ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴅᴜᴄɪɴɢ... 𝕮𝖆𝖗𝖒𝖊𝖓 𝕮𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖗𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖘
Walking through the picturesque streets of Cardinal Hill, you find Carmen Contreras, the 33 year old mortician originally from Cardinal Hill, WA. Living alongside them in such a small town, you know that they're elusive and observant, but what you might not know is that they are a human, and that they’re hiding something…
tw: death
Being the firstborn meant most of the parenting mistakes fell on Carmen. Her parents' expectations were overwhelming, being put into every extracurricular and pressured to perform in her classes. For as long as she could remember, she was destined to become a doctor, having always been the path her parents wanted for their oldest daughter. Carmen had been a straight-A student, school always coming easily to her, but it was fitting in part that she struggled with. The extra activities helped, sure, still nothing was able to change who she was, and the brutality of other children. It was when she was only thirteen that everything changed. While on a camping trip with her family, Carmen and her younger brother went exploring, instructed to not get too far, to which they gave a 'yeah, yeah' and continued forward. Their parents stayed at camp with the youngest Contrera, who was too young to adventure into the woods with his siblings. The pair were playing their favorite game when he mistepped near the edge of the river and tumbled into the icy water. Carmen ran to his aid to take hold of his hand, then pull him back to shore, if only that was how it had gone. His sister held on for as long as she could, pulling with all of her thirteen-year-old might, but against the current, she was proven too weak. Before she could even react, his small hand ripped from hers. That being the last time she ever saw him, his body was never found after being pulled away in the water. She returned to their campsite and tried to tell the story, but she never truly forgave herself for what happened. While they forgave their daughter for what had occurred, Carmen never could. It left a rift in the family that was eternal.
The childhood dreams Carmen once had of being a doctor shifted forever. She dissociated from her extracurricular activities, distanced herself from the friends she had, and prioritized her studies. After being unable to save the person who mattered most to her, a fascination with death began. Whether it was what exactly came after life or what peace death could bring, Carmen tried to learn it all and dedicated her life to this newfound interest. Her family mourned but were shortly gifted with another baby girl and then another boy a year later, who was the last of the Contreras siblings. That never meant her first brother had been forgotten, nor the guilt she carried with her every day since. His ofrenda was filled every year, along with the rest of their family who had passed. Amidst all the whispers, part of her wondered if everything in Cardinal Hill was true. There had always been words of witchcraft, and since becoming a mortician, she had seen things unable to be explained, things that were outside of the scope of science. As she's grown older, she's focused on finding out the truth about her hometown. To see if anyone could contact him, find a way to know if he had forgiven her for what she had done, or if he blamed her for the grip she lacked that day. Secretly, Carmen has been finding information and collecting all that she had seen in a journal, never having anywhere safe to expose her truth. She hopes this can change, but all she's ever known is a life of solitude, even when she was surrounded by those who loved her.
melissa barrera . bisexual . cis female . she/her
her closest confidant is her black cat, morris. she considers him to be her son and often joins her at work, where he sleeps in her office.
while she doesn't have any tattoos, she loves them, admiring the art, and always noticing when corpses have them.
she stayed close with her family, but there's been a disconnect since the accident. while they have all discussed it, coming to peace with what happened, carmen has yet to.
more tbd
📌 : Pinboard









