AN: Poem "The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt*
CHAPTER SONG: "Lithium" by Evanescence
Emmanuelle dreamed about nothing but oblivion as she floated in a dark void.
All was silent as she wondered where she was, looking around to see if anyone or anything was nearby to pull her onto a steady terrain.
The quiet mocked her, causing Emmy to look around her in horror as a terrifyingly familiar voice rumbled through her ears, making her body shiver with disgust and her limbs freeze in paralysis, even though her instincts screamed at her to escape.
"You know what's coming, my little emerald. You can't run away from me, even in your dreams. You were born to be mine." Erik's deep voice thundered in the air, coiling about her; like a snake encircling its prey. "You're mine to touch and spoil and nurture... and possess..."
A thick strand of string wrapped around each of her ankles, holding her in place; not rope or wire binding her feet... it was something else. Made of silk and glistening with fresh dew...
Another pair of strings reached out to her and tied about her wrists and she was laid out on her back upon a strange surface that took her brain a moment to process; entirely composed of cold, damp threads, beautiful yet deadly in their entrapment of her, all glued together where she couldn't move at all.
Emmy realized then that she was in the ornately patterned center of a giant spider's web... and she was completely snared even more as another string looped around her knees, tying together her thighs, like a chrysalis around her lower body...
Her hands were tied above her head, her upper body spread-eagled as the web strands soaked the thin fabric of her white snowdrop dress. She struggled in vain, the watery substance of dew drenching her hair.
A whimper resided in her larynx, slowly building into a piercing scream of bloodcurdling fear as she saw the silhouetted shape appear from the darkness, the atmosphere around her transforming from a nocturnal black into a hellfire crimson as she sensed her demise approaching.
The shadowy creature slunk into the red flaming light and Emmy felt the undiluted shriek of fright travel up her esophagus, her lungs aching as she was holding her breath, tears coming to her eyes.
An enormous beast of a spider, all eight limbs and multiple eyes clear as day within her sight began to torturously creep toward her; all of its eyes alight with hunger and lust to devour her...
Before Emmy's scream of terror could shatter her dream, an especially thick strand of webbing enfolded around her jaw, covering her mouth to clamp her lips closed. She moaned and sobbed against the gag restraining her expression of dread and vulnerability.
And the noxious voice of Erik emitted from the spider's fangs. "It's pointless to cry out, precious jewel. Nobody can hear you nor will anyone save you from me."
The arachnid creature crawled closer to her as she tried to wriggle away, to close in on herself for even the smallest ounce of protection.
Her vision blurred with her tears as she realized the spider was halfway to her, slinking in her direction as the Erik-spider chuckled with a sinister tone as he began to change form before her eyes. When he next spoke, his voice was a soft velvet serenade of seduction, soothing her into a false sense of security.
"You'll feel not a thing... I will own you: body, soul and heart." His voice was still reverberating through Emmy, ever helpless and fragile, as he began to transform into the human man she knew and loathed. "Just listen to my voice and you'll drift off."
Emmy could only limply lay on the web strings keeping her in place, the gag still attached to her lips as she moaned, feeling the stroke of the spider's long leg against her thigh, ripping a hole into her dress, revealing more of her fair flesh.
She closed her eyes tight, worried she would vomit as she turned her head away. And then she no longer felt the spider touching her like an animal inspecting its soon-to-be meal.
Dots spotted her sight with Erik's voice floating through her eardrums as he narrated the nursery rhyme that had haunted her subconscious...
*"Come hither, hither, pretty Fly
With the pearl and silver wing
Your robes are green and purple
There's a crest upon your head"
Erik's now human arms held her close, scooping her into his lap with the web strings still tying together her legs and wrists; her lips still silenced by the silken threaded gag. Emmy's green orbs became glazed as she looked up at his face and a confident smile came to his mouth, widening into a cruel grin complimenting his reciting the final words of the disturbing fable.
"Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her fast
He dragged her up his winding stair to his dismal den,
Within his little parlor... but she never came out again."*
Emmy lay unable to free herself from Erik's grasp around her, the woman's petite body wracking with sobs at the verses he spoke with such malice and amusement , his cold blue irises locked on her ashen face, his own sculpted features devoid of any empathy as he placed one of his fingers to his lips in an unvoiced gesture for her to make no noise.
