Christine Leigh

Christine Leigh is Adam’s younger sister. I settled on the name Christine for several reasons. The name comes from the Latin word Christianus, meaning follower of Christ.

Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah”. The messianic etymology of the name counterpoints the negative image that defines Christine’s status in Carrion as a drug user. It can also be shortened to Chris, giving her character a certain androgyny.

Born in 1995, she was two when her brother joined the army. In the years that followed she saw him occasionally. His absence from the family home meant she actually grew up an only child, the sole beneficiary of her parents emotional, physical, and financials resources.

The constant attention, lead to a strong willed girl, sensitive to disapproval. Denied competition from a sibling, she exhibits a certain possessiveness with her time, space, and belongings. Perfectly happy to spend time alone, fiercely loyal, she prefers the company of a few close friends, to the superficial connections exhibited by her extrovert peers.

Strongly dependant on her parents for emotional support, she is devastated by their deaths in 2007. This forced separation, that under normal circumstances would have been difficult enough, is even more traumatic. The resistance normally associated with early adolescence, jams up against the push for freedom, and propensity for conflict associated with middle adolescence. That in turn jams up against the need to try more adult activities associated with late adolescence.

Adam, who shared his sisters emotional proclivities, took the full force of the turmoil. Out of his depth, he found himself unable to offer her anything but the most material support. Her grief, coupled with her unrequited emotional needs, forces a distance, that manifested itself as anger. The growing pains of adolescence, compounded by her strong will, lead to escalating conflicts with Adam. They would argue, constantly, sometime over the most trivial things.

To escape the conflicts, she would go out, spend hours hunkered down with friends, wandering the streets, or hiding in her room, anything but deal with Adam, and what he represented, her dead parents.

By the time she was fifteen she had started drinking. By the time she was sixteen she was a regular in the local clubs. By the time she was seventeen recreational drug use was a regular part of her life. With hindsight her behaviour was was direct challenge to her brothers position as a police officer.

Suspecting she was using drugs, he searched her room, found the evidence he was looking for, and confronted her. The argument that followed escalated into violence, and she stormed out. By the time she was seventeen Christine was living independently. She lived for a while with some friends, got a job working in a shop.

Late in 2011 she met Stephen Joseph. Early 2012 they were living together. Supplementing what income they had from regular jobs, they supplied the pills and powders that fuelled their weekends to close friends.

Stephen’s dealing was small scale, never out in the open, never to strangers, but it was enough to attract the attention of drug eating insects.