We walked arm in arm, but I didn't feel his touch.
The desire I'd first tried to hide, that tingling inside, was gone.
And when he asked me, "Do you still love me?" I had to look away.
I didn't want to tell him that my heart grows colder with each day.
When you've loved so long that the thrill is gone and your kisses at night are replaced with tears.
And when your dreams are on a train to trainwreck town, then I ask you now...
WHAT'S A GIRL TO DO — BAT FOR LASHES

Haunted by the sleep paralysis demon that turned out to be his own creation, Shaun was always just shy of being a normal bloke. He discovered his mutation at a young age, but it wasn't until his teen years that he really came to understand the implications of umbrakinesis: controlling darkness, shadows, and all things associated with both. His power grew, until he found himself not just commanding shadow but creating semi-sentient beings from it - nightmarish creatures which caused harm to all who encountered them.

Scared of his power, Shaun turned inward and withdrew from the world, hiding his strange skills at all costs, unaware that he was just corking a bottle of dangerous things. He went on to become an artist, channeling all the fear and the darkness into macabre art which eventually landed him a job working on comics. But there was always that sinister thing in the back of his mind, that power begging to be unleashed...

He never meant to harm anyone. He intended to do the exact opposite, in fact. But the road to Hell is often paved with good intentions, and when you've fallen too far the only way left to go is further down.