Darius Anderson

"'We're supposed to be together forever. You did say that.'"Darius is the main antagonist of The Stalker Case of Max Fanheart and the upcoming prequel A Performer's Life Beyond the Drapes. He is the obsessive stalker of protagonist Mackenzie Fanheart and pursues her relentlessly.

Appearance
Darius has a tall, long and lanky, slightly muscular physique with pale skin, longish purple hair that hangs in his face, and dark-brown eyes. He usually dresses in predominantly black clothes, mainly hoodies and jeans. During the scenes at the lake house, he mainly wears long sleeved shirts.

In Performer's Life, his appearance is notably different. He has a skinnier physique and unkempt auburn hair. He also wears lighter-colored clothes, particularly a mulberry-colored hoodie.

He is described as being attractive, and having a "nothingness" in his eyes. He also has a scar on his bottom lip from when Max bit him.

Personality
Darius' personality is notably different between Stalker Case and Performer's Life.

In Stalker Case, Darius has a cold, twisted, and sadistic attitude to mostly everyone. He fully believes that he and Max are meant to be together, and constantly reacts with annoyance and anger when she continually rejects him. He has no problem assaulting and even killing people as long as it helps him achieve his goals (shown in both books).

Despite having relatively dumb moments, Darius proves to be fairly knowledgeable on certain subjects, including evading police, manipulating a crime scene in his favor, tending to and bandaging wounds (which seems to only be exclusive to Performer's Life), and using weapons.

He uses a softer demeanor with Max, due to his strong infatuation with her. He is calm, loving, and gentle towards her if she doesn't fight him, and seems to be mostly devoted to her and wants to make her happy. This takes a notable shift when she rebuffs him; he is forceful, passive-aggressive, sadistic, and sometimes violent towards her. Due to Max's fear and hatred towards him, this side of him is seen much more often, with his loving side only seen a fraction of the time.

In Performer's Life, he is shown to be extremely introverted, antisocial, and more of a loner (a result of having to deal with constant bullying growing up). For a majority of the book, he is seen to avoid any and all social contact, distrusts other people aside from his sister, and spends a lot of his time isolated in his room. He ignores anyone who tries to talk to him and will leave the conversation if the person talking to him won't leave him alone. He's also shown to make no effort to remember people's names.

He also seems to be somewhat depressed and suicidal, and regularly self-harms on parts of his body that are always hidden by clothes (his sides and his thighs), though he eventually begins cutting his forearm as well.

Having grown up in a neglectful environment, Darius craves affection from other people; however, due to his trust issues caused by his bullying, he never outwardly shows these desires, and instead avoids other people. Excluding Elena, he views other people as possible bullies, and despondently believes that he is unworthy of love and affection, at times even seeing himself as a burden on Elena.

This state of mind seems to explain why he clings onto Max after falling in love with her, due to her being the only other person in his life who's shown him physical affection (i.e. a hug), though his love for her seems to be more self-centered, as he wants her to love him for his sake. His crush is shown to make his attitude take a positive shift, as he's shown to be much chattier toward her, is willing to join social situations if she's there, and even volunteers to help with prop construction as a way to spend more time with her.

It isn't until after Max rejects him that his personality gradually begins to shift toward how he is in Stalker Case. Though he initially shuts himself away inside his room and refuses to respond to anyone following Max's rejection, he is later shown to have seemingly come to terms with the fact that Max doesn't return his feelings. In reality however, he has developed a mild obsession with her, fully focused on the fact that she doesn't love him while simultaneously afraid of her hating him should he continue outwardly pursuing her.

Though he initially tries to keep his feelings to himself, he is shown to lose control of his impulses around her, either unintentionally admitting his love for her, or making advances on her (shown when he unwittingly kisses her in Chapter 21, and when he kisses, cuddles, and fondles her while she sleeps in Chapter 27). However, following both of these incidents, he is shown to feel extreme regret and self-loathing, often times self-harming as a form of punishment.

He also becomes somewhat possessive and overprotective of her, becoming dark and threatening to anyone who harasses her (to the point where he even scares Max). He also becomes increasingly overtly affectionate toward her after Austin breaks up with her, and even more so after Greta unwittingly tells him Max returns his feelings.

It's later revealed that he took on the guise of the Wolf-Masked Assassin to get back at anyone who harasses her (with the exception of Austin, as this was done out of pure jealousy). It isn't until after Max discovers his true identity that he fully becomes how he is in Stalker Case, including his soft demeanor toward Max changing to passive-aggressiveness and violence if she rebuffs him.

Parents
Darius doesn't have a good relationship with his parents. His father was a verbally abusive alcoholic and his mother mainly ignored him, preferring to focus on Elena. Due to this, he's uncomfortable if his parents are brought up in conversation and avoids talking about them. This causes both him and Elena to avoid going home over Winter and Summer breaks.

Elena Anderson
Darius loves his sister very much, as she is the only person who has shown him true love his whole life. Due to their parents' neglect, Elena takes on more of a mother role and practically raises Darius. She tries to include him in any activities she does with her friends, but he ends up being left out by them.

She is always the one to come to his aid when he is being bullied and hangs out with him any time she can. She even waits a year before attending college so they can go together. She seems to be aware that he may suffer from some mental problem, but is unable to convince their parents to get him checked out.

Once she becomes aware of his obsession with Max, she tries to explain to him about rejection and how you have to respect a person's decision. However, he interprets this as Elena disapproving his love for Max and telling him to leave Max alone. This causes him to go into a blind rage and strangle Elena to death. After he comes to his senses, he is horrified by is actions and suffers a mental breakdown.

