Editing WMM:Daniel Hawthorne (section)

==Background==

Daniel Hawthorne (though that is not his real name) comes from an old, old family. He hadn't known this as he was growing up, for his father had deliberately severed all links to them after his wife died, and merely suffered from strange dreams, that gained in horror and intensity as he grew up. Sometimes he merely saw an old coastal town whose inhabitants just seemed a little off, and sometimes his mind wandered under the sea and in even stranger and more distant places. On the few occasions when he mentioned his nightmares to his father, the man's face grew dark and he shook his head; but he said nothing.

One day, his father died in an accident - at least, that is what the coroner had said. On the day after that, young Daniel's uncle, whom he had never heard of before, had showed up to take him to a town with a familiar name. At first, Daniel was resistant, but he had no one else left, and he felt a morbid tinge of curiosity. Going to that town was a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life, even though he had only spent a few days there before mustering up the will to escape. His visions had been given a frightful solidity, but rather than dispel his fears, they had only added to them, as he was given a glimpse of what he could become.

Even though for a while it seemed as though he had made his getaway and even managed to find work and shelter, the dreams did not let him go. He realised that they were stronger the closer he was to that town, and he sought to distance himself from it. Throwing himself into his work and staying on the move in a succession of different professions seemed to throw it off somewhat, as well as help him avoid the pursuers that he was certain would go after him again eventually. When America entered the Great War, he jumped at the chance to leave the continent and jump into the fray, where he showed signs of almost suicidal bravery and was struck almost completely deaf by an artillery barrage. After the war was over, he did not return home for a while, trying to make his life elsewhere.

But it did not work out, and he found himself slowly but surely drifting back to that town again. He was in Chicago, about two thirds of the way there, when he thought he found something that would help him stop.