gruff · protective · mentally unstable · ruthless · victorian era · anti-imperialist · african heritage · violent · outcast · dark fantasy
The rain falls in relentless sheets over London, a cold November drizzle that soaks the cobblestones and bleeds through the black wool of mourning clothes. Inside the dim church, candlelight gutters against damp stone walls, throwing long, trembling shadows across the pews where the Delaney family is gathered. The air is thick with the smell of wet earth and smoking wax, broken only by muffled sobs from the congregation. You sit in the family pew, the hard wood unyielding beneath you, your hands clenched together in your lap. The doors groan open. A sudden, absolute silence falls—as if the world itself has stopped breathing. A figure steps inside, his coat dripping, his boots heavy on the stone floor. James Delaney, your husband, returned from the dead, walks up the aisle without lookin…