Characters / From Hell I Write

The Hoffmisters

Eileen

Eileen Hoffmister, the abusive mother of David and the Big Bad of the trilogy.

• Asshole Victim: She's done everything from child abuse to slavery to murder. No one will miss her.
• Ax-Crazy: While she was always abusive, she really turned vicious after her possession.
• Big Bad: She is responsible for most of the trilogy’s occurrences.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Eileen is charming and kindly old woman on the surface, but underneath it all, she’s a nasty witch who’s done all sorts of evil.
• Demonic Possession/Symbiotic Possession: She summons a demon to enter her body, although it appears to still give her at least some control.
• Evil Old Folks: Child abuse, devil-worship, slavery, murder … all are things she’s done at 60 years old.
• Faux Affably Evil: She acts way too polite to everybody, and retains this demeanor as Patrick is leaving their house, knowing full well that he saw her and Leo forcing David to participate in their ritual.
• Humanoid Abomination: Post-possession.
• Psycho Supporter: Her primary reason for her service to Satan is for the power it gives her. She laid with him to conceive her son, Jackson.
• Sinister Scythe: Wields a sickle on the videotape of herself torturing Darren.
• Wicked Witch: A rather nasty example.
• Would Hurt a Child: Oh, would she ever!

Leo

Leo Hoffmister, Eileen’s perverted husband.

• Attempted Rape: On a little girl, no less!
• Asshole Victim: He was a willing accomplice to Eileen. Nobody's gonna miss him.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Beheads a chicken in a ritual.
• The Dragon: While he aids Eileen and is just as bad as she is, he’s clearly only second to her. He tries to kill her when she refuses to let him rape Nancy.
• Dirty Old Man: Near the end of From Hell I Write, he leaps at a chance to rape the 5-year-old Nancy, only for Eileen to stop him.
• Evil Old Folks: Just as awful as his wife.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: He blows cigar smoke in a ritual.
• Too Dumb to Live: Seriously, punching his possessed wife in the face was a really stupid move that cost him his life. Lampshaded by Patrick.
• Would Hurt a Child: And child molestation isn’t off limits to him, either.

David

The Hoffmisters’ troubled adopted son.

• Abusive Parents: Well, abusive adopted parents, at least. The Hoffmisters force him to participate in their rituals, and beat him if he wets himself in fear.
• And I Must Scream: David ends up as another zombie slave by the end.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He’s stated to always be awkward or miserable. Of course, this is entirely justified, considering his home life.

The Williamses

Patrick

The main protagonist and narrator of From Hell I Write.

• And I Must Scream: Like the rest of his family, he’s turned into a zombie slave, and goes to Hell upon his final death.
• Dead All Along: In Hell all along, to be precise.
• Kid Hero: He’s 11 years old and the narrator of the first story.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: His first reaction to the inverted cross he finds in the Hoffmisters’ house is to laugh at it, wondering “What idiot messed that up?” Justified because he’s a kid.

Nancy

Patrick’s 5-year-old sister, although she’s 25 as of Nancy’s Angelface, which she is also the protagonist of.

• Broken Bird: The events of From Hell I Write have lead to her becoming severely traumatized, but still able to get through school just fine. She eventually gets better when she meets Jackson, although that doesn’t last.
• Fetus Terrible: She realizes that she’s pregnant with Jackson’s child, who was Eileen’s biological son, conceived by her union with Satan.
• Final Girl: Manages to be the sole survivor of From Hell I Write, and also survives Nancy’s Angelface.
• Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday: She finds out that Eileen is being held captive in Jackson’s house on her birthday.

Darren and Bryce

Patrick’s 13-year-old twin brothers.

• Groin Attack: Eileen kicks Darren in the crotch on the tape Patrick found, and might have castrated him.
• Jerkass: Patrick refers to them as “assholes”, and he’s not wrong. They’re prone to gossip and generally picking on their younger brother, albeit not that maliciously.

Sarah and Vincent

The parents of Patrick, Nancy, Darren, and Bryce.

• And I Must Scream: Along with their children, they're transformed into zombie slaves and inevitably sent to Hell.
• Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: Naturally, they panic when they're told someone is watching Nancy from her bedroom.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Don't get much mention in the story before being zombified.

Others

Stella

A girl who encounters the Hoffmisters while she’s out exploring her neighborhood. The narrator of Slave By Sundown.

• Final Girl: Sort of. She’s the only one shown to have escaped the Hoffmisters besides Nancy.

Lucifer

The Devil, Satan, the master of Eileen Hoffmister and Greater-Scope Villain of the trilogy.

• Greater-Scope Villain: He’s behind most — if not all — of the events of the trilogy, and it’s his grandson that Nancy ends up pregnant with.
• Horned Humanoid: How he’s depicted in his statue, and in Nancy’s dreams.
• Living Statue: Eileen keeps a statue of him that he may actually be inhabiting.
• Satan: Who else could he be? Although he’s almost always only referred to as “Lucifer”, at least by Eileen.

Jackson

A seemingly nice guy that Nancy falls in love with, although he keeps a dark secret from her.

• Abusive Parents: Comes with being the son of Eileen and the stepson of Leo.
• Anti-Anti-Christ: Jackson is the offspring of Eileen and Lucifer, but due to his upbringing, he’s trying to follow a more righteous path and save his mother’s soul.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Besides literally being the spawn of Satan, he suffered abuse at Eileen’s hand, and keeps her locked in his basement in an effort to force her to repent.
• Dark Secret: He’s keeping his possessed mother in the basement while trying to convert her to Christianity.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Naturally, being the offspring of Satan and a human woman.
• The "I Love You" Stigma: He never tells Nancy he loves her, much to her annoyance.
• Noble Demon: In the literal sense, he’s the Half-Human Hybrid spawn of Satan, and in the figurative sense, he wants to redeem Eileen, albeit through barbaric methods. The latter could be justified as Pay Evil unto Evil, considering his abusive upbringing.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Unbeknownst to him, he was born of a union between Eileen and the Devil.

Betty

A kindly old woman and neighbor to the Williamses, she looks after Nancy and Patrick after their parents disappear.

• Foil: To Eileen. Both are deeply religious old women, although Betty serves the God of the Bible, while Eileen serves his adversary. And whereas Betty is a kind, caring, fairly normal person whose faith doesn't really do much to save her in the end, Eileen is only superficially polite, is abusive to her children, and is shown to be capable of summoning demons to possess her own body for self-empowerment.
• Holy Burns Evil: Averted. As Betty finds out, reciting the Lord’s Prayer doesn’t do much to hurt demons or witches as much as it just pisses them off enough to eviscerate her.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She's quick to help the children escape from Eileen, even though she fails to do so in the end through no fault of her own.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: We’re not given much on her before she’s murdered by Eileen.