All language subtitles for American Nightmare (2024) - 01x02 - Part Two_ Gone Girl.NF.WEBRip.x264-EDITH+FLUX.English.C.orig.Addic7ed.com

So you want me to start from
when he put me in the trunk of the car?

With the trunk shut,
I'm completely in the dark.

I have these tight,
blacked-out swim goggles on.

My hands are tied behind my back,
and I'm drugged.

I start to hyperventilate.
I'm trying not to panic.

Are they going to rape me? Torture me?

I'm absolutely terrified.

He opens the trunk,
and he grabs my shoulder and says,

"Do not speak. Do not scream."

"You're gonna make this
a lot harder on yourself."

He puts me in the trunk of this new car.

It was this deep rev of an engine
that reminded me of a Mustang.

I'm imagining that we're on a freeway.

I'm trying to pay attention,

counting the corners and the turns.

But the effects of the sedatives
are really starting to kick in.

It's another beautiful morning...

And I can just picture,
you know, people commuting to work.

...travel coming up right after this.

I mean, the last thing
that I think anyone would imagine

is that that car that just drove by has...

has got a woman
blindfolded and stuffed in the back.

Even though I'm still wearing the goggles,

I can tell we're in broad daylight.

And I'm wondering
where the hell could we be now

where no one... no one could see this?

I can smell pine trees.

It's quiet.

I'm picturing
a remote lot of land in the woods.

But then he just grabs my feet

and just drags me from light to dark.

It feels like I'm lying
on a cold concrete floor.

He tells me,
"I have to finish getting ready."

And I'm just thinking,

"Ready for what?"

And so I could hear him scrubbing.

I can hear what sounds like duct tape,

and every horror film I've seen
just kind of flashes in my mind.

And so I'm terrified that that's how
it's gonna end for me and that's what...

That's what my last moments
on this Earth are gonna be like.

He guides me into this house.

I think I felt carpet initially,
and then tile under my feet.

I'm just shaking with fear
and holding my breath.

He moves me to a bed.

And I feel him sit down next to me.

And he says,

"This wasn't meant for you."

"This was meant for Aaron's ex, Andrea."

And I think, "What the fuck?"

"This is about her?"

And he goes on to tell me

that he's part
of this black market company

that kidnap people for money.

He tells me that Aaron's been given
instructions of what to do.

"The plan is to release you in 48 hours."

As much as I want to believe
he really will release me,

the reality is that I'm isolated.
I'm alone. I'm drugged.

Next time he comes in, that could be it.

And that's the final thought
I have before I pass out.

I know I've been asleep
for a few hours because...

when I wake up, even though
I'm still wearing the goggles,

I can tell that the...
the light has shifted.

It sounds like he's in the next room,
the wall behind.

And I notice that there's, like,
French pop music that's playing.

The weirdest part about the music
he was playing was that I liked it.

There's something that normalizes him.

He takes me on
these routine bathroom breaks...

...where he guides my hand,

and he tells me things like
how he's struggled with insomnia and PTSD,

that he was in the military.

He just seemed human
and thoughtful and polite.

And so as this first day goes on,

I'm thinking maybe
I just need to stay calm

and that I'll be released
and that this... this will all be over.

But then...

There's this...

...heaviness...

...and hesitation in his steps.

And he says,

"We have a problem."

"We don't have any collateral

to ensure that you won't speak
to the police."

"So one of us
is gonna have to have sex with you."

"And it's gonna be recorded."

"And that way, if we think
that you're going to speak to police,

that we can release it on the internet."

And I just feel like
I've been punched in the face.

Almost just pulled out of myself.

And then he says,

"It's actually me who's going to have
to have sex with you."

"I want you to know I'm gonna be gentle."

And then he just climbs on top of me and...

Starts kissing me and...

You know, every instinct I have
in that moment is to kick and scream and...

do anything to push him off me
and protect myself

or say what I want to say.

But I know
it's just gonna make things worse.

It could make things more violent,
and I just want

it to end and be done and...

just move on to the next...

Just move on to the next thing, you know.

When you hear people describe,

uh, an out-of-body experience,

I think it's hard to know

until you really experience it. Uh...

You know, like,
completely detached from myself,

just watching this all happen and it just...

...just my heart breaks
for that woman.

You know, it's...

I want to help her, but I can't.

