Natasha Jean, a former beauty queen, was forced to move to a small and private town of Massachusetts. She became a disgrace after a traumatic event took place in her home town. Natasha moved in with her wealthy aunt Gloria. She didn’t have a place to go and her Aunt was her only hope to start a life and a new high school.

Aunt Gloria sighed with grief as she cooked dinner for them. Natasha sat on the couch staring endlessly at tv.

“Sweetheart are you lactose?”

“No auntie.” She replied.

“Ok good because I’m adding cheese to the pasta.”

There was silence in the room. Natasha flipped channels and the news channel was talking about a convicted felon charged with multiple counts of murder. Her hand tightened on the remote as she looked at the man’s mugshot on the screen.

Aunt Gloria looked over at the tv. She walked over to Natasha and grabbed the remote and changed it to Hallmark. “That’s enough of that.”

Late at night Natasha was moving a lot in her sleep. She couldn’t sleep as new memories came back to her. Conversations from the past.

“Dad are you ok?”

Her dad had returned from work. “Yes everything is fine. I’m just tired.”

But she knew that he wasn’t fine. In fact he wasn’t ok at all. She noticed that he seemed depressed for over a month now. But she didn’t know why.

“How is the pageant going?” He asked her.

“It’s going pretty good.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“I’m gonna go to bed but I love kiddo.”

“Love ya dad.”

Natasha knew her mother was cheating on him. It was affecting him greatly but he was also fired from the man who was fucking his wife every night. Then another flashback came back. It was midnight and she was sitting in her bedroom reading when she heard a gun go off. Her body froze in fear. She thought an intruder broke into the house. She heard quick footsteps up the stairs. Natasha darted under the bed and her door flung open.

The intruder opened her closet door. The person surprisingly didn’t check under her bed. The house was still but the only sound was Natasha’s loud beating heart. Seconds later she heard the gun go off again. Her body was trembling as she cried to herself. She was too scared to move. Then she heard a scream from her sister’s room. “Daddy no!”

Then the gun went off.

The next morning Natasha woke up with a headache. She forgot she was living with her aunt. Gloria was sewing on the couch. She knew her aunt sewed when she was going through rough patches in her life.

“Want me to knit you a sweater?”

“Sure. I would like that.”

Christmas was tomorrow. She didn’t have any family plans for the holidays.

“I made you breakfast. It’s on the stove sweetie.”

“Thank you.”

The day went by slowly. They went to a neighbor’s Christmas Eve party. Natasha didn’t socialize with anyone. She sat on the couch by the little kids. Aunt Gloria stood around with her friends and they looked over at her.

“God I can’t imagine what you and Natasha are going through.”

Gloria nodded. “It hasn’t been easy.”

“Why did he do it?”

“It was multiple things.”

“But why did he kill his whole family?”

Gloria shrugged. “ I ask myself that every day.”

Natasha went to bed early when hey arrived back at the house. Again she was tossing and turning in her sleep. Another flashback hit her.

Natasha was under her bed. Her dad just shot her little sister. She knew her little brother was left but couldn’t do anything to save him. Then she realized she could distract her father. She slipped from under the bed and she grabbed her book. Natasha threw the book down the staircase. She ducked behind the curtain. Her father raced to the staircase and his back was turned to her. She grabbed a lamp and knocked him out with it.

Natasha ran to her brother’s room. He wasn’t in the room but then she remembered that he slept with their sister Milly. She began sobbing as she raced to the room and both of her siblings were dead. She only had seconds to leave the house. She ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911. Natasha woke up and remembered it was Christmas tomorrow.