This story is by Naveen and was part of our 2017 Summer Writing Contest. You can find all the Summer Writing Contest stories here.
Jeanette Tanner was a regular collage going girl whose father is a New York City police officer. Her mother died when she was a child and was raised by her father alone. For her, her father was a sincere police officer whose love for her exceeded everything in this world. All this shattered into pieces when one day she saw a video of a handy cam that was left on the table. It showed a man dragging a human body drenched in blood, with blood dripping from his mouth. As the video slowly ended
There was no mistake; The truth was glaring at her from the video screen. The man in the video was her father. A jolt of terror and horror passed through her body as she slowly collapsed on to the floor with her heart filled with chaos and resentment.
She wept so much in those moments that she started hearing voices in her head. “The last two guys whom you were dating went missing. Strangely both the cases were handled by her father. Were they really accidents? Or actions of an over protective Vampire father?” questioned her voice.
In the past for some reason Jean had a habit of waking up in the basement without any knowledge of how she got there. When she asked her father, he used to laugh off the matter saying she was either sleep walking or simply lost in her thoughts so much that she forgot what she was doing. “Were you really sleep walking or were they doings of your father to cover up his crimes”, cried a male voice.
“All your family relatives stopped seeing and talking to you after your mother’s death”. “Maybe somebody found the truth about your father and started isolating you” cried an elderly couple. “Your mother’s Death!!!!!!!”, exclaimed a woman’s voice which felt like her mother’s. Jean snapped out of it as she felt the voices were choking her to death.
She was never given a proper explanation on how her mother died. Every time she questioned him he used to skip the matter. The best answer she ever got was she died because of sickness. Jeanette Tanner was now horror struck shaking her head unable to accept the fact that there was a possibility that father might have killed her mother. Her heart felt heavy, tears were rolling down her cheek. She couldn’t control the anger and sorrow that was raging like a storm in her heart now. The man whom she loved so much turned out to be a cold blooded killer.
The next day when his father was out for his duty jean entered into his room and started investigating. Inside the wardrobe she found a false door. Jean carefully removed and found a box of Dvds . She played one of it in her laptop. The video started playing. It was a recording in their basement. A man opened the door in the top and started descending the steps with a dark body bag. It was her father William Tanner. He was dragging the bag down and slowly unzipped it revealing a human body. Jean’s heart started racing now, as she pictured him to take the bite. But to her surprise William tanner took a sheet off the bed that was laying there revealing a girl who was strapped to the bed.
She was swinging and screaming as if a she was a wild animal chained against its wishes, as the man unstrapped her she jumped on to the body and started sucking the blood. After a while the girl collapsed slowly on the dead body and he started cleaning the blood marks on her body and the floor and placed her gently on the bed and began dragging the body out. Jane’s blood in her veins froze and soul in her body felt like it has already left her, as she realized that Jeannette Tanner was the girl in the video.
She froze into lifelessness as she witnessed a part of her life that was completely unknown to her. She turned around and saw her father standing with a deep expression. With heavy voice she asked “How long I have been like this”. Since many years he replied. “How long you have been?”
“Since the day I was investigating the missing case of Fred Williams “ he replied. The name sent jolt of shock down her spine, He was the boy who she was madly in love, and who later suddenly disappeared.
Everything was now falling into pieces as she realized it was she who killed and her father was simply covering up. “You could have killed me why did you let me live” she screamed with Tears rolling down her eyes.
“That day you attacked me when I confronted you but you didn’t kill me even though you had a chance. I believe it was the love that stopped you from killing me. When your alter ego, a blood thirsty monster had a place in her heart for its father. How could a normal person pull a trigger at his own daughter? “He replied.
Jean’s tears which were filled with guilt and sorrow are now filled with a strange feeling of remorse and regret. That this was the level of love, her father had towards her and she had mistook him to be a monster. In those moments Jean looked into her father’s eyes and whispered in voice full of weakness and sorrow “what happened to mother?”
William tanner was grief stricken whenever he was faced with the question, but this time he knew there was no escaping. When he looked into his daughter’s eyes they felt like they already knew the answer. He couldn’t control his tears at the look of his terribly heartbroken child, As the tears intensified in Jean’s eyes. He took a step, held her in both of his arms and whispered “You were still a child at that time.
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