Who Am I?

I'm Jean Valjean!

...

Seriously though...

Who am I? I've lived two lives. This may be the start of a third.

<<MY FIRST LIFE>>

I was born in Clonmel, Ireland. My name was Raymond Shaughnessy. I grew up in the town of Kilsheelan, a bit down the road. It was a boring town. Once I was old enough, I'd take the bus down to Waterford as much as possible. It was there that I met her.

Ariana Fenty.

I was barely fifteen. She was comfortably fifteen. We met at a céilí in Ballybeg. The lights were low, and as she walked toward me, they seemed to catch her. She looked like she was walking on the bottom of the ocean on a moonlit night. Like a sea goddess.

She asked me to dance with her. We did a slip jig. Afterwards, we went outside in the cold and held hands.

We met up every weekend after that. We had our first kiss while walking down the quays in Waterford. When her family fell on hard times, I dropped out of school and got a job to help them out. I proposed to her on March 13th, 1970. That night, we conceived my daughter, Catherine.

I first saw him on May 17th that year.

I was in Kilsheelan with Ariana, visiting my parents. There's this little hill there, with grotto containing a shrine to the Virgin Mary at the bottom and a little dip at the top, where you can lie down without being seen from the road or the bridge. We were sitting up there having a picnic when I saw what I thought was a businessman in the woods across the river.

I don't need to tell you what happened next.

Stalkings, attacks on myself and on my family, cryptic messages, yadayadayada.

Eventually, I was approached personally by Slate, a Revenant. This is the bit where I have to clear something up. When Redlight made his offer in Robert's blog, Zero commented that not even I had made a deal with the Slender Man. I'm afraid that's not true. Slate told me if I came willingly with him, they'd leave Ariana and Catherine alone. I caved.

We faked my death. No, we didn't. Raymond Shaughnessy did die. And he was buried on November 23rd, 1970.

<<MY SECOND LIFE>>

They dug me out of Raymond's grave that night. They had me rename myself. I decided to make mine a play on words; Raymond Shaughnessy - RaymSha - Réimse - Reach. Then, they knocked me out.

I woke up on the Other Side.

He came.

He brutalised me. He broke every bone in my body, busted every organ, crushed every pain sensor in my body and tossed me into the swamp.

I woke up in the quarry. The Revenant base of operations. I was told what I was and what I could do.

PROS

I have inhuman strength.

I have total conscious control over my bodily functions, except for when he's in control, obviously.

I have a healing factor.
I do not age.

CONS

I am hypersensitised to everything and must be constantly wrapped up in order to not feel like I have an itch. I can only eat salted crackers and drink hard water.

I am his slave; I constantly feel him telling me to do things, compelling me to do things.

For the first five years, he used me like any normal low-level goon of his, sending me to terrorise individual Runners. Then he promoted me to an assassin, sending me out to kill Runners, and then Conduits. Finally, 10 years ago, he placed the quarry and that which is hidden within it in my care. I cannot tell you it's name or what is within; it will alert him to my whereabouts.

Throughout all this, my humanity was slowly eroded and I became a more and more willing slave.

A few weeks ago, he asked me to start watching the blogs. I got curious and decided to post. Through my discussions with you lot, I was reminded of what it was like to be human, even if I can never be human again.

And now, I'm here. I can't tell you where for obvious reasons. I have myself temporarily shielded from him but it won't be long before he notices. I just wanted to let you all know my story. For posterity. Just in case.

I don't want to be remembered as a villain.

Reach out.