Nathan Hayes

From Changeling Venue

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Faces in the Mirror

Author of the autobiographical novel Faces in the Mirror, Nathan Hayes is a renown and somewhat controversial therapist who specializes in treating those with identity, body-image and sexuality disorders. In his novel, Dr. Hayes explains how he overcame his own identity issues, that he learned he was as God intended him to be, and why he has spent his life to helping others accept themselves as they are by becoming a Christian Psychologist. Many claim their lives have been changed by Dr. Hayes who helped them see through the self-image others had created for them and learning to accept themselves for who they actually are.

Dr. Hayes has become rather well known in the Christian community and many send their 'troubled' children to him for treatment at his privately-funded rehabilitation center in Northwest Georgia. Since the center opened three years ago, Dr. Hayes claims to have cured fourty-three people suffering from gender and body dysmorphia, homosexuality, and related 'illnesses' through extensive therapy and the teachings of Christ.

Dr. Hayes had been working out of an office in Chicago, but threats from the GLBT community and out-spoken liberal groups forced him to relocate his family to Rome, Georgia in late 2002. Since the move Dr. Hayes has been welcomed by the community at large who see his work as beneficial and greatly needed. Since the move the number of patients under his care has grown considerably much like his reputation.

Then in early 2007, Dr. Hayes's life took a turn for the worst. One night he woke up to a jarring noise in the back of his home and rushed to see what it was, thinking it could be a burglar. When he got there though what he saw was himself - his younger self - dressed in girl's clothes and looking distorted and wrong somehow. The stress of it all caused him to black out and when he came to a few minutes later no one was there. At first he dismissed it but after that he started seeing 'things'; some people looked distorted and inhuman and Nathan realized that he might be suffering from mild schizophrenia. He started secretly medicating himself but nothing has worked and each day that goes by he starts to wonder if he's lost his mind completely or if, just if, what he's been doing isn't right and God is punishing him for his sins.

Slowly his life has started falling apart and he's become convinced that there is more to his condition than just a mental disorder or spiritual affliction. While Dr. Hayes hasn't stumbled on the truth just yet, he is getting close and when he does it very well may just push him completely over the edge. Worse yet, he may find a new mission in life: to curse these wretched souls of what afflicts them, no matter what it takes.

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Through the Looking Glass

Unknown to Dr. Hayes is that he is the Fetch of a Changeling by the name of Hannah. When Hannah was taken in 1987, Dr. Hayes was cobbled together and left in her place. Where Hannah would fought to become who she believed she was, Nathan accepted what he saw in the mirror and learned to live with it. Burying his confusion and issues beneath his faith and sense of reason. He returned home and lived the life Hannah didn't want, becoming the son his father always wanted and turning his back on everything that reminded him of who he might have become.

Twenty years have passed since then. Through his work with the Church Nathan met a young woman named Emily who he married in 1993. Though he was sterile, the two adopted two children of their own and worked to raise their family and help others as Christ has taught them to do. Life seemed fine for the Hayes family, and then, like a bad dream remembered years later Hannah escaped Faerie. Her memories brought her to Nathan's home in Rome, Georgia, where she saw what her Fetch had become.

In Hannah's eyes, Dr. Hayes is a monster of the worst kind. He's trying to make people give up what makes them who they are. Nathan of course sees his mission entirely differently, believing that these people need his help and that they are seriously suffering from mental disorders that society just ignores.

Despite hating her Fetch, Hannah, for the most part, leaves him alone. She doesn't want his life and knows she can't go back. So she's worked to make something that is her's; something he can't have and doesn't want. What she does do is undermine him when she can, discrediting him and helping kids get away from families that would let Dr. Hayes treat them. However her meddling has drawn Nathan's attention and he may take efforts to make her go away forever.

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