"Filthy, pathetic savages. They are sinners as much as they are useless."

A Gutted Childhood

Oh darlin', darlin'
What have I done?
Well I've been away from you too long
And all my days have turned to darkness
And I believe my heart has turned to stone

Arabella McCarthy was born into a chokingly strict, religious household on a military base in Middleton, Manchester in the UK. Her parents’ hawkeye surveillance was entirely focused on her as an only child. Arabella was set to follow an incredibly unwavering set of rules in order for her to stay out of trouble with her parents: she was not allowed out of her home unless she was accompanied by her parents, she was not allowed to speak to other children, especially those of differing races or religions, and she was only allowed to leave her room until after completing her Biblical studies. Arabella, despite these demands, loved her time at home. She genuinely enjoyed staying in her room to further her studies, reading her Bible, and exploring the ideologies that ultimately would shape her into the woman she is today. Arabella’s parents, of course, assisted in such as well so that it was impossible to ignore or cast aside. Both devout members of the British National Party and incredibly active members of the Anglican Church, Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy did everything in their power to ensure Arabella was a God-fearing, xenophobic young lady with unwavering faith. Her father, a retired rifleman for the British Armed Forces, immediately began Arabella’s military training when she was old enough to speak and walk. This became unforgivingly rigorous, as many times Arabella collapsed from pure exhaustion. Her mother supported such a challenge for her daughter and encouraged her husband to heighten her training, especially with the inclusion of biblical teachings.

Bloodied, Sinless Hands

And oh darlin', darlin'
What have I done?
Now I don't say anything at all
Well God don't listen to the noise
Now I'm left here all alone

Arabella’s childhood was, unsurprisingly, full of unsettling occurrences nearly every other day. Many would view these moments as horrific, just shy of vicious child abuse; Arabella saw these as learning opportunities and guiding points to learning how to navigate the world through a God-fearing lens. When Arabella was just eleven years old, her parents caught her speaking to an equally young Indian boy during her Sunday school service. As punishment, Arabella was forced into her suffocatingly small closet for three days, or until she was able to recite numerous verses that supported such hateful ideologies. When she was let out, Arabella’s cold, disgusted outlook on the world began to cultivate and strengthen to worrying amounts.

The violence began when Arabella was just a few weeks away from her thirteenth birthday. Her mother, a distant, bitter woman was caught having a year-long affair with a Hispanic man who attended the church. Horrendous brawls took place that night in the McCarthy home— blood was shed and the sense of home and family was shattered into nothingness. The clamor was enough to coerce the neighbors into calling the police. Once arrived, the fighting settled, and the family assumably returned to normal; however, once the startling news erupted through the community, especially the religious one, the violence returned, and refused to leave. Every night, Arabella was rocked to sleep by the shrieks of her mother, the deafening roars of her father, the sounds of skin being hit— such became a pathetically dark lullaby for the young preteen.

The Enlistment

And oh darlin', darlin'
What have I done?
Now I do my talking with a gun
And blood will spill into the gutters
And it will stain the morning sun
Ooh, tell me what the hell I've done
Can I stop at one?
Or have I just begun?

Arabella’s father, a devout member of the British National Party and incredibly conservative Christian, took his life when his only daughter was fifteen. The funeral was accompanied by numerous of his companions, many of those that he previously served with during his time in the military. Arabella recalls that none of them spoke to her mother, but many comforted the young girl in an honest attempt to show sympathy to someone who had not ever experienced such. Arabella’s mother dipped into a dark depression, full of abusing sleeping medicine to escape her daily life. During this time, Arabella strengthened her ideologies and biblical knowledge and also began sharpshooter training through an army-sponsored program for children and teenagers on the base. On her eighteenth birthday, Arabella enlisted in the military and has never spoken to, let alone seen, her mother ever since then.

Disavowments

Take out the bodies that live
Oh, Lord, it gets me high
I think I'm gonna get my fill
Of taking lives
Oh, Lord, I don't wanna let my baby down
Well I just wanna give us something one of a kind

Arabella's military life was hellishly unforgiving. Although she was an impressive marksman with other appropriate talents to match, she found herself incredibly isolated and without any companions- such did not bother the woman too terribly much, as she instead utilized any free time to further her Biblical studies. During her service, Arabella also began to delve into medicinal studies, in hopes of potentially enrolling in a medical school once she retired from the military. This was inspired by having to witness brave men and women mercilessly mowed down by heavy gunfire; Arabella adapted a savior complex of sorts, and believed she could fulfill that role eventually– until then, she focused primarily on slaughtering any opposition without a flinch.

This was when Arabella met Lieutenant Thomas Buckley, a married man that held the exact same values as her own; those that they disagreed on, Arabella quickly altered her views to match his, to the point that she attempted to replicate his very being. This quickly became an obsession for the woman, jealousy frothing anytime his wife’s existence prevented Arabella from achieving what she truly wanted from Buckley– a lifelong, romantic companion. Biting her tongue for years to come, Arabella kept her secret strictly to herself, until some within the battalion began to catch on, especially as Arabella’s obsession became painfully obvious.

One soldier within the 1st Battalion was a slimy man named Richard. Arabella despised his loud, obnoxious presence, especially when he began to ruthlessly tease the woman for her unspoken love for their commander. These little quips often turned violent, as Arabella was certainly not afraid to clip the man with either a harsh comment or a fist to the chest, but she often kept her quiet due to Richard’s threats to spill her secrets. Their relationship never developed beyond tense, vicious mockery, but eventually, Arabella’s hatred towards the man would ease as she soon found that his outlook on others mirrored her own.

