Gretchen MacDonald was the perfect girl, a straight A student, went to church, didn't drink, smoke, have sex or do drugs. One day she got sick but the doctors couldn't tell her why. According to tests and machines her body was fine, but she was so sick she could barely move. She got better for a while, then got worse. One day she caught a nurse making fun of her so she kicked him in the balls. Afraid she'd get in trouble, she ran from the hospital. She kept running until she realized that her body didn't hurt, she felt better. That didn't last for long though. She got sick again so she started trying to figure out what happened. After some time and a little experimentation she discovered that doing bad things, anything that broke societies rules of what was good and nice, made her healthier. She started stealing and drinking but it wasn't enough to do much. She found some bums and killed them. At first she was shocked at her actions but she quickly got over it. She had to be like this or she'd die. The more evil she was, the healthier she got. Soon she was better than she had been before. She was stronger, faster and even looked more beautiful. She became Miss Misery and started working as one of Tao's prodigals,one of three top bosses in his criminal organization.

Miss Misery and Holden Carver began a secret relationship. Initially she gained strength from the illicit affair. Over time, as she fell in love with Carver, she became weakened and fell ill as she no longer believed the relationship to be wrong.