Twenty-one

I rewatch the videos, everything from over two months ago. Nothing. The home camera doesn’t show Brianna or El or Sophia together. Regret ripples through me, I toss the laptop on the sofa. I should have put cameras in all the rooms instead of El’s alone, it made sense back then to do only hers. Propping the laptop on my lap, I rewind the video, pausing when a scene with El rushing into the bathroom comes up. 

The timestamp on the lower part of the screen shows the video is less than a month ago, I almost skip it until I see it’s not the same from the night she fucked herself with a dildo. Anger stirs inside me, I exhale. El stops in front of the mirror, for a few minutes, she stands there, looking lost and scared. I tense when she moves to sit on the toilet seat. Burying her face in her palms, she bursts into tears. What happened?

Her trembling shoulders, matted hair and red eyes pull slightly at my heartstrings when she sits up to wipe the snot running down her