NAME. Santino Evangelista
AGE & BIRTH DATE. 34 & December 1st, 1989
GENDER & PRONOUNS. Male & He/Him
SPECIES. Human ( Darkfriend )
OCCUPATION. Hunter
FACE CLAIM. Alex Meraz
( trigger warnings: parental abuse ) Cruz was the firstborn of two on a reservation in Mexico. His childhood had always felt insignificant to him, but the one his sister, Ximena, had mattered the most. The people around him were some of the best people he knew and he had always trusted them to watch over his sister without question. It hadn’t started early in his life, but his teenage years were some of the worst he could’ve had. He wasn’t even sure what had changed within his parents. Regardless of what it was, those people that watched his sister had come in handy. While she played with her friends, Cruz was getting whatever anger his parents felt taken out on him. It had all happened behind closed doors with nobody else on the reservation being none the wiser. If someone asked about a bruise, he would shrug it off and pretend he had gotten hurt playing. It was a vicious cycle where he tried to get his sister out of their home before he felt their anger really come to fruition.
It had been one day when he was sixteen where he had truly felt that it was his last straw. He had nowhere to go, but he knew he had to get him and his sister out of there. His father had lifted a hand towards Ximena and Cruz had been able to fight him off enough for him to grab his sister and leave. There were no words thrown to anyone as he had picked her up and ran through the reservation and away from the home that they had grown up in. Sixteen. That was how old he was when he ran away from home. His sister had only been ten years old and, even then, he knew her life was so much more important than his could ever be. If he couldn’t have a good life, he could only hope that she would be able to for his sake. That was all he could ever want and he made sure that he did everything he could so that it could actually come to fruition. Being a runaway was not easy for him or her though. It felt like there was a question every day as he tried to scrounge up money any way he could.
"Where are we going, Cruz?”
“I don’t know, Ximena.”
He never knew how to answer any of her questions. Cruz was desperate to get them overseas and then they would figure out a plan from there. Petty crimes would mean nothing to him as long as his sister was safe. That was all that had ever mattered to him. Anger always seemed to get the best of him though. Anyone ever looked at Ximena a certain way and it was always a problem. His sister hadn’t noticed it firsthand for a long time and he didn’t want her to know because he didn’t want to be a reminder of his parents. So he hid it as well as he could for as long as he could. The only thing that really took his thoughts of it was making sure he had money to take care of Ximena. They would’ve needed a miracle to get out of there though. And a miracle was what they had seemingly gotten. Unbeknownst to him at the time, it was a demon that had helped them get out of Mexico and to a new home in Rome. She had felt like a ghost at the time. She had helped them just enough to get to where they needed to go, but he had lost connection very quickly after that. It was something that stayed in his head for a long time, but he couldn’t focus on that. He had to make sure they found a home and a place to be safe.
Once they landed in Rome, he was back to petty crimes to make ends meet. A job wasn’t in the cards for him quite yet. He was only eighteen and he had a pseudo-kid with him that was only twelve years old. Cruz always felt bad that his sister hadn’t even been a teenager before he dragged her into this life. It stayed in the back of his mind like everything else did though. He could only hope that he was able to support Ximena the best that he could. In that same breath, it had felt like Rome was both a godsend and a curse. That anger that he had tried so hard to hide from his sister had reared its ugly head while they were at a gas station getting food for the night. She had been standing outside and someone had started messing with her. As soon as Cruz saw that hand rest on his sister’s shoulder, he was convinced he had blacked out. One second, he was in the store and then, in the next, he was outside beating the person’s face in. The only thing that had pulled him out of it was the sound of his sister’s scream.
It had only taken him a few seconds to realize what had happened. His widened eyes had met his sister’s own scared ones as her hands rested on his face trying to pull him back together.
"I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
It was the one thing he had never wanted her to see and, before he knew it, he was being put in cuffs and brought into custody. They had brought Ximena, but he had lost track of her somewhere. She was only twelve. He could only hope that he got out of here and they were both able to be safe again. But then he thought maybe she would be better off without him. It was a thought that stayed in the back of his head for only a moment as he stared at the table in front of him. The person’s voice that had been in the room with him sounded muffled until they said her name. Ximena. His head had snapped up at the sound of her name as he listened to why it had been said in the first place. These people weren’t the police. He could make that deduction easily. It was then that he learned of both the Eye and the supernatural. All of those stories that had been told by the elders on the reservation felt like just stories that they told to kids as a cautionary tale so often that Cruz hadn’t believed any of them. But they were all real and the offer was clear to him. The answer was even clearer. Join the Eye, be trained by them, fight for them and they would take in both his sister and him. They would be safe and protected. It was an easy solution for his sister’s safety.
When he was able to go back to Ximena, they had hugged for so long that it felt like they had been separated for years. But they would never be separated now. They had security and protection that they had never had before. The Eye had given them that.
Training with the Eye had felt as easy as breathing for the both of them. He didn’t mind that his sister was brought into the fold because it was best that she be able to protect herself, be able to protect those that couldn’t protect themselves, too. Cruz had found it so easy to train with Ximena and he was sure that this was the first time either of them had truly ever been happy. All good things always came to an end though. Everything good in his life was always his sister. She was a light that he had not ever taken for granted. Twenty-two. Sixteen. Ximena had been sixteen when that very light that he had treasured above all else had been snuffed out. An out of control lycan had done more than take a bite out of her. Mauled and left as nothing more than a bloodied body, all that was good in the world for him had been snuffed out just like his sister’s life.
So he had become vengeful. He had become cold and he had become angry. Angrier than he had usually been because that was all that he felt he had left. Years and years of anger and he had never been able to recover from the loss of his sister. It took a hold of his very being to where he put everything he had into hunting down every species he could get his hands on. Anger was what fueled him now more than ever and it only made him angrier because that one emotion made him more like his parents than he ever wanted to be.
Eventually, death came knocking at his door though. Or what he had assumed was death. No matter what it was, that voice had given him a choice to be more than he had been, more than the Eye had made of him. Hunt. Kill. It was what he was doing already, but there was the one perk that came with it all. Undying. When he awoke, his head was firmly back on his shoulders and he had looked down at his hand to the scaling on it. Anger still flowed through his veins, but now it was replaced with even more of a desire to kill those supernatural beings that thought themselves better than others. Now he could have the strength to be unstoppable. And if he died? Well, he'd come back and try again. It was much more than his sister ever got and he would make sure Ximena still lived on through him. No matter the cost.
+ adaptable, protective, perceptive
- vengeful, temperamental, withdrawn
played by kenyer. est. she/her.
titsay
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