Tori and Helena were only eleven when they disappeared on the 13th June 2008. They left their house in the small town of Cumlington, West Virginia at 7.13pm. They did not return. After three years of searching, the police gave up and declared them as missing, or worse, dead. So on the evening of the 13th June 2011, the Lockett family sat in the remains of their home and tearfully wished their daughters happy birthday and goodbye. Their funeral was 3 days later and two empty coffins were lowered into the ground. 6 months later their mother, a gentle woman called Patricia Lockett, took her life by jumping off a building. She was buried next to the two empty coffins for her daughters. One by one the Lockett family killed themselves off until there were three coffins buried beside the two empty ones; the entire Lockett family resting in peace at last.
I always wonder where Tori and Helena disappeared to or if they ever really disappeared at all. I wonder if they were kidnapped or simply just ran away. I’m Gabby Lockett, the daughter of Patricia and Todd Lockett. They never mention me in the news articles because I didn’t kill myself; I wasn’t brave enough to. It still haunts me in bed sometimes, my mum holding out to me, her face as pale as a ghost.
“Fly with me, Gabby, jump. It’s what you’ve always wanted; you, me and your sisters together forever.” She says
I back away, shaking my head. ‘Not like this,’ I repeat to myself in my head, ‘Not like this’. She shrugs as if to say, your loss and leans back and she’s gone. The last memory I have of my mum is her with her eyes squeezed shut, the wind blowing her hair everywhere and a look of perfect serenity on her face. She looks peaceful but I still turn away so I don’t see her reach the ground or hear the sickening crunch that follows.
I hate these memories the most and I know part of it is guilt- the guilt that I feel for not following my mum down, for not placing my life in the palm of my sisters’ hands. I know Tori and Helena aren’t dead, they are out there somewhere, waiting to be found. The minute my sisters disappeared, my nine year old self vowed to find them and do to them what they did to her.
