Dwayne looked down at the drugged Black Labrador on the sacrificial altar.

“The dog is an offering to Ilsensine, Lord of Minds. Sacrifice it,” his mother said.

“This is awful. I can’t,” Dwayne said.

Esther slapped her son. “You are unworthy of the gift of aura reading,” she hissed. Her next words came telepathically: Kill the animal or you will submit to the cleansing ritual for eight hours. I will wash this weakness out of you.

Hands trembling, Dwayne cut the dog’s throat.

---

Dwayne Little was born into the Mind’s Eye Cult. Or at least that’s what his mother told him. Her words were usually twisted to further her insane agenda so it was hard to know. At one point Dwayne worked up the courage to ask who his father was. He expected her to punish him but she simply smiled. “Why, our Lord Ilsensine of course,” she said. Dwayne told himself that this was just more of her crazy talk but he was unnerved enough to not pursue the matter further.

Esther was the leader of the Mind’s Eye and a skilled telepath. Dwayne was gifted with the power of aura reading. The cult believed psionic and/or psychic powers were a blessing of the Lord of Minds, who was destined to awaken and “enlighten” (enslave) all of humanity. The Mind’s Eye cultists worked to brainwash Dwayne by breaking him down physically, mentally and sexually.

But Dwayne resisted their brainwashing attempts. And he endured much punishment because of this. The “cleansing” his mother referred to was a form of ritual abuse in which the subject was tied down and given a forcible enema. Esther performed this punishment on Dwayne many times. She sometimes laughed as Dwayne screamed and cried.

Other times the torture was more psychological. During Dwayne’s puberty Esther brought a beautiful black female cultist to him. The cultist disrobed and stood nude before him. “Our line of psychics must continue,” Esther said. “You will impregnate the girl.” She turned and left.

But no matter what they did Dwayne’s cock remained limp. Suddenly his mother reappeared in the room. “I suspected this would happen,” she said. “I can see in your thoughts that you have no interest in girls.” She shook her head. “The Lord of Minds has given me a son who is a mere empath and a faggot. How am I to do His Will with such flawed tools?”

As if on cue a handsome, well-built male cultist came in wearing nothing but lubricant. Dwayne’s cock perked up and his heart started beating faster. He began fondling the cultist.

After they had sex he was summoned to Esther’s chambers. “Obey me and I will send more pretty boys to your bed,” she said.

“I won’t hurt anyone,” Dwayne said.

You think anyone else is going to care for you? Esther responded telepathically. The flatminds hate and fear our mental powers. Only your mother will love and understand you.

Dwayne thought he would never escape from this hell. But he awoke one morning to the smell of smoke and the faint sound of gunfire. Was it an attack by a rival cult? Some sort of coup from within? As it turned out it was the FBI.

Many of the cult members died in the raid. Esther was apprehended and thrown into prison. For the first time in his 13 year-old life Dwayne was free of the followers of Ilsensine. He told his story to the FBI (leaving out the fact he was an empath). Within six months he was placed with foster parents.

Bob and Gloria Matthews were among the few African-Americans living in the posh Grosse Pointe suburbs around Detroit. They were in their late 40s and childless. Dwayne looked at their auras and saw they were good people. For the first time in a long time, he started to think he was going to be okay.

Cocooned in a comfortable, upper-middle class life, Dwayne began to heal from the trauma. He spent many hours in therapy. Several years later he enrolled in college and became a psychotherapist himself. Now 33, his years as a prisoner of the Mind’s Eye Cult seem like another life. But through his aura reading he has seen disturbing things – monsters that walk the streets masquerading as mortals. He eventually developed an unusual specialty for his practice – counseling people who (claim to) have experienced occult or supernatural related trauma. Dwayne has always remembered something his mother said long ago—

“A psychic cannot delude himself. We live in a world of darkness.”

Breaking Points

What is the worst thing your character has ever done? He has done many terrible things but all of them were under duress while imprisoned by the Mind’s Eye cult. He had sex with a variety of people while a prisoner. Sometimes he was raped and at other times he basically committed rape—some of the sex partners brought to him were so mentally gone they were hardly in a position to give consent. Being involved in a sexual assault is a breaking point.

What is the worst thing your character can imagine himself doing? Murdering a human being is a breaking point.

What is the worst thing your character can imagine someone else doing? The Mind’s Eye cultists would sometimes eat brains in honor of Ilsensine. Cannibalism is a breaking point.

What has the character forgotten? Two years after escaping the cult, Dwayne was attending church with his foster parents. A guest preacher came to speak. Something about the priest bothered Dwayne, although he could not put his finger on why. So he tried looking at the man’s aura. He was confronted by an evil so alien and overwhelming that his consciousness suppressed the memory. The priest remained perfectly composed as he chatted with the parishioners. Dwayne stopped going to church after that. Psychic contact with an elder entity is a breaking point.

What is the most traumatic thing that has ever happened to the character? Hard to say given the many instances of ritual abuse he suffered. But in Dwayne’s mind, much of what happened to him centered around the fact he was a prisoner of the cult. He learned the hard way that anything can be done to a prisoner. Imprisonment is a breaking point.

Aspirations

• Find a new client
• Help someone
• Make a new friend

Contacts (Witch Doctors, Social Workers)

Dwayne has reciprocal relationships with several occult healers in the Detroit area. Dwayne occasionally consults with the local witch doctors for occult advice. On some occasions when a patient was open to it, Dwayne’s has referred patients to local witch doctors for additional assistance (exorcisms, etc.). The witch doctors, in turn, refer potential clients to Dwayne, a therapist who won’t automatically assume their supernatural experiences are delusional.

Dwayne is also friendly with many social workers in the area. They are more likely to refer mundane cases to him than supernatural ones, but they know of his specialty areas and take note of cases they think would be a good match for him. Dwayne makes a solid salary from his wealthier clients, so he sometimes takes these cases on for a reduced rate (or, more likely, getting insurance to cover it, hence his dot in politics).