When he's finished
and he takes me into the bathroom,

and this time when he leaves,

he tells me that from now on,

I'm allowed to take the goggles off
when he's not in the room with me and...

it just feels like he's conditioning me.

These are rewards
because I was a good girl.

And I...

pull those suctioned goggles
off of my eyes

for the first time in over half a day.

Then I look in the mirror
and I'm just so detached.

Like, I don't...

I don't know who that is in front of me.
You know, I just see...

But I take a shower,
and I just kind of curl up

in a ball with the water beating over me.

The water's just going down

and just feels like
every little bit of hope

is going down with it.

The next morning,

I hear him in the next room cleaning.

During the home invasion,

he said it was just a robbery,
and it ended up being a kidnapping.

When I got to the house,
he says he's not going to dehumanize me,

but then he still raped me.

So how can I possibly trust
that he's not gonna kill me?

You know, you hear about things like this
on the news,

and it never turns out well.

But now that I don't have the goggles on,

I try to figure out a way to escape.

But the windows have been barricaded,
and the door is locked up.

I scan the room
and just see what... what options I have

as far as a weapon, and...

There's nothing I can use.

Then he comes in and tells me

we've lost contact with Aaron.

My fear just spikes,

and I am just terrified
that something bad happened to him.

He says, "My associates are on their way."

"I have to give you another dose
of the sedative. It's protocol."

"When they do come,
it's best if you don't engage with them

and just pretend to be asleep."

"They're not as nice as me."

I hear a car approaching the house.

I don't know how big the organization is.
I don't know who's involved or why.

I hear them talking.

And it does feel strained.

Heated, almost.

I'm terrified. I'm shivering.

And then he comes in and he says,

"It's been decided. We're going to need
to record a proof of life."

"What we're gonna do
is have you say your name."

- And I say, "I am Denise Huskins."
- ...Huskins.

- I'm kidnapped. Otherwise, I'm fine.
- "I'm kidnapped. Otherwise, I'm fine."

"And then you'll need to give
a current event."

Earlier today there was
a plane crash in the Alps.

The sedatives that he gave me
were just really strong,

and I'm having the hardest time just...

holding myself upright.

My first concert was Blink 182.

But I'm hopeful that this is
some strange task or procedure or...

a... a ransom that he's asking of Aaron,

and that as soon as that's complete,
then this all can just be over.

But when he finished recording,

he tells me
that his associates have another demand.

He says the footage from yesterday
isn't good enough.

"We'll have to record
us having sex again."

"This time, it needs to look consensual."

"It needs to look like

we're in a relationship,
that we've been having an affair."

I'm trying to figure out
exactly what that means,

but it does seem like...

this time I'm no longer gonna be able
just to be detached and separate from it.

That this time I'm gonna have
to be present and perform,

and I just don't know how...

how the hell I'm gonna do it. Just...

He leaves. And I pull up the blindfold,
and I see two full glasses of wine

and a couple of small bottles of booze.

What the fuck does he think this is?

A date?

I chug the bottles of booze
and one glass of wine.

And he knocks,
and I put the blindfold back on,

and he kind of makes a joke like,

"Oh. You started without me."

Yeah, I started without you.

I'm gonna do whatever I can

to numb myself

and just get this fucking over with.

He tells me he's figured out
that if he just tapes my eyes shut,

I'll just look like my eyes are closed.

I just... I tell myself,
"You're not gonna break me."

"You're not gonna see me crumble

and cower."

"So yeah.
Let's just fucking get this over with."

A knock wakes me up in the night.

And then he says,
"I want to show you something."

And...

I lift up the goggles just enough to see...

If she sees this, I want her to know that

the family is... is there.

We're...

We love her.

And we're not giving up.

Sh... She's my hero.
I mean, she's my little girl.

That's the first time I really...

really break down.

He puts his hand on my back

to console me.

And says, "It must feel real now."

And I just keep sobbing.

In some ways,
it feels like this whole thing

is a long game of trying to break me.

And I just think, "Fuck you."

But that's when he tells me...

it's time...

to go home.

He places me in the car,

gives me the dose of the sedative.

He says, "I'm not gonna be able
to drop you off in the Bay Area."

"There's just too many police
looking for you there."

"So, I'm taking you directly
to your family

in Huntington Beach."

The next thing I know,
he's shaking me awake.

I'm sitting in the front seat,

my eyes are taped shut,
and I'm wearing sunglasses.

I could just peek out through the tape

and see the white...
the exterior of the car.

