Reina

Reina lived a fairly sheltered life. Her parents were lower middle class, but they managed to scrape by with what they had. Reina was homeschooled by her aunt, who lived with her family in the attic of their home. Reina's aunt was many things, intelligent, funny, and a nonfunctional mysophobic. Her fear of germs was so bad that she refused to leave the house, or even the attic on particularly bad days. Reina learned most everything she knows from her aunt, though her teachings were not without bias. As Reina grew, her aunt instilled a fear of germs and a fascination with blood into her head.

Reina left her parents home when she was 18, to attend a nearby college. Her decision to leave home was met with great distress, as she was the only person who her aunt would ever talk to. Her aunt was in her 60s now, and despite her being young, she was beginning to shut down. Refusing to leave the attic, even to eat. However, Reina refused to be tied to the responsibility of caring for the woman, and moved to a dorm room on campus. This move was not without guilt though, with her parent’s updates on her aunt’s failing health, Reina felt as though she was to blame. To distract herself, she began to go to parties, finding the constant buzz and reckless behavior to be a great way to rebel against the ideals she was taught, and a great way to stop thinking.

It was after one of these parties where she got into her first car crash. After a night of devious behavior, Reina left the driving into someone who wasn’t in the greatest mindset, and the truck she owned swerved off the road, tumbling before finally crashing into a tree. While other people might have found this event terrifying, Reina, who was coddled her whole life by the adults around her, had never experienced something so thrilling. She loved it. She loved not knowing if she’d live or die, the uncertainty of her ability to get out of there, the rush of adrenaline, and the attention it garnered.