"The Root Of Fear " by Ariel G

     Saturday the 21st of July, 12:59 P.M. another member of the Higgins family dead, some say their cursed others think one is up to blame. It all started with Mona Higgins, she grew up witnessing her father domestically abusing her mother at the age of 7, two years later her mother died of suicide and her father was sent to prison for his reckless behavior and neglecting Mona along with her sibling. It wasn’t long before Mona was taken into Child and Family Services, hopping around foster homes being treated like an old toy, no one cared for her. As time went, on Mona became violent and uncontrollable, an incident broke out between her and a male worker, she planned to frame him for the death of her sibling. Instead, she was passed around to many social workers all who were preferably women. Mona soon became of age and ran away from her foster home with another kid in the agency because she was pregnant. The two began a new life together and it wasn’t long after   Mona gave birth to her daughter, Sofie that she got married. Sofie was a sweet but troubled little girl, growing up as an only child, Sofie was exposed to harmful situations. Her mother, Mona became divorced and her father never stayed in contact however it always occurred to Sofie why her father never reached out but she didn’t fully understand until she had kids of her own. Sofie gave birth to two boys, many referred to the

twins as the Higgins. The boys grew up having yet to met their grandma Mona, Sofie wouldn’t allow them to only because she didn’t know the truth about her parent's separation. Months and years passed before Sofie let the boys come in contact with their grandma. They scheduled to meet at grandma Mona’s house the following morning. When Sofie arrived with the twins she became cautious for only she had known the capabilities of her mother. At first, Sofie was hesitant to leave the boys alone with her mother but grandma Mona insisted Sofie take a tour of the house. So on Sofie went, while she was touring the house she stumbled upon an antique that she had recognized as a young girl. The antique was a square box that chimes when opened, but Sofie noticed it wasn’t chiming once she opened it, it was stuck as if it were tampered with. So she aggressively shook the box but it still didn’t work. On the floor, however, she noticed a wrinkled folded piece of paper that had fallen from the box. Once she opened the paper, Sofie realized it was half of a newspaper strip it read, “July 21st, 1973, Mona Higgens pleads guilty after being charged for poisoning her husband connecting back to the death of her brother Alex Higgins.” Footsteps began approaching towards Sofie, she quickly crumbles the strip into her pocket and locks eye contact with her mother, Mona. “The twins visiting hours are over, they need to make it home for their afternoon nap,” said Sofie. “Well then you better be on your way I guess,” replied her mother, Mona. Sofie scarcely rushed out the house with the twins and quickly placed them into their car seats, she soon realized one of the twins had gone pale in the face and the younger twin was beginning to gain a rash all over his body. They had been poisoned, while the twins were being hospitalized Sofie grabbed the newspaper strip out from her pocket to make sense of her father’s passing. There it read in BOLD print, “July 21st, 1983, 10 years later, the Higgins pronounced dead after being hospitalized from poison.”

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