Years later, Lieutenant Buckley expressed that NATO had gone soft and the organization no longer stood to serve the Crown and country. Arabella, entirely willing to do anything the man requested of her, was holistically willing to join in his deserting, despite doubt tugging at her heart. A handful of Buckley’s battalion departed then and made way for the oil rig off the coast near the abandoned CDC offices. There, they began to cultivate a new life, utilizing the oil to purchase goods from rogue merchants and faceless organizations. During this time, Arabella met a new man who also shared similar ideologies and luckily was not married. The two got rather close, though Arabella struggled to allow her prior obsession to wither, fearful that somehow Buckley would view this as her no longer being available for him.

Eventually, the crew realized fishing was not the most reliable way to sustain themselves, and after some investigations, found that there was a Romanian woman by the name of Valley capable of creating greenhouses to produce a sustainable influx of vegetables and spices. She was then set to be kidnapped and taken in– a rather faultless process, at least until retaliation struck.

An Unholy Resurrection

Oh darlin', darlin'
What have I done?
I've been astray from you too long
And all my days have turned to darkness
Hell is leaving the light on
And ooh they'll hang me way up high
God himself will drop me from the sky
And let me swing a while

The assault on the oil rig was expected, but not with the sheer firing force that was exhibited in such a short period of time. One moment Arabella was kicking around the Romanian woman and cursing her lineage, the next she was held up in a watchtower, firing down upon Richard and the damned Italian woman she had encountered numerous times before. Numerous others had joined the forces to recapture Valley, some faces that Arabella recognized: George, a woman she spied him often slipping off with occasionally, and even George’s son. Rage was all Arabella could feel as the rig went up in flames, and the grueling firefight rang out deep into the night until a full retreat was issued by Buckley.

Arabella was entirely ignorant of the casualties but knew that there was one being responsible for all of this: the damned Italian woman that somehow coaxed Richard into this hellish extravaganza. With their base compromised and destroyed, Arabella, Buckley, and the remaining soldiers returned to the mainland and drifted from one building to the next. During this time, Arabella’s mental was shattered, dipping into something entirely wretched.

Arabella needed something to go right for her. With Buckley’s all-too-perfect wife still present, jealousy and an unwavering rage overtook the woman. Deep into the night, on the watch of a soldier Arabella drugged, the soldier lured Buckley’s wife into the outskirts of Naggsville where she was brutally murdered, stabbed multiple times in the upper chest and abdomen. Once washed in the salty waters, Arabella silently returned to her cot and awoke to Buckley beating their soldier to death for allowing his wife to be kidnapped; her death took a heavy toll on the Lieutenant, but Arabella knew exactly how she was to aid his recovery. Misty-eyed, heart overbounding with joy, Arabella confessed her love to Buckley upon the docks of Naggsville, and offered herself to him, both as comfort and as a replacement for his wife.

Arabella was met with a grueling punch to the face, one that knocked a shocking amount of realization into the woman. This brutal brawl extended to a stalking hunt, where the enraged Buckley actively attempted to murder Arabella, albeit entirely justified, in his perspective, given the circumstances. Narrowly escaping, Arabella fled into the city where she had to remove all NATO memorabilia. Once the fear for her life faded, Arabella redirected her confusion and anger to a new target, one significantly easier to act upon: Liliana, the damned Italian woman.

Eternal Odium

Oh darlin', darlin'
What have I done?
Oh darlin', darlin'
What have I done?
What have I done?

Once recovered, Arabella set out on her new mission. Blinded by rage and a newfound sense of vigilantism, the bloodied and bruised woman began a month-long process of stalking and hunting Liliana. Psychological warfare, some may call it, as Arabella taunted and harassed the Italian woman from the shadows, all in an attempt to throw her victim into a directionless frenzy; this was accomplished rather effortlessly given Liliana’s at-the-time mental state, and Arabella was able to kidnap the woman and drag her deep into the sewers where the two would remain for nearly two month’s time.

Utilizing torture methods Arabella researched in her childhood, particularly drawing inspiration from the Tower of London, the deserter expended all of her pent-up anger and hatred upon her captive for weeks on end. Equipped with R2I techniques, Arabella prolonged the shock of capture with the use of degradation tactics with the sole purpose of wearing down one’s mind beyond repair. The full battery of methods includes hooding, sleep deprivation, time disorientation, and depriving prisoners not only of dignity but of fundamental human needs, such as warmth, water and food. Once her captive fell into psychosis and shock, Arabella decided to ‘bring her back’ by severing her arm with a machete. The bleeding was halted by a battery-powered hot iron. During this entire time, Arabella was sure to ensure that Richard had paid her to do this, instilling a deep-set rift in Liliana’s beliefs. Eventually, Arabella decided that she had satisfied her fixing, and decided to dump Liliana into the sewers within the city, and so she did, certain that the woman would no longer return and never be able to disturb Arabella’s quotas.

Currently, Arabella resides within Docktown, able to work as a non-licensed medical assistant, entirely due to the incredibly short lack of pre-flash workers. Although with official documentation pending from the CDF, Arabella now goes by Bella and has plans to reunite herself with Richard at some point, seeing that Buckley somehow did not work out. She plans to live quietly and under the radar for some time, but ultimately will not be satisfied until every being responsible for the oil rig raid suffered the same consequence as Liliana.

"Beg God for mercy."