How many of us spend our free hours reading books filled with fictional monsters, feeling chills creep up our spines and finding ourselves turning on the lights to chase away those dark shadows that hide our nightmares? Unfortunately it seems reality, though, is often more terrifying than any work of fiction could ever hope to be.
I just got finished reading about a young girl who's family kept her imprisoned in the basement, sexually assaulted her, starved, beat, and abused her since the age of 10. She is now 15. If this is not a tale of true terror then I don't know what qualifies. As a society we forget sometimes that the monsters aren't hiding in the shadows of the supernatural, they are right here within us. I can't claim to have any understanding of what makes a group of people (a father, mother, and stepbrother in this case) believe that the things they do to another human being are justifiable.
Furthermore, in this case especially, I am disgusted and horrified by our legal system. According to Yahoo news the parents in this case are only facing up to 11 years in prison whereas the stepbrother, who sexually assaulted the girl is facing 68 years. Granted sexual assault is a terrible crime, but aren't the parents even more guilty? After all, the abuse program started when the girl was 10, making the stepbrother 13. After watching the parents force the girl to do her chores naked, lock her in the basement like an animal, force her to eat her own feces, beat her, starve her, and mentally abuse her while the brother was treated like a prince, don't you think it might make him think it was okay for him to do the same? Personally I think these "parents" ought to be locked up in a basement for the rest of their lives. After all, violators of the Geneva Conventions regulations on torturing enemy combatants during times of military conflict are faced with stronger consequences than these two monsters are!
I just got finished reading about a young girl who's family kept her imprisoned in the basement, sexually assaulted her, starved, beat, and abused her since the age of 10. She is now 15. If this is not a tale of true terror then I don't know what qualifies. As a society we forget sometimes that the monsters aren't hiding in the shadows of the supernatural, they are right here within us. I can't claim to have any understanding of what makes a group of people (a father, mother, and stepbrother in this case) believe that the things they do to another human being are justifiable.
Furthermore, in this case especially, I am disgusted and horrified by our legal system. According to Yahoo news the parents in this case are only facing up to 11 years in prison whereas the stepbrother, who sexually assaulted the girl is facing 68 years. Granted sexual assault is a terrible crime, but aren't the parents even more guilty? After all, the abuse program started when the girl was 10, making the stepbrother 13. After watching the parents force the girl to do her chores naked, lock her in the basement like an animal, force her to eat her own feces, beat her, starve her, and mentally abuse her while the brother was treated like a prince, don't you think it might make him think it was okay for him to do the same? Personally I think these "parents" ought to be locked up in a basement for the rest of their lives. After all, violators of the Geneva Conventions regulations on torturing enemy combatants during times of military conflict are faced with stronger consequences than these two monsters are!