He says to me,

"Because Aaron went to the police,

you will have to speak to them
at some point."

"But there are two things
that you cannot say to them."

"One is that any one of us
was in the military."

"And the second, and even more important,
is you cannot say that we had sex."

"We will always be watching you."

"So if we find out that you said anything,

it's not just you,
but it's your family we can come after."

He helps me out.

And he tells me to count to ten
when I hear the car start to drive off.

And I count slowly.

And I take a few breaths to make sure
that he's definitely gone.

I feel it's finally safe
to peel the tape off of my eyes.

For the first time in 48 hours,
I'm no longer in captivity.

And as I start to walk

between these two apartment buildings,
I notice this...

bush full of blooms
of purple morning glories.

And it all feels too surreal to even...

know how to take in.

And then I look to my right.

I see the sign Utica.

It's a street that I've walked down

hundreds of times in my life.

I have a flood of memories
of my childhood.

I'm home.

Emergency.

I just got a... a message
on my phone from her. It's definitely her.

So I get to my dad's house.

He's not home.

And a neighbor says,

"Oh my God. Are you okay?
What can I do? How can I help?"

So I go inside to her apartment.

Officers walk in.

I look over and I notice that one of them
is holding a recording device.

I'm hearing helicopters.

The media is collecting outside.

We're here.
Everybody's gonna take care of you.

Obviously, we're gonna have
to ask you a whole bunch of questions.

Do I have to talk right now?
'Cause I'm really scared.

I'm worried, but I tell them
about the home invasion,

the days in captivity, the group.

And then he asked me...

Were you sexually assaulted
or anything like that during this?

I don't want to lie,

but I also feel like
there's a gun pointing at me,

and there's a gun
pointing at my family and I can't...

I wouldn't be able to live with myself
to know that I did something

that would cause them to be killed.

And I immediately say...

No.

They didn't touch you
or do anything against your will?

No.

Do you think there's a chance
this could happen again to you?

Yeah, if...

if I talk too much, yeah.

The detective says that he has
a Vallejo detective on the phone,

and they're offering you
a proffer agreement,

and he's like
"Well, it's basically, like, immunity."

My initial response is...

"Immunity from what?"

I just felt really lost and confused.

I feel like I need guidance.

I realized that I needed an attorney
to help me figure out what to do.

I get a hold of Doug Rappaport.

He's a lawyer based out of San Francisco.

She said, "I'm down here.
The police think that I'm a suspect."

He tells me, "You've already
given a statement to them."

"You shouldn't give them more statements,

'cause if you make
any contradicting statements,

they will use that against you."

She said, "Okay."

"Um, I'm going to follow
your directions. What are they?"

He's like, "Look, you just need
to get up here as soon as possible."

"Get on the next plane if you can.
The clock is ticking."

Who kidnapped her?
Was there a ransom paid?

And why exactly did any of this happen?

We are still waiting
for some of those answers as well.

And as we're driving off,
someone's taking pictures,

and that's when it really hits me
how public this is.

I, in no way,
was prepared for the media storm.

Ms. Huskins has plundered
valuable resources away from our community

while instilling fear
amongst our community members.

When Denise Huskins
turned up this morning,

she initially agreed
to talk to investigators.

But when it came time to get back up
to Vallejo, she clammed up.

According to police,
Huskins hired an attorney

and is hiding out
in an undisclosed location.

The media just keeps perpetuating
this story.

And any channel I turn to,
anywhere I look, it says,

"Denise is a hoaxer."

Police now wondering,
is Huskins a real-life Gone Girl?

But it doesn't make any sense.

Denise is the most honest person
I've ever met.

I don't know where she is.

I don't know what she's going through.

I just want to see her.

That night,
Denise gets to my offices.

He's all business.
He asked me to sit down in front of him.

I tell Denise,
"While you were flying up here,

the Vallejo police department
has basically thrown you under the bus."

If we feel that there is
sufficient evidence to move forward,

we will be requesting criminal charges.

First, I'm a little stunned.

For the last 48 hours,
I had been living moment to moment

trying to survive.

The last fucking thing
that you're thinking about

is if I do survive,

I really got to make sure
that all of this is believable.

I tell Doug everything.

The kidnapping,
the home invasion, the rapes.

We've gone over the story
three, four times.

And I say to Denise,
"I absolutely believe you."

