“Stranger and Stranger”

7th Grade, 2nd Place

by Jolie Chamberlain,

Lake Oconee Academy (Greene County)

It was November first and Samantha was walking through the desolate sidewalks of her neighborhood. She never had any time alone, not since her dad left…the only thing her mother had left was her. But that day, Samantha got news her father was coming back to live with them–her mother and him would be starting fresh because they never officially divorced. Of course Samantha was excited, but it was all so sudden, and Samantha didn’t like to be surprised.
One of the first things Samantha learned when she moved into that house was that a serial killer lived and died there. He did all his work, his planning, his killing. But Samantha was never scared by that stuff; she was actually pretty intrigued by it. She wasn’t ever that invested in it though, not until her father started to act weird when he finally came home. “Dad! Dad!” Samantha screamed from the living room and her father entered through the front door. “Oh Dad! I missed you! When mother said you were coming home I was so thrilled.” He looked at her with a blank expression, like he had just seen a ghost. “Um, well, I will show you to your room now.” She sounded so happy, but her father definitely did not match her excitement.
Several days passed and her father started to act stranger and stranger. One time, he even threatened to kill her mother if she didn’t let him go out with his friends at night. Samantha was scared to even be around him, scared she was going to be killed. But her mother always said he was normal, that he gave her hugs on the way out to work, love you’s and thank you’s. Samantha never received any of that. By the fourth day he was home she was debating whether to run away, far away from this house. Her room didn’t give her the safe feeling it always did; it made her cold and distant from everyone else. Sometimes feeling distant felt good though.
It was November 8 and all was well. Her dad finally started to talk happily again, and her mother wasn’t constantly yelling at her for being disrespectful. But all of that was about to change.
Samantha heard thumping in the downstairs room. Interested, she walked down slowly in case anything bad was happening. The first thing she saw was a silhouette of her father smashing his fist into something…That “something” was her mother. He looked back and grabbed Samantha and slit her throat with a knife, leaving her dead on the floor. He stared at the two lifeless bodies on the ground. He cried. But then sadness slowly turned into laughter, and he sat there in hysterics. A couple of minutes passed and he slowly fell to the floor as a whoosh of cold air filled the room.