Petals Of Blood

After so many years of living alone, I woke up late for the first time in my life, which resulted in me feeling sloppy!

I didn't feel like myself either, and it was difficult to gather myself and go about my daily routine as usual since things didn't feel right.

While Charmaine was still sleeping, I decided to take a hot bath.

I decided not to wake her up because, after all, I had gotten up late and she, too, needed some rest.

After a few minutes of resting in the tub and enjoying the warm water, a stirring scream in the air startled me out of the pool and practically ran to the direction of the cry, nude save for the kanga kanga I had snatched on my approach and used to cover my body.

A little figure in the living room covered her lips with her pudgy hands and sat in the corner, her face filled with panic and fear as her eyes were fastened to the table.

My heart, which was hammering fast and strong, attempted but failed to settle down. I was even more confused by the fact that I could feel my heart beat in my temples, as if it was pounding from my head because of the headache that was commencing.

"What has you shouting like that this early morning?" I inhaled deeply and held it in my lungs before exhaling. As I got closer to her, I inquired.

She didn't respond, which led me to believe that I'd find the answer to my query on the table where her gaze was fixed.

I turned and headed towards the table, only for my eyes to widen and almost fall out of their sockets when they came into contact with the unbelievable!

The flowers, which I had carefully arranged and placed in a vase, were pouring blood from their petals onto the table's surface.

To say the least, she was taken aback.

*

She had never seen anything like that before because she was used to plucking flowers from that specific field of flowers and never bothered to buy any from the market vendors. This was her first time seeing such a thin from these flowers!

She had, however, never immediately placed the flowers in a vase. All she ever did was plant them outside her house, and as they multiplied, when the time came to shear them, she would shear them and either replant them or put them in a vase.

She disliked placing flowers in vases because the water would stink after a few days and the aroma of the flower would change from its original.

She enjoyed planting them over, storing them.

There was also no way she would put the flowers in a vase without water since they would dry out soon, so she had a lot of reasons to plant the flowers rather than have them in a vase.

She exhaled a breath and straightened up.

Looking over her shoulder, she noticed Charmaine was still trembling and spawled into a ball in the same corner that she had left her. Of course, having been shielded by her parents, she had seen nothing like it before, and in this instance, it was traumatizing for her.

Charlotte sighed again as she correctly knotted the kanga kanga around her body before turning and walked towards the small child.

This proved that the narrative of the guy with flowers who died on that field was not a myth, but rather a true story!

Nothing else would have sufficed to explain what they had just observed.

"Hey," Charlotte said as she sat down in front of the girl, her eyes scrunched tight and her small arms gripping her knees by the way she was situated.

She didn't make an effort to glance at Charlotte.

So the woman tried again, this time attempting to be even gentler than before.

She touched her palm lightly against the child's head.

'I'm at a loss on what to do.' Charlotte thought to herself.

She hadn't had to soothe a youngster in a long time.

'I can do it; it's not difficult.' 'I mean, how difficult can it be?' She questioned herself as she touched the child's face with her thumb.

She was sobbing at the time, indicating that Charlotte's efforts to console her were in vain.

"Relax, Charmaine." Charlotte pleaded with the child, but she simply sobbed louder.

She then picked up the youngster and carried her inside. Charmaine wailed into the crook of Charlotte's neck, giving her little back massages.

"Hush now, darling, it's all over." Charlotte attempted to soothe her.

Charmaine eventually stayed quiet after about half an hour of attempting and failing to soothe her again and over, and Charlotte could clean her up.

She was comfortably clad, while Charlotte went to put on some clothing after finishing up with Charmaine.

She wore her customary long skirts, but this was another pair she had washed a few days before, reminding her that she needed to wash the pile of dirty clothes that was swiftly piling up in the sisal basket in the room's corner.

Because it was cold outdoors, she wore a similar blouse and an old corset that still fit her properly, and she pulled on her long, heavy cloak with a wide hood attached.

"We need to get you some new winter clothing. Ordinary attire. These expensive clothing you wear must be discarded." She stated this as she gazed at the small child, whose eyes were still sorrowful.

Charlotte sighed once again, unsure what to do to cheer up the girl.

If she had known, she would not have told the girl that awful story, because she was certain that it was one of the key factors that made Charlotte even more startled.

Anyway, whether she was sad or not, Charmaine's garments had to be replaced.

The clothing denoted a person of a high class, but with all that Charlotte knew was going on, the child's high classness had to be curtailed for a while until everything else returned to normal.

If she was here to conceal, she had to modify her way of life, as well as her clothing code and everything else!