Justin

Justin is the main protagonist and first-person narrator of Gone From Daylight. Justin is a vampire who lives at The Lot with his boyfriend Taryn and a group of halflife vampires in south-west Chicago. During the events of Gone From Daylight: Genesis, Taryn persuaded Justin that there was a 'another option' when Justin was considering committing suicide and introduced him to life as a vampire. Justin eventually decided to become a vampire and live with Taryn, whom he had fallen in love with, crossing over into darkness. After spending time learning about vampire life, including extras, Justin discovers that he is the vampire mimic, a long prophesied vampire that will lead all of vampire-kind to an unspecified event known as Vampire Dawn. The majority of Gone From Daylight follows Justin trying to understand and control his new powers as well protecting his new family and the one he loves from harm.

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In the Gone From Daylight series, Justin exists as a lost soul who is desperately searching for 'balance' in his life, and he can't seem to find it no matter how hard he tries. Or even figure out where to begin looking for it.

While yearning to be unique in his own right, he still harbors a deep obsession with being 'accepted' by those around him. Because of that, he has learned to sacrifice many key parts of his own true identity in order to fit in with the people around him. When he crossed over, this emotional state was a major factor in creating his extra as a vampire mimic... still imitating its surroundings, hoping to be loved.

This uncompromising and desperate need for validation from his peers, no matter where they are, is slowly creating a split in his core personality. Between who he is, and who he thinks he should be, in order to please his invisible 'audience'.

Justin has become stuck in a state of constant confusion concerning his own identity. He's facing serious conflicts between who he was before (with the parental abuse, the alcoholic mother, the bullying and teasing in school)... and who he is expected to be now (a creature of the night, faced with life threatening situations, involved in a committed relationship). He can't find his balance because he is struggling with two extremes within himself. He's coming from a place where he was made to believe that he was completely worthless and utterly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, to the point where taking his own life was preferable to pushing forward with a life that had no real meaning or purpose.to suddenly realizing that not only is his existence unimaginably important to everyone around him... but that he is SO incredibly rare and unique and essential... that without him, both the worlds of mankind and vampire-kind alike are liable to spin out of control and into total chaos if he does not find a way to put a stop to it. So in many ways, Justin is haunted by his past, and burdened by his future. Trying desperately to avoid either position. His only means of finding 'balance' in darkness is by being 'present'. Stuck in the moment. And he can only achieve that through his love for Taryn. With every kiss, Justin honestly believes that Taryn can somehow save him from having to deal with his roots or his destiny, and that the two of them can just 'fix things' and live happily ever after without acknowledging his true potential and duty as a messenger to the whole of his species.

It's a delusion to think that his very purpose can be ignored. Or that he can ever hope to outrun it. Especially when he has so much holding him back.

Justin's major flaw in the story is his blind denial of self. Justin has not yet learned to truly accept and deal with what happened to him when he was younger. He's still holding out hope that there will be some magic spell that will repair all of the damage done, and cover it up once and for all without having to confront it himself. Even when Jun or Bryson or one of the others attempt to help him through it, he refuses to acknowledge his true feelings about his turblent past. He has yet to face his own demons or allow anyone he cares about to ge close enough to truly know what happened and how it afected him. Instead, he hides and dodges and runs away from all of his problems, not realizing that THAT is the unbreakable padlock on his personal prison. That is why he can never be truly happy. That is why he is afraid all of the time. Why he feels incapable of doing what needs to be done when it's demanded of him. Or why he's afraid to truly love and communicate with his whole heart...even where Taryn is involved. His fear of being hurt and betrayed again has become so terrifying to him, that he retreats from it before even a HINT of real trouble is even mentioned. The paranoia builds, and the walls around his heart thicken...as his darker nature grows stronger from his repressed feelings.

Justin fears the threats on the outside...when it is the caged demon INSIDE that he should be most concerned about.

As long as Justin continues to run from his problems instead of facing them head on, no matter how uncomfortable it may make him feel to do so...he won't ever be able to overcome them. He will ALWAYS be suspicious. ALWAYS be afraid. ALWAYS be alone. And it is because of this that he has become a slave to the situations surrounding him at any given point in the story. He hasn't really achieved a level of maturity that allows him to 'think' instead of just 'react'. It is a weapon that Justin's strongest enemies (Rage, Soren, The Beast, etc) can use against him at any given moment. And like a moth to a flame...he responds exactly the way they expect him to respond. Secret for secret, fear for fear, conflict for conflict. It's a circle that has to be broken...if he is ever able to full embrace the ideology of the Vampire Dawn.