Page 54 of Watch Me Burn

Withholding my urge to hurl, I coughed to Ethan, “Let’s get the VHS tapes and go!” Ethan reeled to the dressers below the camera, which had been latched shut by another thick padlock. He winked at me reassuringly.

“Those guns were made to break,” he declared, yanking the dresser drawer with such force that the iron lock just snapped right off.

I gasped.

Ethan was focused on the contents of the dresser, which were filled with tapes and accessories such as cuffs and whips. About twenty or so cassettes must’ve been stashed in the drawers—arranged by numbers.

“The tapes are ordered by numbers,” I grumbled. “Just like my perverted piece-of-shit dad used to do it.”

In silence, we stuffed the cassettes into my backpack and headed for the car again.

Ethan had to save me several times from crashing to the earth, as my calves would randomly wobble and buckle under my weight.

“Anna, are you sure you’re feeling okay? I can help you carry the VHS tapes.” He’d tried to take the bag away from me, but I held it firmly to my side.

“No” was all I responded. It didn’t feel right to be the one requesting help after what we found. Yes, we hadn’t seen the videos yet, but that was even more reason for me to clutch the evidence close. I needed to make this experience as difficult for me as possible. Almost as if I was trying to punish myself for his sins.

Tears of hatred formed in my eyes with every step I took. It was wild to think that I once adored this man. But now, just thinking about him made my stomach churn. The love I once felt was drowned by a hate so deep it physically sickened me. And looking back? I was kinda relieved that he was gone.

“I hope you rot in hell, Dad” was all I said when we made it back out of the woods.

Ethan pulled me into a tight embrace immediately, my tears of anger soaking his shirt. “He is,” Ethan whispered reassuringly. “He is . . .”

Chapter 25

Anna

Ethan and I sat down in front of my condo’s TV. We had to buy a special cassette player at Best Buy. I’d inserted one of the cassettes and lowered the TV’s volume.

Nauseous, trembling, and almost unable to move, I pressed the “play” button on my remote and let the recording roll.

My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw what was inside. My dad wasn’t in the video, but he commanded the poor young girl in the video around. It was his voice, no doubt about it.

Lisa wasn’t the one sprawled out on the bed; some other young girl who couldn’t have been any older than fifteen was being taken advantage of by some old guy.

“What the fuck?” Ethan cursed aloud. Testing a theory, I quickly removed the cassette and replaced it with another one. The second footage also showed a different girl, just as young and equally terrified.

Ethan gawked at the TV. “This is . . . the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in . . .”

“ . . . my whole life,” I finished for him. In the stacks of cassettes we’d retrieved from the cabin in the woods, only one featured Lisa on film.

“He must have sold the other ones,” I said.

“Or he kept his ‘best prizes’ for blackmail. I can only assume this sort of meeting cost those perverts a lot of money. They had to be powerful or rich guys.”

I recoiled at what Ethan was suggesting. “How did Mom not see this?”

The room spun, and I shot up from the couch. My stomach threatened to betray me. Before I could make it to my bedroom, nausea won, and I barely made it to the bathroom in time.

Ethan was at my side in seconds, pulling my hair back. “After everything,” I gasped, “he got all that love, all that respect. He deserved none of it. Not even a grave, to be honest.”

Ethan, using a wet towel, wiped my face. “Honestly? No one knew the real guy. But whatever he did, it caught up with him.”

Tears blurred my vision. “You think he got what was coming to him?”

Ethan leaned against the wall next to me. “Your dad had some serious dirt. Those tapes? Bet he was using them. Maybe for blackmail.”

I frowned. “Not that I would want a single cent from it . . . never! But where’s the cash? We’re broke!”

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