The family's shameful secret

Chapter 1:

   There once was a family who lived in town but after many years of them living here, they seemed to vanish. After they left the town seemed to get quiet but that was when her stories began. First it was that they went on a vacation and got lost but over time her stories only got darker. She became an outcast as no one ever believed her and thought she was slowly losing her mind and should be sent to the mad house.

     Occasionally, I go to her house to see how she is. The people in town have shunned her so she does not leave her house anymore. Today is one of the days I go to the store to bring her some groceries. People in our town were aware I took her food, only one person lived down her street and that was her, but they never said anything about it due to the fact I myself was considered an outcast. I knocked on the door and waited to see if I could hear any movement in the house, but I did not. " Ms. Jackie are you there?" I called out from the door. After a few minutes I walked around to the back door to see it was wide open. Against my better judgement I walked into the house and looked around, all the lights were off, and I did not see her. "Ms.Jackie are you there?" I called out once more. "In here." I heard being yelled from across the room. I walked through the room and opened the door where she sat on the floor by the window with binoculars and a notebook. "What are you doing on the floor?" I asked her. She looked at me and shushed me before looking back out the window. "What are you looking at?" I asked but she shushed me again. I walked behind her and looked out the window, but there was nothing out there. I walked off taking the food to the kitchen as I knew there was no getting her away from the window. I put the food up and cleaned up the house a bit until she finally walked out of the room. "That family did not just disappear, there's more to the story." She said as she walked toward me and grabbed my arm. "You have to find out the truth." I looked at her confused and slightly scared. She had always been sweet, but I could tell something was bothering her. "How though? I know nothing about that family." I said, causing her to release my arm and walk off to her room. I could hear her tossing things around until she walked out with a huge box. "This has everything you need." She says as she shoves the box into my hands and leads me out of the house, closing the door. I stood outside the door a few seconds confused about what just happened before I walked off with the box. When I got back home I saw my father's car in the driveway. A feeling of worry consumed me. My father and I have not gotten along since my mother died, I always knew he blamed me for her death and he has hated me since. Before she passed my father and I were close but then the accident happened.

    It was late at night, and we had decided to take a last minute camping trip. Mom and dad sat by the campfire as I was sitting in my tent reading a book. My mother had called me out because she wanted to take our camping trip photo, but I told her I did not want to take the photo. Me and her were arguing back and forth about taking the photo when we heard movement around us. My dad started to yell, telling us to be quiet so he could hear. I looked around and saw a pair of eyes glowing then I heard feet running and they disappeared. My mother looked all round while my father quickly went into his tent to get his gun. By the time he got out of the tent he looked at me then mom, watching her get knocked over by the beast. I screamed at the beast and tried to pull it off her, but it swung its claws at me over and over getting my back, torso and neck. I fell to the ground grabbing at my neck trying to prevent myself from bleeding out. All I could see was dad trying to shoot the beast but by the time he had the gun loaded it was too late. She was dead and it sat there eating from her dead corpse. He shot the gun, scaring off the beast and he ran to my mother's side. He held her body as he screamed. I will never forget the sound of his scream from that day. I laid there looking at her lifeless body. I hated what I saw but could not make myself look away from her, because I knew it would be the last time I saw her.

     Snapping out of remembering the past, I hesitantly walked inside. I walked into moms old office and placed the box on her desk. I started to open the box when I heard him walking toward the door. "Why are you in here?" I heard him say before he got to the door and from the sound of his voice, he was not happy. I looked up from the box and looked at him and I saw his gaze move from my face to my neck. I quickly put my hand over it making sure the cover didn't fall. "Good thing you hide that ugly scar." He said. "Now get out of her office boy." He said in an angry tone. "Why? She would have no issue with me being here." I said. He slammed the office door and walked back to his room. I sat there staring at the door until I heard his room door slam shut. I went back to looking at the box. I opened it and inside were folders of paper and notes. "Jeez, where did she get the time to do stuff like this." I said to myself. I opened a folder, sat at the desk and began to read. After reading some papers all the conclusions she would draw were trying to fill in the blanks about the disappearance of the family and it started to make sense. She has incredibly detailed notes of the last month they were seen to the day they disappeared. One of the notes caught my attention.