The project I’m working on now — more details to come — involves a cast of characters that all have some tie to, and grudge against, the powers of Hell.  Here are my initial notes on one of those characters, Eddie Marlowe:

Edward “Eddie” Marlowe.  Eddie sold his soul and his life (he is doomed to die at age 33) to Satan. he constantly sees Hell out of one eye, and when he sleeps, he dreams his own death. he’s the lead guitarist, and he sold his soul for success as a musician, but unfortunately, he didn’t specify, so actually he’s okay at guitar, but is downright amazing with the tambourine. the fact that he sees Hell and knows he’s bound there makes him fatalistic, but also very brave because he knows when he’s going to die, and kind, because he sees what Hell is all the time and would just as soon not make earth any more like Hell than it already is. Eddie was a Boy Scout and served in Iraq, has wilderness skills and knows demolitions and tai chi.

Eddie is stick-thin because he eats almost nothing, living on bad coffee and cheap cookies, so he can send his money home.  He’s always stealing crackers and sugar packets from diners and hotel rooms.  His nose is crooked (he broke his nose catching his oldest girl when she fell out of a tree) and he constantly fidgets, due to all the caffeine.  He is black, has brown hair and brown eyes, is of medium height, and grooms himself poorly, being generally unshaven and rumpled.  Eddie has been with Jim the longest, and is the Aaron to Jim’s silent Moses, the spokesman for the cause.

Eddie wants to undo his deal.  He has a wife and two little girls, and his death-dreams are full of explosions and violence that make him fear to be around them – otherwise, he’d be resigned to being the world’s greatest tambourine player, for their sake.  He writes his family and sends all the money he can, and just wants out, and back to his normal life.

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