I live on the top floor of a six-story block of flats with my teenage son. I won’t give you his name or anybody else’s - and you’ll soon see why. Each floor has a door facing the elevator with a code needed to unlock it to gain access to the hallway. There’s only four apartments to each floor, so we’d all usually leave our doors unlocked since we all knew each other quite well and would often just walk in unannounced.
There’s a girl who lives down the hall, we’ll call her Jane - probably in her early twenties and stunningly beautiful. One night when my son was in bed, I was scrolling through some unsavoury websites when I came across an image of her. It felt too good to be true, but being the shameless scumbag that I am, I had to click on it. It took me to a video of her - not doing anything explicit - she was just sat on the edge of her bed brushing her hair in black lace underwear.
I’ve never really understood why people watch this kind of thing when there’s so much more on the internet, but Only Fans is full of people just doing nothing and getting a lot of attention from perverted men. I wouldn’t normally waste my time, but I knew the girl and was just fascinated by it. The side panel showed more videos, all as mundane with nothing really going on.
My friend, we’ll call him Rick, lives across the hall with his daughter and in the morning when she went to school, I went straight over to show Rick my discovery. We’d spoke about Jane a lot, so I was expecting him to be just as excited as I was, but he wasn’t. In fact he looked mortified, telling me I shouldn’t be watching. But I thought if she didn’t want people watching, she wouldn’t be posting the videos on the internet. He calmed down eventually and we had a laugh about it before he told me he had work to do. He works from home, so I didn’t get why he seemed in such a rush to get rid of me, but I had a job to go to aswell, so I didn’t think much of it.
Coming back from work, I saw Jane in the hallway as she was on her way out. I honestly didn’t know where to look. I didn’t want to mention the videos, but I tried to strike up a conversation.
“I’m late,” she said. “I’ll catch you later”.
She jogged off towards the elevator with water dripping from her hair to the floor as she’d obviously rushed to get ready for wherever she was going. But now she was on my mind. I told Rick I wouldn’t watch any more, but I think I was kidding myself. I opened up my laptop and fell down the rabbit hole.
Each video was filmed from the same angle, pointing at her bed, which was framed perfectly. However, she wasn’t. There were often just glimpses of her and never a time where she looked directly at the camera. I started feeling unsettled when I noticed the latest video, posted just the day before. Unlike the other videos though, this was of her bathroom.
It was just her brushing her teeth. I watched in horror as the phloem and toothpaste flung out everywhere thinking “why would she even film this?” And then it started to sink in - she wouldn’t. It was at that point that my son came home, so I immediately slammed the lid of the laptop shut. We had dinner and he went to his room right after so I reopened the page to begin my investigation. I saw more trivial videos of Jane, seemingly unaware she was being filmed. And then, confirming my suspicions, a new video was posted, dating just a minute ago. Jane was out, so she couldn’t have posted it. I took a deep breath as I clicked - it was Jane in the shower.
If I saw it any earlier, I probably would’ve had a different reaction, but knowing what I did, it just made me feel sick. I didn’t know what to do or what to think, but I instinctively thought of Rick. Enraged, I marched over to his apartment and bust the door open ready for the confrontation, but when I saw him having dinner with his daughter, I froze.
“What’s up?” he asked, looking worried. My eyes scanned around for evidence, but there wasn’t anything to see. His computer was switched off and they were half way through the meal. In any state, I wasn’t about to have this conversation in front of his daughter, so I came up with an excuse.
“I was just wondering if you had any milk.”
“Sure,” he said and pulled a full carton out from the fridge. Looking into his eyes, I could tell it wasn’t him, so I took the carton from him and bolted. I was up all night waiting for Jane to get back, trying to think of how I’d even go about telling her. I tried thinking about all the possible suspects as I continued watching the videos.
I’d been there for that long that I didn’t notice what time it was. Morning came and my son emerged from his room to make himself a bowl of cereal. I told him to take the milk back over to Rick’s when he was done with it while I got ready for work. When I finished, I stood ready to go, but my son wasn’t there. I went across the hallway. My son was stood there, shaking, startled from my entrance.
“What’s taking you so long?” I asked.
“Nothing, I was just,” he began, but I cut him off and hurried him out of the door, worried about being late. I dropped him off at school and I went to work.
Arriving back, I knocked on Jane’s door, but she was out, so I went back home to see if any more videos had been posted. There was one, again posted just a few minutes ago by the same user. It wasn’t Jane’s bathroom any more. And it wasn’t her bedroom. The walls were pink and there were teddy bears and dolls scattered around. I went pale when I realised - it was Rick’s daughters room.
Again, my mind went to Rick. “How could he film his own daughter?” I thought as I watched her innocently playing with her toys. But of course, I was in denial. I knew who the pervert was - it was my own son.
I confronted him right away. He tried to deny at first, but then burst into tears as he admitted it. I’ve confiscated every bit of technology he has, but I honestly don’t know what to do about it now. Do I tell Rick, or Jane or the police? Do I move away or just try to forget about it? I know my son needs help, but I just don’t know what a good father is supposed to do in this situation. It’s a hard thing to admit: I’m living with a monster.
EDIT: Child abuse flair added, just in case.