ᴰⁱˢᶜˡᵃⁱᵐᵉʳ: ᴵ ᵘˢᵉᵈ ˡʸʳⁱᶜˢ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵗʰᵉ ˢᵒⁿᵍ ᴰᵒˡˡʰᵒᵘˢᵉ ᵇʸ ᴹᵉˡᵃⁿⁱᵉ ᴹᵃʳᵗⁱⁿᵉᶻ ᵃˢ ⁱᵗ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ᶠⁱᵗᵗᵉᵈ ⁱⁿ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵗʰᵉ ʷᵃʸ ᴷᵃᵗ ᵗʰⁱⁿᵏˢ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳ ᶠᵃᵐⁱˡʸ ˢᵒ ⁱᶠ ᵗʰⁱˢ ᶜʰᵃᵖᵗᵉʳ ˢᵉᵉᵐˢ ᵃ ᵇⁱᵗ ʷᵉⁱʳᵈ ⁱᵗ'ˢ ᵇᵉᶜᵃᵘˢᵉ ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ᵍᵉᵗᵗⁱⁿᵍ ᵃ ᵍˡⁱᵐᵖˢᵉ ⁱⁿᵗᵒ ᵗʰᵉ ʷᵃʸ ˢʰᵉ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ᶠᵉᵉˡˢ ᵃᵇᵒᵘᵗ ʰᵉʳ ˡⁱᶠᵉ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶠᵃᵐⁱˡʸ.
"Tell me about your family Katherine" I heard the words, but my attention was on the pouring rain I could see out of the window, there was a storm outside, the sky was a dark blue, and the clouds were a gunmetal gray color.
It looked how I felt.
"My family?" I repeated, but my gaze and attention hadn't moved from the roaring storm going out just the other side of the locked window. It had been two weeks since my talk of being well enough to leave, and I was trying to be on my best behavior, but today felt different.
A storm lingered over me too.
"Yes, your mother, father and twin sister" Dr. Myers pushed as she sat patiently in front of me, by the tone of her voice I think she knew something was happening with me that this session wasn't going to be one of our breakthroughs.
"My father is Neil is a businessman, my mother Maureen was a housewife but passed away almost three years ago, and my sister is Sidney she's older than me but only by a little bit" I answered robotically as if I had done this a thousand times.
"That's lovely, Katherine, but I'm asking you about your family, not the overview of the white picket fenced family you were taught to say" I quickly glanced at the female doctor. Still, my face was emotionless, even with the surprise I felt.
I remember now.
I had told her about how it had always been drilled into our heads that we were the perfect all American family, we had the 'apple pie life' . The hard-working husband, the homemaker who always had a smile on her face and food on the table, and then the two inseparable darling twin sisters.
It was all a fucking lie.
If anyone truly looked closer, if they took a peek behind the curtains, they'd see the truth.
A husband who overlooks his wife's infidelities, the homemaker who liked the men in the neighborhood a little too much, the oldest twin who shadows her mom so much she can't see past her lies and deception.
And then there was the illegitimate son that gets forgotten or is unknown by all except the youngest twin who hates everything and everyone so much she gets put into an insane asylum.
Everything always had to be perfect, everything, even pictures it was always 'Picture, picture, smile for the picture. Katherine pose with your sister, why won't you be a good sister?'
Everyone thinks that we're perfect.
"my family?" I repeated out loud as my thoughts began to tick over "I don't have a family I have a Dollhouse" I answered as my eyes flicked back and forth as my memories start to pull up front and center in my mind.
"A dollhouse?" Dr. Myers questioned, sounding confused as I hear the scratching of her ballpoint pen against the notepad she held in her hand.
"We're all just dolls, we put on our doll faces, everyone thinks that we're perfect. We don't let them look through the curtains," I mumbled, trying my best to explain the only way I could; we're just marionettes in the pursuit of her perfect life.
"My mom she had it going on. People we're blinded by her jewelry, but when you turn your back, she pulls out a flask and forgets her infidelities".
I finally looked at the brunette doctor in the eye as I whispered to her, "I see the things that nobody else sees. No one never listens. One day they'll see what goes down in the kitchen".
A few beats of silence go past where the only sounds that could be heard were the rain and the clock ticking.
"A dollhouse" I alliterated once more as Dr. Myers just sat and watched as I let her in on the secret of the Prescott's, we're not real, we're a family built on a cracked foundation and it crumbled under the pressure of what was built.
"where did you fit in? In this 'dollhouse'?" I carefully thought about the question as I quietly listened to the hands of the clock tick as the minutes passed by.
"I didn't," I answered truthfully before glancing up again, "and that's why she hated me. That's why she chose Sidney. She always chose the option that made her feel better" I bit my lip in thought, "I reminded her too much of some else, and that killed her inside."
"who did you remind of her of?" The older woman gently asked, and my frown instantly melted from my face as a soft smile grew for the first time since I walked into the room an hour ago.
"Her nightmare," that's what Roman called himself the day that we met, I asked why our mother didn't want to talk or see him, and he explained how he was apart of a past life that she no longer wanted.
He was a nightmare that she was trying to place back into the shadows, a nightmare that she was desperately trying to run from, but in doing that, she was unknowingly creating a new horror, and there was no way of stopping it.
Roman was everything she was trying to forget, she found a gullible man to marry and had two daughters to mold into her version of the perfect life, but I don't think she realized that to have that life she should've fixed her own demons first.
"what about your father? How did he fit into this dollhouse?" Dr Myers asked as my eyes narrowed dangerously at her question. My father wasn't a topic I was interested in her burrowing around in.
"I love my father," and I do, he was the only one who treated me like an actual member of our family. It wasn't his fault that his wife played away from home while he was away trying to look after his family.
"What about Sidney" the older woman questioned quickly as if ripping off a band-aid, we've had many conversations about my older twin, the same twin who stopped visiting me a few weeks into my stay here.
My father's excuses had started to run out, and I knew she wasn't coming back to see me.
The bond we'd recreated after the massacre had once again broken, and my previous dislike for the favored twin who was the obvious 'good child' slowly turned into something that terrified even my father who didn't want his daughters at war with each other.
"what about her?" I ask nonchalantly as my gaze moved back to the awful stormy weather, just another 2 weeks, and I could be back out in the world, but going back out there means having to see people I really didn't want to see.
It also means I have to battle demons that I wasn't entirely sure I was ready to take on, being in here protected me against a lot of things after the murders. I didn't have to deal with the all out of the massacre, the press couldn't get to me, and I didn't have to testify to anything.
"Do you love Sidney? Did she belong in the dollhouse?" Dr. Myers questioned as I blinked before letting out a small laugh at my own thoughts.
"She doesn't need a doll face Doc, she's just like her" I muttered before realizing how crazy I was beginning to sound, why had I left it until 2 weeks before my impending release to reveal my real thoughts on my family and life.
"She is just like her, and I am just like him," I said to myself as I sighed before standing up and walking over to the window, placing my hand on the cold pane, "I think I loved her once" I frowned to myself.
"Then why did you save her?" I turned my head to face the older woman in confusion. "In a statement Sidney made, she states you saved her life, more than once I'll add, why?" letting out a huff, I turned my head back.
"she's my twin," I answered softly, once again,hearing the scratching on paper as my simple answer was documented.
"and because she's your twin, you view her what? Worthy of having her life saved? Did you feel a need to help her?" my eyes scanned the grounds of the outside area smiling when I remembered the times I tried to escape. "Why did you save your sister from dying?".
Turning to face the doctor, I leaned against the window as I crossed my arms with an amused smirk, "You never know Doc one day I might need a spare kidney."