I wake up. Not at home. Not in my room. Not in my bed. Then I see Aunt

Lexi walk in with 2 pieces of her famous French toast, my favorite. Something

is off though. Aunt Lexi has a fake smile on her face, the one she always has

when she wants to be strong for me but is crying inside. I ask her, “Aunt Lexi,

why are you sad? What's wrong? Was it Clayton again? Clayton is just awful.

Do you remember the time he took you into the woods and would not let you

leave? I hate that jerk you should dump him alrea-”

“Gracie,” she said and I instantly knew it was something worse than

Clayton having a fit and storming off. She never calls me Gracie but she calls

me by my nickname Gigi. Then she breaks the silence, “Gracie... do you

remember yesterday, like what happened at the fair?” I am sitting still trying

to remember, then, all of a sudden, it all comes back to me, yesterday...

Mom and I were at the fair; my favorite place to go during summer.

We rode all of my favorite rides twice, some even three times. Just as we

entered the dark parking lot, with the bright fireworks behind us, I felt my

mom’s hand let go of mine. The next thing I know... she's gone, just gone,

just like that. I see a man, running and dragging my mother along with him,

with his hands covering her mouth. The sheer darkness of the night

hindered my ability to make out who this monster was. I remember seeing

a man’s clothing and part of his hair, but definitely not enough to recognize

him. I stood there in shock and speechless. All I can think to do is call my

mom’s best friend, Alexa, or Aunt Lexi. I trembled in fear as I pulled my

phone out of my pocket and called Aunt Lexi.

“Hey, my favorite kiddo? What's up?” Aunt Lexi says through the

phone. All I could do was just open my mouth; no words came out. ”Gigi,

what's going on? You’re getting me worried.” I still couldn’t respond until

Aunt Lexi said “Gracie, what on earth is going on?” Then I snapped and

responded.

“Mom..she..she..is...is ....gone.” Once the words spilled out of my mouth

I started sobbing my eyes out.

“Where are you?” She says trying to cover up her rush of thoughts.

“The....the...fair,” I said as I was still flooded with shock.

“I will be there in 5 minutes Gigi, don’t you dare move an inch.” She

said as she hung up the phone.

~

I sit and cry in disbelief that it wasn't just a bad dream, but she was

really gone. All I want to do was cry all day but I know I have to go and try to

look for her. So I wipe the tears streaming down my cheeks, eat a couple bites

of my French toast and then I stop. I just can’t eat my food. All I can think

about is when Aunt Lexi, Mom and I sat around the round marble table and

feasted on a massive stack of my favorite French toast. My heart feels heavy;

my eyes well up. As the thoughts race through my mind I feel Aunt Lexi hug

me and I start sobbing.

“Is she really gone?” I said.

“Yes, she is gone....but maybe not gone forever,” Aunt Lexi told me.

“What? What do you mean?” I ask.

“Well she might have been taken but that doesn’t mean she's dead.”

Aunt Lexi repiled.

“Can we look for her?” I asked.

“Yes, and we will make posters right now. Cm’on Gigi. Let's go.” She said.

As the day went on, we printed hundreds of posters and hung them up

everywhere so we could get help searching for my mom. I moved in with Aunt

Lexi because my mom made her my g-dmother. All I could do was sit by the

phone and wait for a call. The Call. The call that could bring me joy after all of

this mess. All I could think about was if she was really alive. We never stopped.

But as time went on I started to feel hopeless. I had this unsettling feeling

about where my mom was but I could not put my finger on it. After some

time, it dawned on me that I had not seen Clayton in quite some time. I never

liked that guy, so I was somewhat relieved. At the same time, something felt

off....as if he had some information about my mom’s disappearance. I

couldn’t shake the feeling. “Aunt Lexi, I haven’t seen Clayton in a while. Where

is he?” I asked.

“I have not seen him in a long time. I tried to call him, but his phone is

dead. I went to his house last week and found some pictures of a creepy, old

house that looked like it did not have any windows. I also saw some drawings

of different routes to get to the house. I was sort of freaked out and did not

want to say anything.” Aunt Lexi said with a nervous look on her face.

~

I was the “kid whose mom disappeared.”

She and Aunt Lexi were my family. I mean my dad was out of the

picture. My dad died when I was 8 months old. He was a racecar driver and

died when the venue forgot to remove the tire tracks. His car was flipped and

everyone else crashed into him, killing him. I wish I could have met him. My

mom used to say, “He was the best, the sweetest and the funniest person

ever.” The only people I had in this world were my mom and Aunt Lexi. Right

now, at this moment, I felt like I had lost half of my only living family.

We waited and waited for days. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned

into a month. A month became 9 months. One day I sat on my bed feeling

hopeless and desperately missing my mom. All of a sudden Aunt Lexi bursts

the door open into my room.

“GIGI” She screams and the water works start.

“Ya?” I reply with confusion.

