Ten

“''In the Gallows, they leave you in the dark and force you to think. You have to think about everything. Everything you’ve done, everything that’s been done to you, everything the future does and does not hold. When someone drives screws into your fingertips, at least the pain distracts you. At least all you can think of is the hot white pain and how much you wish it would stop. When you have nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to hear but your own screams and sometimes not even that, not even your own heart, because after a while, it stops beating, all you can do is think. And you think too hard. Everything unravels. Reality becomes distorted. Everything becomes hollow…and it’s an endless, empty nothing.''”

—Ten to Seven in Chapter 73: With Me (Gallows Humor)

Ten, otherwise known as, Number Ten, is a Revenant in the Mausoleum. After he kills Nine, he is considered a Haint. He is the main character of the series.

Biography
Ten was hit by a car when he was a child. He does not remember when the car collided with him, but he does remember sounds and images of people yelling, crying, and his mother hugging him.undefined After Ten revealed to his mother that he was still alive (a Revenant), she became obsessed with killing him. Because of this, Ten’s mother killed him multiple times, in different manners, in his house.

Sometime after becoming a Revenant, Ten met and was befriended by Roman.

Appearance
Ten is a young man of below average height, making him one of the shortest characters in the series. He hunches a bit when he walks.undefined He has messy black hair, almost up to his shoulders, which is usually hanging in front of his face. Ten has grey eyes.

His appearance is usually described as sickly. He has dark circles around his eyes and his skin is an unhealthy color.undefined He is also fairly bony, enough so that his black prisoner shirt hangs off his shoulder and his pants are rolled up several times.

Personality
Ten is a quiet individual who usually speaks in a lowered voice. He’s prone to muttering and speaking in a flat tone. He’s stoic, highly reserved, and calm.

He goes through a change in temperament during battle when he allows Marco’s to “take over,” and use his Pulse. When Marco takes over, Ten laughs maniacally and becomes immensely bloodthirsty and violent.

Ten rarely laughs. He does use sarcasm, which according to Seven, is a sign of humor and a telling that he will one day laugh at one of her jokes.undefined Ten also has a hard time telling when someone is joking, as shown with Dominic.undefined According to Dominic and Seven, Ten does not understand observational humor.undefined

Due to his severe lack of socialization prior to Seven and Roman, Ten finds himself anxious when he has normal conversations.undefined

Ten reacts with disgust when people make sexual comments. This is shown mostly with Two and Five.undefined

Ten hates loud noises because he cannot hear himself think.undefined

Ten rarely makes eye contact or looks at people near the face.undefined

According to Dominic, Ten “radiates pure sadness.”undefined

Pulse
Ten’s Pulse takes the appearance of thorny tendrils. Seven has described them as both “creeper”undefined and “hentai”undefined tentacles. As a child, Roman commented that Ten looked like an octopus or a spider with his Pulse.undefined

The tendrils are at least seven feet in length and two inches thick. They are thorny and jagged with sharp points at its ends. The tendrils appear out of Ten’s spine in a “shower of black steam.”

Ten can manipulate his tendrils to grab onto his opponents, throw them, and slash them.undefined

Ten’s Pulse also has the ability to absorb other Pulses. Besides receiving their power, Ten also comes into possession with the shape, personality, special abilities, emotions, memories, and the soul of the Revenant whose Pulse he absorbed.

It is stated that Ten’s death—being struck by a car—is not the reason for his unique Pulse. Because of Ten’s mother, who killed him multiple times in his house—a Haunt—Ten became stronger and harder to kill. His Pulse remained fluid, dynamic, and continued to grow and change. According to Two, his Pulse more than likely gained the ability to shapeshift because Ten died in many different ways and thus was forced to adapt to each manner of death.undefined

Death
When he was a child, Ten was hit by a car that was speeding through his neighborhood. He died at the steps of his house with his mother hugging him.undefined

Ten experienced repeated “deaths” inside his house because of his mother, which contributed to the development of his current Pulse.

Battles
Ten vs. Unknown Revenant: Won

Ten vs. Seven: Incomplete

Ten vs. Nine: Won

Ten vs. Eight vs. Seven: Surrendered

Ten vs. Six: Lost

Trivia

 * Ten is 5’4”.undefined
 * Ten weights 115 pounds.undefined
 * Ten has gone through the Shelley treatment four times.undefined
 * It is heavily implied and referenced that Ten might be asexual.undefined
 * Ten has been in the Mausoleum for eight years. He was admitted when he was eleven-years-old.undefined
 * Ten does not know how to cook or drive.undefined
 * Ten was number 250 back when Marco was alive.undefined

Quotes

 * (To Roman) “Did I enjoy painting the walls with blood? They were screaming, weren’t they, up in the stands? They had front row seats. What was it like, watching bodies twist and gasp like speared fish, how did that feel, how fucked up would that feel? The feeling of their entire bodies trembling with the force of their high-pitched screeching, their ugly mouths twisting, it was so noisy, agony is always so noisy, the weight of their bodies as they drooped with broken spines and cracked bones, they were finally quiet, do you want to know how it felt in my mouth, do you know how it tastes, all coppery and thick and warm and heavy, don’t you want to know all about it, don’t you want to know if I enjoyed it, if I like-?”undefined
 * (To Five) “Why are you obsessed with me?”undefined
 * (To Seven) “In the Gallows, they leave you in the dark and force you to think. You have to think about everything. Everything you’ve done, everything that’s been done to you, everything the future does and does not hold. When someone drives screws into your fingertips, at least the pain distracts you. At least all you can think of is the hot white pain and how much you wish it would stop. When you have nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing to hear but your own screams and sometimes not even that, not even your own heart, because after a while, it stops beating, all you can do is think. And you think too hard. Everything unravels. Reality becomes distorted. Everything becomes hollow…and it’s an endless, empty nothing.”undefined
 * (About Marco) “He was like my brother. He protected me before I could protect myself. He was all I had. He was everything. I was afraid of everyone, of myself, but he made me feel safe. He was the only kindness I found here. I felt like all I could do was hate myself, but he chose to love me, at a time when I thought such a thing was impossible. He gave me something I hadn’t had in a long time, showed me that it was possible to have such a thing in even the worst of places, among the worst of people.”undefined
 * (To Seven) “I’m no better than Eight. I’m no better; he hurt people because he wanted to, he felt anger and fear and disgust and he craved violence to get rid of these feelings, to validate himself, and I am the same, murder and rape are the same creature, do you understand? We rid people of their dignity, trample everything that they are, we violate their sense of self, we take what we want without regard for the people we hurt, who feel the same feeling as us, who have dreams and aspirations and hopes and friends and family, who hurt the same way we do, but are different in one auspicious way: they have the nerve to possess something we want but can never have. So we take from them because how dare they. And then we have the nerve to feel like the victims of the situation.”undefined
 * (To Roman) “Tomorrow, then.”undefined
 * (To Marco) “… is that all? Is that the only reason? The only reason you ever cared about me? Because you felt like a knight in shining armor coming to save me? Were you stroking your ego too, Marco? You don’t care if I’m happy or the quality of the life that I’m living, you just want me to live so that your conscience can be eased? Is that what I am to you? You and I aren’t so different, are we? It’s fun being the hero.”undefined
 * (To Marco) “I have to. I have to, I have to, I have to, I-she’s there--She’s there, the only living remnant of her is in her last request and he’s there, I have to-I have to finish it for her, I have to complete the goal, the only thing she wanted, the last thing, and Roman-”undefined