Get a load of this monster.

The nights were long and cold. Samantha spent many days and nights asking herself what she had done wrong or what she could have done differently. The days grew short, and the nights grew long. She stopped going to school and work. Samantha spent all of her time fixing up what little space she had in the barn. Being kicked out of her dad's house wasn't even the worst part of her journey. She had gotten kicked out because of her new stepmom, Katie. The worst part of her journey was losing all of her close friends and family members. She especially missed her sweet, caring, and compassionate mother.

Her mother had fallen seriously ill earlier this year and had been in and out of different hospitals for months. Her chances of living were getting slimmer and slimmer by the day. It got so bad that they had to move from their small house in Winamac, Chicago, to a city in Denmark called Aarhus Universitetshospital. It was the best hospital the nurses and doctors had known. Conveniently Samantha's father, whom she had not visited since she was ten, had lived 30-45 minutes away from the hospital. So she had to move to Aarhus, Denmark, not just to take care and help her sick mother, but also because she was only sixteen and could yet live on her own. Well, more or less, she could sustain herself because, at the time, she was working a retail job. She was still technically under the custody of her parents, so she had no choice but to move in with her dad and his wife.

The first few days were already hell because her dad has and still is a manipulative person that holds on to trap them like a parasite. Even though her dad was manipulative, Sam always went out of her way to be nice to him and Katie. She always did whatever they asked, whether cooking or cleaning. She would always do it for them to try and please the unpleasant. Until she was done with putting up with them one day, she snapped. The ordinarily outgoing, happy, kind Samantha had screamed at them with nothing but anger in her words.

“Leave me alone! Every single day I do everything for you both, and I never get any credit for it!!”

She just wanted to live the life of any typical sixteen-year-old. She wanted to hang out with friends, go to parties, do drugs–just kidding, no drugs. Sam is a perfect Christian gal. But you get the point; poor Samantha just wanted to be treated the same and have the same options as an ordinary girl her age. But alas, that was just another one of her fantasies. She wants her mom to recover and then go back to Winamac without a care in the world like they usually would do at this time of year.

Sam didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to her close friends. Not even her mom. Her life was going all so well until it just wasn't anymore. But one day, when she was sitting by herself inside of her dad's attic, she found a small notebook in her backpack. She didn't ever recall packing a notebook, but her mom always taught Samantha not to question the magician's work. Of course, there isn't necessarily any magician involved in this story, but you get the point. She didn't ask for it and just started writing her thoughts deep inside this small notebook, and just being able to write out what she truly felt inside really made her life so much better. Although she was still trapped inside the attic, it was still an excellent place to distract her from how seriously terrifying her situation was.

***

One day, not the same day, but a day that was further into the future than the last Sam had gone to the bathroom. Which isn’t at all a weird way to start a day. Except she would regret getting up to go to the bathroom. Unknowingly while she was in the bathroom, her stepsister, Katelin, had broken into her room with her stepbrother, Kenny, and took her notebook. She had talked bad about everyone in the house in the same notebook. The same notebook she had talked about trying to escape this horror. The same notebook she had written her fictional life story that she wanted to live in so bad.

They took away her property and gave it to her stepmom and dad. She got in trouble that day. As soon as she came out of the bathroom, her stepmom and dad were sitting on her mattress. The mattress they had pulled out of the basement and put it in the attic just for her. How generous. Sure the bed had blood stains, food stains, and ginormous holes in it. But Sam was not ever one to complain. Also, there was a small blanket on her bed that she could barely fit underneath.

“Sam, what is this?”

“Katie listens, I'm sorry, I need a place where I can open up and be myself without getting in trouble for it. It is my only coping mechanism. It's like my only hope in this cruel household I call home.” Samantha responded to her stepmom, not daring to ever make eye contact.

“Apologize to your mother right now, and after that, I want you to get the hell out of my house.” Her dad said, screaming at Sam.

“She is not my mother.”

“Get out, Sam! Before I call the police.”

“I have nowhere to go,” Sam said, glaring at her dad.

“Should have thought about that beforehand.”

“Leave me alone! Every single day I do everything for you both, and I never get any credit for it!!” Sam said she grabbed her bag, book, and blanket as she stormed out of her room.

She knew that this day was inevitable. So in her free time, she strictly planned out where she would live if this happened. She plans to live in an abandoned barn directly across the street from her dad's house. It is a bit rundown, but if that’s all Sim can get, she’s not complaining. It’s a big green barn about 600 feet away from the road.

Before she left the house, she took some snacks, some string cheese, and an apple. Then as quickly as she could, she ran out the back door and around the house into the road. After she got to the road, she looked both ways and then ran across the street to the abandoned barn. Once you arrive, the same immediately makes her feel at home. She climbed up a rope with small items and realized it was very spacious and warm up there. Since winter was coming, she had to keep all of her body heat in one place so she wouldn’t freeze. After finally getting off her feet, she decided it was a good idea to sit down in the hay. She took out her notebook and started to write about her recent events:

Life has been increasingly difficult lately. I was recently kicked out because my most private thoughts had gotten leaked by those three little tree stump goblins. I just wanted to finish school and people to help my mom.

