Oh now this I can talk about... a few weeks ago during our days-long chat with my loveless parents, mum showed her trump card; she was sexually assaulted by demons. No details, that's just what she believes and dammit she's hanging on to it.
For many years mum used to hint at knowledge of the underworld and as she was the smartest person alive I believed her and so didn't 'think about demons' in case they took an interest in me. Sometimes we'd be in an old building and she'd get the juju feeling and wouldn't stay. I fell for it, I believed her. Over the years I have come to realise that mum's a sweetheart but so dangerously deluded it's making her go batty, and when she revealed this dark secret a few weeks ago, Mr Frass and I just couldn't think of the words. It was such a moment; it was the final straw for her credibility.
I don't know what drives mum to believe this. Talking with her family, I've learned that her parent's divorce when she was 14 affected her badly, but as far as I know there hasn't been any real abuse in her life - just that rejection by her dad. She had him on a pedestal for years, and she's always looked down on her mum and her step-dad. She's so hurt by us all growing up and moving out, but she did that to them when she was 16, and hardly looked back. Maybe there are bigger skeletons in her closet - maybe in her head she's turned an actual sexual assault by humans into demons to make it fit her belief system better, and to control the memory or something. Or maybe she's just convinced herself that demons visit her in her sleep (they couldn't be sexual dreams!! I'm a wife and mother and christian!!!).
