Rise: Cogito

2 years ago, Jake Adley, age 16, killed himself. His sister, April Adley, 2 years younger, never quite recovered from it.

Although the exact cause for Jake’s suicide was unknown, it was believed that it had something to do with one of his classmates, Derek Tennison. Derek, Jake, and Tyler Conklin had all been friends, but suddenly, several months before Jake’s suicide, they stopped spending time together. The night before Jake’s suicide, Derek and Jake had met in Central Park, at the 59th street entrance.

In reality, Jake had realized he was bisexual, and had feelings for Derek. He told Derek several weeks earlier, causing an immediate rift. The night of his suicide, Derek invited him to the park, and told him he intended to out him to everyone else in their circle of friends, so that no one else could be betrayed by him in that way. Jake was so afraid of being ostracized and having his secret revealed that he killed himself.

Several years later, during a symphony outing, a fight erupted when Derek made a crude comment about Jake, and April overheard. April attacked Derek, and was suspended. During her suspension, she went to the statue in Central Park, and was approached by a spirit who claimed to be Jake. He urged her to use the Guardian Angel game to kill off Derek and get revenge, and April did. In reality, however, April did nothing at all- the spirit killed him, but he wanted to see just how far he could manipulate the girl.

He did just that, coercing further murders from her, and eventually dragged Madison St. Clair, April’s best friend into it. The spirit only targeted the people selected by the game, in order to mask his activities as something that could be attributed to something mundane.

Madison eventually used the game to target Tyler Conklin, one of Derek’s friends who was particularly cruel to April. However, Madison did not realize that April had a crush on Tyler despite this, and when he died, April became filled with anger, and targeted Madison.

The spirit, amused by the turn of events, then conspired to have April kill herself as well, having been as satisfied as he felt he could be with the game. In reality, the spirit was never James Adley, but just a malicious breaker posing as James, after picking up on April’s affections for her lost brother that day in Central Park.