[If she were a soot woman, she'd be a smoking like a factory chimney. Camille closes her eyes a moment. Repeats the manta. Vanish. Vanish. Vanish.
Kate's too young to be looking at this. Not her naked, expelling body, not her mother licking her upper lip as she feeds her another dose. Her scars. Richard, so charming before he saw them and repulsed thereafter. There's a sharp sting of regret, protectiveness. It rides over top of the calamitous shame.
She grips her hand tight. Finally looks down, gut churning.]
Some of it. There was expired medication, for a bunch of different illnesses. Ones no one in the family had. Other things too.
[Horse tranquilizers. Ipecac and laxatives. So many pills and powders and syrups, delicately stashed away for when she was in a mood for mothering.]
She wasn't right in the head, Kate. I'm sorry, you shouldn't have had to see that.
It's...a sort of mental illness, yes. But she's not delusional. It's more compulsion. Narcissism. Lack of empathy.
It's called Munchausen's by Proxy. There's a version of it where you make yourself sick for attention, or pretend to be ill. With the by proxy crowd, they make someone in their care sick instead. It's about being seen as caring. The control. The sympathy from other people.
She...went too far before. With Marian. [A deep gloom sweeps over her. Sucking her back into that familiar black hole.] My little sister. I didn't figure it out until last year.
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kate reaches for camille's hand. there's smoke rising from her head. ]
Was that... poison? ... Your own mother...?
[ ... she remembers that camille once said she lived with monsters. was raised by them. at the time, kate didn't know what to imagine. ]
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Kate's too young to be looking at this. Not her naked, expelling body, not her mother licking her upper lip as she feeds her another dose. Her scars. Richard, so charming before he saw them and repulsed thereafter. There's a sharp sting of regret, protectiveness. It rides over top of the calamitous shame.
She grips her hand tight. Finally looks down, gut churning.]
Some of it. There was expired medication, for a bunch of different illnesses. Ones no one in the family had. Other things too.
[Horse tranquilizers. Ipecac and laxatives. So many pills and powders and syrups, delicately stashed away for when she was in a mood for mothering.]
She wasn't right in the head, Kate. I'm sorry, you shouldn't have had to see that.
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[ she's a little glad her expression can't be perceived right now. ]
There was no reason for it...? It was just because she was out of her mind?
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It's called Munchausen's by Proxy. There's a version of it where you make yourself sick for attention, or pretend to be ill. With the by proxy crowd, they make someone in their care sick instead. It's about being seen as caring. The control. The sympathy from other people.
She...went too far before. With Marian. [A deep gloom sweeps over her. Sucking her back into that familiar black hole.] My little sister. I didn't figure it out until last year.
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[ ...... oh. the weight of her sister's fate sinks in a little more after a moment. ]
That must have been so horrible. I'm sorry.