Go to Hell, Little Monster

I had a beautiful daughter. She had just turned eighteen. Her closet was filled with all kinds of beautiful dresses, but because of a little monster, she would never have the chance to wear them again.

The little monster stood there, flipping me the middle finger with a smug grin.

Your daughters life was cheap anyway. She got what she deserved! Were minors. Our age is a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Marcus went mad. He grabbed a kitchen knife, wanting to trade his life for that bastard's.

But I held him back with all my strength. "One death is too easy for him. Both he and his mother must go to hell!"

I had an eighteen-year-old daughter named Chloe. Her name meant blooming and full of life.

She loved wearing dresses. Her closet was packed with them, all bought by Marcus and me. Marcus was the ultimate girl-dad, spoiling her every chance he got.

But all of that was gone now. Chloe lay in the dirt, her torn white dress covered in mud and blood. She was frozen in time, forever eighteen.

We realized Chloe was missing an hour after school ended.

Marcus had came home holding a giant princess plushie, excited to surprise her. He waited and waited, but when she didn't show up, he got anxious and told me to look for her.

I hadn't wanted Chloe to go out in the first place. The weather was terrible, and the sky was pitch black.

"Mom, I promise I'll be back in half an hour. I'll definitely beat Dad home!"

"I already made plans with Bella. You don't want your daughter to be a liar, do you?"

She had looked up at me with her innocent face, shaking my arm and begging.

"No lies. The weather is bad today. Just play for a bit and come straight back!"

I couldn't say no to her. Chloe was smart. Whenever she pouted, Marcus and I would melt instantly.

But an hour passed, and Chloe still wasn't home. I decided to check their "secret hideout."

I knew the place well. It was a wooded area right next to the community park. Chloe and Bella had decorated it like a fairytale forest, pretending they were princesses living there.

But when I arrived, no one was there. The decorations they had carefully set up were trashed, looking like they had been maliciously vandalized.

"Chloe! Chloe!"

I screamed her name, but there was only silence.

Panic set in. I ran around the subdivision, shouting Chloe's name over and over.

By the time dusk fell, I went to Bella's house. I knocked on the door for a long time before it finally opened.

"Bella came home early. She was exhausted and already fell asleep," Sarah, Bella's mom, said. She only opened the door a crack, blocking my view.

Before I could ask more, she hurriedly shut the door in my face.

I completely lost it. Chloe never wandered off on her own, and she would never disappear for this long. I called 911, but the dispatcher told me they couldn't do anything since she hadn't been missing for 24 hours. Marcus arrived shortly after, and we rushed to the security office to check the cameras.

The security guard, who usually bragged about "safety first," acted like we were making a big deal out of nothing. He reluctantly logged into the system and slowly scrolled through the footage.

"Sir, please, can you speed it up?"

I took a deep breath, trying to keep my voice steady. Beside me, Marcus clenched his fists, his jaw tight.

"What's the rush? A girl that age doesn't just vanish. She probably went to a party or something."

The guard's careless attitude snapped my last nerve. Just as I was about to scream at him, Marcus grabbed my arm.

"Sir, you're a parent too. I'm sure you understand how we feel," Marcus said, forcing a polite smile as he pulled two hundred-dollar bills from his wallet and slipped them into the guard's pocket.

"Ah, right. Yeah, parent to parent, I get it. Let's see... is this the right time?"

The guard's eyes flickered. He smoothly pocketed the cash and quickly set the timestamp to 6:00 PM.

On the screen, Chloe was skipping along, holding Bella's hand as they entered the woods.

Twenty minutes later, Bella ran out of the woods alone, looking terrified. The guard pulled up the cameras from all four surrounding angles, but Chloe was nowhere to be seen.

A wave of dizziness hit me. I turned to Marcus. "I went to Bella's house. Her mom said she was asleep and wouldn't let me in."

Marcus's voice shook. "Bella knows something. We have to make her talk."

"I told you, she doesn't know anything! Stop coming here. My kid has school tomorrow."

Sarah wouldn't look me in the eye, still refusing to open the door.

"Can we just talk to Bella for a second? I promise we won't scare her. Just a few questions," I begged, tears streaming down my face.

"Just leave. She's asleep. We don't know anything."

She bit her lip, and right before slamming the door, she muttered, "It's about to pour. You should ask someone who actually knows those woods."

Someone who knows those woods?

"Mrs. Higgins!" Marcus said with absolute certainty.

If anyone knew every corner of this neighborhood, it wasn't the security guards or the HOA. It was Mrs. Higgins, the community's head housekeeper.

She knew every piece of gossip and every resident's business. She knew the park area like the back of her hand.

By the time we found Mrs. Higgins, Chloe had been missing for three hours.

"Near the park woods?" Mrs. Higgins looked surprised. "There are only trees there. The cameras should have caught her leaving."

Could a living, breathing person just vanish?

My legs gave out, and I could barely breathe.

"Wait..." Mrs. Higgins suddenly gasped. "Are you sure you searched everywhere? Even the places off-camera?"

When we nodded, she hesitated, her voice trembling. "There is one place... follow me."

Mrs. Higgins led us back into the dark woods.

I stared at a massive, ancient oak tree with a hollow trunk. My mind went blank.

Marcus, panting heavily, brushed aside the thick branches blocking the hollow. He froze. His eyes went wide, and then...

"Ah! No! No!"