The last thing Emmy saw was Erik's impossibly large hand reaching toward her face... his fingertips closing her eyelids.
His next words dripped venom into her ear and she began succumbing to darkness as Erik cradled her in his imprisoning arms like she was an infant, tenderly removing the gag from her mouth, tracing his long thumb over her open rose-red lips as she groaned in exhaustion and defeat.
Erik continued rocking her in his arms; intoning to her in an eerie singsong voice, his cool minty breath brushing her impassive yet peaceful face. "Sleep now, my beautiful butterfly. Don't let the bedbugs bite."
And she surrendered to the spider, slumbering in his monstrous, suffocating embrace...
.
.
Emmy shot her eyes open, gasping for breath as her chest hurt from the stress of her nightmare, still hearing Erik's malevolent laughter echo in her ears. She sat up with her arms shaking as she absorbed her surroundings...
The recognizable walls of her London hotel room graced her sight and she looked down at her lower body, seeing the luminous ivory skirt of her nightdress she had worn the night before at Molly's house. She looked down at her hand and saw the promise ring from Will on her finger...
The American brunette saw that she was no longer on the wooden floor like when she had passed out prior to being transported to 1917 France. Instead, she was on the queen sized bed, in a comfortable position with her head on the pillow and her white skirted legs spread out above the covers.
On the bedside table, she saw the glint of the diamond ring she had purchased from the Imperial War Museum...
As she regained her sense of awareness, she heard a blessedly soft voice in her ear. "I wanted you to be comfortable when you arrived back here, sweet Emmy. It wouldn't be right for a lady to wake up on the floor."
Tom was still speaking to her!
"Tom! All this was real?" Emmy whispered to the empty air as she crawled off the bed and looked at the clock next to the ring and her phone to see what the time was. She needed to know how long she had been gone; if it was the same amount of many days and weeks she had been in the Edwardian century.
1:30AM...
"Yes, it was. When Will woke up to you vanished, he was devastated. So were Molly and Joe. They all love you and want more than anything for you to come back safely." Emmy looked at her phone as she heard Thomas Blake speaking. "Dear Mum gives you her best as well. She doesn't quite understand what happened, but she only wants all good things for you."
Emmy felt tears come to her eyes at the mention of Catherine Blake. What she would've given to hear some motherly comfort from the matriarch's voice...
She looked at the bright screen of her phone and read the date.
April 7th, 2020.
Here in the present, she was only gone for a few hours. She breathed out a sigh of relief, thankful that there was no cause for anyone at the library to question her absence, possibly reaching out to her mother or the police to report her missing...and God forbid...Erik Baumer finding her having disappeared.
"Tom?" Emmy spoke the younger Blake brother's name, needing to hear his voice again in the empty silence... and nobody answered.
She lay back against the lumpy pillows of the standard hotel bed, holding her phone to her chest as she listened to the distant honking of car horns and emergency sirens outside in the chaotic London streets, and faint instruments of a sitcom theme song from the TV in the room next door...
Modern noises never sounded so glorious in all her years... even though she already missed the environment of twentieth century Surrey. Cici and Elle's playful laughter, Molly showing her cooking techniques in the kitchen, Will's arms around her as she visited him downstairs after everyone else went to bed...
And poor Joseph... she had left him all alone with no family.
How she hoped both Will and Joe read her letters she had written for them. They needed to know how much they both meant to her...
And her mother... she needed to call her. Hopefully she would be awake and not too tipsy to speak with her. After their last conversation went so poorly, she had to make up for it while she had a chance...before she would never be able to again.
Her fingers trembled as she unlocked her phone screen and went to her list of most recent calls.
She scrolled though a few spam numbers... and a wave of dizzying nausea assaulted her equilibrium as Erik's name and number came up on her screen as a notification of multiple photos and a text made it known to her with a cheerful chime.
Her throat dry with anxiety, she backed out to the main screen and went to see what Erik had sent her. She knew he was anticipating her return back to Richmond. Knowing it wasn't a good idea, she tapped on the message and what she saw made her blood boil and bile rise up inside her throat.
The pictures he had sent were one of the black and white photograph of her, or the woman with her exact likeness, in a gorgeous wedding gown and veil crowned with cherry blossoms, a bouquet of poppies in her hands... The same image from the museum gift shop...
