Little Rosie

6:00 am

Rosie grabbed her purple backpack, and put her pink light up sneakers on. Today was her first day of first grade, and she was excited like every other child would be. She felt like an older kid, now that she was out of kindergarten. Her mom separated her hair and braided each side. She put red ribbons at the end of each braid to tie them. "Are you excited Rosie?" the little girl nodded with the biggest smile plastered on her face. Rosie hopped off the stool she was sitting on and grabbed her mothers hand. They walked out of the house to the end of the driveway to wait for the school bus. "Good morning Karen" the next door neighbor came out of their house and walked to the fence that divided the two yards. Mr. Johnston was a kind middle aged man who worked as a lawyer. He was very quiet but was always nice when talking to Karen and little Rosie. "Good morning" "Rosie are you excited for school today?" Rosie was shy and hid behind her mother. Mr. Johnston chuckled "I bet she is excited. My niece was excited when it was her first day of school" Karen smiled and nodded while rubbing her daughters back to comfort her. Something about her neighbor made her feel odd. He didn't seem quite normal. "Well I'm off to work! Have a good day Rosie" he grabbed his briefcase off the ground and put it inside his car. He got in and pulled to the end of his driveway while staring at Karen. She pulled the sleeves of her sweater down to cover her hands and looked away from Mr. Johnston. "He scares me mommy" Karen watched as the man drove away. "Me too baby" The big yellow school bus approached them so Rosie walked with her mother to the end of the driveway. The doors of the bus opened. Karen squat down to Rosie's height and gave her a hug. "Have a good day sweetie. I'll be home when you get home" Rosie got on the bus and sat towards the front. She sat in her seat and touched the window as the bus drove off and she stared at her mother until she was no longer in sight.

3:00 pm

The bus stopped at Rosie's house for her to get off. She stood up from her seat and said goodbye to her new friend. She made her way to the front of the bus and said goodbye to the bus driver also. She got off, and walked up the driveway as the bus drove off. It was a sunny afternoon. Birds chirped, the sun was bright and hot, there was a light breeze, and nothing could make Rosie happier. Little Rosie skipped into the house, and set her backpack down near the front door. She took her pink sneakers off and set them next to her moms shoes. "Mommy!" she skipped into the kitchen and looked around with a smile on her face. She had gotten through her first day of school and was very proud of herself. The house was silent and her mom was nowhere to be found. Rosie hummed a song and danced around the house. She walked upstairs and called out for her mother but there was no answer. Little Rosie went to her mothers room, and everything looked the same as it did this morning. The bed was made, floor vacuumed, curtains open, and sunlight shined through the window. She was confused and lost some of her excitement from earlier. She left her mothers room and walked to her room. Rosie looked around and her toys were scattered all over the floor. Her music box was playing nocturne in a minor. The rocking chair in her room was facing the window and it looked like a body was in it. "Mommy?" little Rosie whispered as she slowly walked towards the chair. She walked around to see her mother. She screamed bloody murder as she looked at Karen. Karen's throat had been slit open and blood was running down her skin, soaking her clothes. Rosie ran downstairs with tears hitting her cheeks. A person stood in the kitchen facing away from Rosie, cutting what sounded like vegetables. She walked towards the doorway and the person turned around. Rosie gasped as Mr. Johnston bent down to her height. "My little Rosie, I am making some soup. Would you like some?" she shook her head as more tears fell onto her cheeks. Mr. Johnston gave her a dark smile and picked her up. "You must be hungry from school." He set her down onto one of the stools. She looked over at the cutting board and saw her mothers ring sitting on the edge of it. Mr. Johnston smiled and grabbed a bowl that was sitting on the counter. He took fingers out of the bowl and set them on the cutting board. "Your mom didn't need that ring anymore if she didn't have any fingers to wear it on" Rosie screamed and cried harder. She hopped off the stool and ran away as fast as she could. He chased her and caught her. "Looks like you want to end up like your mother huh?" Mr. Johnston grabbed a cloth and covered Rosie's mouth. She passed out.

"Rosie! Hello!" Rosie woke up and looked around at the kids in her classroom. She was embarrassed that she had fallen asleep in class once again. The teacher stood in front of her desk with her hands on her hips. "Your father is here to pick you up" the teacher said through clenched teeth. Rosie got her stuff and went to the office to see her father. He smiled and Rosie followed him to the car. "How was school today?" "It was alright. I fell asleep in class again" she chuckled. "You're bad" he laughed. They got in the car and drove away. "I had a really bad dream" "What was it about?" "This guy named Mr. Johnston or something killed my mother but it wasn't my mother.. it didn't make any sense" "Huh that's weird" he turned the radio on. They got home, and walked into the house. Rosie's mother was making dinner. She stared at her mother's ring and it was the exact same ring in the dream.. but this wasn't the same house that was in her dream. "I'm going to do homework" "Okay sweetie dinner is almost done" Rosie walked into the living room with her backpack on "Dad can I use your study for homework?" "Yeah go ahead" he smiled and continued watching the football game on tv. Rosie went upstairs to her dads study and set her backpack down. She took her homework out and opened her dads laptop so she could look some stuff up for her social studies work. A few things were opened in the task bar on the computer so she clicked on each one to make sure it wasn't important and then closed the applications. She clicked on the documents application and photos came up. The first picture was of her as a baby. She smiled and clicked the slideshow button so that the pictures would play in order. A picture of her in her pink sneakers and backpack showed up but it looked like it was taken from a window. She squinted to look at the picture but the next one showed up. It was a picture of her hugging a woman with a pink sweater on. The next picture showed the woman walking back towards her house and it was the woman from the dream! She paused the slideshow and zoomed in on the picture. It was definitely the woman from her dream. She played the slideshow again and there was a video that started playing. She turned the volume down and watched it. "Get away from me!" the woman screamed and ran into a play room. The man pushed her into the toy shelf and they spilled everywhere. The man set the camera down on another shelf and got a hold of the woman. He slit her throat and set her into the rocking chair, and faced it towards a window. He came back towards the camera and picked it up. It was Rosie's "father" also known as Mr. Johnston now that she was thinking about it.. he must have changed his name. She gasped and shut the laptop quickly. Why the hell was this happening? she thought. It was true, and she wanted answers. She got up from the chair and turned around. Her father was standing in the doorway.