Sadie's Nightmare

Chapter Eighteen: Danger

As soon as Patricia's remains were discovered, Rosemary shielded Sadie from the horrendous sight, and immediately took her down stairs.

However, it was too late. Little Sadie had seen the blood and flesh that was once her mother, spread across the carpet.

Rosemary sat Sadie on the couch.

"Wait here." Said Rosemary. She then fetched her purse from the kitchen table and returned to Sadie.

Sadie was still trying to process what she'd seen. She sat silent on the couch, her gaze fixed on a small, tangled piece of hair on the carpet in front of the television.

Rosemary pulled her mobile from her purse and tapped at the screen several times. She paused with her wrinkled finger hovering over the out-going call icon. She was going to call the Police, but a sudden thought had stopped her.

She turned to Rosemary and asked, "Sadie, where is your magic blanket?"

Sadie didn't hear her.

"Sadie?" Rosemary said it a bit louder that time.

Sadie snapped back to reality and looked to her grandmother. Her eyes were wide and her normally rosy cheeks were pale.

"Where is the magic blanket that I gave you for your birthday?" Asked Rosemary.

"Mum-" Sadie cleared her throat and swallowed. "-Mum took it off me."

"Do you know where she put it?"

Sadie shook her head. "She took it into her bedroom."

Rosemary placed a hand on Sadie's back and leaned in close. "Now, Sadie, this is very important. Was the blanket damaged at all?"

Sadie's brows pulled together, and she nodded a little. "It ripped when Mum took it off me"

The colour disappeared from Rosemary's face and her heart sank. If she weren't sitting, she probably would have fallen down.

"What is it, Grandma Rosie?" Asked Sadie.

Rosemary took a deep breath and gathered herself. "We need to find it and sew it up. Right away. Before-"

"Rosemary?" A shaky, broken voice spoke softly from the stairs.

They turned to Steven. He had quite a bit of blood and goop on him.

"Can you please take Sadie outside and call the Police?" He asked.

"Of course, dear, but-"

"'But'? 'But' what?" Steven interrupted.

Rosemary tried to explain. "There's something I must do. It's very important."

Steven scoffed. "What?"

"Why don't you take Sadie outside. I'll be out shortly." Rosemary suggested. "I just need to find something first."

"What do you need to find?" He asked.

Rosemary didn't want to say.

"Rosemary?" Steven asked again, becoming more irritated. "What do you need to find first?"

"My magic blanket." Said Sadie.

Steven looked to Rosemary, his brows knotted at the middle. The intensity of his fiery gaze could have set the house ablaze.

"If it's ripped, like Sadie said," Rosemary tried to answer the silent question that Steven didn't need to ask, "then, we could all be in danger!"

Steven continued to stare her down. The corners of his mouth were curved downward. He was not having this pile of baloney.

Rosemary explained, "When I was a child I was given that blanket by my mother, who had bought it off a travelling gypsy woman. The woman had said that as long as a child was in need of sanctuary, the blanket would provide this place. And that's why my mother had bought it for me, even if she didn't believe, she thought that it would help me with my constant night terrors. But the gypsy woman warned us that, like all good things, there would be a terrible price to pay if its power was ever abused. She said to never let anything happen to the blanket. Because if the fantastical things-that are borne from our subconscious and live in the magic of the blanket-were ever to escape, they would transform into what they truly are. Horrible manifestations of the child's nightmares."