“Daddy?” 

“Yes, honey?” he replies, keeping his eyes trained on the basement door. We’re both sitting on the grey, cracked concrete floor of the room, with cobwebs in every corner and my own small, wooden bed pushed into a nook on the far wall. I’m holding the book that he gave me yesterday, open on a page with a picture of a large, yellow ball in the middle of a black page dotted with points of white. 

“What’s this?” I hold up my book, and Daddy finally looks away from the door and at the pages, staring at the ball. 

“Oh, that’s the sun.” 

“What’s the sun?” 

He blinks, hesitating before looking up at the lightbulb on the ceiling and pointing to it. “See that?” 

I look up, following his finger. “Yup.” 

“Well, the sun is like that. It’s a big lightbulb.” 

“Okay.” I turn the book back around to look at the picture a little longer. “If it’s like a lightbulb why is everything all black?” 

“Well…” he starts, frowning a little and biting down on his finger. That’s his thinking face. He makes it a lot whenever he’s teaching me things. “The sun is in a very dark place called space. And space is so dark, that not even the biggest lightbulb in the world can light it all up.” 

“Wow,” I exclaim, my eyes fixated on the sun in the centre of the page. “Can we go there?” 

He smiles a little bit. I like it when daddy smiles. He doesn’t do it very often. “To space, you mean?” 

“Yeah! To space! To see the sun!” 

He lets out a small sigh and ruffles my long hair a little bit. “Only a few people ever go to space, honey.” 

“Can I be one of them?” 

He hesitates again. “Yeah. Maybe one day, you can.” 

“Yay!” I shout, and daddy’s eyes widen before he pushes a hand against my mouth, silencing me, and his head snaps back to the basement door. 

“Shh! Not too loud, remember?” 

I nod, and after staring at the door for a few moments, he slowly takes his hand away. “Sorry, daddy. I forgot.” 

“Charles!” a woman shouts from behind the door, and Daddy almost jumps out of his skin. “How long you gonna be down there for? Lorelei needs help with her math homework!” 

“Sorry honey, I’ll be there soon!” he shouts back, breathing deeply before holding my hands in his own and squeezing gently. “Sorry honey, Daddy needs to go now. You be good, okay?” 

“When will I get to meet the lady in the basement?” I ask. Daddy shakes his head, giving me a sad smile. 

“Not for a while, Sadie.” 

“Why not?” 

“When you get older you can, okay?” 

“That’s what you said last year. When will I be old enough?” 

“When you’re fifty-five.” 

“Fifty-five?” I exclaim, wary of keeping my voice down this time. 

“Yup.” 

“Why can’t I meet her now?” 

Daddy stands up, brushing the dust off his pants and walks to the stairs. “Because I said so.” He reaches the top, opens the door, and disappears through it. I pout to nobody, dropping the book and crossing my arms. 

I’m old enough to meet new people. I’ll prove it! 

I wait for a few minutes, making absolutely sure that Daddy’s gone far enough away and slowly creep my way up the stairs. My heart is beating faster than it ever has as I grasp the door handle, and twist. 

It’s unlocked. 

I’m not sure why I never tried the door earlier. 

Excited, I edge the door open, peering out into the basement beyond. 

My nose is assaulted with a strange smell; it’s too sharp and it stings like the stench of washing soap Daddy uses for my clothes. I have to squint, too. The light is far, far brighter than it is in my room. 

I look down, trying to avert my eyes from the light, and see that the ground is different, too. It’s brown, and made of long rectangles with strange patterns in them. My eyes finally adjust to the light, and I realise that the entire basement is so colourful and vibrant. There’s brown and white and black and even some pink. I can’t help but grin wildly, barely containing my joy. It’s like something out of my picture books! 

I step out, carefully closing the door behind me, and walking a few steps before freezing in place, noticing movement on the wall out of the corner of my eye. I slowly turn my head, and see somebody staring back at me. 

They’re… Hideous. Their face is all wrong – lumpy and twisted like Daddy’s clay when I squeeze it too hard. One eye sits lower than the other, and their mouth pulls sideways like it’s trying to escape. The skin looks melted, rippling and bunching in places faces shouldn’t bunch. 

My eyes widen, and I slap my hands over my mouth as fast as I can to stifle the scream brewing in my lungs.  

The other person copies me. 

I stare at them.  

They stare back. 

I slowly lower my hands. 

So do they. 

“Who are you?” I whisper, walking towards the other person. I see their mouth move at the same time I speak, but no sound comes out. I reach a hand out to touch them, and they mimic me exactly. My hand connects with theirs, and it touches something, but it’s not flesh. 

It’s cold, and hard. 

I slowly raise my hand to my face, and with horror, I watch the other person do the same. I shake my head profusely. 

“No,” I whisper, watching the other person mouth the same word at the same time. “No, that’s not me. I don’t look like that.” 

I run my fingers across my face, watching as the other person does the same, their fingers touching their bunched skin as my own fingers feel the rivets in my face. A tear rolls down my cheek. 

“Why do I look like this?” 

A blood-curdling shriek sounds from my right, and I jump, my head snapping to look at who just screeched. A woman stands in the hallway, a look of pure terror etched into her face. 

“Is… Is everything okay?” I ask, taking a step towards her. 

“Charles!” the woman screams, backing away from me as footsteps thunder down the stairs. I turn to look behind me and see Daddy, the same horrified look on his face. 

“You told me she was dead!” The woman shrieked, pointing at me, her hand shaking wildly. “You told me you dealt with her more than ten years ago, you fucking liar! Has she been here this entire time?” 

“Daddy, what does she mean?” I ask him, tears flowing down my cheeks. 

“Sadie, run.” He points to a door at the end of the hallway, a huge, brown door with engravings all over it, and a shiny, golden handle. 

“Why?” 

“Because I said so!” He yells, and this time, I listen. I sprint to the door, turning the handle and practically throwing myself out of it, running out into the enormous basement beyond. There are far too many colours to count, and too many smells to describe, but I hardly notice them as I run as fast and as far as I can, my bare feet scraping on the rough ground as I do. 

I run until I can’t anymore, and fall onto the ground, sobbing and shaking. I look up at the blue ceiling and shield my eyes. 

Why is the light on this ceiling so bright?