Louis

Unnamed mother

Alice Temple (cousin)

Martha (aunt)

Lucy (grandmother)

Sam Wolfe (goddaughter)

The Killing Kind

The White Road

The Reflecting Eye

The Black Angel

The Unquiet

The Reapers

The Lovers

The Whisperers

The Burning Soul

The Wrath Of Angels

The Wolf In Winter

A Song Of Shadows

A Time Of Torment

A Game Of Ghosts

The Woman In The Woods

A Book Of Bones

The Dirty South

The Nameless Ones

The Sisters Strange

Louis is a semi-retired hitman and a secondary character in the Charlie Parker series. He is the boyfriend of Angel, and one of Charlie Parker's closest friends.

## Appearance

Louis is a tall, handsome black man, described as being of slim yet muscular build, with barely any body fat. He has a muscular neck, long legs, and long, slim fingers.

He has graying hair that he keeps close-cropped or shaved. He is usually either clean shaven, or cultivating a "vaguely satanic" graying beard consisting of an unconnected moustache and goatee, otherwise known as a balbo. He has carefully plucked eyebrows. Despite his age, his skin remains almost entirely unlined.

During *Every Dead Thing*, a bullet grazes the back of Louis' right hand, damaging the bones and knuckle of his forefinger and leaving a small scar. However, *The Reapers* states this injury is on his left hand.

## Biography

### Pre-canon

Louis was born to Errol Rich and an unnamed mother, in the mid to late 50s, near Caina, Georgia.

He grew up living in a small house with his mother, as well as a few of his female relatives (including his aunt Martha, and grandmother Lucy). Louis did not have friends growing up, and suffered homophobic bullying from his classmates.

In 1964, he 'witnessed' Errol Rich's death through Lucy.

When Louis was about fifteen years old, his mother entered a relationship with Deber. The relationship was abusive and culminated in Louis' mother being killed. Deber was not charged, as he had friends willing to provide him with alibis. Shortly after, Deber sexually assaulted Martha, at which point Louis decided to kill him. He also seemingly intended to kill Louis, sensing danger from him, but Louis kept his distance, staying away from the house and sleeping in the wild.

One night when Deber was passed out drunk, Louis took the metal whistle Deber used at work. In his school's chemistry lab, he made nitrogen tri-iodide, packing it inside the whistle and replacing the metal ball with rolled up sandpaper. He then returned home and put the whistle back next to Deber. The following morning, when Deber blew the whistle while at work, the sandpaper caused enough friction to detonate the whistle, causing severe damage to Deber's face. He died two days later from his injuries.

Louis was taken in for questioning by the police as a suspect, by Sheriff Wooster. Over the course of two days, Louis was beaten and tortured but still refused to speak a single word. On the second day, Gabriel arrived along with an FBI agent.

Gabriel, seeing potential in Louis, forced the police to back off. He then spoke to Louis for a time, offering him training and protection and warning him that even though he was free to go and wouldn't be charged, Deber's friends would look for him to get their revenge. He also gave Louis an envelope containing money, as well as a card with contact information for Gabriel, before leaving.

Louis returned home briefly, but knowing that what Gabriel had said was true, he decided to leave Caina for the safety of both himself and his remaining family. He left most of the money with his family. Before leaving, he stopped by Little Tom's bar, swearing to one day return and avenge Errol Rich.

Louis escaped to San Diego, where he started working as a general help in a diner called Vasich's Number One Eatery, living in a small room connected to the diner. He acquired a gun and practiced shooting in preparation for an eventual confrontation.

On an August night, Alderman and Griggs tried to enter his room to kill him, but Louis was woken by the creaking floorboards and was able to shoot both men fatally before they could hurt him. When he tried to escape the diner, he was ambushed by one of Gabriel's men. Gabriel soon appeared. He'd known that Alderman and Griggs were coming but didn't warn Louis because he wanted to test his abilities. It's also implied that Gabriel might have been the one to tip the men off about Louis' location, but this has never been confirmed.

Gabriel once again offered to take Louis in, and this time Louis agreed, joining Gabriel to train and become one of his Reapers.

## Trivia

* Louis' exact year of birth is unknown, but he is stated to have been "around 7 or 8 years old" at the time of Errol Rich's murder in 1964, so presumably he would have been born sometime in the mid to late 50s.
* Much like Angel, Louis has no confirmed last name. In situations where a last name is needed, he is usually referred to as "Mr. Louis", or uses a fake ID. Note that while Louis cousin Alice has the last name "Temple", it is unknown whether Louis, or anyone else in the family, shares this last name.
* Louis is one of two non-protagonist characters who has physically appeared in every instalment of the series to date. The other one is Angel.
* Louis is conversational in Russian and implied to know a fair bit of Spanish as well.

1. ↑ The White Road, Chapter 13
2. ↑ Every Dead Thing, Chapter 9
3. ↑ The Woman In The Woods, Chapter 87
4. ↑ Dark Hollow, Chapter 9
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Burning Soul, Chapter 13
6. ↑ The Killing Kind, Chapter 15
7. ↑ Every Dead Thing, Chapter 46
8. ↑ The Reapers, Chapter 3
9. ↑ The White Road, Prologue