Individual Plot Synopsis

It’s September 18th 1994, hundreds of students are waiting eager for their first day of freshers week at University, amongst this crowd we are introduced to a fella by the name of Carl. Carl is of a sturdy build with wide shoulders and a firm body, from his face we can see the pain and irritation that shaving is causing to his face. Carl thinks that it is just going to be a normal day for him, until he comes across a girl who he falls for, within an instant his mind blanks and he can’t even get himself to the say the word “Hello”, however they’re still able to exchange a smile. Luckily for Carl, that girl just happens to be taking the same course as him, her name is Madison, so he decides to try and get to know her. They start to grow closer and learn new ways to bond everyday until that of September 31st, when she tells him something she rarely tells people... She tells him of the death of her mother when she was a young age, she strains about how hard it was not having a mother figure at a young age but she praises father for all he has done for her. She tells Carl that she always thought her mother’s death was natural, an accident that her father didn’t want to disclose, that was until she found the truth. One night she heard something fall in her attic and decided to see what it was, when she goes up she discovers a single book that seems to have fallen off the shelf, but this book is titled with her mother’s name. Intrigued by this, Madison reads the book until she starts to find some disturbing secrets about the truth of her mother’s death, she learns that it was her father who killed her mother and she reads about how he tried to disguise it and hide it away from her. After all of this she tells Carl she is too scared to confront her father, but Carl convinces her that everything will be fine and that he will go with her if it makes her feel any more comfortable. They board a train packed for a weekend back at home both seemingly eager. However, as they get off the train and leave the train station they start to approach Madison’s house and a cold shiver runs down from the nape of her neck to the bottom of her spine as her father walks out the door smiling. They exchange greetings and he welcomes Carl in. The afternoon passes and her father has prepared food, “Madison’s favourite” he describes it as. As they start to eat Madison asks her father what happened on that day when her mother died, to which he responds with a cold glance, she tries her best to brush it off and decides to come clean. She forms the question, “Dad, why?”, tears start forming in her eyes, “why?! How could you do it?!” She cries out, upon hearing this her father sends her to her room with an angry manner and tells Carl to leave. As Carl gathers his things to leave Madison tells Carl to wait for her, as Carl waits patiently outside we hear a scream from inside the house, it’s coming from Madison’s room. Carl quickly runs in and grabs the landline, he dials 999 and reports the situation to the police, he then drops his things and sprints up the stairs to see Madison’s father towering over her. Carl runs at her father and pushes him away from her whilst shouting at him, as Carl grabs Madison’s hand he ushers her down the stairs to which the door is slammed open to reveal the police, they tell the teens to get out of the house and go to the police car. Upon seeing her father they arrest him on sight and take him away in a police van very briskly. Madison, still shocked, asks “How did you get here so quick?” to which the police officer replies informing her the dark truth that it wasn’t the first time her father had murdered somebody and tried to keep it hidden, he tells her “Your father has always had a reputation for his anger but we never thought him capable of murder, until we found a crucial piece of evidence which told us otherwise, so we rushed here.” Madison thanks the police officers for their help and looks to the comfort of Carl as they embrace and start to walk down the bare road that once contained all of Madison’s happy memories.