"But if we're going to catch
the perpetrator of this crime,

we need to get you to a SART exam."

"That's a sexual assault exam

where the Vallejo police
will collect forensic evidence."

It's really essential
that we do it as soon as possible.

I tell him that I'm terrified
to speak to the police

about the sexual assaults

because of the threats that were made
against me and my family.

And he says,

"Don't let the kidnappers
have power over you."

"That's what people like this do."

"They wanna have power and control
over someone for their life."

And I say, "Okay, I'll do it."

And so I called
the Vallejo Police Department.

And I said, "We need to get
a sexual assault exam ASAP."

And his response to me was,

"We want her to come in
and give us a statement,

and then we'll give her that exam."

It just all seemed so...

backwards and so...

demeaning.

But I want them to catch these guys.

So I just say, "Okay."

"I'll speak to them,
and I'll tell them everything."

New information on
a strange story involving a Vallejo woman.

Denise Huskins, the alleged victim,

is inside Vallejo Police Headquarters
as we speak.

Thursday morning we learn
that Denise has showed up

at Vallejo police with her lawyer.

Maybe she's going to confess.
Maybe she's going to be arrested.

We're just waiting to see
where the story goes.

We're taken into
what seems like an interrogation room.

I'm gonna need one more chair.

One more?

There's an FBI agent with us.

He introduces himself
as Special Agent David Sesma.

- This is David Sesma.
- Hi. I'm with the FBI.

- Doug Rappaport.
- Nice to meet you.

And this officer sits down
in front of me,

and he introduces himself
as Detective Mustard.

Our goal when this thing started
was to see you come home safe.

And, um, I'm glad
that you survived, um, this incident,

and, ultimately,
what we're chasing is the truth.

They just held a press conference
last night saying that I'm lying.

And so, I'm immediately
just kind of on guard.

But at the same time...

...I know that I desperately...

want to show them the truth.

And show them that they can believe me.

I'd like you, um, to start...

So he starts off by asking me questions
about me and Aaron and our relationship.

He...

...asks me to go through
each detail of the home invasion.

I woke up to a flashing light,
kind of like a strobe light.

There's the red laser pointer,

and the recording was this calm music.

I tell them that the man
who held me captive is lean,

and that I think he's tall,
maybe... maybe six foot.

He was a war vet.
He has PTSD. He has insomnia.

You know,
there's somewhat of a physical description

that they can at least begin to go by.

I remember going right and then left.

I tried to give them every possible detail
of where I was located,

how long the drives were.

Surely they're right now checking
all the surveillance footage

of the surrounding area
to find this person.

And we start to go through
the details of the rapes.

He says that,
"I am to videotape having sex with you."

"And this videotape is to prevent you
from going to the police."

I go through one disgusting,
humiliating detail after the other

and pull myself back into that place

that I was trying so desperately
to detach from at the time.

Um...

I'm sitting with my head in my hands,
as if I'm still blindfolded,

and I'm trying to give him
every... everything I've got.

He said we had to do it again.

It had to be believable,
like we were a couple.

And I played along

'cause I didn't know what else to do.

And I didn't want to do it again.

She's holding up.
She's doing her duty.

She's doing the right thing

despite how incredibly difficult this is.

And they seemingly are believing her.

Until they start asking her
questions like...

Have you ever been
in the trunk of that car before?

Uh, n... no.

"Did you fight back?
Why didn't you fight back?"

"Did you scream? Why didn't you scream?"

- Did you make any noise?
- Uh, no. I was woken from a dead sleep.

And I realize

they're... they're looking at her
like she's a piece of trash.

Like she's a criminal.

Let's take a few minutes, all right?

All right, just hang in there,
okay? You're doing great.

I get a call from Doug Rappaport,

and he tells me
that Denise and Aaron should not talk

until the interrogations are over,

but we share some information.

Amy tells me everything Denise is telling
the police matches what I told them.

So this is good news.

And then...

She says that, uh...

Denise is going to go to the hospital for...

a sexual assault exam.

Uh, because she had been raped.

Fuck.

I'm taken into a treatment room
for the SART exam.

They note that there's these
little micro lesions inside my cervix

that indicate that there was
sexual intercourse in the last two days.

Now, there's actual physical evidence
to prove that this really happened.

Surely they'll see
that I'm telling the truth.

The next day, we are escorted
into another interrogation room.

There... There's no compassion whatsoever.

They are... They are all business.

