“I don’t like this any more than you, but when you climb the stairs, you get the belt.”
The leather lashed across her small bottom through the tattered nightgown. Her face was mashed up tight into a ball when the door flew open.
“What do you think you’re doing? You idiot!”
“She went up the stairs.”
“Who cares? Drop the belt, or I will put a bullet in your brain.”
The belt hit the floor with a thud.
“She has to mind.”
“She can’t be marked, you fool!! You bit her! You want to keep her from going to the stairs? Watch.”
The man who had come in grabbed her under her arms and picked her up. With a monogrammed handkerchief, he wiped her nose and eyes.
“There, there, Little One. You must stay away from the stairs, all right?”
She sniffled and nodded. He spoke with a soft voice.
“We have to keep this little one perfect. Because that’s what you are; you are perfect.”
He sighed, resigned.
“Little girls who go up the stairs get the box.”
“Okay,” she said, not quite understanding.
He walked a few steps with her in his arms and bent down. He tugged on a rope handle and a planked door in the floor pulled open, revealing a squared-off hole. Without a word or a glance, he dropped her in, and as the door closed above her, everything went black.
Emily shot up in bed, soaked in sweat, the scream lodged in her throat. Finally, it broke through as she covered her face with her hands and grabbed at her throat. Nathan was up in an instant. He switched on the small bedside lamp and squared her shoulders. He shook her gently.
“Emily, what is it? A nightmare?”
She clutched her throat with one hand and put her other flat on his chest, feeling his racing heart.
“Can’t breathe. Can’t breathe,” she choked.
Nathan scooped her up and moved like a jungle cat through the house with Emily in his arms. He grabbed a bottled water he had left on the kitchen island and pushed open the French doors out to the patio. Then in long strides, he carried her down to the beach. The wind was fierce and nearly blew the air into her lungs. Nathan set her down and stepped back to let her breathe. She was on her hands and knees like a marathoner collapsed at the finish line. She was torn between the need for space and the need to touch him. One look at his concern, and the battle was over. She crawled the short distance to him as he fell to his knees. Her face nearly collided with his chest as she breathed him in. He was her air. Her hands went around his bare waist, and her cheek rested on his sternum. He knew what had happened, so he simply held her and waited.
When she moved them to sit, he scooped up a towel she hadn’t seen him grab from the patio and spread it on the sand. Then he sat behind her, enveloping her with arms and legs. Her claustrophobia didn’t re-emerge though. With the dark ocean in front of her and his warm body behind, Emily breathed out a sigh.
“I was there, in the house.” She could feel Nathan stiffen, but he didn’t speak. “A man was hitting me with a belt. I had walked up some stairs, gotten about halfway, I think, when he grabbed me and pulled me back down.” Emily could hear the detachment in her own voice as she recounted the dream. Nathan stroked her arms rhythmically from shoulder to elbow and back. “Another man came in. The man who called me Little One and scolded the man for beating me. He said I shouldn’t have marks.” Nathan continued his hypnotic soothing as she told him the rest. She took a deep breath. When she told him about the hole in the floor, he felt her body shake, muttered a curse, and wrapped his arms more tightly around her, pulling her back into his body.
“Sky and sea, everything is wide open,” he soothed.
She nuzzled into his neck.
“You doing okay?”
She nodded without moving from her spot.
“Can I ask some questions?”
She nodded again, feeling his smile.
“Could you see anything else?”