Destiny has always been a very curious child since she was a little girl. On her 16th birthday, she finally got more freedom than usual. Her grandmother was always so overprotective of her even after she was diagnosed with Dementia it was sweet that she still remembered her granddaughter, she was the only one left after all. She had always wondered what had happened to her mother. Many people thought different things but always said the same thing to her; she left. Destiny couldn’t really ask her grandmother, Martha, because she would either not remember or maybe be in distress. Although Destiny never had both of her parents in her life, she would always look at pictures from back in the day. It was a big black binder with many things inside, her favorite photo was a picture of her mom and dad as a young couple. She admired how happy they looked and hoped to one day find something like that. She got out of her room and noticed that her mom’s room was unlocked, and the door was open. She felt the urgency to go in and maybe find something that her mom left for her. It was forbidden to go in there because her grandma always got after her. Destiny quickly whispered to herself “What does she not want me to see?” as she grabbed the doorknob and very quietly pushed it out of her way. Instantly, Destiny was met with dust and a very faint vanilla smell. She slowly scanned the room and saw a bunch of stacked boxes, but one caught her attention. It was this small box with a very sheeny surface; she reached for it and saw that it was a beautiful locket. Next to the locket was an open envelope that had her name neatly written. She immediately grabbed it but saw that it was open and empty. She had wondered what could’ve been in it but was then distracted by the pretty necklace in her hand. She suddenly heard a noise behind her and quickly hid the locket in her sweater. It was Martha, her grandmother, but she was still scared of the outcome. “What are you doing, child? I’ve told you to not come in here. Your mother will come any second now.”

A few days later, she noticed that her grandmother had more people coming into the house than usual. She tried not to question it because Martha was a very kind woman; she wouldn’t even hurt a fly. Destiny went back into her room to try to finish her report when she suddenly got a text. It was her best friend Brandon and it said, “Hey D! did you see how many people are going missing, but the town won’t talk about it??” She had a confused look on her face and tried to search for the most recent one. It was a little girl maybe about two years younger than her, but she oddly looked familiar. Soon it finally grasped to her that it was the girl selling chocolate around the town not too long ago and of course, Martha let her in the house. Destiny felt a little disturbed that it could’ve been her instead of the girl but soon brushed it off and went downstairs. She had asked her grandma if she had remembered the girl, but Martha rapidly declined. Martha could barely even remember who it was, and it created a tense feeling in the room. Destiny just walked away and was more focused on finding what had happened to her mother. The first thing that came up in the girl’s mind was to search for her mom’s name “Sylvia”, but there were no results which was bizarre. Suddenly, a notification popped up from Brandon with a sketchy link. The article was named “Disappearance of Sylvia Matthews: MOM FROM HALLOTOWN” she was taken aback because that wasn’t her mom’s last name but had her picture. She swiftly clicked the link and scanned through the paragraphs. There was so much evidence that blamed the dad with pictures of the crime scene. Destiny was in disbelief because there was no way that her father would do that. Allegedly, the mom had been missing for 10 years and not 14. Martha said that Sylvia disappeared because she couldn’t handle having a child and that she still had so much to do before getting tied down. Destiny was staring at her screen in disbelief because everything wasn’t adding up. She had felt a sense of betrayal because she was lied to her whole life. The article said that her dad, Derek, convinced her mom to leave to live a better life, but it was a trap. The dad’s motive was to kill her because he never wanted to become a father and there were rumors that Sylvia was cheating. Destiny was feeling very overwhelmed because she just needed to know the real reason behind this. She was tired of being lied to and would do anything to figure it out; nothing will stop her.

The next morning, Destiny saw on the news that they had found the” killer” so it made her feel safe. Maybe her grandmother would let her go out to see her dad. Destiny was about to ask her grandma for permission until she heard a weird noise from the stairs leading to the basement. It sounded like a scream, so she frantically knocked on the hallway door and asked if Martha was okay. For some reason when her grandmother answered she sounded annoyed and said it was her show. Destiny quietly nodded and walked away to go search for her dad.

