History:

Born and raised in the South Side of Chicago, IL, Ellis never had very much money. As a kid, his mom had two minimum wage jobs to keep them afloat. His mom was 19 when she got pregnant with his brother Michael and her boyfriend at the time left before he was even born. Michael never met his real dad. After that, his mom had men coming and going in their lives, but never anyone who stayed that long. Three years later, Ellis was born, but his mom had no idea who the father was. His mom worked the two jobs and often left him and his brother to the care of her hardened mother, Rita. She was really strict. She drank and smoked a lot, and often times had men over. She wasn't a very old woman, she didn't look her age. She had aged gracefully, and plus she was easy. When Ellis was ten and Michael was thirteen his mom started to drink quite a bit more and one man named Roger came over steadily at all times of the night. He brought over all kinds of drugs and eventually she got into it as well. They did any drugs they could get their hands into. Eventually she got fired because of it.

But she and Roger made a living off selling drugs---though they usually spent the money on drugs. Somehow, though, they kept their tiny apartment. Roger was scruffy, pot-bellied man. He often was violent when he was doing drugs and drinking a lot. Roger beat Michael and Ellis on several occasions. Ellis, too young to really understand, threw himself into his studies because he loved to learn and was incredibly smart. He was a shinning star in the inner city school system. His brother Michael, on the other hand, started getting into drugs himself, and dealing them around. The house was all together turbulent between the amount of police visits because of Michael & their mom and Roger's constant fights about drugs and the beatings. Michael only felt safe when he had his nose in the books, soaking in information like a sponge.

Then, when Ellis was twelve years old, his brother was shot in the line of fire in a squabble over a cocaine deal. He was shot several times in the chest and abdomen. He died before reaching the hospital. His mother was distraught and realized the consequences of drugs. She broke up with Roger and went to a rehab, leaving Ellis alone with his hardened grandmother. She had her own ways of doing things. She never allowed men to push her around too much, although she didn't mind if they pushed around her grandson. If Ellis was bad, she'd watch smiling as he was beat until submission. Sometimes even worse would happen. The men always paid the bills for them, though. And many times Ellis helped with his own drug money. His grandma didn't seem to mind. She got mad when he got caught, however, calling him a sloppy business man. Around that time, his grades started to slip as he was pressured to take over his brothers' business. By the time he was thirteen, he was deep into the drug dealing game but wouldn't touch drugs. He was more into alcohol.

His mom returned after a year "away", not only to detox, but as Ellis later found out from his grandma (she told him spitefully after Ellis was once again brought home by the cops for underage drinking, again saying he was lazy and stupid for getting caught) her mom had left rehab after 6 months with a man and they had run off to Vegas to be wed. She had stayed out there for a while until he left her. By the time she got home, she looked like she had aged several years and was sad. He had wondered why she was gone so long and worried a lot about it, but he eventually just put it out of his mind all together. Ellis was always a caring individual; sensitive, even. But he barely showed it. Even as a kid, because his grandma would call him soft. His mom stayed sober for a year. But with him getting in trouble and her trying to work two jobs, she was crushed under the pressure. She started doing heroin by then. Ellis ended up quitting school so he could manage his drug dealings full time so that they could make rent. His mother started to disappear for days at a time. But by then he was used to it. He thought he handled himself pretty well. This went on for some time. When he was 16, his mom was arrested for drug possession. Ellis, being the smart guy that he was never brought the drugs home with him but instead had it stored in an abandoned warehouse. So he moved back in with his grandma. This time, however, he tried not to let the men dominate him.

Ellis' mom never returned. They thought maybe she found another man after she had escaped rehab. Or maybe she was dead. They weren't sure. He lived with his grandma indefinitely. But it was miserable. Despite his constant sticking up for himself, he was occasionally taken advantage of. The day after he turned 18 he left, never to look back again.

He had enough money to take a bus to Philadelphia. He stayed here for the next few years, living on the streets, selling drugs whenever he could to get money for food. Mostly, though, he turned to crime to get the things he needed.

One day at age 21, a friend got him to try heroin. His whole world was shaken as he entered a world of drug addiction. He would do anything to get his fix. He sometimes had to stoop to male prostitution. He had to do anything to get by. When he dealt drugs, he had befriended a man he called gramps who did some dabbling in drug deals but mostly worked at a convince store. He took a liking to this sharp young man. Even though Ellis put on an air of cold indifference, he saw that the boy was actually a caring individual. Through time, he fed and housed Ellis at random times to keep him alive. He also saved him one time when he OD'd. When Ellis was 21, the man convinced him move in with him and quit cold turkey. It was a rough time but Ellis got through it. Gramps got him a job with him at the convenience store and Ellis lived for some time sober. A few years later, a stroke took the old man's life and Ellis went into a deep depression. He stole all of the money from the store and took off again. He stumbled into Hathian, broke and friendless. He knew in order to survive, he'd have to stick to his strengths, drug dealing. He just hoped he wouldn't fall victim to his own product again.

Stats:
Age: 23
Ethnicity: White/Caucasian
Hometown: Chicago,IL

Personality Quirks:
-He avoided women and thought they only caused trouble.
-Shows kinship towards elderly men because they remind him of gramps, the guy who was more like his father figure than anyone else in his life.
-Incredibly intelligent but plays dumb to fool others.
-Feels guilty about what he does, but knows that he had to do what he could to survive.
-Deep down an actual decent person.