Taming the Supernatural

~ EIGHT ~

The frightened old woman quickly made her way into her bedroom. She scrambled through her drawers looking for the ancient belonging she had that no one else knew of. Though she sounded like a crazy old woman when she told stories of the Boy-King, she knew that there was a bigger reason to her seeming insanity. Long ago, the elderly woman had been on the island and managed to escape. Sometimes, she still wakes up from her nightmares of the island in which she was trapped against her will. The anger she had for her father for abandoning her there still resides in her heart, but she knew that she would never want her own family—or anyone else for that matter to face the horrors that she did. That is why, that when she awoke from her nightmares, she took a small stroll down the home in which she lived and familiarized herself once more with reality and made sure to remind herself that there was nothing to be afraid of. The Boy-King would not get to her. She escaped.

She escaped.

That mantra was what consistently repeated in her head as reassurance. After many decades, Amelia finally came to believe that she was safe, but that was after she married and bore her child. Her worry eased. She knew that the Boy-King did not like adults and though she had come of age a little while ago, she only felt safe after she went through the rituals of adulthood—marriage and bearing children. Alan was a joy growing up. Amelia would recall many find memories when she woke from her nightmares while her son was still a little boy. Though she felt safe, her worst fear was that the Boy-King would come for her son and punish him for her mistakes.

No.

She must not let that demon into her head and worry. The legend was true, young females were taken by the Boy-King, but after so many years of only hearing from him once, she was almost certain that he had forgotten about her and his promise, his threat.

His threat.

After searching through her drawer, she finally found what she was looking for. An old parchment piece of paper that led to more questions rather than answers, but perhaps it was time to tell her family the truth.  Perhaps it was the beginning of the journey they must take to find her grand-daughter. She only hoped that they would not make her seem like a fool—or think her to be a fool and pretend to care for her words when they are truly planning on bringing her to a physician to make sure that her mental health was not deteriorating due to her old age.

Just as the old woman was making sure that she remembered every detail of her past that she could, a faint knock was heard on her door. "Come in," she spoke after putting the piece of parchment face down on the nightstand.

The door opened and Amelia found herself staring at her daughter-in-law, "I am not bothering you, am I, Amelia?" she asked softly.

"Of course not, my child, please come in. Do tell me what is wrong," she said softly as she led the testy woman to her bed and sat down with her.

"I worry for my daughter. Alan says that he will do everything to find her, and I believe him. My boys tell me that they will help with the search too; however, I am still so worried," the young woman spoke as tears spilled down her cheeks. "I know she did not want to marry, she had told her father—all of us. You do not suppose that she might have run off so that she would not have to marry do you? What a disgrace our family would become! Not only would we lose what we worked so hard for, but our little girl would be lost."

Amelia sighed and frowned and attempted to comfort the woman in her arms. "It is difficult to lose a child and worry over them. But you must remain strong. Let the men search and we will feed them and nurture them to make sure they are on their best health and strength so that they can find your child," she spoke softly. "Perhaps there is more to the disappearance than we see."