Page 55 of The Unraveling of Julia

Suddenly her reflection began to change. Her face stretched up and down, more and more distorted. Her eyes darkened and went deeper and deeper like bottomless black holes. Her mouth opened into an endless tunnel.

Julia backed up, terrified. She turned and ran from the cell as fast as she could. She scraped the wall on the right, then the left. She ran harder and harder. Her lungs burned, her thighs ached.

The tunnel seemed to elongate as she ran, stretching out like her face in the mirror. Just then she saw an orangey rectangle ahead. The doorway to the living room glowed from the firelight. She was almostthere. She ran faster.

The orange glow came closer and closer. She reached the end but it zoomed away, reappearing at the end of another long tunnel.

Julia felt a bolt of sheer terror. She screamed, her wail echoing in the tunnel. She feared she’d never reach the end. The more she ran, the farther away she got. She’d be trapped down here forever, a captive of past and present.

It happened again and again, each time she got to the end of the tunnel, the orange rectangle zoomed away. Home was a fiery threshold she could never reach.

All of a sudden, she burst into the living room.

She staggered forward and collapsed on the floor.

In a dead faint.

32

Julia woke up on the floor, lying on her side, facing the fireplace. Early morning light filled the living room. The fire had gone out long ago, leaving charred splinters of wood, a pile of ash, and a burnt smell. She flashed on the little girl’s cell. For a moment, she didn’t know if it was real, a vision, or another nightmare.

She sat bolt upright, looking around. The flashlight and watercolor self-portrait lay beside her. So did the comb.

It was real.

Julia looked over at the wall. It was cracked and broken, revealing a makeshift door. Plaster chunks and chips were strewn all over the rug. Cold, dank air wafted from the entrance. The poker was on the floor. It was real.

Unless she was still dreaming now.

She heard shouting and banging at the back door, then realized it was Anna Mattia, locked out. She scrambled to her feet, ran to the door, and threw it open, unhinged and vaguely deranged.

“Anna Mattia, am I awake? Are you here? Is this real?”

“OhDio!” Anna Mattia’s mouth dropped open. “What’appen?”

“Are you here? Are you really here? Is it you? Are youreal?” Julia reached for Anna Mattia, to see if she was real or not, to feel another human being, but Anna Mattia recoiled in fear and scurried back down the hill.

“Piero!” Anna Mattia shouted, running away.

“Anna Mattia!” Julia stepped outside, struck by the morning sun. Itwarmed her face. It brought her back to reality. She heard birds chirping. Bianco barking. She was awake. Everything she remembered was real.

Rossi was a monster who might be her grandmother.

That could be the worst nightmare of all.

Julia perched on the edge of the couch, sipping a glass of water. She couldn’t suppress the revulsion she felt after seeing the underground cell. She didn’t know if she could stay in the house another minute. The very air seemed tainted with the horror of what was underneath the floor. She’d thought Rossi was delusional, paranoid, and maybe even crazy, but she hadn’t guessed Rossi could abuse a child, maybe even her own. It wastorture.

Anna Mattia had fought tears while Julia had told her what happened. Piero stood grim-faced, listening to the account and holding his gun. When Julia was finished telling the story, Piero went into the tunnel with his flashlight, leaving her and Anna Mattia in the living room amid the debris from the wall.

“YouseeCaterina?” Anna Mattia dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

“Yes, I swear it.”

Anna Mattia made the Sign of the Cross, and Julia got up and gave her a hug.

“I think Caterina wanted me to see the underground cell. She wanted me to know that Rossi put the little girl in a prison.”

“Signora Rossi, no, no, why she do?”

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