There was a decade where the name Delilah Howland was synonymous with genre fiction. A beloved Goth icon turned born-again Evangelical, Delilah's story is well-trod ground, detailed in an authorized biography, two autobiographies, and some less authorized ones too. Propelled to becoming one of the most famous and best paid novelists in the 1980's, her books which combined Gothic horror with weird fiction and erotic romance are still iconic, even if she has receded from the public eye. Just six years ago, Love Like Ghosts was made into a blockbuster movie series, riding high on the nostalgia wave!
Her legacy was somewhat complicated by her religious turn in the nineties, after suffering from major substance abuse and losing her husband to a coma. Being tied to televangelists and expanding her mythos into millenarian "Left Behind" style Christian fiction shifted her fanbase. Eventually she became a recluse, and is rarely seen in public, though she is well-known still in literary, cinema, and political circles as a philanthropist, critic, and big dollar donor to the Republican Party. She has not published a novel in thirteen years.
A small splash was made when she moved from her native Georgia to New York City. While mostly out of the public eye, some rumors began to spread she was setting up shop in the Bronx and making moves to possibly start a new foundation, or perhaps break back into the literary world.
Parasites are good at finding openings. Little is known about the circumstances of Howland's Embrace, or even when it happened, though one might imagine it happened sometime in the 90's or 00's. What reputation does precede her from the congregation of Atlanta is a tireless scholar of Kindred history (especially on the Camarilla), with a rather reformist bent compared to the more hardline of the Lancea et Sanctum, yet with a terrifying control over the miracles of the blood all the same.
In fact, many might not even realize Delilah is of the Sanctified, she does little to advertise it. Her flock is the entirety of the All Night Society, not simply a self-chosen elect. Few even know she is an anointed priest, and she seems to spurn some of the ritual and sacraments, instead for a more Charismatic and revivalist bent. It is equally full of grandeur and brimstone, in the end.
Her blood curse is manifest first in a buzzing sound, like that of an winged insect, a fluorescent lamp, a wordless hum. It is very quiet, barely there, except when you look at her. Then it gets louder. She moves very little, but when she does, it's too quick. Her limbs and digits, when they move, seem to have a life of their own. When she turns her head, it goes a bit too far. When she smiles, she never shows her teeth. Sometimes, something moves under her skin. Behind her shaded glasses, something 'squirms' in the shadow of her iris. Most of her body is hidden, favoring heavy turtlenecks and long sleeves. Why?
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