A tall and sturdy man caught in time in his midyears, Ben has the tough build of one who has seen much of what life had to offer. A private investigator by trade, Ben was always fascinated by the unknown and paranormal, an obsession that traces back to his early years.
Ben joined the police force at an early age, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before, all policemen. While never an outstanding person, Ben was always one to shine in his own way. His common sense and wisdom, great assets at a young age, always helped him to prove his worth in any situation. Ben was extremely adept at uncovering clues and hidden motives to many of the cases he was assigned, and his talents of perception were what basically moved him up the ladder in the force.
At the age of 32 Ben was made a detective. By this time he had also married a woman with whom he had a short, steamy affair. Her name was Vera, and she had her own plans to follow. When Ben was promoted, his job kept him away from the house until very late or the whole night, and this started to have its effect on the unstable couple. Vera eventually cheated on Ben, once, twice, three times. She stopped caring for her husband, and would bring her would-be suitors (or as Ben called them, "the fuck of the night") to the house, never even stopping if Ben happened to walk into the room where she and her "boy-toy for the night" were having sex. Ben opted never to do anything, except to yell at times, and Vera could always yell louder. Vera, on her part, was becoming filthy rich, as her clothing designs became more and more famous. Eventually she moved out of the house, founded her own company and petitioned for a divorce. There was also a second, hidden motive, one that, in a rare display of caring no one can understand to this day, Vera never told to anyone.
Ben had become obsessed once again with the paranormal and supernatural. After swearing to have witnessed what he termed "a supernatural entity" feeding upon the living, he threw himself into this renewed passion with abandon. His case reports started showing this, as murder cases were attributed to extraterrestrial beings or ghost or vampires, and so on. In a short time Ben was taken off the streets, and only a month after discharged from service. Vera then asked for a divorce, which just sunk him deeper into depression. He just threw himself deeper into his work.
By some miracle of fate, the court ruled in favor of Ben, and Vera ended up having to share her wealth with Ben. The arrangement they came to was that Vera would pay for all of Ben's bills, in effect maintaining him. This gave Ben all the time he needed to dedicate himself to his new job: Paranormal Detective. Operating out of his small apartment in a suburb of Miami, he eventually landed a few jobs for wealthy, superstitious people who paid him great amounts of money to have him discover that the sounds coming from the walls was a leaky pipe that needed repair. He never got too many cases, maybe 1 every three to four months, and he used this money to furnish himself with an extensive library of books on the occult, everything from obvious fakes and tabloids to some antique books worth a whole case's paycheck.
One chilly April night, Ben was walking back to his car after having successfully proven that what his employer thought was a ghost was only a tattered curtain caught high in a nearby oak tree, when he heard footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw no one; all hell broke loose when he turned. Someone, moving too fast for him to make out, jumped him and dragged him to the floor. Before Ben could do anything about it, he felt the attacking man (he knew that much) bite his neck with incredible force. He felt his life flow away from him, as the vampire (for what else could it be?) drank his blood. Darkness enveloped him, and the last thing he remembered before slipping into its silky arms was the bitter taste of blood in his mouth.
Ben awoke in his car, in the parking lot of his apartment building, without any idea of what had happened. He walked up the stairs, thinking to himself that something was not right. He could hear footsteps far away--but saw no one walking nearby--or the voices of people in their rooms at the end of the hall. He could smell something in the air...something he craved and desired, nay, needed, and it was right behind him. He spun with amazing speed. He never even saw the face of the guy, only the blood in him. Ben fed for the first time with abandon, and had not been for some remnant of humanity in him that broke him from his rapture, he would have killed the young man. Horrified, and confused, Ben secluded himself in his apartment for days. It didn't take him long to realize what had happened to him.
Ben McAffe was Born to Darkness in 1989, at the age of 43. He's been a vampire for 8 years, a sire-less Kindred in search of an identity. His story continues...
