We have been waiting for a while, but CLARE GOLDSWORTHY was finally spotted in the village today. People heard whispers that she is a VAMPIRE that is hellbent on [ avoiding ] the veils. Will she succeed? Only time can tell. Until then we will keep a close eye on her as she listens to “THERE’S SOMETHING DARK” by DUSTIN KENSRUE.
~ THE BIOGRAPHY ~
tw: attempted suicide
Clare was never satisfied with her life and the expectations placed upon it by her parents. Born into a wealthy family, she was told from a young age that all she had to do was marry well and she would be happy. But she never saw the appeal in marrying a stuffy heir to a fortune who believed he was entitled to everything, including her. She wanted more for her life than to be a wife to one of the selfish elite. She wanted to be educated and begged her parents to let her go to school. They allowed it, and she poured herself into reading and learning, wanting to know as much as she could about the world beyond the house in which she was trapped.
Falling in love with the stableboy was not part of her plan, but it happened anyway and for a brief period of time she was happy. That is, until she fell pregnant. Her parents were furious with her when they discovered her transgression. They fired the stableboy and locked Clare away for the nine months prior to her child’s birth. Clare pleaded with them to let her keep the child, but they sent the baby away as soon as it was born and refused to tell Clare where they had taken her. Heartbroken, Clare felt some of the fire leave her, and she woodenly went along with her parents’ story of how she’d been ill but now she was better and ready to marry the man they’d chosen for her. She went along with it, depression setting in and weighing down her spirit. She hated every minute with her new husband, but the despair was like a stone on her chest, pinning her down, rendering her immobile. Every time she saw a little girl in the streets, she wondered if it was hers. It nearly drove her mad until finally she decided to try and find her daughter. She came across dead end after dead end until finally the frustration and despair choked her and left her speechless and hopeless.
It became too much and one night she threw herself from the top floor of her husband’s mansion. When she woke up in a hospital bed, unscathed, confusion filled her mind, but not as much as the thirst consumed her body. Disoriented, she stumbled out of her room and when she came across one of the nurses, her thirst overwhelmed her and before she knew what she was doing, she’d drained the nurse completely. Horrified by her action, she fled the hospital. Because of her learnedness, she recognized her symptoms, but did not believe them at first. It was only after she saw the effects of her vampirism that she fully realized what had happened.
No sire came to claim her, and Clare realized this could be a second chance at the life she truly wanted. But first, she took revenge out on her parents, slaying them in their sleep. This started a chain reaction, as the thirst drove her to commit unspeakable acts against all who’d hurt her and torn her spirit from her. Her rampage lasted for the better part of a year, before her path led her to her daughter. She’d already been adopted, and Clare came close to murdering the adoptive family and stealing her child in the middle of the night. But she hesitated long enough to witness her daughter interact with her parents, to see how she was loved and cared for, and she realized that if she did this, it would paint her as a monster in her daughter’s eyes. In that moment, Clare recognized she had become a monster. She’d lost the part of her that knew how to love and care for people, the way her daughter needed love and care.
It took tremendous effort, but Clare left her daughter in her new home, left London completely, and set about trying to change, to return to the person she’d been before. The one that had fallen in love with a poor stableboy; the one that had chosen love over duty. It’s been difficult, and it’s taken years, but Clare is slowly starting to recognize the person in the mirror once more, and though bitterness and guilt still cling to her and haunt her, she’s doing her best to be someone her daughter would’ve been proud to call “mother.”
~ PERSONALITY ~
Positive: Kind, Compassionate, Insightful, Intelligent Negative: Bitter, Impatient, Standoffish, Selfish