The other photos made her want to scream in pure revulsion and anger.
Three pictures of her lying in bed asleep... the camera had been used with the flashing light in the darkness... and she saw the black covers around her and the bland white walls of the hotel room.
She placed a shaking hand to her mouth, realizing the terrorizing context of these pictures. Erik had followed her to London and snuck into her hotel room... while she was sleeping!
And then she read the text from Erik... her personal demon...
The 20th century becomes you, my Schatzi. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are when you sleep? If you call the authorities or don't come back to your apartment by tomorrow evening, midnight, your dear flighty mother will be hurt in more ways than one. I advise you tell her goodbye. You'll also call the library, citing a family emergency and submit your resignation, effective immediately. You belong to me, Emmanuelle. Sweet dreams, my jewel.
-XXX. Your devoted Erik
Emmy was near hyperventilating as she dropped her phone from her hand, allowing it to fall onto the covers. She suddenly leapt off the bed, racing to the bathroom and lifting up the lid of the toilet. She retched violently, vomiting in stress as she could practically hear Erik's voice in her ear as the words from the text were read out in her mind in his intimidating baritone, magnetic yet scornful.
Emmy wasn't Erik's... she would never be his!
She looked down at the promise ring on her finger, wiping away her tears with her other hand as she went to change clothes and gather her things together for her flight back to America.
And she said a silent prayer that she would stay strong enough to face whatever was ahead... For her new family and friends in 1917 Surrey, England.
.
.
Emmy's leg was bouncing up and down as she sat in the back of the Uber giving her a ride home. She clasped her hands in her lap, the diamond ring glittering on her scarred finger with the metal circle string from Will's tag chain...
She prayed Erik didn't know the exact time frame of her plane landing in the evening.
Her neck ached, being on a multiple hour flight and she was anxious to be back in her own home, but knew in her core there was danger waiting for her.
Erik had keys to her apartment after all! How did she not think of changing the locks after he had roofied her wine that weekend she left?
But, of course he would probably figure out she would do that...
As a precaution to placate him and to negate any suspicions he might have had, she had sent an email to her supervisor at the library and left a detailed voice message to check her inbox as soon as possible for information about her immediate notice of quitting her job.
In hindsight, she had looked about on doing such anyway since she decided about finding her true belonging in a whole different century in time...
As she looked at the Uber's route on her phone, she saw she still had 20 minutes until she was at her neighborhood...
And she knew Erik would be waiting for her arrival. She would be the gazelle walking straight into the lion's den, but she knew avoiding him would be futile. He had traveled halfway around the world to stalk her, after all.
Before she could deliberate about dealing with Erik, she received a text message alert. Expecting it to be the man waiting for her at home, she was relieved that it was her mother reaching out to her.
Even though they hadn't been on the best of terms the last few years, Emmy knew she'd regret not reaching out before it was too late. In the aftermath of her father's abuse, she had to get her mom out of harm's way, her due diligence as a daughter.
Her time in 1917 had made her see the true value of family and everything she and her mother had fought about seemed so insignificant now. And she had to make the call and tell her that...
Emmy's fingers went to the call menu on her phone and selected her mother's number, holding back her tears as she heard the responding voicemail. She chose her words with care to convey her affection despite the parent-child estrangement between them.
"Hi, Mom. I'm on my way home now... I just want you to know... that I'm sorry about all the arguments we had since you moved away. England was...an amazing experience. And... I met so many amazing people... and I'm probably going to make a lot of changes and start new like you did. You probably won't hear from me for... a very long time. But, don't worry; you know I can take care of myself. I hope you're happy with Davy and I wish you the best... and I love you. Bye, Mama."
Emmy wiped away the tears from her reddened face as she felt the Uber driver's concerned eyes on her from the front seat and she disconnected the call, sliding the phone back in her purse. She looked out the window and saw the buildings of her neighborhood. She counted the structures and sighted her residence as the car came to a stop.
She gave the driver a half-smile as he went to help retrieve her luggage from the trunk. She thanked him for his help, smiling gratefully as she pulled the suitcases up to the steps of her unit complex and watched the Uber drive away.
She was on her own now.
Emmanuelle inhaled a deep breath as she opened the door, hauling her gear into the hallway and making her way up to the floor where her apartment was located. Her legs were aching and she was glad she wore jeans and tennis shoes for such a long day of traveling.
