James August was born in 1931 in Manchester, England. His father Richard -- a former Church of England clergyman -- was a theology professor at the University of Manchester while his mother, Matilda, was a poet. When James was 6 the family moved south as James' father took a teaching post as Cambridge.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Richard August began a job consulting with the British government on matters of strange phenoemnon. In early 1941, Richard and a group of



The official statement is that Richard, the other six civilian advisors, and the platoon of paratroopers died in a plane crash in the Scottish highlands. Despite a life of low-paying jobs as preacher and teacher, Richard August strangely left behind a vast fortune to his family. Young James thought of joining the clergy like his father, but instead went straight into academia. He became an Oxford Don in the early 50's and was on course to gain a fulltime teaching position at the prestigious university when he was asked to leave. While the cause for his dismissal was never fully revealed, the rumors had it was due to either his political or sexual beliefs. He was blacklisted in the UK, so James struck west to the New World.

Now in his late 30's, he teaches religion and philosiphy at the Univeristy of California Los Angeles by day and spends his nights aross the city of angels, in ancipiation of something coming from the dark.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Charles Rembrandt was orphaned at the age of 12 when his parents died in an automobile accident. He was sent to live with his grandfather in Huntington Beach, getting into all kinds of trouble from fighting other boys at school and around the neighborhood to ditching school to go around shoplifting alcohol and cigarettes. His grandfather, exasperated by his behavior, sent him to a military school at the age of 15 to teach the boy discipline. Charlie hated it, but over time he was forced to accept it and endure it.

When he was on the verge of finally leaving the school, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States officially entered the war. Many of the boys at the school were enlisted and Charlie was among them. He fought in the Pacific Theater as an infantryman, narrowly dodging death many times over. In 1944, he took a bullet to the leg, getting him an honorable discharge and leaving him with a slight limp that still impedes him.

When Charlie got back home, he joined the LAPD as a beat cop, rising up to the ranks of detective within a few years. He was assigned to traffic offenses, but after a stellar year in which he cracked six cases, he was transferred to homicide where his talents would be put to better use. It was during this time that he met his wife Delores Ellison and the two married in a small ceremony in 1950. They had a daughter together, Marie Victoria Rembrandt, in 1951.

In 1965, after fifteen years working homicide, Charlie was caught in an affair with lounge singer Eleanor Starr, tarnishing his reputation on the force and leading to Delores divorcing him. Eleanor left him as well upon finding that he was married. A year later, after being stuck back in traffic offenses, Charlie left the force to find a new career where he could use his investigative talents. Originally wanting to strike out as a private investigator, he was approached by the Los Angeles Fire Department to become an arson investigator. They were offering a decent enough salary and didn't seem perturbed by his history, so he accepted.

Since then, Charlie has worked for the LAFD investigating fires and explosions around LA. It's not as exciting as his work with the LAPD was, but it pays the bills. In his off time, he day drinks and watches game shows on television while writing letters to his daughter that he'll never have the heart to send.