Gifts

Chapter 20 – Danger makes me

want to…-1

My heart pounding, I press the stop button on the remote as fast as I can and return my wide eyes to Kent, who is still looking at

  1. me.

Please, please, please. By all that is holy, let him not have seen me watching his sex tape.

“What are you doing in here,” he asks, angry.

“Um,” I say, terrified, hoping he doesn’t pick up on the tremor in my voice. “Fiona brought me here? Said I could look through some…” my eyes dart around the room for an answer that is not porn. “Some family photo albums? And home videos?”

He narrows his eyes at me, his eyes flicking to the pile of vintage Playboys on the floor. “She shouldn’t have brought you down here,” he says, moving aside so that I can leave the room. I quickly get to my feet, flicking the power button on the remote so that the TV goes blank.

Then, dropping the remote, I scurry out of the room, praying with all my might that Kent does not go back in to see what tape

is in the VCR.

He closes the door behind me as I head for the steps. “Go upstairs,” he says. “Don’t come down here.”

Glad to obey, I hurry out into the kitchen, heaving a sigh of

phone.

My hand slides over smooth denim. I stop dead in my tracks, panicked, and pat all over my body looking for it. Then, slowly, I turn back towards the little door. I definitely felt it in my back pocket when we left the patio…

God damnit. My phone must have fallen out in the weird porn

room.

Steeling myself, I know I have to go back. If my dad or Janeen ever called I didn’t have it – I’d just die with guilt.

walk back to the little door in the kitchen, pulling it open a crack to listen. I don’t hear a sound. Tentatively, I put a

pop the VHS out of the VCR and put it back in its black casing, which I slide back on the shelf. There, good. Now no

shut the door behind me. I begin to creep back along the hallway when

that I’ve

no one comes out to scold me.

left, a kind of snap, and then a muffled groan. Unable to stop myself, I consider the door from which the sound is coming.

– Danger makes

want to…-2

see that the bolt is

know it’s a mistake.

at the door, consumed

out a hand to grip the metal handle and then, my inner voice still screaming at me to stop, I

suddenly louder without the thick door to keep it in.

across their mouths. They’re moaning, one sobbing, as they look at something just out of my sight, terror in their eyes. As I

an undershirt, steps into my line of sight. My eyes take in the strong muscles of his back, the rage that I can see pulsing through him just by the way

hanging down from his fist, the buckle dangling. As

him, crying. They shake their heads no, but this is apparently not the answer that Kent wants. He drops the

edge of the knife to the man’s pinky finger. The scream turns to a howl

Though I can feel myself trembling, I can’t move, can’t stop watching. The man

and then –

god –

begins to scream in my direction and I think I can hear the words “help! HELP!” reverberate through the room.

other man and then move directly

and then bolt

scramble up the stairs, sprint across the kitchen, pull open the kitchen door and then use the banister to propel myself up the main stairs

he’s a

like it has hit home inside of me, after seeing that scene in

stairs and throw myself towards my room, my fingers inches from my doorknob, when

B

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Gifts

– Danger makes me want to…-3

shrieking, trying to get free, but he holds me fast. He grabs me by the hair at the back of my neck, forcing my head back,

phone!” I gasp, remembering my rationale for being

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