It Was All A Lie

The rays of the Sun danced beautifully upon the horizon, blinding anyone who looked straight into them. Beneath them was a vast sea of grass that seemed to go on forever. Panning upwards, one would see the beautiful figure of a barn owl gracefully soaring and dipping through the sky.
Far in the distance, the silhouette of a person emerged from the great plain. The owl soared straight for the figure as if it was excitedly returning home. Closer and closer it flew until the figure could be made out.
The figure was that of a woman. She was beautiful, with almond skin and long black hair tied up in a ponytail. She had the warmest brown eyes one could ever imagine. She looked as if she was made to be dressed in fine clothes but instead she wore a sensible waitress? uniform, complete with an apron.
She put her right arm out in front of her, bent so her hand was parallel to her left shoulder. The owl gently landed upon her arm. It was facing her, leaving its face out of view.
The woman smiled gently and stroked its feathers. She caressed the large bird as if it was her child. It was a moment of peace.
Suddenly, the owl?s head snapped round. One of its eyes looked forward as if to pierce the soul, but the other eye was disturbingly stitched closed.
Kelsey awoke abruptly, the alarm clock echoing off the walls of her dorm room. Somehow, her best friend Sam stayed asleep in the twin bed next to hers.
Kelsey had had that dream every night since she was a little girl. She had tried many times to decipher its meaning. She had no idea what the owl was doing in the dream, but she was guessing that the woman was her brain?s painted picture of her biological mother.
You see, Kelsey had been adopted as a baby. It was a closed adoption, so she had no information about who her birth parents were or why they had decided to give her up. Thankfully she had been adopted by two loving, supportive parents.
Her parents, Martha and Fred Hues, lived in a small rural town on the outskirts of a large native reservation. They had dealt with infertility for many years before searching out an alternative option to have a child.
They had always treated her as their own but there was no denying that she was adopted. While her parents had light complexions, Kelsey had olive skin and silky black hair. Her eyes were a deep chocolate brown. She was often confused as being one of the natives, but it was more likely that she was latina because her parents had gotten her from a foster home in Los Angeles.
Kelsey loved her parents and her parents loved Kelsey; she was their everything. They had never missed a school play, softball game, or anything else in which she was involved. Their refrigerator was covered in Kelsey?s messy childhood artwork. They had made sure that she had had the perfect childhood.
Well, almost? You see, Fred and Martha Hues had their eccentricities. They had what was lovingly called "The Filing System.? "The Filing System? consisted of a huge accumulation of unmarked cardboard boxes filling nearly the entire space of their basement. All important paperwork, pictures, and memorabilia were all somewhere in those fifty plus boxes.
Kelsey?s mother claimed to know exactly where everything was in the very special system, but it was obvious that that was not true. Case in point, Kelsey had wanted to see her adoption papers for years but they were lost somewhere in that giant mess of boxes. Her parents seemed very embarrassed that they didn?t know their location so Kelsey had let it go to spare their feelings.
Unfortunately, she really need those papers now. She was a full time student at The University of Colorado Boulder and her full time job was barely sustaining her living expenses. She had gotten a partial scholarship but the rest of her tuition and fees she needed to pay through other scholarships. She had recently found a very lucrative one for adopted students that she knew she qualified for. The only problem was that she needed to send a copy of her adoption papers in order to apply. She wasn?t too worried though; Sam had come up with an idea to finally find those papers without embarrassing her folks.
Speaking of Sam, she was finally waking up on the bed beside hers. Sam was a native from the reservation. They had met when they were sixteen at Jenny?s Diner. They both worked there for their after school jobs. They were both thankful for that old diner because without it they would have never met each other since they both went to different high schools.
Sam sat up in bed, giving Kelsey a look.
?You have that dream again?? She asked.
?Yeah.? Kelsey replied tiredly.
?You know, I was talking with my grandfather about it.? Said Sam. ?He says that owls represent wisdom and that if you?re seeing one in your dreams, it means you are very wise.?
?What about a one eyed owl?? Asked Kelsey.
Truthfully, she didn?t believe much of what Sam?s superstitious grandfather thought. He was an easily frightened man who never left the reservation and therefore had a pretty limited view of the world. He especially didn?t like Sam leaving the reservation as indigenous women around the country often went missing without the law or news stations paying much mind.
?I forgot to tell him that part.? Sam said sheepishly.
Kelsey shrugged and threw her covers off as both girls got ready for the day. Today they were implementing Sam?s plan to help Kelsey. They were calling it ?Operation Get Those Freaking Adoption Papers!?
The plan was simple. Kelsey?s parents had never had a Honeymoon, so the girls had convinced them to stop hoarding their money and take a long overdue trip to Hawaii. Finals had just wrapped up, so the girls could spend the whole week the couple was gone searching through the boxes without Kelsey?s parents ever knowing. She could get the papers to apply for her scholarship and her parents didn?t have to feel embarrassed. It was a win-win situation.
