The darkness within
~ 1924 Second Salem church ~
Modesty is playing with her dolls instead of praying like she is supposted to. Mary Lou catches her however and takes them away. Making Modesty watch as her belowed toy goes up in flame. Modesty is too young to be able to properly control her emotions and bursts into tears at the sight. To drive the lesson home Mary Lou locks the 7 year old in the basement. Ignoring all of Modesty's cries and her begging. The girl spends days there. Locked up in the dark room. She can hear the leaky faucet at night and it keeps her from sleep. Her days she spends screaming and fruitlessly pleading for someone-anyone to let her out. By the last 2 days she gives up even that, instead sitting all alone in the dark, incapable of closing her eyes without cold fear washing over her. She spends whole days awake. Her mind weaving cobwebs of wild, terrifying apparitions. When ma finally decided the girl had learned her lesson she releases her at last. It takes Modesty weeks to be able to sleep normally again, having spend so long awake. The nightnares never stop though. She wakes screaming, not unlike the other children. Frantically going on about monsters she claims are lurking in the dark. Monsters ready to hurt her. The dolls she used to love, now bring her nothing but fear in the night. She in no longer able to keep them in her room. Most nights she still can't fall asleep without at least one of her siblings sitting by her side, holding her hand, whispering soothing words to the little girl. The happy child is gone now, its place taken by a nervous wreck, trembling whenever the lights go out. So scared of the dark, her breath is stolen from her lungs and her body collapses anytime she finds herself in a dark place. Her mind is a cobweb woven from her darkest fears. The happy, cheerful Modesty now dead.