Cliff Ford
"The Paranormal Killer"
Name: Cliff Ford
Age: was 22 (deceased)
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Appearance: Normally seen in the same clothes, even though they're mucky and rather torn. His skin tone is pale and rather sickly, bruises and cuts lining his neck and upper arms left over from when he was killed. Slim yet lean, with the ends of his body such as his hands and feet being transparent.
Things to Note: Cliff suffers with abandonment issues, usually hanging around anyone he stumbles on. For a ghost he's quite jumpy, considering himself a good person and not a killer. He likes everyone in the house, though holds caution when conversing with Dr Em as well as Cato. he care's deeply for Yuki and Bernie, and loves talking with Wyatt since he's of a similar age in which he passed.
Cliff Ford was your average working joe, hitching a 9 to 5 job at a local kid's restaurant in Boston as a janitor/ waiter with his spare time being devoted to training with his baseball team, being the teams lead batter and midfielder. Life was well for him.
In work Cliff was a good employee, didn’t stand out too much, not employee of the month material but still an all-round good guy. The same however couldn’t be said for his drinking buddy and long-time friend Austin. Austin and Cliff met back in high school, the two hitting it off for their love for baseball and odd TV shows that people usually scoffed at. In their adult years Austin was Cliff’s manager, newly promoted after the old one moved away to California to get hitched. Life should have been a breeze, but Cliff noticed Austin’s attitude shift when he became manager, no longer was he the jokester of a friend who he would go out for drinks with; no, now he was colder, some would argue more mature but Cliff could see something wasn’t right.
One-night Cliff found himself on the late shift cleaning up after a large birthday party they had had that day, sweeping, and mopping the floors of the used confetti and food. His Walkman blasting tunes in his ears as he disposed of the rubbish, his eyes scanned the room, admiring the fully prepped and cleaned party room that was ready for the next day's customers. A large crash however startled him from his job well done. “hello?” He called out, his voice echoing down the down the empty corridor as if walking into an abandoned crypt. He was at this point expecting to see some lost kid to come walking out… even though it was way past closing hours. Anxiously, he left his post to investigate the cause of the crash; maybe some of the stock fell from the shelf, or he left something incorrectly stacked he thought as he opened the back-room door slowly. Instead of being greeting by a box of tipped over party supplies, he was met with the darkened outline of Richard. His face hidden yet the blade in his hand was painfully visible, droplets of red streaming down the sharp edge as Cliff’s terrified eyes drifted down to the mangled corpse of what seemed to be a man at Richard’s feet. Cliff couldn’t help but double over, hurling at the sight and metallic smell, Richard taking note of his presence with a distained growl. Getting back up Cliff stared at Richard in a confused and pleading manner, wanting to get as far away as he could from the man but at the same time fearing what would happen if he just upped and ran. “Richard… Please… we’re friends” Cliff pleaded in hopes of reach his friend, stepping back as the taller man made his advances to him; silence, Richard had nothing to say, his face already highlighting his true intent. Cliff tried his best to leave, to run or even fight back but it was no use, Richard was on him in a flash. Delving the knife deep into his abdomen as if he were trying to slot a key into a door lock, repeating this motion a couple more time as he clasped his hand around the brunettes mouth to prevent him from calling out for help. Cliff struggled, biting at Richards hand to which he was released, trying to escape as the other growled in pain. He didn’t make it far. His body felt like jelly as the blood practically leaked out of him with each step he took, his vision blurred slightly as he held to the wall for dear life all the while holding down on the fatal knife wound Richard bestowed. With one misstep, Cliff was on the floor, mouth agape and panting for dear oxygen as red began to slowly pour out of the dying mans mouth.
Richard stood there, watching as Cliff suffered in the pain, he had caused with a sadistic smile spreading across his face. Not a single sign of remorse or care as crouched, moving Cliff to a sitting position in order to converse with his friend one last time. “I have to say… I wasn’t planning on killing you tonight… heck I wasn’t even planning on killing you end of… but you just had to walk in didn’t you…” Richard sneered, as Cliff weakly coughed in response. “well… it’s done now… it’s just business pal…” Richard continued as he patted his shoulder.
Cliff could barely keep his eyes open, not even strong enough to mutter him final words. His face falling from the angered pained expression to one of drained life; he wanted to scream, he wanted to cry out… he wanted to survive… but this was it. He was dying, his life stolen by this bastard who stood smirking in front of him. With one last ounce of strength, he vowed to get his revenge… to make Richard suffer, unbeknownst to him that this very final wish would come to haunt him.
Cliff jolted up in panic, his eyes wide as he rubbed his head. Was it just a dream? Was… was he just slacking off? He slowly got off the floor, his eyes hurting slightly at the bright light that shone through the buildings sky light. “Morning already… How long did I sleep?” Cliff panicked, walking over to the main area of the establishment; kids ran around as parents gossiped and ate- Cliff was confused, how could he have slept so long… and how come no one had come to wake him up? at some point someone must of combed the hallway where he was. Questions raced his mind as he made his way towards a group of parents, their baby screaming in fear as he approached. He held his hands up defensively, apologizing to the mother as she goes to tend to their crying wails, “what’s wrong?” the mother cooed, turning to Cliff… however the look she gave him, why… she wasn’t looking at him, rather through him. As if he wasn’t there.
The mother hummed as she turned back round, sitting with the baby to sooth their cries, Cliff went out to reach for the young mothers shoulder only for the dad to get up slowly, claiming a need to use the restrooms, passing right through the troubled man. The sensation made Cliff backup, looking down at his hands in panic… but he looked perfectly normal… what was going on? Was this still a dream? This had to be! He booked it for the toilet’s running his hands against the water before splashing it into his face. “Wake up… please wake up” Cliff begged, looking up into the mirror only to be taken a back by what he saw. It was him but it couldn’t of… looking down he was fine but, in the mirror... his skin was pale, and eyes were missing or darkened to a point of being almost void like. His hair a mess that followed along with the tatted appearance of his clothes, that only got worse at the sight of the large blood stain where Richard had stabbed him. So… it wasn’t a dream, what had happened that night… Cliff didn’t want to think about. He backed up slowly, falling back against the wall, hands on his head as he felt an overwhelming negativity wash over him. This was the beginning of a very long Nightmare.
