The conclusion that was easiest to jump to there, was that Maddy had been hallucinating. But her daughter had asked her not to assume anything like that, and so she slowly nodded. She had to admit, she liked the sentence about scary knives less.
"Madeline, I don't even know what to say," she admitted sadly.
Charlotte, hearing her mother speaking to someone, poked her head into the room, pleased to see Maddy awake. "Hey, you!" she said softly, and then she entered, followed by an exhausted and yet worried-looking Thomas. "My poor Maddy," Charlotte frowned.