Jasmine Brennan & Bernard Sanders

Written by Minakie

Raised by a drunken negligent father who made her life a living hell, Jasmine had a rough start in life. For many years, her daily routine consisted of begrudgingly leaving the house to go to school and be bullied by her classmates and then delaying going back home as much as possible since she would likely get abused (verbally or physically) by her father, who projected on her the blame for every single thing that went wrong in his life. As she grew older, each day became a dull repetition of the day before. She had no family, no friends, no expectations, no goals, she was simply going through life in an endless cycle of monochromatic depression.

At the age of 17, she was kidnapped on her way back from school. Bernard Sanders, a man about ten years over her age, claimed he would give her a "proper life" if she agreed to become his wife. At first, the tension between Jasmine and her captor was almost palpable, as each was trying to assess what the other would do next and the first days were particularly weird for both of them -- rather than struggle or try to escape, Jasmine would spend most of the time sleeping or just curled up in a blanket somewhere, staring into nothingness and since that was not at all the behavior Bernard was expecting, he was not sure how to address her and most of the first month was filled by long awkward silences and averted gazes from both sides. However, since he didn't seem to be aggressive, Jasmine slowly started to relax around him and, bit by bit, they started talking, sharing stories, and getting to know one another. After finding out that Jasmine saw him not as her captor but as her savior, Bernard felt confused by the whole situation, but also a bit more reassured that he wouldn't have to worry too much about the girl trying to escape; he still took some precautions, just to be safe (such as sound-proofing the house, having a special glass on the windows that allowed them to see from the inside out but not the other way around, multiple locks on the door and a guard-dog on the yard, and disconnecting the internet and phone cables when he went out, etc.), but Jasmine could never really tell, as she never considered asking for help and several months would pass before she even thought of wanting to leave the house, she was mostly just on her own headspace.

Bernard's made enough money that both of them were able to live a humble but comfortable life. Whenever Jasmine needed food, clothes, something for the house, or even for herself, Jasmine needed only ask. She was also allowed to enroll in online classes, just so that she could keep up with her studies. However, since Jasmine didn't cause any trouble and didn't ask for much -- plus, she would cook and help with the domestic chores -- about a year after she was kidnapped, Bernard allowed her to go out with him to go to a shopping mall so that she could buy new clothes of her own choosing and also get something for her birthday. From then on, they started to go out to shop for groceries, go to the air salon, restaurants, the beach, etc. At first, they would only go out on the weekends but, since Jasmine seemed to genuinely enjoy his company, they started also going out almost every day after Brennan came back from work, even if it was just for a quick stroll around the neighborhood.

Throughout her entire time in captivity, Brennan had been nothing but nice and charming, spending time with her, engaging in interesting conversation (and seeming genuinely interested in getting to know her and learn about her interests), trying to woo her and gain her affection by giving her gifts, taking her on romantic night-outs, etc. Around the age of 20, Jasmine declared her love for him, allowing him to take her virginity, and they officially became a couple. After graduating college, at the age of 23, he allowed her to get a part-time job as a midwife assistant, so that she wouldn't be bored just waiting in the house for him to come back from work the whole day. For two whole years, they kept trying to have children, without success.

One day, during one of her shifts, Jasmine was handed over the newborn baby and rushed to a side room, as the rest of the team desperately tried to give assistance to the mother, who was rapidly bleeding out due to complications during childbirth. Eventually, the mother died on the table and Jasmine saw an opportunity to keep the newborn and raise her as her own. With the help of a nurse, she declared that both the mother and the baby had died due to complications during labor. She collected the data regarding the mother (from whom she had also stolen a necklace) and the real name of the child (whom she decided to rename Margaret), and took the infant home in secrecy, filling for sick leave the following day. Bernard had mixed feelings towards the child; on one hand, he didn't like the fact she wasn't his child but, on the other one, he was both glad and relieved that Jasmine wanted to start a family with him -- as such, he agreed to keep and raise the child as theirs. In order to hide the absence of a pregnancy, Jasmine eventually quit her job and became a full-time stay-at-home mom. However, Brennan became highly paranoid and deemed that the child was raised in full secrecy, hidden from the rest of the world. As a result, Margarett grew up never going outside of the house.

Jasmine raised Margarett -- or Maggie, as she would affectionately call her -- with all her love, trying to give her as much of a "normal life" as possible despite the circumstances. However, when Margarett was around 4 or 5, she started having night terrors at night, and would sometimes space out and become mostly irresponsive during the day. Jasmine didn't pay much attention at first, trying to convince herself that it was "just a phase". However, not long before Margarett celebrated her 7th anniversary, Brennan lost his job and started drinking. He became irritable and aggressive, yelling and throwing things, and Margarett's behavior worsened -- she would have panic attacks or start crying for no reason. Convinced that Brennan was potentially abusing the kid just as her own father had once abused her, Jasmine finally decided to ask for help by approaching a gardener who happened to be working on one of the nearby properties. And that is when Mariah Ann Cooper, The Mystic was rescued.

Trigger warning

These characters' backstory contains references to violence against children, trauma, and mental illness.