The Door to December

eyes.
     Melanie rolled off her mother's lap, onto the floor, and began to crawl away from the couch.
     'Melanie, stop!'
     In spite of the posthypnotic suggestion that required the girl to respond to and obey Laura's commands, she ignored her mother. She crawled past the rocking chair, making pitiful animal sounds of pure, blind terror.
     The calico cat stood on the rocking chair, ears flattened, hissing fearfully. As Melanie scrambled past the chair, Pepper leaped over the girl, hit the floor running, and streaked out of the study.
     'Melanie, listen to me.'
     The girl disappeared beyond the desk.
     Her left cheek still stinging where the child had struck her, Laura also went behind the desk. Melanie had crawled into the kneehole and was hiding there. Laura stooped down and peered in at her. The girl sat with her knees drawn up, arms locked around her legs, hunched, chin against her knees, peering out with wide eyes that, as before, saw neither Laura nor anything else in that room.
     'Honey?'
     Gasping for breath as if she had run a long way, the girl said, 'Don't let it ... open. Keep it ... shut ... tight shut.
     Earl Benton stepped into the doorway. 'You okay?'
     Laura looked at him over the top of the desk. 'Yes. Just ... my daughter, but she'll be okay.'
     'You're sure? You don't need me?'
     No, no. I need to be alone with her. I can handle it.'
     Reluctantly, Earl retreated to the living room.
     Laura looked under the desk again. Melanie was still breathing hard, and now she was shaking violently too. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
     'Come out of there, honey.'
     The girl didn't move.
     'Melanie, you will listen to me, and you will do what I tell you. Come out of there right now.'
     Instead, the girl tried to draw farther back into the kneehole, though she had nowhere to go.
     Laura had never known a patient to rebel so completely during hypnotic therapy. She studied the girl and at last decided to allow her to remain under the desk for the time being, since she seemed to feel at least marginally safer there.
     'Honey, what are you hiding from?'
     No answer.
     'Melanie, you must tell me — what did you see that you wanted to keep shut?'
     'Don't let it open,' the girl said miserably, as if responding to Laura for the first time, although her eyes still remained focused on some horror in another time and place.
     'Don't let what open? Tell me, Melanie.'
     'Keep it closed!' the girl cried, and she squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip so hard that she drew a small spot of blood.
     Laura reached into the kneehole and consolingly put one hand on her daughter's arm. 'Honey, what are you talking about? I'll help you keep it closed if you'll only tell me what you're talking about.'
     'The d-d-door,' the girl said.
     'What door?'
     'The door !'
     'The door to the tank?'
     'It's coming open, it's coming open!'
     'No,' Laura said sharply. 'Listen to me. You have to listen to me and accept what I tell you. The door isn't coming open. It's shut. Tightly shut. Look at it. See? It's not even ajar, not even open a little crack.'
     'Not even a crack,' the girl said, and now there was no doubt that some part of her could hear Laura and respond, even though she continued to gaze through Laura and even though she remained, for the most part, in some other reality of her own making.
     'Not even a crack,' Laura repeated, greatly relieved to be exerting some control at last.
     The girl calmed a little. She was trembling, and her face was still lined with fear, but she was not biting her lip anymore. A crimson thread of blood sewed a curved seam down her chin.
     Laura said, 'Now, honey, the door is closed, and it's going to stay closed, and nothing on the other side will be able to open it, because I've put a new lock on it, a heavy dead-bolt lock. Do you understand?'
     'Yes,' the girl said weakly, doubtfully.
     'Look at the door. There's a big shiny new lock on it. Do you see the new lock?'
     'Yes,' Melanie said, more confident this time.
     'A big brass lock. Enormous.'
     'Yes.'
     'Enormous and strong. Absolutely nothing in the world could break through that lock.'
     'Nothing,'