Her mother's idea of raising a child was to give her something to occupy her attention and stick her in a corner out of her way. Karen lived in a one bedroom apartment, so Karen's "bed" was the beat up old couch in the living room/dining room. During the afternoons and evenings, her mother worked in the bar, nights, she would come home usually very late smelling of booze and cheep perfume with some guy she'd picked up at work. So for four years, a neighbor next door, (one sho believed a child needed to be slapped often to keep discipline), babysat Doe. When she turned four, Doe's mother decided that she was old enough to stay home by herself. In reality, Karen didn't want to pay the babysitter anymore. So until she turned eight, Doe took care of herself, eating what she liked, going wherever she liked, watching what she liked and going to bed when she liked.

But when she turned eight, her mother became envolved with a new man at the bar. Unlike the other's, this one moved in. Tom Anders is a plumber. When he moved in to the apartment, his check went towards booze, girlie magazines, r-rated movies, and anything else he decided he wanted. Meanwhile, Karen's check continued to pay the bills, buy groceries, and clothes. Only now, instead of having to stretch it to pay for two people, it had to make do for three. And Doe was often odd man out.

And now Karen and Tom where often home at a regular time, before Doe usually went to bed. Now Doe was expected to either be alseep when they got home, or be gone out. She had to be quiet and keep out of Karen and Tom's way. And since Tom liked a clean house, and Karen worked too, Doe was now expected to clean the dishes, vacume, dust and do whatever else needed to be done.

Then when she was nine, her mother was working late. Doe was already in "bed" when Tom tried to slip under the covers with her. But her mother arrived before things got bad. And she refused to believe Doe, siding instead with Tom and accusing Doe of lying to get rid of him. After that, whenever her mother had to work late, Doe stayed away tell she knew her mother would be home. And she started sleeping with a knife under her pillow, just in case.

It was when she was ten one day, that Tom got home early while Karen was still at work. Doe was on the couch watching tv and he made another advance on her. To protect herself, she pulled the knife out of it's hiding place, and sliced Tom's arm open. Needless to say, he left immediately for the hospital. When he got home, Doe was after telling her mother of the incedent. But like the other time he'd tried something, Karen sided with him.

The next day, they took Doe to court and made her a ward of the state, claiming that she was too dangerous for them to handle any more. Doe was taken away and, because she had attacked Tom with a knife, she was placed in a juvenile deliquents home tell she'd turn 18. None of the adults she protested to would listen or believe her side of the story.

At the home, she learned that if you got caught breaking the rules, you were hit. The jaintor that worked there would often watch the girls at the home through the windows as they changed, or when they where in the showers. If they complained, they were always accused of lieing and would be punished. Doe learned to fight there to protect herself from the other girls. She learned never to go anywhere by herself after hours, for if the jaintor caught you....

When she was 12 years old, she and another girl managed to run away. They were both caught two miles down the road and dragged back to the home. Then at 14, Doe again managed to escape the home. This time, she managed to escape and disappear into a city.

There she met a girl two years older than her who bought her something to eat at a diner and told her of a place she could go to stay at. Foolishly allowing herself to trust the other girl, she went with her, only to get grabbed by the girl's pimp. To gain control of her, he started feeding Doe heroin, getting her addicted, and dependant on him for more. She was forced to work for him, to get more. But a six months later, she was busted by the police and sent back to the home she'd escaped from. And because she'd run away twice from the home, she had been given extra time on her "sentence" now she had to remain at the home tell she turned 20, and if she ran away one more time, she would be sent to a real prision. She remained at the home for three more months before she tried to run away again. She was caught two days later and sent to a women's prision in Vancouver. And there she was forced to stay until she turned 21, for the crime of trying to protect herself.

Seven months has passed since she got out of prision, and because she was in jail, she couldn't get any other job other than as a janitor. As it is, she is illiterate anyway, haveing not bothered to go to school while growing up. All she can afford on her paycheck, is a one room apartment in a high crime district. A slum in every since of the word. She owns a gun which she brought illegally for protection which she always carries on her. And while she was in jail, her drug addiction was cleaned up and she still has not gone back on it, knowing what will most likely happen to her if she does. Course, god only knows what will happen if she ever learns that her mother and Tom are now living in Vancouver also.

PERSONALITY Doe, for good reasons, doesn't trust people. To her friends are people you band up with for protection, but drop when they are no longer useful. Love is a fairytale, and trust is something you can use to manipulate people with. She has never let anyone get close to her, trying to keep everyone at a distance, for to her, everyone is the enemy. And no one has cared enough to try to get close to her anyway. She has spent a little more than half her life in prision. and never commited a crime, and is understandable bitter about it.

She likes to think she's a tough, dangerous person who can handle anything and doesn't need anyone. Someone, who no one can hurt. In reality, she's a lonely young woman who was never given a fair chance. Despite her coldness towards other adults, she does soften up a bit around kids. After all, she knows what it's like to be that young and be the victim.