“SOMEONE KNOWS WHERE SHE IS! THEY FOUND HER!” She screams with

delight. I couldn't believe it! She wasn’t really gone! I jumped up and started

sobbing my eyes out.

“NO WAY!!!! Who is it?” I scream.

Aunt Lexi looked at me with a concerned look. “They would not tell me

who they were and I did not recognize any of their voices because they were

muffled. They said they want us to meet them at the old abandoned house

by the creek.” Aunt Lexi says.

“Okay so what are we waiting for??” I ask, confused as to why we aren’t

already in the car.

“Well...they also want $250,000 for your mom.” Aunt Lexi tells me. Then I

start to lose hope. What if she is really gone? What if this is a prank? Would we

really be able to get her back? What kind of monster wants money in

exchange for my mom? “You okay, Gigi?” Aunt Lexi says to break my train of

bad thoughts.

“Um ya, c'mon let's go to the bank and get the money.” I say and Aunt

Lexi nods. I start thinking about Clayton again. I have a sinking, unpleasant

feeling that I can’t seem to shake off.

~

Then, before I know it, Aunt Lexi opens up the trunk of the car and shoves

a duffle bag in. For a moment, I forget about Clayton. We definitely look crazy

but I honestly don’t care at this point. All I want is for our family to be whole

again. Together again finally. I am completely zoned out by my thoughts as I

feel the car go over a huge bump. We’re on the bridge over the town creek.

We were just 2 minutes from seeing my mom again. Having my mom back.

Finally.

“We’re here,” Aunt Lexi says as I'm already jumping out of the car. Aunt

Lexi chases up to me and we run to the abandoned house together. We are so

eager to see my mom we forget the bag of money so Aunt Lexi runs back to

collect the money. As I wait I start to have a bad feeling but brush it off. Then I

smell an awful scent and start getting worried. All of a sudden, I see Aunt Lexi

walking back with a strange man. He's tall with auburn hair, his face is

covered, and he is dressed in all black with a leather jacket. I feel like I've seen

him before. Something is familiar but I convince myself that it's just my

imagination trying to mess with me. After all, Aunt Lexi does not seem to

recognize him.

“So you must be the kid?” The strange man says in a deep raspy voice.

“Umm...yes-s-s.” I say with a nervous and shaky voice. Aunt Lexi remains

silent.

“So you have the money?” He looks at Aunt Lexi. She nods and then

hands the bag over to him. He rips open the zipper and makes sure all of it is

there.

“Okay I’ll take you to her but-” he says as I interrupt him.

“What do you mean but! Did you do something to her?” I shout to him.

Then he grabs me by my hoodie and starts shouting in my face.

“HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME LIKE THAT YOU LITTLE BRAT. IF YOU EVER WANT

TO SEE YOUR MOM AGAIN YOU BETTER NOT SHOUT OR YOU’LL GET IT.” Screams

the strange man.

“Don't hurt her, please. I will keep her quiet.” Aunt Lexi says from beside

me.

“Fine, but that little brat better not pull anything else.” he says in an

angry tone.

“I won’t.” I reply in a shaky voice, stunned by what just happened.

“She’s in here but if you call the police it's going to be bad for you

because I have the place surrounded by my hit men.” He threatens us.

We walk into the house, then to the very back room down the long

hallway. The man opens the door and a pungent odor emerges and fills the

house. Aunt Lexi and I peer in. A wave of shock floods through our bodies as....

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!?!” I shouted at the man.

“DON'T YOU DARE RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME YOU LITTLE SHIT. DO YOU WANT

WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR MOTHER TO HAPPEN TO YOU AND YOUR ANNOYING

AUNT?!?!?” He screams. I immediately start thinking of who could do this. Who

on earth would kill my mother?!? Aunt Lexi has fallen to the floor sobbing and

unable to speak. I am furious with whomever took my only living and

biological parent. I'm filled with rage as to why they just left her on the floor

soaking in her own blood, partially burned, and with huge slashes on her

innocent body. Who does that?

Then a thought pops into my head. I know exactly who did this. Aunt Lexi

had been with her douchebag boyfriend, Clayton, for 6 years. He was horrible

to her, he never respected her, and just expected her to do everything as he

sat around all day. He had also been caught cheating on Aunt Lexi multiple

times and probably more that she didn't know about. She always forgave him

and my mom and I never agreed with this choice. Though over the years I

have always seen him catching a quick glance at my mom.

My mom told me to never tell Aunt Lexi about how Clayton only stayed

with her so he could get closer to my mom. Being the amazing friend she was,

she never had any interest in being one of Clayton’s mistresses. I knew

Clayton had a temper and was angry he couldn’t have my mom. But could

his anger cause him to be so irrational and want to kill? Did he think if he

could not have her no one else could either?

I think back to the guy who took my mom from the fair and he had the

same mask, clothes, voice, and bush of auburn hair sticking out of his hood as

the guy who took us to mom’s body.

CLAYTON KILLED MY MOTHER.