The Devil’s Blossom

"The Devil's Blossom: A once popular folk legend from the upper mid-west region. It is said that this flower will appear, seemingly of its own free will, and can grow in a single night without any seeds or nourishment from the Sun or water. It is also said that its color is so unusual that it causes some people to become obsessed. Supposedly, this is how it "attracts its victims" and, once ensnared, slowly makes them go insane. Once this flower becomes set in the ground, it can never truly be removed as it grows back at an unnatural pace by apparent spontaneous generation. The Devil's Blossom will not grow on hallowed ground so, the blessing of the ground in which it is planted is believed to be the only way of removing the curse."

"It's real!!" she thought. All this time she had just been humoring her significant other, but.…it's real…. and it's dangerous! Sarah quickly bought the book and raced home as fast she could! Her dear Marley had already become obsessed with The Devil's Blossom, there was no telling how long until she lost her sanity. By the time she arrived home, she didn't know whether maybe it had already been too late. Marley was digging through the ground, hands bloody, sobbing, trying to find a seed or any evidence of where these flowers spring from. Sarah took her inside and cleaned her up.

Nothing seemed to calm her down. Nothing, that is, until Sarah threw her new book down onto the coffee table. "I found something." she said. Marley lunged at the book and began ferociously tearing through it. "It's called The Devil's Blossom. …..We need to get the ground blessed." As Marley began reading about The Devil's Blossom through her uncontrollable tears, Sarah took out the phone book and began looking for the local pastor's number. "I sure hope he makes house calls." she said.

Sure enough, she did find that he, and many others of the same profession, did make house calls, but also that none of them were available at the time. She tried to express the urgency of the matter to whomever took their calls, but she was unable to convince any of them that her matter was any more urgent than all others who had booked their priests earlier. It would be weeks until the next opening in any of their schedules. She didn't know what to do!

Sarah started calling-in sick at work, devoting all of her time to finding someone to bless their ground. It no longer mattered if it was out of town, out of city, out of state, out of country. She just needed to find somebody and she needed to find them quick!

A week and a half had passed by the time she had finally located an ordained minister outside of Kentucky (four states away!), but he had no way of getting there any sooner than five days, because all the flights, trains, and travel buses were booked solid until then for some festival or convention or some such. Though Sarah never gave up hope in her search during those five days, she got no luckier and decided mostly to keep an eye on her beloved until the minister's arrival. So much was done, but still, the morning of his arrival, Sarah woke up alone.