exactly seen as the coolest person to hang out with. Though Martha soon became a significant presence in Sylvi’s life, they hardly spoke in school. The reputation that Martha and Addison had by now made it difficult - Sylvi, not native to the country, couldn’t help but desperately not want to be labelled an outcast like they were. All the same, Sylvi made a lot of good memories with Martha during this time. They’d muck about at each other's houses, in parks, in shopping centres. It was a good time.

Sylvi finished school with decent grades, and now, her secondary school prom was just around the corner. Sylvi was going with her friends. She assumed Martha would maybe be going with Addison, if she was attending, or maybe others. She soon learned that Martha had nobody to go with. Addison couldn’t be talked into attending, and Martha still just had no-one else. She was really quite upset about it.
So Sylvi invited Martha to come along with her, and her friends.
This made a lot of sense. Sylvi’s group of friends were never really the most popular anyway, and they didn’t seem to have anything against Martha. In fact, nowadays, most of the year was a lot more mature and understanding than they once were. Martha was nervous that she wouldn’t be accepted, but these worries were eventually proved wrong and all the girls there had a great time.
At the end of the night, it was just those two left, being driven home by taxi. Martha stepped out of the car with Sylvi, only to be shocked speechless when Sylvi leaned forward and kissed her. After a few awkward conversations, a few spilled hearts, and several more months, Martha and Sylvi started dating.

Having a relationship with Martha, who still had Addison in tow most of the time meant that they were quite an odd little trio. Addison still hated Sylvi and in fact, usually ignored her entirely.
Kristian seemed to accept Martha? Sylvi made the bold choice of coming out by bringing Martha home one day and stating that they were girlfriends. Kristian, never having been the best with words, would often try to show acceptance in his own, uniquely clumsy way.

Sylvi had always loved snakes, and it was around this period in her life that her dad presented her with Astrid, a leucistic ball python, for Christmas.
Sylvi was ecstatic. She fell in love with Astrid that same day.

Still seeing zero developments when it came to her theoretical spirit-channelling abilities, she poured time into meditating, studying, anything she could think of to jump-start that connection. She started behaving recklessly and not looking after herself properly, staying up all night and putting herself through not-insignificant discomfort in her desperation.
Since she still wasn’t getting anywhere with this, she began to focus more on her future vocation. Martha and most of her friends would be studying at Post-16 after the holidays, but Sylvi had her heart set on a Sociology course at college. She always had a lot of passions, but was never quite sure where to focus her energy.

A few months later, Sylvi met Matthew Navarro. Martha had met him at the skate park and hit it off, and Sylvi got on with him really well, too. They’d go with him to his mate, Kai London’s house, and watch them jam on their instruments together. Soon, all 5 of them (Including Addison) were hanging out at the skate park together.
In 2014, Sylvi completed her sociology course. She wasn’t really sure what to do with her A-levels, whether she wanted to continue her education, what direction she should take her life next. She took on an apprenticeship at an estate agent her father was familiar with, but very quickly settled there.
Meanwhile, she thought her spiritual connection was improving. She’d worked up the courage to talk to Kjellfrid, who’d given her some tips, and sometimes, Sylvi was convinced she was on the brink of a breakthrough. Other days, she was convinced that this was going nowhere, though.
Sylvi was always inappropriately fascinated by Addison’s deceased mother. Whenever she was at their house, Sylvi swore she could sometimes feel someone else in the room with her, and this got Sylvi excited.
Sylvi begged Addison to let her try to communicate with their mother. Addison, understandably, was offended by even the idea of it. Though the two of them had built up an uneasy tolerance of each other in all the years they’d known each other, they were certainly not friends.
Addison warned Sylvi - made it clear that her suggestion was miles past the line. Though Addison saw everything to do with Sylvi’s spirit channelling as indisputably fake and ridiculous anyway (much to Sylvi’s ire), it was by principle that they opposed Sylvi’s suggestion so vehemently.
Sylvi respected Addison’s decision… for a time. But Sylvi couldn’t bear knowing that the answer could be right there.

One night when some of the group were sleeping over at Addison’s house, Sylvi left, creeping into the upstairs bathroom.
To Sylvi’s delight, it seemed to be going well. It was just like she’d been told, she could feel someone, she could feel her… For the first time, Sylvi felt like she was worthy of her bloodline. Then Addison came through the bathroom door.
They were outraged. Addison screamed at Sylvi, louder than anyone had ever heard them. She screamed back.
Sylvi was thrown out of Addison’s home in the middle of the night. Martha, who begrudgingly went with her, was pretty sour with her girlfriend for a few weeks afterwards for crossing such a serious and well-defined boundary.

Not long after this, though… everything changed.

