Cayleb has a minion!

Melancholy the Wintersong

Name: Cayleb Johnson
Alias: Cayleb
Age: 31
Birthdate: June 12
Gender: Male
Species: Canine
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 150 lb
Body: fit, toned muscles

Nationality: American
Language(s): English
Orientation: Straight

Personality: relaxed, occasionally grumpy, tired
Hair: A blue-ish silvery colour
Eyes: icy-blue
Skintone: very pale
Marking(s): none
Tattoo(s): none
Piercing(s): none
Other: none

Likes: reading, sleeping, rocking in the porch swing, playing frisbee, swimming
Dislikes: thinking about the past, lawyers, love, fire

Mother: Claire Johnson
Father: Dylan Johnson
Brother(s): none
Sister(s): none
Lover: none currently; wife (deceased)

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overlay by ARE

Cayleb was a broken man long before the fire took everything.

Despite being only twenty-nine years old, wrinkles sat at the corners of his eyes and on his forehead. Eight years of pre-med and medical school and three years of residency had stolen away his youth, leaving him weary and ailing. A few weeks before he was set to begin practicing as a full doctor at the local hospital, his body finally succumbed to illness and he ended up in the hospital with a grave case of pneumonia.

It was there that Cayleb met Alice and fell in love for the first time. Although his respirator prevented him from talking to her, each time Cayleb caught sight of Alice, the nurse who tended to him, his pulse would quicken (much to the displeasure of the heart monitoring machine). Something peculiar inside his heart told him that this woman would be his future wife, but his well-developed skepticism prevented him from believing it.

About a week after being released from the hospital and beginning work, Cayleb ran into Alice in the hospital cafeteria. After talking for an hour or so, Alice caught him off guard by asking him out for coffee and for a fleeting moment Cayleb’s premonition that Alice would be his wife leapt into his consciousness. He quickly doused it with pessimism but agreed to the date. Many dates and several months later the two were engaged. Cayleb was happier than he had ever been and the cloud of negativity that had hung over him since high school melted away. Despite the small squabbles among Alice and Cayleb’s families on the day of the wedding, he couldn’t stop smiling.

He felt both stunned and thrilled when Alice announced a few months later that she was pregnant. That night, as Cayleb fell asleep with Alice’s head resting on his chest he felt a serenity that he’d never experienced before. Everything was as it should be in the world and his life was better than he’d ever dared to hope it would be. Two weeks later everything changed.

It was a normal Friday night, and Cayleb was driving home with Alice from a fancy restaurant downtown. He had his left hand on the steering wheel and his right hand interlocked with hers like usual. With a screeching of metal and smashing of glass their wonderful world collapsed. A drunk driver ran a red light going 60 and rammed into the passenger side of their car; it flipped once before skidding to a halt upside down. An ambulance rushed Cayleb and Alice to the same hospital they met and worked at and, fortunately they both lived. Their unborn baby, however, did not survive and Cayleb’s right arm and hand suffered nerve damage, leaving him unable to perform surgery.

With his spirit broken and his job lost, Cayleb began spending large amounts of time sitting silently staring at walls and ceilings or sleeping. All the joy that had radiated from him had drained away and he was left in an almost zombie state. He did still have Alice so he put on a happy face for her when she came home, but when he was alone again a wave of regret and guilt washed over him. Although he wasn’t at fault, Cayleb blamed himself for the accident and it ate away at him month after month. Then came the fire, which ate away at everything.

After weeks of waking up kicking and screaming from nightmares, Cayleb decided to sleep downstairs on the couch so that Alice could actually get a decent night of sleep. He woke up to the smell of wood burning and as soon as he opened his eyes he knew something was very wrong. Black smoke filled the living room and as he looked up he saw fire licking the stairs.

Covering his mouth with a blanket he ran up the steps; a horrifying sight met him at the top: the door leading to his bedroom was engulfed in flame. Cayleb tried a few times to yell out for Alice but it was futile. As he collapsed on the floor in a coughing fit he heard sirens in the distance. The firemen were too late though, and Cayleb wept as the last good part of his life turned to ash.

Unable to stay in a city filled with too many memories, he drove to Veta Lake to escape his ghosts. Tisky, a passing stranger, found him living in his car a week later and offered him shelter and food. Cayleb readily accepted, and, over time, eventually began to heal.