Page 109 of Slaughter

“You know I don’t make promises.” I sigh, tired. I just wanna crawl back into bed with Bunny, but she pushed me away. She’ll never let you touch her again.

“I won’t show you until you promise me you won’t get mad.”

“Who will I get mad at?” I ask.

“Yourself.”

“Just fucking show me!”

He stands, downing what is left of his drink. Then he turns on my flat screen that hangs on the wall above the fireplace.

A video starts to play. It looks like a home video camera, and it’s shooting in the house we grew up in. It comes to a stop outside my dad’s study. “I need you to take care of it.”

We hear his voice as the door opens slightly, and the camera looks inside. I see my father’s friend and personal doctor, Lance, standing there before my father.

It’s older. I can tell by the way my father has his study painted. And he hasn’t lived in that house in over eight years.

“I’m not sure what you expect me to do,” Lance says.

My father huffs. “Take care of it. What is so hard for you to understand about that?”

“You’ve knocked her up?” Lance asks.

My father shakes his head. “Not me.”

“I can’t terminate a pregnancy unless you are the father.”

“You’ve terminated them for me in the past.”

“Yes, that was because they were your slaves. She is not your slave.” My father sighs frustrated. “The difference is that your slaves have no way of escape. No way to tell the outside world what you did. Or what I did.”

“Trust me, she won’t speak,” he assures him.

He shakes his head. “I said no. And I’m not gonna change my mind.”

“I don’t understand …” My voice trails off when the screen goes black, and after a second, another pops up. “What is this …?” It’s my old bedroom. My bed sits in the middle of the large room. My dark blue comforter on the floor. The matching sheets are tangled. There’s blood on the fitted sheet.

My father stands on the opposite side of my bed. Lance stands in front of him once again. The bed obscuring the view from their knees down.

“What the fuck did you do?” Lance demands.

“I did what needed to be done. Now you do your part,” he snaps.

Lance looks over at my bathroom door that is open, but you can’t see the floor because my bed is in the way due to the position of the camera. “I want no part of this,” Lance says, throwing his hands up and taking a step back.

“You will fucking do this!” my father demands. “If you don’t, I will make sure this town knows just how fucked you are.”

Lance hangs his head. His eyes focus on something on the floor. “The hospital will have questions. Even if I bring her in.”

My father shrugs. “Tell them you found her in a ditch somewhere.”

“They’ll do a sexual assault exam …”

“I raped her,” my father admits with no shame.

“Did you use a condom?” Lance snaps.

“Of course not.” My father scoffs.

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