It was May, a morning like any other for Sylvi. She’d had a squabble with Martha the day before. When Sylvi was at work on her lunch break, she saw a missed call from Addison, which concerned her. Addison… didn’t call Sylvi. The text message they left concerned her too - asking Sylvi to get in touch, that it was important.
Then, Sylvi rang Addison, and it was a conversation that, to Sylvi, made zero sense. What she did gather, though, was that Martha wasn’t in Denman, she needed them all, and that something terrible had happened. Sylvi left work early.
What Sylvi didn’t know was that while she was sleeping last night, Martha, Addison, and Matthew had experienced a full 2 years of harrowing experiences that defy explanation. These years were known as Impossible Years.

That evening, Sylvi, Addison, Matthew, and Kai (who was just as confused as her), drove out north on an empty stretch of road, where they found Martha, absolutely distraught.

2 days later, Martha would tell Sylvi everything that happened. Sylvi told her ‘I think that if I were not me and you were not you, I wouldn't have believed you - but we are, and I do…’
Everything changed after that.

Sylvi tried to help Martha, whose mental health was wrecked. It broke her heart to see the person she loved in such an unrecognisable, anguished state. Sylvi took it upon herself to support her - and Addison and Matthew, too. This was easier said than done, and her relationship with all three of them changed drastically from what it was just a few days earlier.

Sylvi actually found Addison so much easier to get on with. They were a lot more talkative, and less hostile in conversations. She was pleasantly surprised when Addison seemed open to discussing the events of Impossible Years with her. It helped her fill in the gaps that Martha had left, and Addison benefitted from getting things off their chest to someone outside of the circle.
She didn’t have quite so much luck with Matthew, who wasn’t himself at all - and didn’t seem to want to discuss any of it with anybody.

And to top it all off, after a year dedicated to wrapping her head around everything and focusing on Martha’s recovery after she’d been to hell, just before Christmas, Sylvi’s mother came home.

Sylvi didn’t know how to respond. It had been nearly 6 years since she’d last seen Lena, who’d missed out on most of her teenage years. Sylvi was completely taken off guard.
Her mother provided very little explanation for her disappearance, most of her answers cryptic and intentionally vague.
Sylvi, once reality had set in, was furious. She was upset with her mother for her absence - and for her being so aggravatingly difficult and mysterious about it, too. Sylvi was soon quite an angry person, and when Lena was in the room, she became hostile. Their relationship was icy for a long time before it even thought to begin thawing.
Sylvi desperately wanted to prove she was a competent spirit channeler to her mother. She hated the idea of Lena knowing how much she had struggled.

Living with the knowledge of Impossible Years was not always easy. Some days, Sylvi found it hard to fully grasp the truth, and it took years for things to sink in fully. It was a weird position she was in, knowing about it without being involved directly. Providing so much support to Martha and Addison whilst not even being able to talk about it with anyone else was quite difficult. Supporting Martha was difficult.
She and Matthew got into the habit of partying every weekend, and Sylvi wasn’t sure she liked it. She knew that Matthew wasn’t dealing with things anywhere near as well as he made out, and she didn’t like the influence that both of them had on each other. She was worried about them both.
Sylvi encouraged Martha to get help with anxiety and various other symptoms, and eventually, she did. Sylvi couldn’t help but feel pride for her girlfriend when she started to properly heal from what happened. Martha found good coping mechanisms and, while she would never be her old self, she’d be happy all the same.

After the incident with Addison and their deceased mother, Sylvi saw virtually no improvements regarding her spirit channelling abilities. She found it extraordinarily frustrating, and began lying to her mother about the progress she had made, unable to deal with feeling inferior. She still hardly spoke to Lena. In fact, she didn’t speak to a lot of her family anymore. Sylvi’s family often tended to ask her how she was doing, and it wasn’t really a question she liked to answer, especially during this time. Sylvi would much rather focus on other peoples problems than her own. That, she could deal with.
Lena tried to approach Sylvi, tried to be a mother and a mentor to her, but Sylvi wasn’t interested in her advice. She should have taken Lena’s advice, as spirit channelling is not always safe - especially when you're already vulnerable and desperate.

One evening, Sylvi was outside in her family's pool, as she often was. A swimming pool was built with the house, as Lena used to swear by using water to improve spirit channelling abilities.
In the freezing cold, Sylvi saw fingers reach out to her in her mind's eye, and heard a voice that begged her to let them in. Too excited to think rationally, Sylvi tried with all her might to connect with the mysterious voice she heard. This was a horrible decision.
When she began to lose herself, it was terrifying. Sylvi felt like she was falling down an endless pit in her own mind, and her awareness of her surroundings began to slip away to the extent that she couldn’t even see through her own eyes anymore. She was horror-struck when she didn’t seem in control of her own limbs. If you had asked her if it was like falling asleep, she’d tell you that it felt more like dying.
Sylvi came around on her bathroom floor, her mother practically on top of her, hands pressed into Sylvi’s temples. Sylvi’s fingertips were sore and bleeding. She’d broken her wrist, and the bathroom had been wrecked.
You should never try and channel anything without knowing who or what it is. And you shouldn’t try and channel anything at all without a hell of a lot more practice.
Sylvi cried into her mothers arms.