They packed up and drove back to the little town. The drive was about four hours long, so they had left pretty early that morning. They stopped at Jenny?s Diner for lunch before arriving at Kelsey?s house. When they arrived at the house, they let themselves in with Kelsey?s spare key. They put their things in Kelsey?s room before heading down to the basement. Looking over the piles of boxes, Kelsey couldn?t help but be thankful to have a friend who would spend a week with her in this dusty basement.
They started the slow and tedious process of going through the boxes. The first day they found nothing. They spent all of the next day looking, but again found nothing. It wasn?t till the third day that they found something; it just wasn?t the something they were looking for.
It was Sam who found it. She had gasped, alerting Kelsey to the fact that something was wrong. Sam was shaken.
As if afraid to move too quickly, Sam slowly handed Kelsey a clear plastic parcel. Inside was a floral dress and white shoes. Taped to the front of the parcel was a missing persons poster. A picture of a native woman in her early twenties smiled up at her. According to the poster, her name was Ashley Navarro and she had gone missing almost thirty years prior. She was last seen in a floral dress and ivory shoes.
Sam?s voice broke Kelsey from her dazed thoughts.
?Why would your parents have that?? She asked in a disturbed voice.
?I don?t know.? Was all Kelsey could say.
?We have to call the police.? Ashley said quietly yet forcefully.
Tears pooled in Kelsey?s eyes. Fear and confusion were overtaking her. She took a deep breath.
?You do it.? She said. She couldn?t shake the feeling that she was betraying her parents, but she also knew it was the right thing to do.
?I?m so glad you?re here.? Kelsey continued.
?Why?? Asked Sam.
?Because I don?t think I could make that call.? Kelsey said tearfully. Sam embraced her as she began to cry in earnest.
Within twenty four hours, police had removed all of the boxes from the basement. Once they were gone, it was clear that they had been hiding something underneath them: shallow graves.
Twelve. Twelve bodies had been excavated from Kelsey?s basement. All of the bodies belonged to missing native women. Martha and Fred Hues were serial killers.
Kelsey?s parents were arrested and escorted back to their little town. News outlets swarmed the place like flies. People were calling the ever evolving case ?The Native Nightmare? and Kelsey?s house was being called a true house of horrors. Kelsey was staying with Sam?s family, trying to hide from the media circus.
About one week after the police had been contacted, a detective called Kelsey down to the station. She was told that it was important that she heard a piece of her father?s confession. The detective was treating her very delicately as he led her into a room with a television in it. She sat in that small room and watched a video of her father being interrogated by the same detective that had treated her so kindly.
She barely recognized the man on the tape as her father. The usually proud, well put together man with that charming smile was gone; in his place was a disheveled man, hunched over with large bags under his emotionless eyes.
A picture of a woman was shown to the camera. Kelsey?s world started to spin. The picture was of a beautiful woman?a beautiful woman with almond skin, long black hair, and the warmest brown eyes one could imagine. It was the woman from Kelsey?s dream.
The picture was moved away from the camera and placed directly in front of her father.
?Do you remember this woman?? Barked the detective of the tape. For moment, Kelsey thought the question was aimed at her.
?Yes,? Her father said emotionlessly. ?That?s Kimberly Green.?
?Yes,? The detective said. ?Miss Green was last seen at a friends house shortly after working her shift at Jenny?s Diner. How did you come in contact with her that night??
?She was hitchhiking back home. Martha and I picked her up.? Fred said.
?What did you do to Miss Green?? The detective asked.
?Stabbed her.? He calmly replied.
?One last question.? The detective continued.?Miss Green had picked up her two month old daughter Jessica from her friend?s house that night. What did you do with the baby??
For the first time, Fred got emotional. He let out a small sob before trying to compose himself. After a moment, he took a deep breath and said?
?Renamed her Kelsey.?
It was two months later and Kelsey had reunited with her family on the reservation. She was in therapy, trying to wrap her head around the fact that her ?parents? had killed her mother. She was taking a semester off from school to work on herself. She still had that dream, but it was different now.
The rays of the Sun danced beautifully upon the horizon, blinding anyone who looked straight into them. Beneath them was a vast sea of grass that seemed to go on forever. Panning upwards, one would see the beautiful figure of a barn owl gracefully soaring and dipping through the sky.
Far in the distance, the silhouette of a person emerged from the great plain. The owl soared straight for the figure as if it was excitedly returning home. Closer and closer it flew until the figure could be made out.
The figure was that of a woman. She was beautiful, with almond skin and long black hair tied up in a ponytail. She had the warmest brown eyes one could ever imagine. She wore a sensible waitress? uniform, complete with an apron.
She put her right arm out in front of her, bent so her hand was parallel to her left shoulder. The owl gently landed upon her arm. It was facing her, leaving its face out of view.
The woman smiled gently and stroked its feathers. She caressed the large bird as if it was her child. It was a moment of peace.
Suddenly, the owl?s head snapped round. It stared straight ahead with two large, open eyes.


Source.