reeled back as the hot ash seared her exposed flesh. Her father relit his cigarette and poked it into her flesh again. Only, this time, he targeted her right nipple. He repeated his version of torture again and again, choosing a different spot on his daughter’s body to singe each time before he stopped.
Pepper threw the light switch on. The bulb, which hung from two wires, cast an eerie glow over everything. He turned to the sink that sat next to the washer and dryer that hadn’t worked in over five years and pulled from it a bucket of cold water to which he added several capfuls of bleach. A second later, he flung the contents on Emma’s body.
“Just a little solution to help with those burns you have there, you pathetic animal!” he screamed at her. “Haven’t you learned yet that you should keep your fucking mouth shut? You want to be the fucking hero of this family? No problem! How’s it feel to be the hero now? Huh? How’s it feel to be the hero now ?”
Having had his say, Pepper turned, his feet pounding on every step as his went upstairs, but not before shutting off the light and plunging Emma into darkness. She spent the remainder of Christmas Eve tied to the pole, wet and cold, the cigarette burns throbbing with an acidy pain as the bleach solution ravaged the raw wounds. Throughout the long, silent hours, the rats and bugs in the basement tormented her. She kept kicking out with her feet to keep them at bay, but by morning, she was no longer able to fight them off. Overpowered by sheer exhaustion, she drifted into an uneasy slumber.
It was noon when Pepper brought Gracie down to the basement with Valerie lagging behind.
“Gracie,” he said menacingly, “take a good, long look at her. This is what will happen to you if you think about giving me any back talk.”
Gracie’s eyes welled up with tears and her face crumpled as her horrified gaze swept over the cigarette burns that freckled Emma’s body. Her impulse was to run back up the stairs as she watched the large insects dancing on the open wounds, stopping only to take a nibble of her sister’s burned tissue.
Emma drifted in and out of consciousness, but at one point, she looked to her mother for help. “Please, Mommy,” she pleaded in a cracked voice, “ please help me!”
Valerie silently turned away and headed back up the stairs, dragging Gracie with her.
Pepper sneered, “Remember who the boss is around here! This is nothing compared to what I can do to you!”
Bending down, he untied Emma’s hands, forcefully pulling her limp body up the stairs, and left her lying on the floor in the middle of the living room. Shortly after one o’clock that afternoon, Valerie approached Pepper, who had just finished his Christmas lunch of two shots of cheap whiskey and three beers. “Pepper,” she said hesitantly, “I’d like to take Emma upstairs, clean her up, and get her into bed. Can I have your permission to do that?”
Valerie was shrewd and always worked to keep Pepper on her good side. Besides, she was tired of having to step over Emma’s lifeless body as she ran to the kitchen to fetch her husband his beer.
Pepper eyed her for several moments. His hesitation made sweat break out on Valerie’s body. “Yeah,” he finally said. “What the fuck! Given it’s Christmas and all, I guess it’s okay.” Then he added threateningly, “Don’t any of you bitches ever say I’m cruel! See what I’m letting you do for that little shit stain after what she said to me? Who the fuck does she think she is, calling me a drunk?”
“Of course you’re not a drunk,” Valerie said quickly, trying to appease him. “You’re a good father and husband. Okay, Pepper? Now I’m gonna get her out of here so you don’t have to look at her anymore. I wouldn’t want our Christmas to be spoiled because of her.”
With Gracie’s help, Valerie quickly got Emma upstairs and put her into a warm bath. The piercing sting of the warm water and soap