The Lost Daughter

Chapter 17: Her True Self

May 1965, Oakville Orphanage

Charlotte jumped up after she heard the name Daphne. She despised (no, hated) Daphne and expressed a strong, deep hatred towards her and her little cult full of wild animals (aka the members).

She was jaded with anger, hate and full of envy. She showed a "bittersweet" passion and relationship towards her. It's always been like this ever since high school.

But they reunited a long time ago. They used to be best friends ever since they were young children, but they had to break their friendship apart.

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Backstory:

It was a sunny day in southern South Carolina, 1920s. Little Daphne and Charlotte spent their happiest memories playing together.

"I'm gonna catch you first!" Charlotte shouted, as they both were playing tag.

"Not if I run faster!" Daphne shouted back.

They both keep running until they get tired and land on the floor, exhausted and laughing. They both play "Ring Around The Rosie", jump rope, hide and seek and went to the nearby brook near Charlotte's barn. They both picked up dandelions as they watched the gentle breeze pick up their hair and the waters sparkle and make those soothing, waving ocean sounds.

"If you pick up a dandelion, you make a wish and blow it right after. You say your wish quietly though," Charlotte explained.

They both quietly said their wishes and blew the dandelions out. They went to find a four leaf clover, but no success. They used their imaginations to make an adventure.

"This is fun!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Best friends forever?" Charlotte asked.

"Best friends forever!" Daphne replied, as they shook each other's hands and made a pinky promise their friendship was never going to tear apart or change.

Boy, were they wrong about that...

As the years went by, they were now teens. When they were kids, they had so much in common then they realized. Now that they were in high school, things changed.

Charlotte had upbeat energy, and was popular, loved engineering and coming up with great ideas or solutions to problems. She was a straight-A student and multitalented. She grew up poor with her family working as tobacco farmers, but she was always happy with her life.

Daphne wasn't and was the complete opposite: quiet, gothic, loved art and creating morbid, scary, twisted looking pieces of art, and was sassy and cruel to others, threatening them when she had the chance to. She had an inferiority complex where she had been insecure her whole childhood, leaving her depressed and unhappy. She had to fake her happiness in order to keep her real self secret.

Charlotte noticed this bizarre behaviour going on and tried to intervene, but Daphne wouldn't listen and even tried to threaten Charlotte. They broke their friendship apart after that, and never saw each other again after high school.

They both showed no regret, and Daphne had no remorse in her.

Back to the present...

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Charlotte was still shocked. Daphne, her old childhood friend, is coming?!

She heard the door bell. George, one of the kids, grabbed the door (with asking who it was, of course) and opened it. Daphne was there, wearing a lot of makeup and a new, trendy dress. She was here with a duffel bag and went up to her niece.

She sighed and then started to panic, then started to shake Holly. "Dear, dear, dear! Holly?! Please wake up and go back to normal! It's your aunt, Daphne! Please, please, please!"

Holly still continued to shake and they all started holding her down. That's when both Daphne and Charlotte looked at each other, disgusted.

"This is all your fault, Char! You did this to my niece!" Daphne yelled. Charlotte was shocked and snapped, but didn't attack this time.

"Oh, is it really?! She started going crazy all by herself! I didn't do any of this, I promise!" she shouted back.

"Thanks to you, now my niece will forever be possessed by your daughter's spirit!" Daphne yelled back.

"Wait, what?!" she shouted, angry. "What do you mean?! Stop bringing my dead daughter into this. You know better as us: Mary is dead!"

Daphne sighed, but then argued again. "I saw Mary roaming the streets of Oakville. When I saw her and freaked out, she jerked her head to me in a weird head rotation and blood came out of her eyes and mouth. She had a big smile that stretched to her ears! She said only four words: 'I'm back from hell...' before she just walked away!"

"What do you mean?! Mary is dead, you know! She wouldn't even be from hell! How do you see spirits just randomly roaming around the streets? Wait, do you have schizophrenia or something?! Are you mentally ill and insane, too?!" Charlotte argued back, in disgust. Everyone was shocked.

Daphne was shocked at her rude comments as well. She scoffed and said, "Char, you know there are children here who look up to you and trust and love you. Once Mary's murder is solved, they won't trust you now. They will all regret calling you a 'mother'."

"I don't care what you say! I regret all those years being your 'best friend forever' and playing with you, when only your personality and all those years together was just...a facade!" she argued back.

A facade...

A facade...

A facade...

A facade...

A FACADE...

Daphne snapped and instantly attacked Charlotte. They started fighting until Holly was let loose and running upstairs.

The others grabbed the two women and tried to cool them down. They both sighed, and finally realized Holly's gone!

"Where did my niece go?!" Daphne shouted, looking everywhere for her. "Quick, let's go find her!"

They all started looking around the orphanage until Charlotte saw Holly down the dark hallway, standing in front of the "basement" door where she and the other kids weren't supposed to go.

Holly was standing there, frozen. Everyone gathered upstairs and notice Holly slowly turn around, now facing them. She let out a creepy grin and shocked eyes. She looked visibly insane and ill.

"You...you...you all don't trust me, don't you?" she asked them, but she was looking directly right at Charlotte, then turned to Daphne. "You...you left me for a stupid satanic cult when really, you're personality is entirely different and you're personality now is a facade. You're a fake! A fake!"

Daphne gasped, so did Charlotte. She realized Daphne's true colours and old nature from ages ago, and saw that she began to cry. She got down on her knees helplessly and hopeless, and started crying, her hands on her eyes.

"You're...you're...you're...right..." was all she stuttered and admitted.