He let out a guttural, agonizing scream, like a dying beast. He clawed at his hair, stumbling backward until he collapsed into the mud.

"Marcus, its not Chloe, right? Tell me its not her," I forced a laugh, trying to stay sane.

But Marcus didn't answer. He tried to stand up several times but kept falling. Finally, he crawled on his hands and knees toward the tree, sobbing hysterically. "Chloe... baby... Chloe..."

It was my daughter.

I stumbled forward and fell to my knees, paralyzed by the horror in front of me.

My daughter, my sweet Chloe, was curled up in the hollow of the tree. Her torn white dress was covered in dirt. Her face, usually so full of smiles, was pale and stiff. Her fingernails were caked with dirt, showing how desperately she had clawed at the ground in fear. Her pink cartoon underwear was dragged down to her ankles...

"Baby... Chloe... Mom is here. Let me hold you..."

But the police officers who had just arrived dragged me back. They said they had to preserve the crime scene. They forced Marcus and me into separate rooms at the station to calm us down.

But even though the scene was secured, it started to pour that night. The rain washed away almost everything.

I couldn't understand. Who would do this to my baby?

Marcus and I were peaceful people. We never fought with our neighbors. I even bought food for the neighborhood stray cats.

Chloe was a good girl. She only had a few close friends and never got into trouble.

Her friend.

Bella!

I went back to Bellas house, this time accompanied by the detectives.

When Sarah opened the door, a flash of pity crossed her eyes, but she quickly hid it.

She offered her condolences but insisted Bella came home early and knew nothing. She claimed we were traumatized and accusing an innocent child. Bella herself screamed and hid in her bedroom when she saw me.

The police had a duty to investigate, but they couldn't force a child to speak without evidence.

After a long standoff, I stared at Sarah.

"Sarah, youre a mother too. I know you can understand what Im going through."

I paused, tears dripping from my chin. "My daughter was only eighteen. Her birthday was in a few days. I raised her with everything I had, and now..."

I knew I looked pathetic, my eyes swollen shut, but I forced myself to lock eyes with her.

"Im begging you, help me. What happened? Why did Bella run out of the woods so terrified? Please, help a grieving mother."

Sarah looked away, her eyes darting around. She repeated the same cold line. "I'm sorry, Claire. We really don't know anything."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Marcus snapped. He lunged forward, grabbing Sarahs shoulders and shaking her violently. "You know! You damn well know! Tell me who did it! Who!"

"You have a daughter too! If this was Bella, would you stay quiet?!"

He was completely hysterical. It took two officers to finally restrain him. He thrashed until he passed out from pure exhaustion.

The police advised us not to push too hard, warning us that it might backfire. They told us to wait until the rain stopped so they could look for other clues.

But once the rain stopped, would there be any clues left?

Just when Marcus and I were falling into utter despair, Sarah came to our house voluntarily.

Bella stood behind her, crying and bowing to me.

"I'm sorry, Claire."

My eyes were too swollen to open properly, but I strained to look at her. "Bella, sweetie, can you tell me what happened that day?"

Bella burst into loud, sobbing tears.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It was Tyler! He said if I told anyone, hed beat me to death! I was so scared. I didn't want him to hurt me too!"

Sarah immediately hugged Bella, dropping to her knees in front of me. "Its not Bella's fault. Its mine! I was so scared of what Tyler would do to my family... but Bella kept asking me when we were going to save Chloe..."

After Sarah finished explaining, I took a long, shaky breath. "Sarah, are you willing to let Bella testify?"

"We were playing in the woods," Bella sobbed, "and Tyler came over. He wanted to play 'house.' He said he was the dad, and we had to be his wives. He said Chloes dress was pretty, so he wanted to 'play' with her first. Chloe said it hurt and tried to run, but he beat her. He threw his jacket over her face to stop her from screaming. Then... Chloe stopped moving."

It felt like shattered glass piercing my chest. Every breath tore at my lungs. I listened to Bella's trembling voice, shaking my head in disbelief. My daughter was only eighteen. She knew nothing of the cruelty of this world, and she was tortured to death.

The police arrested Tyler quickly. He was sixteen, but he weighed 180 pounds and stood six feet tall.

From behind, he looked like a fully grown man.

When he saw us at the station, he shrank back.

But a heavy, expensive-looking woman stepped in front of him, looking at us with utter disdain. "Fine, I heard what happened. We'll pay for the funeral. How about that?"

She pulled two thick stacks of hundred-dollar bills from her designer purse and threw them onto the table.

To my horror, Marcus laughed. He walked over, picked up the cash, and stepped closer to her. "Twenty thousand? That's it?"

He shook his head. "How about I give you a hundred thousand, and I get to take your son's life?"

Before anyone could react, Marcus slammed the cash into her face, lunged at Tyler, and started hammering his fists into the boy's face. Marcus was too fast. Within seconds, the officers tackled him to the ground, but Tyler's nose was already smashed and bleeding.

"Ah! You psychopath! Your daughter is already dead, and now you disfigured my son! He was supposed to go to a top private school!"

I was shaking with rage. What did she mean, *your daughter is already dead*?

Seeing Marcus pinned down, Brenda became even more arrogant.

"My son told me everything. Your daughter loved wearing those revealing dresses. Wasn't she just begging for attention?"

"Honestly, she deserved it. Shes lucky it was my son. Otherwise, some homeless crackhead would have gotten to her!"

I was speechless with shock.