The lead character, Cassie Heloise Starkweather, had been able see dead people from childhood but repressed the ability.[4] As a college student, Cassie had inadvertently caused the death of her college roommate and teammate, Helene, through carelessness. Helen's ghost appears to her and tells her that spirits from another world, agents of "The Adversary," possess the bodies of people in this world and kidnap the souls of those who die violently, which is a food source to them. Two of these dark spirits overhear this conversation and drag her friend away.[5] Cassie can see past the disguises and to her these agents appear as B-movie monsters or creatures of local legend.[6] To others, they appear human. People find it difficult to accept the existence of a world of soul-stealing monsters and refuse to believe her.
Riddled with guilt and declared unstable by a Doctor Melchior, Cassie is dispatched to Melchior Asylum where she learns that half the staff is made up of these soul-stealers[7]. Cassie escapes while killing a few of these agents. These deaths and murders the agents themselves commit are all attributed to Cassie, making her appear to be a serial killer.
She has problems finding allies. One person who does believe her is a serial killer known as the "Railsplitter".
As Cassie flees from local, state and federal law enforcement authorities, she brings misfortune to the small county of Gossmer. Cisco, the local sheriff, recognizes her as the accused murderer reported on the news. Cassie steals his squad car; Cisco wants to give chase in his son's truck, but his son Miguel insists he is the only one who can drive it. While in pursuit, her car loses control and they all crash, leading to Miguel's death.
Cisco becomes her most supportive "compadre", and the he even shelters her. She also encounters a circus,[8] finds her hometown infested with agents, moves through the bayou country of the Deep South, into the midwestern heartland, is kidnapped to the capital city of Rodina.[9]
Completion of the story arc was interrupted by the bankruptcy of the comic's publisher, CrossGen.[10]
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