Sarah Murray

Sarah Murray is a side character in the Elsaverse who features in the last episode ever published of the game Darkness Falls (2018-2019). She is a college student from Sangrive who learns she has a power in a rather traumatic way, forcing detectives Nathanial Blake and Michelle Won to make a big decision over her future.

Personal
Sarah Murray grew up in Sangrive, and always had a particularly intense glare and could put an enormous amount of disdain in her voice, to the point of making people shiver. Apart from that, she was just an ordinary angsty teenager who ended up studying an Art major at Sangrive's University. A few weeks into her freshman year, she was feeling lonely in her dorm room and phoned a good old friend of hers, who told her to go out and experience college life a bit. Sarah took up this advice and started wandering around the campus until she found a party going on at one of the frat houses. The shy and insecure girl eventually decided to enter the house, and she was immediately overwhelmed by the wild environment she found there, with lots of people drinking, dancing, and even making love in the open. After taking it in for a few minutes, Sarah was about to get out of there when a handsome guy named Brian Case approached her and started to talk to her. Charmed by his ways, she agreed to go up to his room under the pretense of watching the artworks he claimed to have in there. But as soon as she entered his room, Sarah found out that there was no artwork in there, just a horny friend of his. Both guys tried to take advantage of her, groping her and removing her clothes against her will. Scared, Sarah cried out using her most particular tone, and this time she could feel how her shriek just blew out Brian's brains. With the other guy also dazzled after her scream, Sarah ran away from the frat house, convinced she has just killed a man.

The next day, when detectives Blake and Won knock at her door, she ends up confessing what she did, even though she's sure they won't believe it. But Detective Won doesn't look surprised and just asks Sarah if she knew she could do that with her voice before killing Brian. When Sarah says she didn't, both detectives discuss the situation in the dorm hallway and, eventually, decide to turn her over to Lara, the Internal Affairs investigator who is also their link to the top-level authorities who are trying to keep the powers' existence a secret. Upon seeing what Sarah was able to do with just her voice, those mysterious authorities freaked out and wanted to lock her up, but Lara somehow managed to convince them of Sarah being inoffensive, and they finally agreed to let her free, although putting her under surveillance. With the help of a special psychologist, Sarah Murray seems to be learning to cope with her power and is said to be happy.

Powers
Sarah Murray can inflict mortal damage to people's brains with her screeches. Pathologists who examined Brian Case's body stated that his brain suffered severe and extensive damage; he was all over Sarah when she screamed, and she could feel how his brain exploded, but the other guy who was in the same room and close to them, Aaron "Rollerblade" Greenview, only got an intense headache as a result of her screams. This seems to suggest that Sarah's power has some kind of limited range for its lethal effects, as she claims she just amped her usual disdain tone up to the max. However, as this was the first time she effectively used her power, it may be possible that this range can be expanded with further training.

Miscellaneous

 * In one of the non-canon paths in Saving Chloe (2018), Xara mentions that part of her extensive training in the parallel world included fighting under the attack of 'screaming banshees'. Although no further details are provided and those banshees could be totally different creatures, it's possible to assume that she was talking about people with a similar power to the one Sarah Murray has.


 * Before talking to Sarah in Darkness Falls Episode 7, players are presented with 6 different pictures to pick the right girl according to the descriptions given by the witnesses in the frat house. Getting it right on the first try unlocks an achievement.


 * As this Episode 7 was still in production when Tora Productions' writer, Tlaero, unexpectedly announced her sudden retirement, Sarah's story was left in an odd place: players were asked to choose whether to turn her over to Lara or to bring her to the "Triple A" group of heroines, but it's unknown how that choice would have played out in the long run, or even what was the alternative ending planned for the chapter for those players who couldn't get a proper description of Sarah from the witnesses. Elsaverse: Transitions (2020-2021) solves part of this mystery by making turning Sarah over to Lara the canon choice.