Garret Barlow

Preface

Garret was made as a slasher movie type oc? He was meant to goof around with friends and their slasher oc's haha. He just got lucky in getting a story that I actually quite like. Inspired by my friend radarsaturn on twitter as he was the one to finally push me to make a slasher haha. 

Personality

As a young man Garret was a very sweet kind man. He'd never hurt a fly. He was very self-conscious of his height, stature, and resting bitch face. He did his best to be as caring and gentle as he possibly could. Presently, Garret is a bitter, angry soul. He blames himself for his misfortunes and as a result keeps to himself. He is short tempered but doesn't really show much emotion anymore. He couldn't care less what people think of him now.

Story

In 1980 Garret and his wife Sarah essentially ran away from their homes after family drama. Garret did not want to go into the military like the men in his family usually do, and Sarah was not content on being a "good christian wife". Together they bought a spot of land far out of their families reach and built their home on it. Both were in their early 20's and kind of scared of the unknown, but they at least had each other. They married and built a small business based off their mutual love of flowers and gardening. Garret good at groundskeeping and Sarah good at flower arranging. Together they began a passion project of turning their plot of land into a sprawling beautiful garden with a hedge maze and topiary sculptures. Maybe run a wedding destination or bed and breakfast. People would come from miles around to admire their work. Take photos, have a picnic. it was a truly beautiful place. But most of all, Garret and Sarah were deeply in love, and happy for the first time in their lives.

As the years pass, the garden grows with beautiful flowers and lofty trees. In 1984, Sarah became pregnant. Overjoyed with the news, they quickly began preparing for their new arrival, making a nursery and picking baby names. However, as the due date approached, Sarah fell more and more ill. Horrible coughing fits that sometimes brought blood. Doctors assured her not to worry but worry they did. It wasn't until after the delivery did they take note of how serious it was, but by that time it was too late, and Sarah had died. 

Garret was devastated. Yet, he had to hold himself together for the sake of his daughter, Lily. She was healthy and bright eyed; with her mother's copper red hair. Seeing it made Garret's heart sing and sink at the same time. Sarah was buried in the center of the garden next to her favorite flowers, Violets. Garret always made sure they were perfectly healthy. 

Garret did his best to be a good dad. Playing with and caring for Lily as much as he could. It was hard on him without Sarah, but seeing Lily smile and laugh and grow gave him hope. She even seemed to love plants as well.

1986 was the year of Lily's first birthday. She was able to clumsily walk and babble. One day Garret had his back turned to her and she disappeared. Instantly in a panic, Garret searched all over the garden for her. It wasn't until hours later he found what happened to her. It seemed she had fallen into the koi pond. He pleaded desperately with the paramedics to save her but it was far too late. Overwhelmed with sadness and anger, he couldn't do much but cry. 

Lily was buried next to her mother, blanketed in the sweet petals of violets; and now, easter lilies. Garret filled the koi pond and killed every last fish inside.

Something inside Garret snapped. The last light of his life had been extinguished and now he was utterly alone. He grew to dislike when people would come to visit. He hated seeing other families come. He hated seeing people pick flowers and climb the trees. Before he loved sharing he and his wife's work but... it started to feel like it was physically hurting him. He locked the gates and never opened them again. People stopped visiting the garden, stopped asking to hire him for jobs, stopped sending letters or calling. It all just slowly fell to a trickle to a drop to silence. A silence that haunted him. 

He isn't sure why or how but as the years crept by, he changed. He felt like a darkness had crept inside him, feeding on his pain. He felt hollow and empty, but also terribly unbearably angry. It burned in his chest like a furnace, and it seemed to take his humanity away. He tried caring for the plants as he had always done. Numb to the iron weight in his heart. 

Years passed like this. Garret losing more of himself to grief and anger as the garden continued to flourish under his dedicated care. He didn't even seem to notice he no longer needed to eat or sleep. He didn't notice how dark the circles around his eyes were. He didn't notice that he had become an 8 foot tall giant. It wasn't until a group of teenagers broke in with a video camera did he realize that he towered over them, his presence filling them with pure terror. Garret had always been a big guy and was as a result pretty intimidating. He always hated that. He never wanted to be scary but here he was, an actual monster. He saw what the teenagers had done, trampling plants and knocking over statues. They even had the gall to try and spray paint some things. The furnace burning in his heart exploded with dark heavy rage and Garret was overcome by shadow. He turned into a horrible monster. Ripping four of the six teens to shreds in a fury, the last two able to escape. 

When Garret regained control of himself he felt neither guilt or remorse. But, not exactly justified either. He swallowed his mixed feelings and just cleaned up the mess. Burying the teens' remains somewhere deep inside the garden. The thought of someone entering his garden again greatly agitated him, even more so with the thought of it happening to the graves of Sarah and Lily. The thoughts just added more fuel to the fire. 

Since the last two teens were able to escape, they tried to tell those around them what happened to their friends. But authorities did not believe them. They assumed the teens had been under the influence and thought that a wild animal had attacked them. The two took to the internet and tried sharing their stories as best as the could with what they had in the 90's. Eventually their story became something of an urban legend. It inspired more people to break into the garden to either validate the legend or find a tale of their own. Not everyone made it back out alive. 

As Garret's body count grew, the less he seemed to care. People do nothing but hurt the only piece of his old life he had left. The only thing he could do was chase them out or slaughter them. He didn't care anymore. The only thing that he seemed to feel was the heat of his own anger, weighing on his very soul. 

Powers / abilities

Garret is incredibly strong and surprisingly agile. Unlike most 60 year olds he has no arthritis to hold him back. He's also able to wield his gardening equipment as weapons if need be. He transforms into a shadow monster when he feels overwhelming rage. He can't exactly help it, the only thing he can think about is wanting to hurt someone, and usually he does. The transformation subsides when he gets tired, usually in about 20-30 minutes. He becomes more animalistic, able to go from bipedal to quadrupedal in an instant. He has long claws and sharp teeth, and a scream that makes your blood run cold. In this state he runs extremely fast, so escape is rare. 

In his human form his eyes glow a soft white, he isn't sure why that is but at least he has pretty good night vision. 

Essentially, the root of his power is his awful mental health manifesting on his physical person. He hated being a big guy and now he really truly is one. He hated hurting other creatures and now its a part of him. He tries not to think of why or how this is because it really distresses him. He has basically died of a broken heart but continues to "live" as a bitter old monster. Garret, if he stays this way, will eventually lose whatever is left of his humanity and become the angry monster that is slowly devouring him. He doesn't care about himself anymore though. He just wants whatever remains of Sarah and Lily to be okay.