Page 105 of Don't Call Me Daddy
Her eyes widen. “Can we go down there?”
I knew this was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier, and there’s no way I can deny her this, not after everything she’s told me today. “Yeah, I’ll take you down there, but you have to promise to stay close to me. It’s pretty far down.”
“Promise.” She loops her little finger in mine before kissing her hand.
“Let me climb down first, and you can follow me. That way, I can catch you if you slip.”
I take a deep breath as I squeeze through the narrow opening, slowly making my way down the ladder. I breathe through my nose, counting backward from one hundred. I try to imagine a spacious room, full of fresh air rather than the dank, cramped cave surrounding me.
When my foot touches the solid earth, I let out a sigh of relief as I reach to help Ivy down the rest of the way. At least this way, I know she won’t hurt herself.
I lead her through a wide pathway, and it’s so much tighter than I remember when I was twelve. I almost lose my battle to keep my panic at bay when I have to turn to the side just to squeeze through, but then the tight space opens up, and we’re inside the bunker area. It’s still pretty cramped but light-years better than what we just came through.
Rows of cots and metal bunk beds line the space, and a large metal shelf sits on the opposite end with century-old soup cans and supplies.
“Whoa, this is so cool.” Ivy moves to explore the decade-old stash of supplies, covered in a thick layer of dust and soot. She holds up a pocket watch. “Look at this stuff. I can’t believe all of this is still down here …”
When I don’t respond, she turns around to find me bent at the waist as I try to calm my breathing. I hold up a hand to wave her off. “Don’t worry; I’m fine. I just need a minute.”
She’s by my side before I can even finish. “Are you okay? Here, why don’t we sit down?” She leads me to sit on the cool stone ground beside her.
“It’s fine. Really, I’m fine,” I try to assure her, but the worry on her face says she’s not buying it. “I’m just a little claustrophobic—that’s all.”
“It looks like it’s more than a little. I can feel your heart racing, and you’re white as a ghost. Why’d you bring me down here? You could’ve said no. I would’ve understood.”
I wrap an arm around her, letting the scent of her shampoo ground me back from my panic. When my breathing finally returns to a semi-normal pace, I find Ivy staring at me like she’s waiting for an explanation.
“Have you always been claustrophobic like this? Is that what your brothers were teasing you about that night when we were camping?”
I clench my teeth and brush my hand over my jaw. “Sort of. I, uh … remember when you asked me about my scar?”
She nods, placing a hand on my thigh.
“I actually got it the first time I ever came down here—theonlyother time I’ve been down here. I was twelve, and everyone at school was obsessed with the Phantom. We’d all grown up hearing the stories, and we used to argue about whether or not he was real. I, of course, didn’t believe in him while all the other kids in my class did. One day, I made a big deal about how I wasn’t afraid of the Phantom. I was just trying to be cool, but they called me on it. They dared me to spend the night down here and provoke him, to prove that I wasn’t scared. And if I survived, then they’d believe me too.
“It was so stupid, idiotic actually, but I did it even though I was scared shitless.
“Anyway, I waited for my parents to fall asleep, and as I was sneaking out of my window, Jett walked in and caught me.He’s only eleven months younger than me, so he knew about everything from the kids at school. He tried to talk me out of it and finally threatened to wake up our parents if I didn’t let him tag along.
“We were both scared; we’d never done anything like this, and the only knowledge we had of the Phantom had come from the scary stories we’d grown up hearing. But neither of us talked as we walked the two-mile hike, cutting through the forest, and made our way inside.
“We came down here to the bunker and laid out our sleeping bags on the cots, both of us pretending we weren’t terrified. Somehow, we eventually fell asleep.
“At some point during the night, I woke up shivering and realized our lantern had gone out. There was a horrible stench in the air, and when I reached for my flashlight, it wasn’t there.
“I was growing more terrified by the minute. I tried to call for Jett, but I couldn’t see anything. It was pitch-black dark, and I started to feel like the walls were caving in on me. I had this bone-chilling fear wash over me. I know now that I was having a panic attack, but I felt like I was suffocating.
“I couldn’t find my flashlight anywhere—I guess it’d rolled underneath my cot or something when I panicked. All I could do was scream for my brother. Jett woke up, not knowing what was going on, and I know I must’ve scared the shit out of him too. He couldn’t find his flashlight either, but he was able to lead us back to where we had come in.
“He went ahead of me on the ladder so he could open the hatch door as I struggled through panicked tears right behind him. My arms and legs were shaking so violently that I had a hard time keeping my balance, and when I got to the top of the ladder, my foot slipped. My hands were so sweaty that I wasn’t able to get a good enough grip to catch myself.
“I fell almost thirty feet, landed on my leg so hard that the bone snapped completely in two, breaking all the way through my skin. I’d never experienced so much pain in my life, and there wasn’t anything Jett could do to help me.
“He ended up running the whole two miles home in the middle of the night to get my parents. They had to send a rescue crew to pull me out. I had to have two surgeries to repair my leg and spent the rest of the school year in a wheelchair.”
“Oh my God, Leo, that’s awful. You must’ve been so afraid, waiting down here all by yourself, not to mention hurting.”
I nod, remembering that fear all too well. “I had nightmares for years after that. I’d dream the Phantom was there with me, watching me, taunting me for being reckless. At one point, I was convinced he’d been the cause of it, that he was the reason I slipped.
