Elisa Khoza

THE START

Elisa came to the world with her parents already split up. Her and her older brother Dylan stayed with their mother during the week, but every now and then her brother would stay at their dad's place for the weekend too. Elisa never really got a strong relationship with her father and never felt like she should build one either. Her brother would often come back with tales about how lazy and boring his dad was, which Elisa figured was enough evidence to never come along on one of these weekends with him. Elisa used to be very close with her mum and brother, though. They had some financial hardships, but they always spend a lot of time together and often played boardgames in the evenings. It was her little family against the world.

Her family started to fall apart though as she got older. Her mum became more grumpy as her job wore her down and her brother started to visit his dad more, with his father having gotten a girlfriend who pulled him out of the depression he was in and bettering the relationship with his son. Dylan leaving more frequently eventually led to conflict with his mum, who started to miss him, and then that evolved into an even bigger conflict with everyone involved. Eventually he decided to live with his father permanently and cut contact with Elisa's part of the family.

THE THINGS WE LOST

After this conflict, Elisa felt very alone. She didn't fight with her brother of this whole thing, but because she lived under her mum's roof, keeping in contact proved to be incredibly difficult. At first they did message frequently, but life gets busy, and a message gets left on read longer and longer... Her mum was very good at keeping grudges and for a while, her temper remained rather short. Though eventually she decided to choose Elisa over the people she'd lost. She got another, better-paying job so she could save up and do more things with her daughter. At first this seemed to be a step into the right direction, but that hope quickly flushed down the drain in Elisa's eyes as her mother had to travel more and more for her job.

Now, frequently home alone with the stresses of school, bullying and family issues, Elisa started to get darker and darker thoughts until that light at the end of the tunnel became very dim. This was life now, and nothing could convince her things were ever going to get better. That is, until she passed a strange lady at school.

THE THINGS WE FOUND

On another rotten day like any other, she cried her woes away in the girl's bathroom. Then suddenly, an odd woman walked in with an even odder dinging device. Perplexed and unsettled, Elisa started figuring out how to escape the situation, when she was attacked by a large, alien worm from the ceiling. Lucky for her, this odd woman seemed to know a thing or two about monstrosities like these. More info to come! Literature pending.