The images I’ve grown to hate fill the screen. I see humanity at its worst. Evil in its most vile form. A young woman’s innocence shattered, her life stolen, her memory trampled upon. A culture raped for the sake of blood money. Still, I watch. I feel more than I should. And I hurt.

The first disk plays out. I slide the second into the drive and hit Play. Mary tries to cover her nudeness, but she’s too uncoordinated from whatever drug was pumped into her. The man in the mask enters the screen. I see her revulsion, I feel that same terrible revulsion in my own heart. I watch as Long overpowers her. Then she’s facedown with her hands and feet tied to the head and footboards.

I don’t want to see what happens next. I don’t want to know what he did to this young girl. I don’t want to imagine the shame and self-hate she must have experienced afterward. I can only hope she was so drugged she didn’t remember all of it.

Closing my eyes, I put my face in my hands. The gunshot snap of a strap against flesh jolts me. I look at my monitor over the tops of my fingers. Long whips her buttocks with some type of leather-covered bat. A riding crop, I realize. I flinch at the sound of the blows. They are not the fake strikes of some second-rate porn actor wannabe. Long hits her hard, putting some muscle into it. He’s hurting her. Leaving welts that bloom quickly into bruises.

“Dear God,” I whisper.

Briefly, I wonder why she didn’t write about this in her diary. Then I realize if she’d been drugged, there’s a possibility she didn’t remember. I can only guess about the rest of it, but I suspect when she noticed the bruises on her body, she went into denial. Or maybe she was simply too ashamed and depressed to acknowledge just how awful and hopeless her life had become.

The next video is every bit as disturbing and offensive. It takes place in a nondescript room. A red-and-white comforter is spread out on a concrete floor. Once again Long wears the mask. His jeans are pushed down to his knees, and Mary Plank’s plain dress is hiked up to her waist. They engage in intercourse, changing positions several times. When Long is finished, he rises, tugs up his jeans. Mary lies on the comforter, struggling to pull down her dress. Her heavy-lidded eyes stay on Long.