Sickened Minds

Chapter One

1961

Raising four children alone wasn't even a consideration to Dwayne Finch. When Florisse was born in 1943 and Dwayne and Jennie settled that they'd have more children after her, Dwayne's coworkers joked that his young ones would have a second mother to raise them while Jennie dealt with the infants. Nobody in the family could have ever imagined that this would be the case someday, since both Jennie and Dwayne didn't follow traditional gender stereotypes. But it quickly became their reality after Jennie was gone. Florisse tried her best to give the twins the best life that was possible in that situation. Deonne had isolated himself so far from their lives that some days it was hard to tell him apart from Dwayne. Everyone in the house minded their own business and only spoke to one another when it was necessary, especially when it came to Dwayne. Ayren and Axel lived in their own little bubble that they sometimes let Florisse be a part of. It was clear that Jennie was the glue that held the family together and made them appear normal to outsiders. She had always been cheerful, even when she and her children were abused at home. Dwayne hadn't allowed the kids to leave the house since the day he killed her.

There were only three rules:
Never leave the house.
Eat your dinner.
Never ever talk back.

Because there were no rules besides those, Ayren and Axel's room had become a coloring book. The walls were full of murals. Some were beautiful and radiated joy, while others were grotesque and morbid. Axel drew all over the floor and around their bed, while Ayren's drawings were mostly on the wall. Since they were twelve and neither of them truly had a gift for art, some of the figures and landscapes were incomprehensible to the outside eye. But to Ayren and Axel, they were projections of their thoughts and feelings.

"We should draw outside. I miss going out there," Axel said to his twin, scribbling on the wall.

"We can't, Axel. You know that."

He stared at her blankly. She returned the stare, then began to organize their crayons. Some of them had been used for so long that there was barely enough of it left to hold. She put them in order by the rainbow scale, and left black, white, and pink at the end. The red crayon was the lowest of them all.
The night went on as usual. Every day felt like a repetition of the day before, but it had felt like this for so long that none of the children really noticed. They woke up, played, ate, and slept. Then the cycle began all over again.

After a silent dinner, Ayren and Axel came upstairs to their bedroom and put on their pajamas. Ayren climbed up to the top bunk and grabbed Minnie, her favorite doll, out from under her covers. She always used to watch Jennie sew and make crafts when she was young, so she picked up the habit. Weeks after Dwayne killed Jennie, Ayren rummaged through the house in the middle of the night while her father was sleeping to forage fabrics, thread, and other materials to make something in her mothers' memory. Since she had nothing else to do, she finished making the doll in two days. Her little hands were covered in blisters and burns from working so much.

The name 'Minnie', Ayren told Axel when she made her, came to her in a dream the night she finally finished making the doll. She claimed to have heard a good voice telling her to name the doll Minnie, and that Minnie would be her best friend in times of need.

Of course, Ayren was only six when she made the doll, so it wasn't necessarily a sight for sore eyes. It was, however, impressively crafted for how young she was. Minnie's head was a brown, fabric pack full of rice, and her hair was made from carefully sewn black yarn. She had arms, legs, and a torso made from the same brown fabric and a little dress that Ayren and Axel made together using their baby clothes. Minnie also had black buttons for eyes and a red smile that Ayren stitched on herself. Every so often, she would be given a new dress.