After this, the dynamic in the household changed. Sylvi’s father seemed scared of her, which broke Sylvi’s heart. But her relationship with her mum improved quickly.

2016 was a horrible year for Sylvi. This incident, the aftermath of Impossible Years, and the passing of her beloved grandma, Tyra, affected her greatly. She couldn’t wait for it to be over.

Next year, Sylvi and her friends went away on a road trip holiday to the US. It was supposed to be a way for the group to put the last few years behind them and make some better memories, and it was! Sylvi, Martha, Addison, Matthew, Kai, and Matthew’s brother, Charlie Navarro had an amazing time. They also met a girl called Dakota Laney there, who quickly became very close with Matthew, and joined them for the rest of their trip.

Sylvi eventually moved into a flat with Martha, finally getting their own place together. Martha was doing a lot better mentally, and Sylvi finally felt as though her life and all the drama from the last few years was beginning to settle and subside.

After she moved out, she grew closer to her parents. She got to know Martha’s family better, she made new friends, she travelled the world. She began properly training with her mother, and actually made good progress, eventually becoming an extremely competent spirit channeller and being fully comfortable with the idea.
There was only one thing that bothered Sylvi nowadays, really, and that was her and Martha’s friend, Matthew. He never came to terms with what happened in 2015, and now, he was a traumatised alcoholic with an extremely toxic relationship with Dakota. Martha would often go out of her way for both him and Dakota, but Sylvi always did take a more direct approach with these things, demanding on multiple occasions that her friend go to rehab and take some responsibility. If he wasn’t willing to seek help, she wasn’t willing to give it, and eventually, this led to her giving him an ultimatum - their friendship, or alcohol. Matthew’s choice was obvious, they had a horrible argument, and didn’t speak for years.

Sylvi sometimes felt as though something in her life was missing. She loved travelling, she loved her girlfriend… enjoyed her job. But Sylvi was scared of commitment, and Martha could tell. Sylvi didn’t know why topics like marriage seemed to frighten her. She was frustrated, but couldn’t stand the idea of permanently settling into anything, when she herself usually felt so unsettled.
When you live in a world with ghosts which undeniably exist, surrounded by constant questions that can never be answered, and have a deep knowledge of something like Impossible Years which you’ve never seen for yourself and which raises more questions than it answers, how can you settle in anything? That’s how Sylvi felt, and life sometimes felt like an endless, pointless search for some sort of greater meaning.
Talking to Martha about this didn’t seem to get Sylvi anywhere. The only person who seemed to understand Sylvi was her mother, who had been there before.
It was actually very common for those in the bloodline to have a period of soul-searching. In Lena’s case, it was what spurred her to leave her hometown and family behind to settle in a different part of Norway, where she met Kristian.

Years passed. She made up with Matthew, who was doing a lot better, and the both of them eventually reconnected. She’d always connected well with him, and she actually found it helpful to discuss her feelings as of late with someone who usually saw things a little alternatively.

Gradually, Martha and Sylvi’s relationship was affected. The two of them had completely different ideas of where the future would take them. They’d been together for so long that they both thought they were forever, but now, Sylvi felt as though she didn’t know anything anymore.
Sylvi was a very good spirit channeler, some would say too good. She’d bring it home with her, and eventually, spend every waking hour either training or thinking. It broke Martha’s heart. The two of them loved each other, but for Sylvi, there was something in the way that she just couldn’t get past. Superstitious, obsessive, and emotionally unavailable, Sylvi became a bad partner, her relationship with Martha nigh on nonexistent. One day, she left in the night, apologising to Martha via a note, just like her mother did so long ago.

Sylvi made tracks for her home country, hoping to find some kind of truth or meaning by going back to the place from where she came.

Sylvi spent years doing anything and everything she could think of. First off, she spent years living in the forest. Her mental health was a state, she lost weight. She built her own house from wood. The cold mountain wind helped her focus.
Then she owned a pub. She learned to tailor clothes that she’d sell on the market, in a town so far north it took her a while to understand the dialect. Sylvi lived several lives during this time in Norway, but it was only when she lived with her philosophical Great-aunt Unni for a long time that she started to really feel as though she was getting anywhere at all.

Sylvi eventually returns to England, to Denman, a different woman from when she left. Martha moved on, obviously, a mother now. It’s unbelievably strange being back there again. And she knows that she can’t stay.

Relationships

Family Tree