Lindsey Klein was a beautiful young woman whose practical choice in marriage had left her with an often-absent husband, a very empty home, and desperation for something more than the life she’d chosen. As a result, she began to search for avenues to satisfy herself, while still clinging to the life of the rich that she had selected.
Her search led her to the company of Chen Bolin, a Chinese man who worked as a janitor in a grocery store. She seduced him over the course of several visits, before sleeping with him ---- but unfortunately, she realized that she was pregnant with his child months later, and cut off all contact to him.
Lindsey’s husband, Eric Kinney, returned and found his wife laden with child, but was soothed by the reassurance that they’d made love the last time he’d returned home. Even so, she waited until the child was born, and found herself horrified at the fact that the child had her former partner’s features more than her own.
Of course, this simply wouldn’t do at all.
On the night of her child’s birth, she stole away and abandoned the child with all documentation relating to his birth ---- and paid someone in the hospital to attempt destroying their copies of the records. Thankfully, this did not occur, but that’s details.
Edward Gerald Kinney was destined to die, so some would say, but thankfully, it seemed that luck was on his side. Li Jinghua, a loving mother of three already, spotted the child and took him home, appealing to her husband to allow the child to be raised with the other three. “It is another son, after all ---- there is no reason to let the boy die before he has even been given the chance to live!”
Given the additional, familial name of Li Chaoxiang, Edward lived his life rather normally until he’d spotted some delinquents stealing food from a store nearby, giving him the idea of becoming a criminal himself. Donning the title of “Blight of the Streets”, he made the town practically fork over food and money to him, which he used to help support his own family.
At the age of sixteen, he was finally arrested, before placed into a rehabilitation program for several years. A year after he was released, he found an opening at Joey Drew Studios, and applied to be an intern; finding that Edward had an eye for detail, Joey often sent Edward to work with the inking department, to make sure all the lines were drawn properly for the episodes.
One night, Joey called Edward into his office, only to perform a deadly sacrifice on him ---- but the ritual went awry, summoning an actual demon that forced Joey to fuse both boy and demon into “Bendy”, effectively killing Edward’s body but keeping his soul intact.
