Annabelle 'Annie' Dyer

Annabelle Dyer was born to a happily married and very wealthy American couple. Her father is the kind of man to literally run the local major industry for their county towards the coast of Maine. Due to complications during her birth, her parents discovered it would be impossible for them to easily have another child again. At least not without huge risks. They decided to instead of putting her mother in possible danger in the future just to focus their efforts in making Annabelle the perfect heir.

She had to deal with a mixture of both of her parents being strict and having high expectations from the time she was entering kindergarten onward. They did however indulge her when she came home from school one day begging them to let her join a gymnastics class, one of her new friends telling her about it. Annabelle was allowed to join it largely because her mother became quick and fast friends with her new friend's Mom. It was great for both girls. She and Katie were convinced this was going to be the start of something awesome, and it was. It also kept Annie from lashing out at other children who got too close to Annie's personal bubble.

Through Katie, Annabelle started to blossom and made friends with other girls. They had so much fun together that year. Annabelle herself discovered throughout grade school that she loved being social. She just had to balance that with always being on top of things to keep her parents happy.

Throughout her middle school years, she had natural ups and downs with her friends. Mostly it was because naturally all of the girls were dealing with various problems both at home and in school. Annie feared loosing out of her friends who kept her from going crazy due to the pressures her parents placed on her to be the best. For Annie both fifth and sixth grade were a highly emotionally charged time. Once things started to calm down it felt better just for a tiny bit. It certainly didn't help her that during seventh grade her Mother made her join the cheerleading team. If it wasn't for Katie and their friend Danielle promising to try out as well, Annie would have had a very rough time being a part of groups was never something she enjoyed if it felt forced. Her parents were under the false assumption that it was Annie showing leadership qualities that had her friends following her onto the squad. What it actually was? Her friends could see she needed their support.

It was during that time Annie did have to learn to assert herself. She noticed the older eighth grade girls were down right vicious and refused to let them mess with her best friends. The harder they pushed her friends socially, the harder Annie pushed back. That was when she even 'adopted' a rather shy girl named Megan into her circle of friends. She had seen how the other girl was relentlessly bullied and decided no one was going to do that. Not on her watch. This coupled with her starting to become more confident pushed her towards becoming part of the popular crowd in her grade level.

Megan got folded very neatly into the friend group by Annie and her friends. Katie and Danielle actually liked her, which made Annie happy as could be. It was during that time, they also started regularly having Friday night sleep-overs. It was mostly at Katie's house because her folks were far more welcoming. They would stay up late talking about boys and watching different movies that they could find. They especially had a weird fondness for old horror movies, in spite of the fact it scared the crap out of them. Sometimes they even gossiped about local stories and urban legends.

It was these weekly traditions and rituals with her friends that made going to high school easy.

Even with her best friends, Annie had a rough start. She was told by her parents that only straight A's were acceptable. Annie hated that so much because classes like art were a big struggle for her. She was nice, good at talking, and Annie thought she was a great athlete, but for her folks that just wasn't enough.

The stress was eating Annie up. She spent most of her time trying to not just scream at it all. Something had to give. What happened though was a new boy moved to town with his folks. Dylan was the first boy who really caught Annie's attention. Sophomore year on, she and Dylan were suddenly it. She thought she was in love with the boy who loved photography and film as much as she loved her Cheer squad. During that time, Annie also struggled with discovering her attraction for girls too. At parties, she made a few what she thought of as harmless attempts at flirting.

During her Junior year Annie is able to make the Varsity team for the cheerleading squad. She makes the grades she wants finally. It felt like magic to her. Not unlike the stories about people getting lucky if they offered precious tokens or favors to the Bay, according to the local legends. Of course, that had nothing to do with her life right now. Annie thought she had everything she wanted. Dylan made her so happy, she even tried talking her parents into maybe helping him out with getting into the college he was talking about.

She was excited because it wasn't that far from the College she was looking at. Annie thought it was just perfect. She could have her top choice and the cute guy.

Senior year should have been her dream year. Instead of the thing of dreams, her worst nightmares just started. Slowly but surely all her friends started to go missing. As it happened, Annie slowly started to get more angry. These were her favorite people. It felt like no one but Dylan cared. At first, it felt very strange they didn't notice the disappearances, but slowly it really infuriated her. Annie couldn't understand why the missing girls were overlooked.

He kept asking how she felt. She poured her heart out about what was going on in her head. When the bodies started washing up and Annie started hearing details, due to how small a town it was, Annie had to keep restraining herself. She let Dylan tell her everything was going to be okay.

It was a damn lie, but Annie needed it after Katie's funeral. It damn near broke her watching them put her best friend to rest.

What followed was months of trying to find out what did her friends in. Annie didn't think it was human. Something about the bodies washing up on shore tugged at a distant memory from the long ago late night stories. The stories felt distant now, but they solidified Annie's resolve. Nothing would stop her from revenge for the tragic loss of Katie, Danielle, and Megan. Her friends wouldn't be forgotten by her.

It was late April when the truth came out. Annie had been invited to go meet Dylan before a big after school rally. It was supposed to be a way to try and remember the people who had been lost that year now that everyone was able to properly acknowledge the loss of the young women. Annie didn't want to be late, but Dylan made it sound important.

It was for him. Apparently, he had been working to appease a powerful sea monster bound to the bay. The creature had been bound by powerful magics and had been waiting on a chance to break free. Over the centuries, it had made deals to people willing to bargains. Souls were fuel for it to break the seals. Dylan wanted a boon from this thing. It demanded a good ritual that felt more and more like a story enacted for it. The deaths of her friends were to appeal to the monster as well as give it what it craved, but it demanded something precious to finish the ritual off. It was then Annie finally screamed. This wasn't out of fear, but pure rage. How dare he kill her friends for power. She attacked him with every intention of feeding him to the monster he was serving. Annie refused to go down without a fight.

Dylan hadn't expected her to fight back. He thought he had cowed her with her own grief. She barely was able to push him over the edge of the pier he had lured her out onto. She was at first horrified with the fact she just threw her boyfriend down to the waiting monster, but then she found herself weirdly okay with the vengeance she just took. He deserved it she told herself. He had been the real monster between the two of them as far as Annie was concerned.

What she didn't know is that because she hadn't directly sacrificed Dylan's soul to the monster, just his body, it became "hers" for ritual purposes. That gave her a bargaining chip. The creature had the souls of her friends. It was then it struck an interesting bargain that Annie couldn't turn her back on.

The creature would invite her into the "den" it had created for itself. She would be safe after all, she had something it wanted. It couldn't just demand that she give it up. Souls had to be won or gifted. That is how the great game began. Neither one giving an inch, but slowly the creature has begun to try and sway Annie into just giving up. Let it have Dylan's soul and gain everything she could ever want.

She is set on not giving up because now all she wants is to know that her friends are at rest and no longer being used as fodder.