As she came to the door of her unit, she froze when her sense of smell picked up on the masculine aroma of Erik's cologne, too strong for her nostrils as she fought back a sneeze.
He was here... or recently had been here...
Taking out her keys, she turned the lock, clutching her purse as an instinctual gesture of defense as she entered her darkened apartment.
The door shut behind her as she clicked on the light to the modestly spaced living room. Her bags dropped to the hardwood floor as she stood in speechless alarm. The entire area in her eyesight was forested and entrenched with hundreds of blood-red roses and pink cherry blossom petals.
The very flowers that symbolized tokens of love from both her William and Joseph...
Erik stood amongst the improvised greenhouse of floral beauty, his arctic blue eyes focused on her with the predatory glint of her nightmares, his strong frame attired in a crisply pressed white shirt and dark blue trousers as he unbuttoned the cuffs of his sleeves. He had shaved his auburn facial scruff from his cheeks and jaw-line. But his clean appearance didn't make Emmy hate him any less...
She would've gladly made sure each petal of these flowers disintegrated in flames as long he burned with them...
Erik spoke first, his voice husky with repressed relief that she had met his deadline in returning. "Welcome home, my emerald. You've no idea how much I've missed you. Do you like all the flowers? I know they're your favorites, just like how I know everything about you."
He stepped toward her and Emmy inched away as he bent down and picked up her bags from the floor by her feet, placing them on her small sofa. He towered over her, only slightly taller than her Will, as he maneuvered around her to plant himself in front of the door, obscuring the closest exit in case she wanted to flee.
"I've had a long flight and I'm really tired, Erik." Emmy tried to keep her brave façade as she cautiously stepped back from him, but he sauntered closer to her, as though he were reading her mind with every move she made to distance herself.
"I know you're tired, my Emmy. You can rest in awhile, I promise." He reached out, gently taking her by the petite shoulders, his huge hands moving to cup the base of her neck. "You got my message last night with the pictures? I swear; I didn't dishonor you. Nor did I take advantage of you that night in your bedroom."
"When you roofied me..." Emmy took steady breaths to prevent from hyperventilating again. She had to hide any weakness from him... She could feel the bruising pressure he placed on her throat as the tips of his thumbs squeezed against her larynx... A mere reed she felt in his hands...
"Oh, my little Schatzi..." He scoffed, brushing off the impact of her words, releasing her neck from his grasp. Erik pulled out of his shirt pocket the photograph of Emmy's lookalike in the Edwardian bridal gown. "How would you explain this?"
Erik swiftly moved to stand behind her, his arm wrapped around her collarbone, his twitching hand traveling up her slender throat. His massive palm and fingers encompassed the width of her fragile neck as he gently caressed her skin, his nose brushing the chestnut curls atop her head, inhaling the scent of her lavender shampoo...
Emmy withheld a wince of disgust at such close proximity with him. But she held fast and strong as she leaned her head back against his shoulder, pretending to act intoxicated by his sensuous touch. His fingertips brushed along her neck, petting her with violating adoration...
"I don't know why she looks like me... or I look like her. It might be an ancestor of mine. My great-great grandmother, also Emmanuelle, my namesake. " She spoke quickly in a low whisper, turning around to face him as she hoped he wouldn't catch her lie. "But why does that matter? It's from over a hundred years ago."
Erik's fingers tangled into her hair as he held up her scarred hand. Emmy's face went pale as she hadn't thought to keep the rings out of his sight. His hand clasped around her wrist in an inescapable grip. "Whose ring is this that you wear? And the metal tied on your finger? Where did you acquire them, Emmy?"
His freezing blue eyes hardened into icebergs, aflame with interrogative jealousy. Any affectionate tone he held vanished and her mind went blank for an answer. She wanted to slap him, tell him she hated him with every iota in her blood and marrow, but no words came out. Only salty tears flooded down her cheeks in response and she hoped they would soften his disposition.
After a few tense seconds, the ice of his eyes slightly melted as he sighed out, loosening his grip on her wrist as he quickly removed the rings from her finger, she almost didn't notice. "Please, don't get rid of them! They're souvenirs from England!"
She tried to grab them back, but his hold on her wrist was too strong as he placed both trinkets in his trousers pocket.