Mackenzie Fanheart
Darius is obsessively in love with Max while, in turn, she absolutely despises him. He does anything and everything he can to take her and make her his. He has the twisted assumption that they are supposed to be together and is annoyed when she constantly rejects him. He will go as far as killing anyone who defends her, including her pet cat and her parents.

Before he fell in love with her, they were actually very good friends. He even saw her as a second older sister while she saw him as an older brother. Their friendship began when he defended her from an ex-boyfriend who was being rough with her. The cause of his obsession with her started after she hugged him as thanks for advice on how to deal with a cheating boyfriend. However, after she rejected him, he couldn't accept it and began stalking her.

He can be easily fooled if she feigns love toward him. He states that he has no desire to rape her, mainly due to his disapproval toward the crime; however, he has shown no inhibitions when it comes to molesting and harassing her.

Despite his deep love for her, he has no problem torturing her and even seems to find her suffering enjoyable.

Greta Watkins
Due to his obsession with Max, Greta realizes that Darius is a threat and does everything she can to protect Max from him. When he comes looking for Max at her house, Greta lies that Max had fled out of the house and hitchhiked to a relative in Trenton. In turn, Darius is annoyed by Greta, disliking her for keeping Max from him. He threatens to kill Greta if Max doesn't come with him, and clearly has no problem with fulfilling that promise.

Before his obsession with Max started, the two had a somewhat friendly relationship. Since she was very close friends with his sister, he treats Greta as an extension of her. Once his obsession with Max began, Greta was the first to suspect that something was wrong. Once her suspicions are confirmed, she defends Max from him at every turn.

Nathan Kemp
Though sharing no encounters for most of the novel, they actually meet during the climax. Initially seeing him as an obstacle to go through to get Max, Darius comes to despise Nate after finding out about his love for Max. This causes him to strike Nate (who is bound in handcuffs) in a rage, then taunt him with details on Max's torture. He is willing to kill him, and almost does so before being stopped by Max.

Christopher Fowler
Due to Chris' small and weak stature, Darius merely sees him as a minor inconvenience. When Chris tries to make an effort to defend Max from him, Darius easily incapacitates him.

Isabelle Maye
Similar to Chris, Darius sees Izzy as a minor inconvenience due to her being a woman. He also finds her annoying and is fully willing to kill her.

Mental Illness
Though it's never outright stated what Darius' mental condition is, the author has confirmed that he suffers from Schizoaffective Disorder. This is a mental health condition that is a combination of symptoms of schizophrenia and mood disorder, such as depression and bipolar disorder. It's fairly common, with more than 200,000 cases per year. Symptoms include:
 * Cognitive: belief that an ordinary event has special and personal meaning, delusion, thought disorder, racing thoughts, thoughts of suicide, or false belief of superiority
 * Mood: anxiety, euphoria, hopelessness, limited range of emotions, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, or mood swings
 * Psychological: depression, hallucination, paranoia, psychosis, hearing voices, or grandiosity
 * Behavioral: social isolation, impulsivity, restlessness, self-harm, or sudden increases in energy
 * Also Common: appetite changes or rapid and frenzied speaking

Trivia

 * Actors of choice to play Darius: Charlie Heaton or Freddie Highmore.
 * Meaning of the name 'Darius': "he possesses"; "rich and kingly". Meaning of surname 'Anderson': "Son of Andrew".


 * The idea for the cause of Darius' obsession being a hug from Max came from an episode of Obsession: Dark Desires, in which an ex-con became obsessed with a girl after she hugged him as thanks.


 * Darius is against rape because, as a child, his father came home drunk one night and raped his mother. After seeing how traumatized his mother was by the act, as well as Elena explaining what happened, he became disgusted by the act.
 * Despite this, he has no problems with molestation and sexual harassment.
 * He also doesn't seem to fully understand how consent works, as he seems to think it's all right as long as Max says yes, ignoring the fact that she's only consenting out of fear.


 * Darius' name came from when the author watched an episode of Fate/Zero, when the character Rider mentioned Darius III. This was originally going to be a temporary name, but ultimately stayed as the character's name.
 * Drunk people are shown to make Darius uncomfortable, because they remind him of his dad.
 * Darius' imprisonment of Max was different in the earlier drafts:
 * In one, Darius had Max tied to a bed and would harass her every so often, threatening to turn her into a doll if she resisted him.
 * In another, Max willingly went with him after he severely beat two of the Kumar's students (Chris and Maxwell).
 * In another one, Max was simply handcuffed to the bed in the basement and was allowed to watch horror films and read comic books, with him occasionally releasing her to use the bathroom.
 * Another idea had him paralyzing her from the waist down by stabbing her, making it so she can't run away.


 * Parts of Darius' personality were inspired by anime characters (embarrassingly enough), including Mao from Code Geass and Kyoji Shinkawa from Sword Art Online II.
 * Darius is easily fooled if Max feigns love for him, but she avoids doing it because, if he manages to escape, it makes his obsession with her worse.
 * Whenever Darius is holding Max captive, he always dresses her in some form of white clothing (possibly in reference to his seeing her as "an angel").
 * When holding her captive in his dorm room, he loans her a white t-shirt.
 * The next morning, he gives her a cream-colored, floral-patterned dress.
 * When he abducts her with the intention of marrying her, he dresses her in a champagne-colored wedding dress.
 * When taking her (initially) to the school theatre, he drapes a white blanket around her.
 * And after torturing her, he dresses her in a white dress patterned in blue flowers, white socks, and white underwear.