Darkmore Penitentiary 2 - Caroline Peckham Page 0,16

carved out just for me. It was little more than a crawl space beneath the front steps of the house. The dirt was dry and cold beneath me. So dry that it made me cough if I breathed in too deeply.

There were thin cracks between the wooden planks that made up the stairs so during the day I had a little light, but that was when it was most likely that Papa would come too.

He sat on those steps and used his water magic to form little drips which splashed down onto my skin and made my heart leap and pound with fear. Sometimes they were ice cold, sometimes scalding hot so they burned me where they landed. I couldn't even move to avoid them. The space down here was only just big enough for me to lay down flat in. I couldn't sit up, let alone stand and I could hardly even roll over. He made me crawl inside when he wanted to punish me this way and if I didn't do it, he gave me injuries to nurse during my incarceration too.

Every time a set of heavy footsteps would pass overhead, I'd flinch and cower like a little pup, whimpers of fear and panic rising up in my throat like bile which I was forced to chomp down on. Because if he heard me, it would only get worse. Sometimes the footsteps passing overhead weren't him. Just another pack member coming and going. And I didn't even know if that was worse because the fear of his arrival was even more paralysing than the tiny space I was crammed into. I was desperate for him not to come while knowing with all certainty that he would.

But this time, while I lay in the dark and waited for his arrival, I refused to let my fear rule me. I kept my breathing calm and my eyes shut as I let myself daydream about the kids I used to see playing out in the park by my mamma’s old apartment before Felix Oscura had found me and taken me away. I used to watch them laughing and playing and imagine myself amongst them. I'd seen enough of life outside of my own to understand that I was missing something vital. And if there was a single thing in this world which I was determined to claim for myself then it was that. Normal. Freedom. Happiness. So if I had to learn to play this role for my papa to earn it then so be it.

Heavy footsteps sounded overhead and I expelled a slow breath as they paused. Little tendrils of dust were knocked loose from the steps above me and fell over my face, but I didn't flinch. I just waited.

When the silence dragged and my heart was racing so fast that I could hardly draw breath, my lips parted and words spilled from my tongue without me ever giving them permission to do so.

"Can we get this over with? I was hoping to do something better with my day than just sit down here like a stronzo."

The pause that followed my outburst had fear coursing through my veins for several achingly long seconds before Papa's rough laughter rang out. His boots thumped back down the steps and the little door he'd installed on the side of them to lock me in here swung open as he unbolted it.

His hand latched around my ankle and I stifled a scream as he dragged me out from beneath the steps until I was laying on my back beneath him in the faint moonlight which shone through the clouds.

"What do you suggest we do tonight then, runt?" Papa asked, his eyes flashing with warning but there was something else there too. Like a hunger, a need. There was something he wanted from me and even though my heart was racing and I had to fight not to let my hands shake with fear, I raised my chin and forced myself to speak again.

"I want to sleep in my own bed tonight," I said firmly. "So tell me what I need to do to make that happen."

A slow and deadly smile spread over my papa's face which really should have filled me with fear, but I was beyond that. I didn’t care what he did to me or what he demanded of me. I just wanted to take some small measure of control back over my own destiny. So I'd do whatever it took