Gideon

What Happened to Annie Hughes? - On a foggy October night in 1993, sixteen year old Annie Hughes ran off into the woods and disappeared. Six-year old Gideon followed, and returned covered in her blood. No one knows what happened to her, but older residents might have participated in the search for her. Younger ones might have heard the news stories, or heard it mentioned on the anniversary of her death. There's still a swirl of suspicion around young Gideon, despite the near-impossibility of the six year old overpowering the athletic teenager.

All Creatures Great and Small - Dr. Hughes works in the local veterinary clinic. Although he's a deft hand at house pets, his specialty lies in wild animal rehabilitation, horses and other livestock.

That Weird Kid - Contemporaries of Gideon would remember him as the quiet, weird kid who kept to himself and just generally seemed a little off. Even as an adult, he's better with animals than he is with people. Despite all that's happened to him, he remains a raw nerve of a man, with a seemingly delicate psyche and a keen awareness of the feelings of those around him.

Gideon Hughes was always a strange child. He was quiet, withdrawn and was slow to start reading and start talking. But thanks to his teacher father and pediatrician mother, he caught up. When he was six, he heard his older sister Annie get up and sneak out in the middle of the night. He had always been close to his big sister. She was ten years his senior and his father's daughter from a previous marriage. He followed her outside and into the woods that bordered the family's property. Even he doesn't know exactly what happened that night. His parents and the psychologists he was sent to suspected he had buried and repressed that night. But what they know for sure is that he emerged from the woods just before dawn, crying and covered in his sister's blood. Annie was never found.
Though it seemed quite impossible that a frail six year old could have hurt the athletic and tall Annie, rumours persisted that Gideon himself killed his sister. In a town the size of Gray Harbor, that kind of thing can dog you. It didn't help that ever since that night, he'd started to feel different, to see things differently. He could feel the suspicion and discomfort coming off other people and directed his way. He found he had some success making others feel his own pain and isolation. And he had the most horrible nightmares. Rather than try to ignore those burgeoning strange abilities, he embraced them and tried to control them. It did little to endear him to his peers.
It's a testament to his intelligence and the support of his parents that Gideon got anywhere in life. He had always had a love of animals and a keen mind. He spent his summers as a guide in the Olympic National Forest. He had a mentor who taught him about wildlife rehabilitation. It was that experience that sent him on the path to becoming a vet. In anticipation of applying to college, he took French as his second language. He took to the language naturally and spent a semester abroad in Toulouse, France.
When he graduated, Gideon was keen to get away from Gray Harbor. He completed his undergrad at Seattle Pacific University. On a whim, he applied for veterinary school in Toulouse. He was accepted, and spent the next four years in France, completing his education. When he graduated, he took a job near several stables in Provence. It was there he learned how to ride and became a fair equestrian. He might have stayed there forever, away from the thin parts of the veil. But then his mother got sick.
He's been back in the Gray Harbor for about a year and has taken up work at the local vet. His mother's health has improved, but not enough for him to safely go abroad again. And the longer he's back, the worse the nightmares get.

There is a haunted sadness that hovers over Gideon like a fog. He looks like he's perpetually in need of a good night's sleep, and looks pale, with dark circles below his eyes. His hair is always a little bit too long, curls a bit too disheveled, facial hair just a tick past artful stubble and into scruff. His eyes are large and seem to shift from green, to dark gray to blue - but always retain the haunted look. The glasses he sometimes wears does well to occasionally obscure that.
He favours earthtones, and most of his clothes are loose. Plaid shirts, corduroy, denim. Never a tie, rarely slacks, even when he's on-duty as a vet.