The Story of Catherine

Listen closely, this story is true, I swear on it. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't believe me though, if you thought I was lying, making up a story. It is far fetched. But it is real.
If you're here, reading this, you probably know about Jeff the killer, Slender man, Bloody Mary and all of them. This story is as real as theirs. Real killers, in stories, these things exist. And their success lays in the fact that no one believes they are real, because they pretend to be lies.
=='Catherine Maggie Patment'==
This is the story of Catherine. Catherine died over eighty years ago at the age of 8. She went missing over forty years ago. Behind her she left a legacy, one I found. I was at a garage sale one day several summers ago and came across an old diary, locked shut. I was, naturally, curious.
I asked the man how much it would be, and eager to be rid of the piece of junk he gave it to me, wondering how he ever came to have it. When i went home I was faced with the trouble of opening the lock that sealed the ancient book shut. As rusted as the small lock was it would not open. I had to bring it to a locksmith to forge a key. Home again I was able to take in the first page of the diary, which read only:
"Property of Catherine Maggie Patment"
I'll explain the rest of the diary later. For now, I want you to meet Catherine, whom I have done extensive research on. It was surprisingly difficult to find anything about her or her history. It appears that, her entire family line has died out, and she has not one living relative of any nature. That is something I found particularly disturbing. I could not find any further information regarding Catherine via the internet. There doesn't appear to be any document regarding her online.
I had to turn towards the libraries for help, and found myself receiving copies of documents from a library in Saskatchewan, Canada. It was odd how eager the library was to hand me over documents, having I did not present any particular reason for wanting them. A week later I received copied documents regarding the Patment family, investments, family, etc. I discovered the family lived in a three story farm house out in the country in Saskatchewan. They owned and operated a moderate sized farm which grew crops and raised barn animals.
The area has since been demolished and the farmland taken over, but the land has since not been able to yield as much as a pea pod. The family had been large, Catherine had five older siblings, and her aunt and uncle lived in the home as well with their two children, both also older then Catherine. I have come to believe the family was respectable at the time, as the family held several awards regarding large pigs and respectable vegetables.
I was alarmed to further discover that the entire family was discovered on April 15th murdered in the farmhouse, including Catherine. The fields, at a distance appeared fine, but upon closer inspection had be rid of all crop, corn stalks held no corn, and pea pods were empty. All the barn animals were let loose and were wondering about into the nearby tree cover aimlessly. I was surprised I had never heard of such a murder on late night TV.
Apparently the police and government kept the incident away from media as to not cause alarm. Each family member was identified by distant relatives and neighbors, and received an autopsy. Here is something, tremendously shocking. Each member died of a stab wound, to the top of the head. However each member also received additional stab wounds prior the the fatal blow, one to the right shoulder, one to the right knee, and each person had all toes severed completely.
Apparently the police were afraid that if the murders were made public the killer may be more inclined to strike again. However it did not happen again, and the messy murder remained a little known fact and no reports can be found online. This murder distracted me for a while, because after I discovered this I looked online for similar murders. I found over 30 ore accounts of murders where the victims had, the trademark wounds. These however were often passed off as animal attacks, gang related activity, random murder, and/or unsolved. No one seemed to remember the Patments and their own cruel fate.
The weeks following the murder of the Patments police received several reports from locals who lived in the town next to the Patments former farm. Witnesses claimed to have seen Catherine, heard her singing, and on one occasion a neighbor spoke to her. The neighbor claimed she was jumping rope and humming, "Head shoulders knees and toes." and when he asked where she had come from she only replied, "I only wanted to play" and skipped off.
Police tried to assure the locals that Catherine was dead, she had been identified and buried, but following more complaints the police were faced with no choice but to dig up Catherine's body. When they did everyone was shocked to find a body. The body of a mangled and bloody stray dog. Immediately people began to search for Catherine, dead or alive, but came up empty handed. I couldn't find any information regarding what happen after that, I can only assume that they never found anything and the sighting stopped occurring. I cannot wrap my head around how such a mystery, and murder, has managed to be kept so quiet. Perhaps it is just that no one has looked until now. How could something like this be possible? How does one become like Jeff and Bloody Mary, how do such things come to exist, and is that what happen the Catherine? I am only left with questions and seem to have exhausted all my sources of information.
==The Diary==
I said I would get back to the diary, and I have. Unfortunately just several months ago a candle caused the left side of my home to burn down. The diary did not burn, no, it vanished. In the burnt bits left of my room there was no part of the dairy to be found, including the metal lock pieces, leaving me to believe it must have vanished. And I've only remembered the first two pages by heart. The first page, as I have stated, read only. Catherine's full name
"Catherine Maggie Patment".
The second page read a poem, and like all pages after page one, I had to put great effort into finding out what it said, as the diary was written by an eight year old. The poem read:
"Head Shoulders Knees and Toes The head is where the memory goes. On your shoulders it's a heavy weight, Something your poor knees can't take, and without your toes you will not run. You will never end my fun."
The poem is a bit disturbing for a child, and I am puzzled as to where she learned it, or if she wrote it herself. After this page there are a dozen or so pages poorly written about her family life. It appeared that being the youngest caused Catherine great distress. She often wrote about how stupid her older siblings were and how no one seemed to pay attention to her.
She apparently only ever received hand-me-downs and never had anyone to play with, no one but her cat, Mittens. One entry had clearly been cried on, and it told me about how Catherine got angry once and threw her moms vase, which had killed her cat. She also wrote how happy she was, because her mom and dad and everyone paid attention to her because she had been so close to the cat.
Continuing reading I found out that Catherine began hurting the chickens and the dog, without getting the same attention she had with Mittens. I can only imagine she was trying her best to get attention like she had had when Mittens died and it seems that she was getting more disappointed and angry that the harm she was giving these animals was not getting her what she had wanted.
Eventually after she had finally managed to kill a hen her parents resorted to locking her in her room, where she began to feel neglected and lonely. The last page of the diary was about how she wanted the love and attention she deserved, and how she knew how to get it.
The writing was too sloppy and poorly written and spelled for me to be able to know what she had planned exactly. I can only assume that it is what lead to the death of the household the next night. She never did get the attention she wanted. Never. No one outside the community found out about the murder, and she hasn't been credited for a single murder after.
She must have wanted the fame the others have, but she has never shared in it, she must be angry. If this story has done what it was supposed to, then her story will be out there now, and she can have the attention she wants so badly. She can let everyone know her. She can make anyone afraid of her skipping, and humming at night, Head shoulders knees and toes, because people will know who she is, and what she will do.
Category:Diary/Journal