Her bills cost so much, and I don’t think if she beats this battle, she or I will recover from this debt. We already had financial problems before this incident, but this will push us back so far in debt I don’t even know if there will be a chance of coming back.

This entry will be a lot shorter than usual because I need to plan out my next plan of action. I just got comfortable here and realized that a cute little owl was behind me. He is white-ish beige, and he keeps silently moving his head around.

Anyway, that’s the end of the reason entry. I’m going to check out this owl, and I will write again tomorrow with new information and a name for Mr. owl.

Samantha

***

Shortly after, this message was written the same as the owl. She started making weird faces that I would just keep moving his head around.

“Whooooo ArE yOuuuuu?” Samantha cooed at the owl.

“Whooo Whooo.”

“Awh, you're so adorable. I think I am going to name you Micheal.” Samantha said while petting the owl.

***

It’s already been two months, and surprisingly Samantha is in good shape. There’s a water bucket on the first floor with soap and a towel next to it. It was so conveniently placed there, along with some food. I'm not a whole gourmet meal, but it was enough to get her through the day. The owl has also been living at the top of the bar with her. She didn’t notice that I would tend to disappear at night. So one very calm night, she decided that she would follow him.

She pretended to close her eyes, go to bed, and wait until the owl flew out of the barn. Sim got up after seven, necessary to follow him. She went down the rope and folded him out of the front of the barn around the back.

Samantha followed him in a straight path for what felt like ours until finally, they took a sharp left turn into what looked like more forest. But in actuality, it was a cornfield with corn, of course, as far as the eye could see a massive mansion into the distance.

Michael darted towards the mansion. Samantha already thought he was going fast, but as soon as he was, I said he was going even quicker than he was before in the estate. Sam couldn't keep up. It only took them five minutes to get to this mansion. This mansion was on a vast plot of land and whoever owned the estate had to be loaded.

As soon as the owl arrived at the front door, Samantha headed behind a tree. Just because she doesn’t want whoever owns the house to see her on the property. But then Samantha saw something entirely out of the ordinary. Something probably happened to one of her fantasies. Michael shape shifted. At first, Sam just thought she was having hallucinations. Since that has always been common for her, she decided to go closer to him without being seen to get a closer look. But when she had walked up, she realized that her eyes had one scene from a distance that was the same but closer.

Samantha couldn’t believe it, but she had to stay quiet. She didn’t want to get notice sneaking onto Michael’s property. She noticed he was acting a little weird. Well, not like this day was already odd, but he was highly paranoid, like he knew Samantha was watching him. He went up on the porch, took out his keys, and was about to unlock the door. Until Samantha had stepped on a leaf, of course, that may seem minuscule, but it wasn’t since it was the middle of winter and all the leaves were falling off the tree. They were all crunchy and gross, and Samantha hoped that Michael didn’t hear them. But lucky enough for Samantha, Michael did listen to her.

“Who was that?” Micheal said, rapidly turning his head towards the tree that Samantha was hiding behind.

He had seen her at first glance and started to walk towards her with a devilish grin on his face. Sam heard his footsteps getting heavier and heavier as he had slowly approached her. Her heart was beating so rapidly she was sure someone would listen to it from miles away. She couldn't do anything. She was trapped. And was about to be in for one heck of a ride.

“Hey, Sam, don't hide from me.”

“How do you know my name? You creep, get away from me!!”

“Am I not adorable anymore? Awh, so sad. I liked being your adorable little Micheal.” As he continuously transformed from owl to human, he paced around her.

“You’re a monster! You’re not Micheal. He was just a sweet innocent owl.”

“That hurt, Sammy. I am not a monster. I am Micheal. I am Micheal the Barn Owl, but if you knew anything about owls, you should have already been suspicious of me because….”

“Because what? Just please let me go!! Leave me alone.” Samantha said, covering her eyes.

“Because ironically, most modern-day Barn Owls don't live in barns because of modern-day agriculture and us getting kicked out of old barns because they have been remodeled just to sustain crops,” Micheal said, smiling.

“I have no idea what you just said..”

“Yea, I know, you dropped out of high school.”

“Well, I had no choice, you cruel monster.”

“At least my dad loved me.”

It was a childish remark that Micheal had made, but it hurt Samantha because talking about her dad had always been a sensitive topic for her. So the tears began to roll down her face, and she decided to run. She ran as fast as she could. She just wanted to get away. Away from everyone and everything. Just out from this cruel world.

“Sam, please open your eyes and watch where you are going. I am sorry, I didn't know it was a sensitive topic for you!” Micheal said as he chased after Sam.

Samantha didn't care that she kept running until she finally looked up. It was too late. The brand new red Nissan PathFinder had run into her. At that moment, Sam wanted to live. She wanted to do it for her mom, even for Michael, he is a creep, but she wanted to live. No matter how hard life got, she wanted to live.