Sara

Sara facing off against the Womb Ripper

**Sara** is a playable character and the main protagonist in *Bloodwash*.

## Description

### Appearance

Sara, with the exception of her hands, is not seen in-game, but she is described as a short, young Caucasian woman in her 20's. Her physical appearance is unknown, though the Old Woman implies that Sara has the same eye and hair color as her daughter, the latter of which would be dark brown or black. Given her confused state, the accuracy of this is questionable.

### Personality

Sara is shown to be an ambitious, headstrong, and street smart individual, with a sarcastic wit to match. Never afraid to speak her mind, she manages to keep a realistic mindset while also retaining her basic compassion, knowing not to get involved in shady dealings by disturbing a possible gang handoff, while still caring about complete strangers even more downtrodden by life than her, such as an incoherent drug addict and a homeless squatter. Though Sara tends to be a good judge of character, even she is sometimes blinded by her emotions, clinging onto the belief that, in spite of knowing Liam is a careless drunk, that he is still capable of change when he becomes a father and defends his neglective behavior by saying that he at least doesn't hit her. For the most part, however, she remains a carefully trusting and typically friendly person in most situations.

### History

Sara is a college student living with her alcoholic boyfriend Liam in a run-down apartment complex in a crime-ridden Youngstown neighbourhood. Sara is majoring in education with a minor in psychology, typically visting her seminars with Professor Watt throughout the day, while Liam typically spends his time binge-drinking and recovering from the resulting hangover. This, coupled the fact that Sara is expecting, forces Sara to look for a job on top of her academic pursuits. In spite of her lack of leisure, she has befriended fellow tenants Stan and "Hobo" Jo since moving in.

Sara mentions that she left her family behind "back home". She can bring up her mother, whom she is reminded of when looking at the lady on the *Nellie's* laundry powder, a brother, who is an electrican, and a grandmother, the original owner of a wardrobe she has. Until the previous year, Sara also used to have a goldfish named Mr. Bubbles, which she had since middle school. Sara mentions that she plans to save some money for a car and, after the events of *Bloodwash*, a washing machine and dryer.

## *Bloodwash*

Sometime in September, 1986, Sara comes home one evening following an exhausting day of attending classes and a challenging test at her college, only to find that her boyfriend had not cleaned up as agreed. As she has a job interview the next morning, Sara collects the dirty clothes and hopes to wash them in the community laundry room in the basement, but finds the washing machine out of order. After being startled by Hobo Jo, who had hunkered down in a nearby closet to wait out his angry wife, Sara goes back upstairs and chats up her neighbour Stan, who worries about her safety in regards to Liam's deadbeat nature and hearing how urgently she needs her laundry done, tells her of a 24/7 laundromat at a strip mall on the outskirts of town, which she could still reach if she caught the last line bus. Before she leaves to get money for the drive and laundry change, he also cautions her about the Womb Ripper, a serial killer who has been making the rounds for killing and mutiliating pregnant women such as Sara. Taking his advice lightly, she gets her stuff and heads for the bus station just outside the building to wait for the bus' arrival, in the meantime talking with a homeless man and ignoring a blue car that stops on the opposite site of the road, just across from Sara.

Getting on the otherwise empty bus, she ignores the lascivious driver's comments and sits down on the only clean seat. During one stop, the Creepy Guy steps aboard and proceeds to stand near to Sara. As she gazes outside, Sara turns back to see the man's face inches from hers, asking whether he could sit next to her. When Sara argues that the rest of the bus is free and threatens to get the bus driver involved, the man begins making not-very-thinly-veiled threats, saying that she will meet her end tonight and, concerningly, knows of her pregnancy, stating that she "will be found like all the others", slit open "for all the angels above to look down and see", before again asking to sit beside her. She is spared from more interaction with the creepy man when her stop is called.

