1. Character Description

Margaret O'Connell (mid 20's)

Physical: Just over five feet tall, about 5'2, with rather short legs. She is an unhealthy brand of skinny - lack of appetite brought on by depression made her lose drastic amounts of weight. She has long black hair, which is naturally a stereotypically Irish red. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are still fair however, which gives her an odd, eerie quality. She has pale green eyes, very white skin and a light smattering of freckles over her nose. Her right eyebrow is pierced with plain black studs and she has a tattoo of a Jack of Spades on the underside of her left wrist, which she will often cover with bracelets. She never takes off her engagement ring, or a locket with a picture of her late fiancée, Jack, inside.

Psychological: Before Jack's death, she was naïve and sweet, but the trauma of his passing caused her to become hardened, cynical and jaded (she was present when a petty thief shot him in the head for his wallet). She is afraid for her sanity, because about six months after his death she begins to see Jack's ghost, and he forces visions of the deaths of murder victims upon her. The visions are consistently correct, however, which leads her to believe the figment may be real. She hides her fear and confusion with anger and sarcasm, unwilling to let herself show any weakness.

Sociological: She is from a modern-day family in Toronto. Her parents emigrated from Ireland before she was born and have very traditional catholic values. She also has one older sister named Trisha. She has become estranged from her family, however since Jack's death and avoids all contact. They are middle class citizens.

2. Hidden/Contrasting face of Character
While she repeatedly states how much she hates Jack, and how she wishes he had just stayed dead, Maggie still has strong feelings for him. He was her fiancée and she is still very much in love with him. She masks it with a façade of loathing because she does not know how to handle her emotions.  While she continually says she wishes he would disappear so she could move on with her life, she knows that's not what would happen. She never moved on when he stayed dead the first time.

3. Character Flaw
Maggie's biggest flaw is how heavily she relies on Jack. As soon as he was killed, she just shut off and felt she could no longer continue to function in the world, thus becoming recluse. The only thing that brings her back into contact with the outside world is Jack's return, and he is the driving force behind almost all of her actions. She must overcome this by gaining independence.

4. Situation
Margaret O'Connell's fiancée, Jack Bandi, was murdered six months ago. Just as she begins to pick up the pieces and recover, Jack returns in the form of a spirit only she can see.  He inflicts visions of the last moments of the lives of murder victims upon her, insisting she use the insight to assist the police.  Jack believes this will free him from earthly ties and does not relent, even as the police begin to suspect Margaret of criminal activity due to her intimate knowledge of cases.

5. Key Actions to Express Character

A) The entire story is really just her quest to recover from Jack's death. When he was truly dead, all she wanted was to have him back, but her obstacle was that he was deceased. Once he returns as a ghost, she wants him out of her life because she doesn't know how to handle it. The obstacle is that Jack thinks the only way he can leave is if she helps him catch killers, so her goal becomes to help the police catch as many murders possible. In the end, it turns out that what she truly needed was to truly let go of Jack, which she had never actually done.  She takes off her engagement ring for the first time, and the simple act of removing the symbol of their attachment sets Jack free from Earth and Maggie free from Jack.

B) When Jack first appears and begins giving Maggie the visions, she flat out refuses to tell the police - or anyone for that matter.  After Jack's death, she spent most of her time alone in her apartment in a very passive state, and she resists strongly when Jack attempts to make her active in the world again.  She only relents when he sends her the vision of a little girl beaten to death by her mother, whose father was charged with murder because the authorities believed his wife's word over his.  This tragedy forces Maggie to put aside her apathy, and her fear that the visions might be a manifestation of her insanity, and tell the police what she knows.  It shows that despite a jaded and sometimes even cruel exterior, Maggie is kind at heart.

C) A police officer named Charlie Lau is sent to track Maggie's movements and quietly search for clues about how she could possibly be related to the string of seemingly unrelated murders she had knowledge of. The two become romantically involved, and he is convinced that she isn't a serial killer, but she refuses to tell him where she gets her information, keeping Jack's ghost a secret. Because she will not tell Charlie her source, she is taken in for interrogation by his superiors and his opinion wavers as to weather or not she could be a killer.  This shows that keeping Jack's ghost a secret is more important to Maggie than her relationship with Charlie, or even her freedom. It's another manifestation of how disproportionally important Jack is to her over everything else.