THIS CONTAINS THE HISTORY OF HOW I CREATED THIS STORY AND EVERYTHING ELSE RELATED TO THE STORY. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS WILL BE A FAIRLY LONG BUT INTERESTING CHAPTER.

BUT IF YOU HATE HISTORY, YOU CAN ALWAYS SKIP.

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Are there any details regarding the history of how you created this story?

The very first draft for this story (which only had about 1000+ words) was originally my entry for a creative writing competition held in my school. Of course, it was absolutely underdeveloped and full of trash.

But one day, I decided to use that very draft as my base foundation of a potential story which I then developed into the final draft (which is what you're reading right now) in about a few days. 

What had been your main inspirations to write this story and your characters?

The story behind the choice of my main character's name started off when I had been looking for sources of inspiration for my story. I had just began to write this story right after the premiere of the movie 'Suicide Squad' since that was the time my competition was set around, and after seeing the movie, I somehow developed an interest in the relationship of Harley Quinn and the Joker.

As most of you know, their relationship portrayed throughout the movies and comics was a form of abusive love which had been romanticized, which lead me to the question of how people were still enjoying seeing the both of the characters together when it was clearly unhealthy.

Seeing this as an interesting view on how some people had different thoughts of this, I, too, had originally wanted the characters in the story to have a similar 'relationship' like the one of Harley Quinn and the Joker. 

But in the end, I had tried to develop the story into a way where you can see how Jekyll had never returned the same amount of love back to Demelza, until the end where he fully realized and appreciated the sacrifices she had made for him until only the point where she was finally dead. I did this instead of focusing and including the abusive love in it, because no. 

Just no. However, I do feel that it is quite similar to how Harley had given up her sanity and job for her 'true' love, the Joker. (Love is blind.)

Was this related to your choice of choosing your character's names and their personalities?

Jekyll

Yes! Seeing this as a semi-developed concept of inspiration for my story, I decided to apply the same inspiration on the names of my characters. Some of you could also see the similarities between Jekyll to Joker, where they both start with a J and their views on love being similar in a way. Jekyll and the Joker are also both 'twisted' in a way, whereas Jekyll, instead of being one who has lost his mind, is different in terms of being a human/supernatural being.

And to my fellow literature lovers and observant beans, if you had spotted it as well during the short story, yes! Give yourself a pat on the back! Jekyll's name and personality was indeed based off the character Dr Jekyll in the book 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. But instead of changing the character into a whole new character and person, I chose to make a different personality for Jekyll in terms of facing love. 

Demelza

Demelza's surname 'Harper', however, was based off the name of the famous author of 'To Kill a Mockingbird', Harper Lee. To be honest, I had originally wanted Demelza's name to be Harley, before I realized: oh no, I'm basically copying the author of Batman's ideas, etc, which is why I ended up on a random name generator 15 minutes later, which led me to the name Demelza.

And I also love Harry Potter a lot, which you can probably figure out the reason behind the familiar list of names Demelza was planning for her future children (which sadly never happened) such as the name Lily.

Why did you choose to write the second ending?

The story was meant to stop at the original ending which showed Jekyll crying while he apologized to the already dead Demelza. But due to the fact that I wanted more than just that cliffhanger ending, I decided to form up a second part which showed how Jekyll, unlike the Joker, had actually developed genuine feelings for the other protagonist, which can be shown at the end when he finally made it up to her by buying her the flowers and writing a card for her (just like people in the movies).

I also wrote the second part of the ending because I wanted to show the later part of the entire story and how I could actually write an actual plot twist. Like wow. (Okay, it may not seem that much of a cool plot twist after a while, but to me, it was just wow.) 

I swear, that 'plot twist' was actually just formed in 5 minutes.

The letters had been included and written much later after this story had been published. Why did you choose to add this part into the story?

I included Jekyll's and Demelza's letters at the end because I wanted the readers to see how both of the main characters felt about each other: Dem's letter before she had went to meet Jekyll, and Jekyll's letter after the incident. 

There is no specific reason to why I did that, but somehow I just had to. I guess it made me feel better to finally show the readers the other side of Jekyll and the eternal love Dem had for him. But just like the second ending, it was added mainly for fun.

Any last words?

To conclude, these are just some of the main and basic explanations behind the concept of this story and the names of the main characters. If you still want to know more about why I decided to choose a sad ending, feel free to just message me because I reply. 

I also hope that you, fellow reader had had the same pleasure of reading this as I did writing it.

I AM NOT SORRY FOR WRITING THIS CRUEL ENDING. -Alicia Nott, 2017.