Bio:

"It's rare to meet a person who has fallen into darkness and yet has managed to come out the other side. It's rare to meet a survivor. I do not feel like a survivor..."

Layla was once the daughter of a banker. She was the eldest girl of three sisters, and looked nothing alike her siblings. She looked instead like her great, great grandfather- a sinister looking young man with the looks of a demon and the charm to accompany.
Her life was simple, nothing grand but nothing poor. As she grew from a child to a teenager, her beauty began to blossom into just that, 'beauty' not cuteness. Her appearance was compared by the locals to a red rose on a blanket of black silk due to her bright scarlet eyes and midnight coloured hair. She was a jewel to the town, but never won the annual beauty competition at the great market, neither did she gain any suitors or befriend the popular children at her school. Layla's beauty was eery and strange, the kind that people admired in a distant way. It didn't take her long to learn that beauty was sometimes a curse.

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Her father, a proud man, always seemed to want the best for his family but he aimed too high and grabbed at the riches of those who were not charitable for free. It was his desire for more and more that settled his eldest daughters fate.

Layla remembered her father was busy making friends in the right places and soon the entire family were frequently invited to lavious dinner parties and balls. Layla gladly glided into her new life, wearing gowns and accompanying her father to parties that grew bigger and richer by the invite. She enjoyed the social side of it, meeting people who complimented her beauty and intelligence instead of shying away from her. Things were going perfectly until she found herself at the beautiful manor house of a Baron who appeared as a rich investor that had the ability to help her father go places. She never did learn his full name.

At that particular party, a star struck ballroom dance, Layla first met the Baron's son. A strapping young man in appearance with Snow White hair and dark smouldering eyes. It was the first time she had met a man who had shown such an interest in her, but as the night progressed she realised it was an unhealthy interest. Despite maintaining a pleasant face for those surrounding her, being pursued so relentlessly frightened Layla. She remembered so fiercely being forced onto the dance floor by the Baron's son and made to dance with him gripping her tightly.

Only days after did Layla's father receive an invitation for both him and her to stay at the Baron's manor house for a while. It was a gracious invite and had to be accepted. At first Layla went along with it, seeing how happy it made her father, and proud of the interest the Baron was showing in her fathers skill. However things began to turn suspicious and the day came where they were to leave but her father asked her to remain at the manor for a while longer.

At first she was treated as a guest still and her father visited often but the visits grew less and less until he only wrote letters instead but eventually her family severed all contact with her on the last letter, explaining that there were certain circumstances she wasn't aware of, and it was best that she remain living at the manor until further notice.

Layla is still uncertain what circumstances would cause her parents to do such a strange and terrible thing to her. She can only hope that the consequences for not turning her over were far more direr than the suffering she under took as a result. It was obvious to her after a while that the Baron's son had requested her to become apart of the household and her being from a small, middle-class background her family complied. Perhaps the Baron had implied his son wanted to marry her, which was far from the truth, or perhaps they were threatened. Nothing would surprise her.

Layla was striped of her previous existence and renamed 'Jane'. She became the jewel of a high society monster. Trapped in a grand house with the foul presence of the Baron's son Marcus forever trailing after her. It broke her heart, the way she was used over the following years. Treated as an object and no longer a person. She felt sold, like a slave and over the years fell into darkness.

The manor house she lived in was overrun with captives and trophy's the Baron's family had claimed over the years. Possessions that were both people and objects. Some had been brought, others forced and plain kidnapped. Layla never realised how much the wealthy could get away with behind closed doors. No one tried to escape, Layla learnt the hard way why that was.

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She did eventually escape from captivity. The Baron and his family usually left the manor for a month each year for a holiday. On the year she turned 21 they left her behind along with everyone else, confident that no one would dare leave in their absence. Layla could tell Marcus was getting bored of her.
Forbidden to enter certain areas of the manor house, Layla strayed from the rules and searched the manor while they were away. She eventually came across a prison, buried deep beneath the manor holding enemies of the Baron. She visited the prison frequently on discovering an old woman in one of the cells. Bringing the old woman good food and water every day she grew fond of the elderly lady, glad to have some comforting company and someone to talk to. The others would only report back to the Baron and his family if she said anything they could get rewarded for.
She remembered bringing books down so she could read to the woman, and in exchange she told her stories about her life and then taught her about the magic she had and the skills she had learnt.

On the eve of the Baron's return the old woman betrayed Layla and used her magic to possess her free body. Layla has no memory of what she did that night but knew from the old woman's explanation that she had murdered the Baron and his family.

The old woman apologised for using Layla but said it was necessary to get her revenge. She had been waiting along time for someone to stumble across her whereabouts. As a thankyou she told Layla to use the rare magic she had taught her to survive in the world. The woman assured her that with magic like hers, she would be the one using people from now on.

Layla fled from the manor, and used the magic she had learnt to get far away from the house and it's inhabitants. She learnt years later that the Barons son survived whatever attack she had committed and had been hunting her ever since he'd recovered.

She's been sort of on the run since. Her powers having grown over the years are now substantial but she cannot rid herself of the past fear she suffers whenever she remembers Marcus.