After Sara enters the laundromat and puts her clothes into the washer, she engages in small talk with the only other patron, who tells the story of the closed down laundry next door, run by his friend Louis Kennedy, which had burned down under mysterious circumstances with an employee, Samantha Rhodes, inside. This appears to pique her curiosity and as she visits the other stores on the plaza while waiting for her laundry to finish, she finds numerous items relating to the fire and reports on missing women, which she questions the present workers about. Sara finds out more about the local legends from Peepaw and starts to make a connection to the fire, the disappearances and the killings, believing that the now missing Kennedy, who was also a suspect in the potential murder of Rhodes, rumored to have been pregnant with his child, may have been involved in all three. Things take a turn for the worse when Sara finds a doll head by her washing machine, runs into a pregnant mannquin blocking her way in the backhall and receives phonecalls over the store's landline consisting solely of breathing, indicating that someone is aware of her presence and spying on her.

Eventually, Sara checks her laundry in the dryer, but finds it still wet and, since she is out of money for another spin, goes to find the night-shift staff member to get a refund, but instead finds his dead body inside the office. She also finds front door locked from the outside and as she tries to call 911 over the phone the line is cut. She hides behind the counter for the next 20 minutes before deciding to make a break for it, just in time to witness the Womb Ripper killing the remaining customer. With nowhere left to go, Sara breaks down a drywall into the next building, which turns out to be the hiding place of the killer, discovering more and more bodies the further she ventures inside, including Louis Kennedy. In the end, Sara manages to arm herself with a gun from one of the Womb Ripper's victims, apparently planted by the Womb Ripper in anticipation of a fight to the death, and is able to finally gun the Ripper down during a face-off in the basement. To her horror, the Womb Ripper is revealed to be Samantha Rhodes, who had secretly survived the fire, but was rendered insane after losing her baby from the scarring injuries and had gone on a rampage to exact her vengeance by subjecting expecting mothers to the same loss she had to go through.

According to Black Eyed Priest, Sara was brought to a hospital and in the aftermath of this traumatic night, she chose to reevaluate her life and took Stan up on his offer, breaking up with Liam due to his negligence and moves in with Stan's sister until she is able to support herself and her child.

## *Night at the Gates of Hell*

Her status in Bloodwash's spiritual successor *Night at the Gates of Hell*, which takes place shortly after she dumps Liam, is unknown. She is indirectly mentioned in passing by Liam during a meeting with his new date Razor, which reveals that he only got her pregnant due to his penchant for unprotected sex.

## Trivia

* Sara appears to be a fan of video games, owning a Game Boy (or its in-game equivalent/knock-off version Game Toy), as well as an NES console. She shows a great interest in the cartridge games in Peepaw's and also mentions that despite the recent release of the Master System, Sara still prefers Nintendo over Sega.
* Sara hints that she is into certain pornographic paraphilias, as she mentions in the adult section of Peepaw's that she wants to try out "the things the guys [or the girls] in these tapes do..." with Liam.
* Sara frequently mentions her caffeine-related soda addiction and liking for junk food, such as chips, cheese puffs, and orange drink.
* Sara appears to hold progressive views, mentioning that more people should support local produce and businesses, saying that society should care about the environment and brushing off fears relating to microwaves being spreaders of AIDS.
* When examining a condom machine in either of the laundromat's restroom, Sara will simply comment "too late for that", implying her pregnancy was unplanned. As much is confirmed by Liam in *Night at the Gates of Hell*.
* Before the couple moved, Sara enjoyed cooking, but since she has been out of work and their microwave broke, they have been living on fast food takeouts and pizza deliveries, with her making a mental note to remember the Pizza Parlor in the plaza for the future.
* Sara is a horror flick enthusiast and greatly enjoys the selection of shlocky movies Peepaw's has to offer.
* When Sara wields Officer Burton's revolver, unlike him, she cannot line the weapon up with her gaze when aiming, likely indicating that she lacks Burton's firearm experience and training.
* Sara is the first playable character of the game, with two following after her Officer Burton and Coroner Doug.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/LeggoMyGiallo/status/1443209941876191234
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/LeggoMyGiallo/status/1541722675596369921