And I'm thinking to myself
that something is wrong.

The FBI agent, David Sesma, says...

"You know, there's a lot
of inconsistencies with your story."

"Is there anything
that you want to change?"

"I want you to know

that it's a federal crime
to lie to a federal agent."

And I'm just sitting there, like...

Like a bomb went off,
and my ears are ringing,

and I'm just kind of in shell shock.

I didn't just make all this stuff up.

The nurses said
there's actual physical evidence

corroborating what I had
just told the police.

And so I pull them aside and say,

"There has not been one discrepancy
in her story."

"How can you possibly believe
she's lying?"

And he says to me...

"Haven't you seen the movie Gone Girl?"

How could this person
who's charged with investigating crime

think that this is like
a Ben Affleck movie?

That's Hollywood. This is real life.

He is so sure that he is right.

It's called confirmation bias.

Do they really think
all of this is an act, this whole thing?

And why? What do I have to gain?

What...

What's the point?

What Denise is facing

is prosecution for lying
to a federal law enforcement officer.

She's looking at being sentenced
somewhere between

a year and 18 months in federal prison.

She is facing a lifetime
of not being believed,

of betraying people's trust.

Her life is basically destroyed.

Those two days of captivity,
all I wanted was to return to my life.

All that got me through it
was the thought of my future.

And now that's all taken away.

After Denise is back
with her family,

she says she wants to see me.

So I tell her
I'll be there as soon as I can.

You know, for days in captivity,
what grounded me was...

was the thought of reuniting with him.

Even though I knew that Aaron had been
trying to pursue things with his ex,

the night of the home invasion,
he told me that he loved me

and that he really wanted to try
to work things out with me.

He told me about the work
that he was doing in therapy,

and it did feel like
the ghost of... of his relationship

and of his ex was finally lifted.

We could finally start fresh.

But after everything I've been through...

I'm afraid
that he'll see me differently.

And then she opens the door...

And then Denise just...

...starts crying and crying saying,
"I didn't want to."

She said, "I didn't want to."

"They made me do it.
They made me do it."

I just hold her.
I'm like, "I know. I know they did."

I tell him, you know, "I..."

"I don't want something like this...

...to be a reason why you stay with me
if you don't really want to be with me."

And he kind of reassures me,

"No, no, no.
Like, I love you. I... I absolutely..."

"I wanna be with you."

So then I tell Denise
I'm gonna do everything I can. I'll...

I'll support us.

I'll take care of her if she lets me.

I never want to leave her.

But I'm afraid.

Because I know the kidnappers
are still out there.

The police aren't looking for them.

And maybe they'll want to come back.

There's no one protecting us.

As far as the media is concerned,
this story is done.

Seems like case closed.

Now, the only question is,
are the couple going to be charged?

But then I get an email notification.

No idea who it's from.

Is this a confession? They're actually
telling me that they kidnapped Denise?

They talked about
breaking and entering on Mare Island.

There's photos of what looks like
a gun with a flashlight duct taped to it.

Here is Denise's apparent kidnapper,

angry that she's being branded a liar,

essentially confessing to the crime
and saying, "You need to believe Denise."

It's just stranger and stranger.

So I send these emails to Vallejo police
asking them, "Hey, what should I do?"

Never heard back from them. Black hole.

I get a call from Amy.

She's just received emails
from the kidnapper

that went to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In the email,
there's a mention of a Mustang.

Denise said she was put into a trunk
that resembled a Mustang.

There were photographs that resembled
the description that Denise gave

of the location where she was held.

But I'm running up against law enforcement
with such tunnel vision.

They couldn't see anything
except that narrow tunnel

that led from them to Denise behind bars.

What will it take for the police

to finally take this seriously
and investigate it?

I'm getting
email after email after email.

And I'm hearing nothing
from Vallejo police.

I'm thinking,
"What in tarnation is going on?"

Then one final email, they say,

"We are three acquaintances,
two of which are college grads."

They're almost trying
to identify themselves

to prove to me and others that,
"We did what we did."

Then finally they say,

"If Denise and Aaron
don't get an apology from Vallejo police,

we're going to do it again."

And I'm thinking, "Gosh,
could there really be a gang of kidnappers

operating around Northern California?"

"Did we all get this wrong?"

County emergency?

We have a break-in
at North Terracina Drive in Dublin.

They are out there right now.

My husband is fighting with them.

They have our daughter.