Jasper Jordan
Jasper never imagined he would be happy.
It wasn't that the boy was pessimistic or anything, he just always pictured himself living on the Ark until he died and nothing was ever happy on the Ark.
His suspicions were confirmed when on his first day of freedom, he was shot in the chest by a spear.
After winning his battle against death, he thought his rough patch was through.
That maybe, he would be able to exist without consequences like he had always wanted.
Then, his mind began playing tricks on him and his fears began to wane on him physically.
His happiness seemed a distant memory as the boy with goggles evaporated into a dark entity.
Once he was captured by the Mountain Men, his fears subsided into dull aches in his heart. Those people comforted him, gave him food, clothes, and the best of them all, safety.
The naïve little solider even found a girl who showed him the happiness he had only known in fairy tales.
Maya gave him hope, something that eluded the boy for a long time.
She was a light in darkest parts of him.
Then, like most things on the ground, that wondrous angel was taken away.
The worst part was that she had been taken in an effort to save him by the people he had called his friends.
Any kind of weight Maya had taken away from him, suddenly crushed Jasper until he was nothing but a hazard to himself.
Her light was drowned by any moonshine he could find.
He didn't try to understand his friends' motives.
If he had, then he would have forgiven them and that wasn't something he was willing to do.
It took some time for him to realize that he didn't want his friends' sympathies or their pity.
He didn't want their excuses or their apologies. No, the broken boy wanted their pain.
He wanted the traitors to see what they had done to him.
He wanted to serve as a reminder for them that no matter how many good things they did or how many people they saved, the Mountain's blood and his darkness would always be right behind them.
That it wasn't something that could be erased or forgotten.
Jasper always knew he was destined to be unhappy, but he never realized how much the thought would break him.