When she had first gone to the Atkinses to live, it had been with Len and Wanda. But that had been for only a few days. They had treated her all right, but then she had gone to live at Joe and Desiree’s place. And that was when her ordeal began, although it had not started that way. At first they had been somewhat kind to her; however, everything about her life before that was garbled, like the bad connection on a phone. She knew she had been taken from somewhere by the man. That her real parents had wanted her dead for some inexplicable reason, at least that was what he had told her. Now she didn’t have strong enough memories of her previous life to know whether this was true or not.
However, the day had come when the Atkinses’ behavior toward her had changed. Well, it had been Desiree, really. Joe had mostly worked outside the home, so it was just her and Desiree. They never had any visitors except, occasionally, Len and Wanda.
It was small things at first, bouts of sharp, inexplicable anger, the taking away of privileges, time-outs that turned into verbal and then physical abuse. When she was around eight, Desiree started playing what Cain now knew to be mind games with her. Planting things in her young head that would have been warnings to someone older and more mature. At first, Joe had defended her, but he’d never really forced Desiree to change her ways.
Don’t hit her that hard, Desiree, he would say. Feed her more than that, that’s not enough for a cat. Put her in better clothes, Desiree, what’s the matter with you? But then, Joe’s attitude changed too. Cain thought it was Desiree’s doing because Joe would storm into her room and say, I know what you’ve been doing, Becky. I know! And you’re not going to get away with it. One day he had come in and said, You are never to bite my wife again. And then he’d belted her in the face. Of course, Cain had never bitten Desiree, though she’d wanted to.
Then the time came when she went from the house to the prison cell carved into the side of the knoll. They had come into her room, woken her up, and said it was time for her to live in her new home. Cain thought they were giving her to another family, and she hoped and prayed they would be nicer, because now she was being beaten regularly, verbally terrified, worked to death, and fed hardly enough to keep her alive.
But that was not what had happened. As they dragged her into the woods, Cain was sure they were going to kill her and bury her body out there. She had screamed and tried to get away, but she couldn’t, and there was no one to hear her cries. They took her inside and Joe had used his flashlight to show her what was there. It was meager and dirty and cold, and Cain thought she could hear things scurrying around on the floor.
This is your new home, Becky, Desiree had said tauntingly. This is where you will sleep every night and where you will wake up every morning, unless you disobey me and are bad and then you will never wake up again.
At that point the young Cain was so panicked she couldn’t process what was happening. When they locked her in she pounded on the door, screaming for them to let her out, that she would be good from now on. Then she had heard Desiree’s voice coming from right against the other side of the wood: If you make any more noise, I will let the snakes inside with you. I see two right now who look very hungry. And they will bite you until you are dead. And then they will swallow you whole, Becky. Do you understand me? Do you hear them hissing? I will do it. You know that I will. They grow snakes big around here.
A terrified Cain had slowly backed away from the door as far as she could, all the way to the dirt side of her prison as it notched into the knoll. She had sat down on the mattress and never made another sound. She heard them walking away and leaving her there; she had stayed up all night in the dark, waiting to hear the hiss of the snakes who would come to bite her dead and then eat her.
Cain sat up and rubbed at one of the burns on her arm as the painful memories seeped from her mind. Desiree would strap her down in her bed and then light the cigarette and hold it over her, suddenly sticking the burning ember into her skin, making Cain scream before pulling it away and then drilling it into another part of her body until the girl cried out even louder.
Please stop, Desiree, please don’t hurt me.