Rita is a REVENANT SPIRIT.
Marguerite Griffin — Rita, to those who know her — is a woman who has always lived by quick wits and quicker lies. Once, long ago, she was a grifter’s daughter, raised in a painted wagon that rattled along the East Coast, peddling false cures and impossible promises. Born in 1772 to a family of travelers and tricksters, deception was her birthright. She wore it well until the night in 1800 when the con caught up with her: A knife in the dark. A pair of angry hands. A body sinking into the Ohio River.
But Rita never truly left.
Now, more than eighty years later, she lingers in Never, working at the Silk Rose as if she belongs there, wearing borrowed smiles and dresses that never seem to collect dust. No one questions where she came from. No one notices that she never eats, never tires, never leaves so much as a footprint in the dust outside her room. She keeps her secret well… until the rains come.
Rita cannot cross water. Even the thought of the creek to the east of town makes her breath hitch, though there is no breath left in her lungs. And sometimes, when the wind howls through Never’s streets, she swears she can still feel the weight of cold, dark water pulling her under.
Maya Rao
Maya is a WRAITH SPIRIT.
Maya was born a Rajput princess in the northern part of what we now call India in 1552, and was the third wife of Mughal emperor Akbar the Great. Renowned for both her beauty and intelligence, she proved exceptionally adept at the use of “soft power” in influencing politics. During her time as Akbar’s wife, she failed to produce any children, and there was a prevailing rumor that she took precautions against pregnancy because she enjoyed her power within the court so much. She consistently butted heads with her husband’s regent-turned-advisor, and it is unclear if the tumble down a long flight of stairs that broke her neck in 1582 was an accident. At any rate, she now prefers to remain on the ground floor.
Emmett Garrison
Emmett is a POLTERGEIST SPIRIT.
Emmett was born in Caledonia, or the northern portion of what we call Scotland, sometime in the first century. He couldn’t tell you exactly when he was born, or how old he was when he died — It’s been so long that his memory of being alive is hazy at best. He’s pretty sure he was killed by a Roman, but he’s also quick to add that it must not have been all that traumatic because he doesn’t remember it at all. Never is not the only place on Earth where the barrier between life and afterlife are thin, and Emmett has availed himself of all of them for varying periods of time and under many aliases. He is one of Never’s oldest residents, having been in the town since before it had a name. He is known for being gregarious and deeply loyal to his work for the Sheriff’s Department.
Effie Rickett, aka Daisy
Effie is a REVENANT SPIRIT.
Death put a serious damper on Effie’s grand plans. She had everything going for her–youth, beauty, talent, and the cleverness to unite all three–when she turned eighteen and her father promised her to Cornelius Gander Rickett, factory owner and railroad heir. Rickett was well-bred, appropriately connected, and twenty years Effie’s senior. Worse yet, he was absolutely disinterested in allowing his fiancee to follow her passions for art and music. Effie had dreamed of performing on the stages of the world. Instead, she found herself standing before an audience of New York’s upper crust, speaking vows over her own strongest protests, and boarding a train for a honeymoon trip across the country.
Rail travel could be dangerous, of course. Desolate country. Potential derailments. Slippery tracks. The shock of a new bride disappearing barely a week after her wedding was dreadful, but her husband’s obvious grief made for excellent tragedy in the society papers. Two families mourned. Life moved on.
Effie…didn’t. Move on, that was, and her memory of what had actually happened that dark night on the train stayed crystal clear. Tied now to Never, she’s forced to make do with what she has left–her pretty face–but the possibility of someday wrapping her delicate hands around her former husband’s neck keeps her focused on the future.