Finding Maisie

Finding Maisie: Epilogue

Finding Maisie

Epilogue

Almost Four Years Later:

I dreamt the abductor came back. I dreamt that I woke up in the night to find Maisie missing again. I dreamt that all the panic, danger, and feelings of hopelessness returned to haunt me. I dreamt I ran outside yelling for Maisie, only to find her dead with Colin standing over her empty body. I dreamt she was lying next to the bloodied bodies of Callum, my parents and everyone else I loved. I dreamt that he started stalking towards me, his hands covered in Maisie's blood, step by step.

I didn't dream anymore. I woke up screaming, feeling engulfed by the darkness in my room. I immediately began searching for Maisie who, of course, wasn't in my room.

'Maisie?' I called out. 'Maisie, where are you?!'

Light came streaming into my room as the door opened. Maisie walked in and hurried to my bed.

'Shush, I'm here, Poppy, it's fine,' Maisie said as she hugged me.

I calmed down immediately at the realisation that I was only dreaming. I hugged Maisie back, relieved at the fact that she was still here.

'Are you okay?' Maisie asked, pulling out of the hug to look at me.

'Yeah, it was just a dream.'

'I know it was a dream, Poppy, but I have them as well. I know how bad they can be,' Maisie said.

I just shrugged, the mental image of Maisie's dead body still etched in my mind. Since the treasure hunt ended Maisie and I often had nightmares of memories or reminders of the abductor and his haunting actions. Of course Maisie would have them more frequently than I seeing as she had had much worse off experiences. And to be honest the nightmares had stopped for a while, especially from me. That's why this dream had caught me off guard. Normally the dreams would be in some farfetched scenario and, even though they scared me, I would be able to know they were not true. But this dream was so realistic - it felt so alive. The abductor came to Maisie's and my flat, everything about the rooms was accurate. Every photo, little trinket and piece of furniture was in its right place. Colin was wearing his classic hooded black coat that shadowed his face and Maisie was even wearing the exact pair of pyjamas that she was wearing now. If the abductor planned on coming back in the night, then my dream was the exact example of how that night would go.

'What happened in it?' Maisie asked.

'The usual really. You get taken and killed, but this dream was different. This felt so.. Realistic.'

Maisie looked at me sadly, 'Do you want me to call Callum?'

I shook my head vigorously, 'No it's been ages since one of us have had a bad dream, I don't want him to worry.'

'Poppy, he's a brother and a fiancé, of course he's going to worry.'

'But he doesn't need to, they are only dreams. And it's not good for his back anyway to be sleeping on our floors all the time,' I said. Of course it made me safer when Callum was here, but it was the middle of the night. I didn't want him to lose sleep when I would be perfectly fine on my own.

'Yeah, I guess you're right. And he does think the nightmares have completely stopped. Why do you think you had this dream anyway?' Maisie asked, still concerned and sympathetic.

'Well, you know..'

Maisie's eyes widened in recognition. She had remembered that tomorrow, well actually the early morning of today, it would be the anniversary of the end of the treasure hunt. But that also meant it would be the anniversary of the day my dad and Heather died. The years would usually be happy and I could forget about the abductor and the full extent of pain and loss that he had brought. But every year on the anniversary of my father's death, all the misery would return and I would be reminded of how our lives had turned out. I even sometimes thought back to the story I was told of Colin and his late childhood best friend Oliver sitting on the railings on the edge of the pier. I would wonder what would have happened if Colin had fallen to a watery death in the place of Oliver. Would everyone the abductor had killed still be alive? Would I have been able to grow up with my whole family there and my best friend? But also would I still have been engaged to Callum like I was now? Sometimes my own thoughts alone drove me crazy.