Gender & Pronouns: Cis woman, she/her
Date of Birth: May 23rd, 1991 (29)
Place of Birth: Jerome, Arizona
Neighborhood: Lafayette Square
Length of Residency: Since December 2020
Occupation: Waitress
Face Claim: Lily James
BIOGRAPHY
TRIGGERS: Vomit Mention, Substance Abuse, Neglect.
Jerome, Arizona was nothing but a tourist trap, the self-proclaimed wickedest town in the west, Arizona’s largest ghost town. There was nothing large about a place of less than 400 people, though. The town and its inhabitants were small, both in their ideals and their desires, and that life of mere contentment had never been enough to satisfy Marley. While realistically she knew that she couldn’t rattle off all 385-odd people that lived there by the time she’d graduated high school, most days, it felt as if she’d met them all, every single person, alive or dead, that’d ever lived there; their faces blended together in her mind, haunting her. It was only fitting, she supposed, growing up in a place brimming with ghost stories. Who could blame her for wanting to become one of her own?
Her mother couldn’t, though Marley was sure she’d found a way to. Helen Callahan had resented Marley from the moment she’d given birth to her, not having meant to fall pregnant her own junior year of high school. Marley assumed her parents hadn’t taken it well, considering she had no memory of her grandparents, and as for the whereabouts of her father, he might as well have been an actual ghost. If he were around somewhere, Helen hadn’t shared, and so growing up, it’d been just the two of them (three, if you counted Helen’s growing substance abuse problem and the ever revolving cast of men that supplied it). There had to be more to life than making sure her mother didn’t choke on her own vomit in the middle of the night. Determined to find out for herself, Marley had begun to put a plan in place. Finish high school, save whatever money she could, and as soon as that diploma touched her hand, she would pack whatever minimal belongings she could into the bed of her mom’s pickup truck, and Jerome would be nothing but a distant memory in a rearview mirror she never intended to look back in.
Junior year of high school saw a wrench get thrown into those plans, however. She didn’t know what it was about him: the soulful eyes, the crooked smile, the fact that he was the first new face she’d seen in what’d felt like ever, but something about him had just managed to make her small town feel galaxy wide. She’d resisted him, at first. Kept her distance, despite his clear interest and insistence. I’m gonna leave this place behind, she’d promised over lunch, soggy french fry pointed at him across the table, like an accusatory finger. And everyone in it. He’d barely bat an eye at such a declarative statement, merely smiling that crooked smile in reply, teeth and all, and a shrug of his shoulders. Then I guess I’ll just have to come with you, and he’d leaned forward to take the fry from her fingers, right between his teeth. She’d been doomed from the start with him, really.
And though he made Jerome more bearable than it’d ever been, her attitude towards Arizona did not change. Her plans, however, had expanded to include him in them. He hadn’t wanted to move to Arizona in the first place, had a life elsewhere that’d been disrupted by the death of his father, and so he had no qualms about leaving it all behind. Though, as graduation neared, Marley began to notice a change. Meetings with the guidance counselor, college brochures…he was making plans of his own. Assured her that he still wanted to travel, see the world as they’d discussed, but that maybe finding a new place to settle, to start over together, wouldn’t be the worst thing.
But Marley had never intended to settle. Traveling, seeing the world, they weren’t just experiences she had to get out of her system. It was the life that she craved, the dream that had kept her going. She wanted to keep odd end jobs just to keep the bills paid, wanted to wake up in one country and go to sleep in another. She wanted to see everything, and that wasn’t something just a summer trip after graduation could supply. And so, despite the fact that she’d agreed, despite the fact that they were set to leave for the airport the next morning, Marley snuck out from under his embrace, grabbed her already packed bags, and did exactly as she’d promised him she would nearly two years prior.
Life on the road, initially, hadn’t been all that she’d hoped. The money she’d saved up didn’t last nearly as long as she’d planned, even with what she’d taken from him, and the guilt she’d carried with her certainly hadn’t added to the experience. Marley had half a mind to turn right back around, return to Arizona with her tail between her legs, see if the boy she’d loved most and hurt was still there, beg for his forgiveness, tell him that none of it was worth it if they weren’t together…do as her mother had, when whatever junkie she was getting her supply from decided she wasn’t worth it anymore. How many nights had Marley walked in to the aftermath of the fallout? Broken bottles and crushed pills and her mother a heap on the floor.
She couldn’t go back to that. She refused. And though it took awhile to find her footing, Marley eventually managed, landing herself a position as a stewardess on a charter yacht. It was hard work, but rewarding, allowing her to travel to the most beautiful of places, both on the clock and not. It wasn’t the only career path she dabbled in, picking up whatever she could find when back on land, but something that she kept coming back to in the ten years since she’d left Arizona.
Her stay on Catalina Island derived from the word of a traveling companion. Having had no real destination in mind for her time off, she figured it was as good as any. It’s been about two months since she’d started her residency, having picked up an easy waitressing job to pass the time. Though she no longer lived surrounded by ghosts, Marley never had been able to shake her desire to become one, so it wouldn’t be too long until she moved on to somewhere, or someone, new to haunt.
PERSONALITY
Positive: Adventurous | Outgoing | Charming
Negative: Selfish | Flighty | Impulsive
Marley Callahan is portrayed by Tabitha.