As soon as Destiny pulled up to the parking lot, she got a shiver down her spine and was debating on whether to go. She had finally got the courage and walked in. The guards led her to this tiny interrogation room and all she could feel were butterflies in her stomach. Finally, one of the guards walked in with her dad. At first, she didn't know how to react, so she just said a simple hi. “Wow, I can’t believe you came. It’s been so long, and I can see you’re getting older”, the older man smiled. He quietly changed his expression once he saw that Destiny did not care. He immediately asked, “Did Martha bring you?” Destiny frantically said no and begged him not to say anything. It was so odd how Derek was avoiding eye contact after he mentioned Martha, she knew that he was hiding something. At first, she tried to get rid of the tension in the room, but it was quickly dismissed after she caught up with him. It felt nice to Destiny that she could have someone to talk to, but it was taken over by the fact that Derek killed his wife. Finally, she blurted out “Why did you kill mom? Is everything true?” and as soon as those words came out her dad stopped smiling and she regretted it. Derek was about to leave until something in him told him that she had to know. When he turned around, he could see that his daughter had a sorrowful look on her face. He sat down and sighed before saying anything. Not long after he spoke and said “You would never believe me, but it was your grandmother. She tried to set me up because at that time I was having problems with finding a job. She had the worst relationship with her daughter. Everybody in town knew that Martha was always jealous of her own daughter. Martha was like a tiger waiting for the right time to attack. At the time, Sylvia would beg me to leave because she knew something was wrong, but I obviously ignored it. It was the worst mistake of my life, and the worst part is that I got blamed. I walked in on Martha about to stab her, but I wasn’t fast enough. Sylvia was chained to the basement wall, and I hit Martha, but it only caused her to lose her balance. She stabbed my arm and pushed me away to finish her business. When I was unconscious, she planted evidence all around the house and my car. They discovered my DNA on all the weapons, Sylvia’s blood under my nails, and Martha was victimized.” Destiny could not believe it and a million things were running through her head. She tried to deny it but maybe that’s why her grandma hid everything from her. The only thing that was confusing was why could she not remember. A few minutes later, Destiny excused herself and left to confront her grandma. She could not get away with this. 

It had seemed as if everything was pure luck because her grandmother wasn’t there, and she could have all the time in the world. The first thing she did was go to her grandma’s room to find at least one thing. She was looking through her closet until she found this medium sized box. Inside it had diaries from her mom and grandma. The first thing Destiny got was a diary from the year it happened. She had read a few pages and was disgusted by Martha’s behavior. In conclusion, Martha always did despise her daughter. She would try to come up with multiple ways to try to get rid of her, but the day that it would be executed would be Sylvia’s birthday. Destiny found out that her dad lied about most of it, and he was a part of the plan. Their plan was to have Derek set up a trip for them to surprise her and spike her drink when they would celebrate. Soon after Derek would take her to Martha’s house to let her finish the job. Apparently when Martha was about to kill Sylvia, Derek freaked out and hit her with a glass bottle to stop her. Obviously, it did not stop her, and she was angry. It quickly shifted and Martha was going to kill them until Derek made a deal with her. He would take the blame for everything and even give her the money they would earn. It worked out and they called the cops to make it seem like Martha was also attacked. Destiny could not process a single thing because they killed an innocent person for money. She skipped a few pages, and it was just Martha complaining about how her memory was getting worse, but she really enjoyed killing people. It would be so easy for a lady like her to get away with it. Angrily, she threw the book and looked for other things. She saw a slightly burned letter with the same handwriting as the envelope she found several days ago. The girl gasped when she saw it was her mom’s letter to her and started to feel a little depressed. The letter was a warning to Destiny that Martha was a very dangerous woman and if she read this letter that she should run away to save herself. Destiny couldn’t contain her feelings and let out a silent sob. When she was wiping her eyes, she saw a key glued to the back of the letter. It was the key to the basement. She was so curious to go but something in her was telling her not to. She detached the key and walked to the locked door leading to the basement. Destiny carefully stepped in and saw nothing but freezers; it had a horrible smell. It was weird because they barely ate meat or anything frozen. She was about to open a freezer but stepped on a flimsy part of the floor. She looked down and saw that it had a keyhole; it all made sense now. Destiny unlocked the basement and it seemed as if the smell was coming from down there. Carelessly she walked in and turned out the light, it was the most horrific thing that anybody could imagine and let out an eerie scream. There were dozens of bodies and most looked like the people that had been missing, most of the bodies looked like zombies that had been sitting there forever. Destiny was petrified and was about to get out until her grandma popped up behind her. Martha looked scared and started accusing Destiny of killing all those people. Destiny argued back and said that it was her, she just couldn’t remember. Martha let out a loud wail and fell to her knees. The granddaughter took her chance and ran to find a phone. It felt like time was going by so fast and she could barely remember any numbers. Her shaky hands pressed 911. It was harder because it was one of the old phones and before she could press enter, she was hit with a bat. Fortunately, the weight of her hand pushed the enter button and someone responded. The only thing that the responder could hear before the call ended was “I’m going to kill you” and they tried tracking the location as quickly as possible. Destiny woke up with a throbbing headache and in front of her was her grandma with a machete. The poor girl pleaded for her life, but it would only make Martha angrier. “You are just like your mother” Martha repeated as she took the giant weapon and attacked her multiple times. The only thing that Destiny could do was let out staggered cries for help before she died. After Martha was done, she was shocked by the fact that she killed her only granddaughter. She quickly packed her things and left before anybody saw her. The police arrived at the residence 30 minutes later and it was too late. Martha had run and Destiny was dead. It was unfair to everybody that those poor kids never got justice. Just like everybody, Destiny was forgotten.