Located in a small town in New York she loved how very average it made her feel. She treasured the city for its picture perfectness and all American flavor; she loved the job and the people who came in to see Dr. Everest. Everyone asked her about her unique accent. She lied and said her father was a military man stationed all over the world, and her accent was a result of that experience early in life. She had told it so many times she almost believed it herself. At least if father was in the military he'd be human.

Tessa Dark. People made a big deal about her last name and were always curious and questioning. When she had gotten her driver's license in the human realm, she had considered changing her name, but it felt strange just randomly picking out a new name. She'd kept the name. She felt almost positive that her mother's last name had been something common, yet she wasn't sure and she had no one to ask. She'd even tried to find records on her mother, without luck. She wasn't even sure if she had a birth certificate. Other World had strong connections in the human world, so it would be easy for false records to be forged. With his abilities, she sometimes wondered if Victor hadn't tampered with her memory, stealing her mother's last name. Tessa kept her father's last name out of necessity, not pride or love.

Victor didn't like that his daughter lived in the human realm, held down a menial job, and refused to use her powers unless pressed. He considered his progeny above such a life. In the Other World, half-humans stopped aging on their twenty-fifth birthday; unlike in the human world. It irritated her father that she would let her life escape day by day. Equally human and demon, she chose her mother's heritage. Movie monsters were fun on Halloween, but every other day of the year it was a pain in the ass to deal with them.

Tessa missed her sisters, but the thought of staying forever in the nightmare her father called home terrified her. Every visit, rare as they were, her father would threaten to forbid her return to the human realm. When he made the threat it frightened her, because she knew he could do it. This anxiety was one of the reasons that she didn't return more often.