Underneath The Darkness Of Golden Valley

Chapter 4 - Why her?

12th June 2007

As soon a the light was turned on , to  our horror we saw a girl my age crouched on the floor in a fetal position, bleeding heavily , faced towards the wall , in a sack.
I called out, hello, she gave out a small sound.
We went near her and Theo helped take the wooden planks off ,of her . I gently grabbed her body , tilting it .
To my shock, it was my sister. I left out a cry, Amara! Wha-what happened to you ? I asked with streams of tears flowing down my eyes .
Theo was in shock seeing her that way. Theo picked her up in his arms and we went to Theo's house as quickly as possible.
We requested Theo's dad to help as he was a doctor and had a small clinic set up in his mansion's out house . We went there and layed her down. As I was dressing her I noticed a lot of scars on her arms , legs and back,some stab wounds too, what looked like marks inflicted by a person's hand was on her neck . I kept bawling my eyes out as I saw her. I was told to stand outside as him and his wife cleaned and dressed her wounds  .
I just kept wondering to my self who would do this to her. Afterall she was a kind and sweet person and the only image that popped into my mind was that of our mom's . After what felt like forever we were informed by Mr Vasquez, that Amara was finally stable and thankfully she didn't have any fatal wounds.
I pulled myself back together and went home that night. I knocked on the door and my dad opened the door, looking all sweaty and pale. I grew instantly suspicious when I realised that my parents were cleaning our house at 2:30 in the night.
My mom stuttered on her words as she was asking me "H-h-how c-come you are a w-week earlier?
I replied saying we were sent back as there was some issue with the weather.
My parents told me I should have atleast informed them before coming.  I just nodded and started calling out Amara's name as if I didn't know where she was. Mom interrupted,  saying she was out at a party . I didn't belive a word as I knew Amara had a curfew.
I just walked into my room as if nothing had happened,  while holding back my tears, I  shut my room close and started weeping.

~The next morning~

I came down, to find my parents whispering something to each other and they did not look happy. I asked mom where Amara was and this time dad screamed at me telling me to stop asking about her.  That was strange and I grew suspicious at many levels.
Mom calmed dad down and told me that Amara   had called mom informing her, she slept over at  her friend's place . That was the last draw. I was sure it was them now .
I also knew that if I told the police, the case would go on for years together and she wouldn't get the justice she deserved. So I took it up on myself to get her justice .

The next day, I went to the police station and filed a missing report on the name of Amara Berkes. Missing for 24 hours . Last seen by family at home before alleged party.
My mom and dad decided to play along.

The case had gotten strong news attention. Amara was being talked upon on every news channel.  The headlines of newspapers read- "15 year old minor, Amara Berkes, missing!"

The interrogation had started and my parents were interrogated first. Mom kept crying hysterically and that was when I realised how much of a witch my mom was because at home she was completely fine than she was on live TV.
Her friends and I were interrogated too.
What shocked me the most was after trying to murder her own blood,  her own daughter ,she wasn't even remorseful.
Years went by with rally's and protests with the words #saveAmara and #FindAmara. After 5 years of continuing search,  she had to be pronounced dead by the court. With no hopes left , the government had set up a memorial for Amara .
Everyone were truly sad , except for my cunning parents.