Okay, I have like a billion characters that I've written in my time, and a lot of them have similar backstories, so I'll just pick a few. Some aren't THAT horrible but are still unthinkable to live through. I'm a sucker for romance, so a lot of them have 'happy' endings with their love interest (happy, as in Marius and Cosette at the end of Les Mis. Like, we're together, but all of our friends were murdered.)
John Harrison, Jr. (Jack)-
Jack was five years old when his mother died giving birth to his younger sister, Olivia (she goes by Livvy). His father, who was already a little too free with the alcohol, went pretty crazy. He became a drunkard, he started smoking even more than he already did, and all he could see in his little children was his dead wife. He started abusing them, and he never cared for them. Jack had to basically raise his sister, taking the brunt of everything. His father would hit, kick, bite, punch, and he would even come at them with knives. At school, Jack had no friends, because he knew that if he accidentally let even one thing slip, his father would kill him and his sister (that was what his dad threatened. Jack knew that if he was drunk enough, it could actually happen). Not to mention, they lived in a crime-ridden city, so the police never noticed anything, because people would get shot on the streets daily, and they were a little preoccupied. Since Jack never told anyone, no one noticed. Until Jack was twelve, and Livvy was seven, when a social security worker came to their house. She had been contacted by Jack's teacher, who had noticed his scars and bruises when his shirt sleeve accidentally rolled up for a moment. They took the two away and sent their father to prison. The two (who were incredibly close) were in foster care for a few months, when an older couple came. They wanted to take both but could only financially afford one. They lived near a good school and were kind people, and Jack insisted they take Livvy. Four years later, Jack's father was let out of jail after being 'completely reformed'. He swore he had recovered, and the authorities couldn't find any reason why he shouldn't get his son back, after watching him for a month. So Jack went back to his father. And discovered that he was exactly the same. He had become an incredible actor in prison, and he kept the house spotless. He rarely hit Jack hard enough to bruise, so he had no evidence against him. They end up moving to another state (so that Jack's only form of communication with Livvy and her adoptive family was letters, and he tore up anything Jack tried to send). Meanwhile, without Livvy to protect, Jack has become very closed-off. He gets into a lot of legal trouble, stealing things and whatnot, and he comes to a new high school. This town is very close, so a new kid who's also a jerk is insane. They all hate him, but he falls in love with the smartest person in class (tied with him, actually). Her name is Lena, and she's the main character of the story. (They end up together, but that's not part of his tragic story). He actually nearly commits suicide, and Lena stops him. That's when she finds his sketchbook of drawings (he's an incredible artist, and captured his mother, Livvy, and father with picture-like accuracy, all with just pencil), and it takes off from there.
Ben Lockwood-
Ben has a sort of curse (not a real curse, because there's no magic in this world). First, I should give some background. The series I place Ben in is called Throne of Lies, and it takes place in a world where America lost the Revolution, and now, 250 years later, they're trying again, this time with bombs, planes, and advanced technology. He is an American soldier, but no one likes him. He's cold, rude, and avoids everyone. However, this because of his 'curse'. The villain of the story has sworn that everyone Ben loves will die. When he was ten, he watched his parents, brother, and sisters get murdered right before his eyes. They had been an incredibly close family. When he was eleven, his grandmother, who had taken him in, was killed. Then, a man who had taught Ben for years was slaughtered. (All of these deaths are horribly gruesome; the villain has a habit of slicing off limbs/facial features one by one until you bleed to death). When he was fourteen, he met his best friend, Erik. The two become closer than the closest brothers. Then Erik was killed when Ben was sixteen. This was when the villain finally tells him that he will murder everyone Ben loves. And Ben swears he will never love anyone in any way, ever again. Fast forward two years, and Lady Avery Braxen (she's British, but her mother is American, and the two spy for America), granddaughter of the leaders of the special branch of the military (they are highly skilled, specially chosen soldiers who spy and assassinate and do the shadow work), comes. And he breaks his promise to himself. They just have to hope they can kill the villain before he kills her. But don't worry! Until the end of the first book, Avery's in love with a man who seems perfect, and who seems to love her back, but who is actually the son of the villain, and who is planning to kill them all.
Tom and Alyce Hart-
Tom and Alyce are twins in Victorian Era England who were abused, starved, and treated awfully by their father. Their stepmother, Elisabeth, is kind and loving to them, and hates the way her husband treats them. However, he will often treat her the same way when she speaks out, and the twins begged her to stop, insisting that she wouldn't help them if she was stuck with them. When they were sixteen, their father arranged a marriage for Alyce with a wealthy, abusive forty-year-old (sixteen was young for marriage even back then). With Elisabeth's help, two ran away, finally willing to risk death. I forgot to mention, but these two are the sweetest, most helpful, loyalist, kindest people ever. They are like Newt Scamander in the fact that if you look up 'cinnamon roll' in the dictionary, you find their pictures. After they run away, they nearly starve/freeze about a million times, and because Alyce is so young and beautiful, men frequently try to assault her, attacks which she and Tom can barely fend off. Tom is nearly arrested multiple times, just for being near a rich man's daughter (it's the same rich man each time, and Tom and his daughter eventually fall in love), and for looking so poor. Shop owners would see him outside, and assume he was going to steal something. Even through their hardships, they refused to take so much as a single apple from anyone without paying in full, because they kept up the strong moral standards that Elisabeth instilled in them. They end up reuniting with Elisabeth, who came with Clara (Tom's girlfriend) and Clara's eight-year-old brother, Robert. Of course, Elisabeth was killed right in front of them, so there's that. (Robert wasn't there when she died. He's not the victim here). Eventually, Tom and Alyce are killed by their own father, together. It is the only (small) mercy I could offer them: death at the same time, so neither had to live without the other.
I'll probably have more later. Maybe I'll come back!
group