Erik answered her pleas in a hybrid of an intimidating growl and calming purr, further emphasizing his German accented cadence. "Don't worry, Schatzi. I would never get rid of something so dear to you. Every promise to you I'll keep... each one I made whilst inside you."
Tears of revulsion wetted her face as he traced his thumb over her chapped bottom lip, his pupils dilating with focus as he prepared himself for his next move.
"Did you speak with your dear mother and supervisor at the library like I asked?" Erik questioned her, like a parent asking a child if they had completed all their chores before playtime.
"Y...yes, I did. Neither of them answered, so I left emails and voice messages explaining everything like you wanted me to." Emmy spoke a half truth as more sparkling tears soaked her face.
"Good girl." He murmured approvingly.
Emmy looked up through blurred vision to see his stone-cold stare had somewhat thawed into an uncharacteristic gaze of sorrow as he stood behind her, wrapping his arm around her collarbone again.
His mouth brushed her ear as he whispered in a soothing pitch to hypnotize her into not fighting him. "Forgive me."
Before Emmy knew what was happening, the sharp needle impaled the jugular vein of her throat. She cried out at the sudden pain, whimpering as Erik placed a hand over her mouth to silence her. The purse fell from her shoulder to the floor, spilling out her wallet and phone.
She began to slump against him, struggling to keep her eyes open. Her limbs felt heavy and lethargic, similar to when her wine had been drugged, her legs buckling. Then, the numbness flowed in her system and unconsciousness began to drag her down.
As Erik watched her eyes finally close, he looked at her paling face. He lifted her up effortlessly into his arms before she collapsed, her body light as a stuffed doll resting on his chest. Her head wilted against his shoulder as half of her dozing face was cushioned on his freshly ironed shirt. He buried his nose into her glorious curls again, smelling her soapy fragrance once more as he closed his eyes, sighing in exultant bliss.
So beautiful... heavenly... Erik's heart pounded in his ribcage as he hoped she could hear it whilst she slept.
"Believe me, Schatzi; I didn't want it to be this way." His lilting yet deep voice spoke in a lullaby-like quality as he watched the motion of her breasts and stomach sync with her calming breaths, both of her waifish arms placed carefully in her lap as he secured his grip on the petite woman. His ravenous lips brushed her inviting petal mouth as he spoke to her three words he had never said to her before. "I love you."
Emmy's last thought went through her mind before she submerged completely into the black void. You don't do this to someone you love...
Everything went dark and silent.
.
.
A car engine and faint music playing La Vie En Rose by Edith Piaf floated through Emmy's ears. Her nerve endings hadn't revived yet, not that she was able to comprehend even where she was. All she saw was an abyss of nothing, just an entire cloud of obscurity fogging her brain.
She groaned in discomfort as she tried to figure out if she was awake or not...
A shushing male voice lulled Emmy deeper into the ocean in which she was barely treading the surface; the additional noises of the radio and engine ceased abruptly. Her tongue wouldn't cooperate; as though it were restrained from forming words and her throat was dry...
The car door next to her opening and the seat belt unfastening around her were the only other auditory clues to her surroundings before the ether swimming still in her bloodstream succeeded in dragging her under again.
Erik removed the blindfold from around her eyes after taking off her seatbelt. He left the cloth gag around her lips, tied into a knot at the back of her cranium, clasping her tongue to the floor of her mouth.
He was satisfied and relieved to see the sedative still kept her asleep after she briefly awakened. Poor thing was fatigued, he had no doubt. And he wanted her to receive as much rest as she required... He had so much to show her, so many arrangements he had prepared for her. And he wanted her aware of his intentions...
He gathered Emmy with ease up into his arms again, clutching her close in a possessive grasp as he carried her toward the secluded house, and made his way through the threshold with his heart hammering in his chest. One day soon, he would carry her like this in the romantic bridal tradition, when she was fully awake and ecstatic with happiness...
However, he had to settle with bringing Emmanuelle here in this anesthesia-clouded condition. Her wrists and ankles tied together as a precaution as he had planned in his taking her away from Richmond.
She remained unmoving against him as he made his way to the bedroom and crossed through the doorway of the chamber.
