Runs in the Family

 My name is Mary, and I am seven years old. I am so excited because I finally got a puppy. I love playing with it. Mommy said it is an outside dog, though, so I can't ever have it inside the house. The puppy is brown with white spots on its back. It is so tiny and wiggly! Puppies are my favorite animals! It likes meat, just like me. Mommy gave me the dog for my birthday. I decided to name it Chowie because that is a good name for a dog. I showed Chowie to the girl that lives outside my house, Lucy. Lucy is my age, and she is really good at playing hide and seek.

Lucy has brown eyes and really pale skin. She only wears yellow, and she is best friends with me. She never talks, and mommy never sees her. Sometimes, I hear her talking inside my head. When I showed Chowie to Lucy, she smiled. I really like Lucy- she is always very nice to me. Sometimes, though, I wish she would stop hiding so much. I wonder why she does not talk like a normal person. Sometimes, I can see other people that are like Lucy.

Once, I looked in the mirror and instead of me, I saw a weird man with pointy ears and a really long beard. He had his mouth way open, and he looked like he was yelling something at me. It scared me so much that I did not look in a mirror for a week after that. I have never seen him again, and I hope I never do. I told mommy about it, but she told me to stop telling lies.

The day after I got Chowie, he and I played in my sandbox until mommy called me in for dinner. I looked for Lucy, but I did not see her. After I brushed the sand off my clothes, I went inside. Mommy made pancakes, and I ate a lot. Then I went to bed. Mommy tucked me in and sang me to sleep. I woke up a long time later, but it was dark and I had squishy stuff all over my hands. I was very scared. I saw Lucy, but she just looked at me and walked away. I started crying loudly, and someone opened a door close to me and turned on the light. I saw that I was on my back porch, and my hands were covered with some weird red stuff. My mom picked me up quickly and held me as I wailed. Eventually, I calmed down, and I saw Chowie on the porch, covered in shiny, wet red stuff too.

His body looked eaten away, and mommy was shaking her head and making weird faces. Mommy took me inside and cleaned me up. She put me to bed and went out to the back porch again. I heard a hose running and strange scraping noises. I soon fell asleep. When I woke up, I ran out to the porch to see if Chowie was alright. I looked everywhere, did not see Chowie anywhere. I did not go to school that day. Mommy said it was alright for me to stay home, just this once. I cried all day because I missed Chowie and Lucy. I tried to ask mommy about what happened last night, but she just ignored me. Mommy looked really happy and kept giggling quietly to herself. She hummed and skipped, too. I did not understand why she was so happy, or why she would not tell me what was going on.

That night, I went to bed before my bedtime. I slept a little while, and then I woke up because someone was pulling me out of bed. I felt a hard, sharp pain in my arm and screamed really loud. The pain got worse, and I felt wet stuff running down my arm. I heard someone breathing loudly and wet squelching sounds. I felt hard, sharp things tearing away the skin on my arm. I screamed louder until my voice reached a pitch that I could barely hear. The sharp things kept moving, chewing and biting until I blacked out.

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Summary of a case report from the Louisiana Police department

Mary's mother, Helen, aged thirty-three, had severe psychosocial issues. She was hospitalized three times before the age of ten. She was hospitalized several times after. The most recent hospitalization occurred at the age of twenty three. Since the investigation started, it was found that she has suspicious ties to three disappearances in her area. Leading investigators are sure that there are more. Helen is currently hospitalized in Eastern Louisiana Mental Health Hospital. She is pleading insanity in the murder trial, which will occur on October 31st, 2019.

Her little girl, Mary, was eaten alive by Helen in January 2019. After investigation, it was found that she was exhibiting the same signs her mother had at her age. She apparently ate half of her dog only a day before being killed herself. She also exhibited other signs of insanity- she spoke of a girl named Lucy who she played tag with. "Lucy" is a fictitious person that Mary believed she could see. Evidence suggests that Mary also thought she could see and hear other fictitious people.

Top psychologists consulted with her teachers, and it was found that she also exhibited many other symptoms of insanity. Lucy's father is, as of yet, unknown, but detectives say that Helen was previously married to an unnamed man. His whereabouts are not known, but it is probable that Helen killed him as well. Helen covered her tracks well, and there is no evidence to suggest that she was abusive to her daughter at any time during their relationship.