I grab that ankle and grin as he screams some more. I drag him back into the center of the ring, drop his ankle and chuckle as the bounce makes him moan in pain. I straddle his back and reach down to grab a handful of his hair. I lift his upper body, making his back bend in an uncomfortable position.
“It wasn’t me.” He says as he struggles to breathe. “You need to talk to your brother.”
“Desperate words coming from a dead man.”
“I know I’m dead. I’m not getting out of this. I am telling you so this doesn’t happen to you again.”
I don’t bother to let his words sink in, at this point it’s dragging out the inevitable. My arm comes around his neck almost like a sleeper hold and the other rests against the side of his head.
“I’ll make sure your family is okay.” I tell him just before I break his neck.
I watch him fall with a dull thud to the mat, his life shut out forever.
So why do I still feel like this isn’t over?
5
“Daddy!” Rebecca giggles as she runs into her bedroom from her closet. “I need new pajamas, these are getting too small.”
“That’s because my big girl is growing.” Jack croons.
I watch them through the cracked door to her bedroom. He’s looking at her like he’s starving and it makes my insides twist with a mixture of terror and disgust.
“Did you brush your hair?” He asks her while taking a piece and holding it to his nose.
“Not yet.” She jumps off the bed to grab her brush.
Her birthday is tomorrow and she’ll be eleven years old. I fear everyday as her body slowly begins to become that of a woman’s. What will he do to her then? What does he do to her now when I am not around?
“You can’t even lift your arms in that shirt.” Jack chuckles. “Take it off to brush your hair, then you can put it back on.”
“But I’ll be naked.” Rebecca turns to look at him with a pout.
“I’m your daddy.” Jack says soothingly. “I’ve seen you naked plenty of times.”
“Okay.” It’s almost reassuring that she looks a bit uncomfortable. It means she can sense this is wrong.
She pulls her top off and places it on the vanity top. Her bright blue eyes-identical to his-stares into her mirror as she begins to brush her hair.
“Lots of tangles.” Jack says as he sits forward on the edge of the bed. He’s watching her so closely.
“I think I got them all.” She murmurs after a few minutes.
“Keep going.” He demands and I watch as she visibly swallows.
I want to go in there, I want to help her but I am a nobody in this house... just a woman. If I go in there and stop this, he will not hesitate to kill me and bury my body in the backyard. Then what could I do? I just have to wait for the perfect moment to act on the plan I have put together. Something that will hopefully save both of the little girls in this house.
“Turn around and face Daddy as you put that shirt back on.” Jack says in a husky voice.
She does as he says and I sigh with relief once the shirt is on and she is once again covered.
She walks slowly to her bed and looks at her father while she climbs up and under the covers. There’s a slight furrow between her brows as she watches him stand up. Please let her be ready to inform someone about this.
“Okay, my big girl. Time to sleep. Tomorrow I will come pick you up from school.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
I step away from the door and hurry down the corridor. One day, I hope I find the courage to put an end to this.
6
The drive home is quiet. She hasn’t spoken much since the fight last night and I can tell something is eating away at her mind. Her face is pensive and that adorable little crease she gets between her eyebrows alludes to the fact that she’s troubled.
“Em,” I get her attention. “Tell me what you found.”
“I found a file on Wade, he was into some fucked up shit as most of the Heads are. But he went a step further. Kidnapping young girls for sex trafficking, drugging them, assaulting them. He has a fucking family, a wife, and a young son. Why? What made him want to do that stuff?”
“The same thing that coerces everyone… money.” I tell her truthfully.
“There has to be more, something sadistic inside of people like that.” Her hands press against her chest. “I have it too.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes Vin, I do.” She looks out of the passenger window. “I want to kill people. I like to kill them. I like knowing I’m handing out a different sort of punishment, something absolutely permanent. It’s wrong, no matter what these people do, it’s wrong that I want to kill them.”
“Em-“ I start.
“-Stop,” she cuts me off. “I know you love me and I’m so grateful you see the good in me, however small it is. But I am my father, everyone says it and even if they didn’t, I would still think it. Trent, Carm, and the Heads. They all think I am exactly like him.”
“However small it is?!” I can’t help it, I raise my voice. “Your kindness outshines anything else to us. Who gives a fuck about anyone else? You took in a long lost twin, you didn’t even know him but you gave him a home and a family finally, despite him living with his brother, it still wasn’t home. You took in my brother who was so broken and you were a major part in piecing him back together. Adri who went through high school lonely and sad, until you came along. And me, Em! Me! The guy who couldn’t stand to touch a female in public for
