Sickened Minds

Chapter Three

July 6th, 1930

The family was eating lunch. Everyone at the table was present except for Aeryn. Deonne was hardly eating. He had a sickly look on his face. Florisse was fiddling with a ring on her finger. Axel was staring at her. Dwayne was eating his food quickly, but he never got fifths. Axel started eating slowly.

    "Where is the little one?" Dwayne asked, referring to Aeryn.

    "Oh, so now you like her?" Florisse scoffed.

"Where is she?" Dwayne repeated.

Axel shrugged.

Deonne looked up from his plate. "She has food poisoning. She's in the bathroom, puking, likely."

                Florisse stood up. She glared at Dwayne. "Fantastic job, dumbass." She went upstairs to find her little sister.

"Food poisoning? Rubbish," Dwayne scoffed.

    Axel poked at the meat on his plate. "I'm not hungry."

"That's alright. I'll keep it for you to eat later," Dwayne snarled.

    "I don't like your food. I wish Mommy was here so she could cook for us," Axel whimpered. Dwayne was too busy eating to hear. He got up and waddled to the kitchen.

Florisse entered the bathroom. "Aeryn?"

Aeryn's head was on the edge of the toilet, and she was fast asleep. Her skin was paler than usual. Florisse took a hanky and wiped Aeryn's mouth with it, then picked her up. Florisse brought her to her own room and set her on the bed. Aeryn's eyes opened slightly. Florisse didn't notice. She brushed Aeryn's hair out of her eyes softly. "I'll get us out of here, Rin. We just have to push through it for two... more... years...."

Aeryn sat up and latched onto Florisse's arm, sniffling. Florisse's eyes softened and she ran her hand through Aeryn's hair.

"Father... got me sick...."

"I know, baby, I know. He doesn't know the difference between cooking and shit."

Aeryn looked up at her. "Has he ever done... weird stuff to you?"

Florisse became stiff. "Like what, Aeryn?"

"Gross things. Like what only adults should do. Like him and Mommy did."

"Y... Yes."

"He tried to last night when he hurt me. That's why he hurt me in the first place, besides the fact that I didn't finish my dinner...."

"I will never let him do that to you, okay? If he tries to, scream. I'll come find you."

"You can't always protect me, Florisse," Aeryn said quietly. "It's like every person for themselves in this house. We try to help each other, and one always ends up punished for it."

"That's changing soon," Florisse replied. She went to say something, but nothing came out of her mouth.

"There's a knife in mine and Axel's drawer, if you ever need it," Aeryn told her.

"I won't need it, honey. You keep it so you can be safe. I... I need to tell you something, but I don't want you to tell Axel yet, okay?"

"I won't."

Florisse took Aeryn's hands. "There's this nice family who lives right down the street. They have a son, and he's only two years older than me. As soon as he turns eighteen, we're going to move out with him."

Aeryn stared at her, then laid down and closed her eyes. "Don't worry, Florisse. You didn't need to tell me. I already knew." She fell asleep seconds later.