The scarlet blood canopied bed had never looked so tempting to him as he placed his prize upon the large king-sized mattress, right in the very center where she was laid on the crimson pillows, her head sinking comfortably in the stuffed feather cushioning, her liquid chocolate hair pooling around on the satin pillowcases. Her ivory complexion added to her splendor as she lay amongst the vivid reds and the brunette tresses of her hair flowing around her blossom cheeks as her healthy coloring returned to her skin.
And Erik quietly admired such a wonder... His fingers stroking along her jaw down to her chin after he removed the gag from her mouth and the ties around her hands and feet.
He debated whether or not to change her clothes into a more comfortable set of attire. So many options of pajamas alone awaited her in the wardrobe... He had a certain outfit in mind to dress her in already, but that could wait until later. Right now, she needed rest without any more disturbances, his lovely Sleeping Beauty...
He attentively removed her worn tennis shoes from her feet and placed them under the bed to deal with later. He made a note to himself that he should dispose of such tattered footwear. Emmy would have many other choices of shoes better for her delicate feet...
He removed her socks, noting a hole in one of them and sighing in disappointment. As he went to pull the scarlet silken sheets and thick covers from underneath the pillows, he saw her head slowly turning as she moaned in her dizzied state. Erik noticed she was trying to open her eyelids, resurfacing from the depths of unconsciousness again...
But the time wasn't right yet... and he had to save the rest of the liquid in the syringe for an absolute necessity and not give her another dosage so soon after sedating her only a few hours ago. So fragile she was...
Thinking quickly, he hovered over her, placing one hand on her shoulder to keep her pinned on the cushions, his other large hand stifling her lips and nose to make her pass out again before she fully woke up.
At first, she resisted, but she was hardly able to open her eyes, her lovely lashes resting against her flushed cheeks. She tried to breathe, and Erik tightened his grip around the lower half of her face for several more seconds as she fought back, another weakened moan emitting from her lips. He removed his hand from her face once she finally stopped moving, her mouth open like a pink rosebud in fresh bloom as she inhaled and exhaled air in an even rhythm.
Erik stroked her luscious ribbons of hair curling upon her fair cheeks as he talked to her softly, having pulled the covers over her small form, tucking them under her body so that she was bundled like a newborn infant within the blankets, a cocoon restraining her of movement, her arms adjusted so they were at her sides beneath the sheets. "Goodnight, my jewel. You'll awaken in the most comfortable bed tomorrow, tucked in nice and snug. I'm going to take such good care of you, Schatzi. You shall want for nothing. All I ask for in return is your heart. Rest now and dream of our life together."
Emmy was unresponsive to his words in her slumber as he listened to her breathe, his fingertips tracing the red marks imprinted along her face from his hands smothering her from lack of oxygen.
A feeling of indescribable victory flowed through Erik's bones as a wide smile came to his face. He pulled down the gossamer black canopy of the bed, elaborately patterned with shapes resembling a spider's web. The long curtained fabric surrounded all sides of the mattress cradling the beautiful girl...
The gleeful smile didn't leave Erik's face as he went to the mini-bar and made himself a drink to his triumph at capturing his fair flower. He pulled up a chair next to the edge of the bed and sat down to revel in his accomplishment, keeping his eyes on Emmy's tranquil profile as she lay motionless, enfolded in his sheets.
His entire body shook with an ache to join her on the bed, his arousal agonizing for her touch, but he remained on the chair and focused on her serene form. Erik raised his glass in her direction, admiring the way the veiled canopy's translucency further emphasized her magnificence, like she was the greatest treasure he would ever have and would keep for his own...
The fire burned still within her body... hot blooded yet breakable she was. His butterfly trapped in the spider's web as he waited to satisfy his yearning to consume her beauty...
Erik toasted to her, his unsettling smile bordering on both maniacal and worshipful, yet his voice remained quiet to not shatter such an angelic visual before him. "Here's to you, Emmanuelle Julia Hunterson... Sleep on into the night, my precious emerald."
And he sat perched on the chair as the minutes and then the hours ticked by, surveying every breath and gulping swallow she took, watching her mouth alternately open and close while in the depths of deadened slumber. Emmy slept on and on into the golden emergence of morning, with the man she despised and feared at her side...
The prideful Cheshire grin remained on Erik's face throughout his obsessive vigil as he patiently waited for her to awaken, humming a certain nursery rhyme to himself; imagining her retelling the tale to their future children.