Ethereal - Zadison

Chapter 5 - Petals

The next few weeks felt like hell for the cocky blonde. The cough persisted past what she had deemed to be a "normal cold." It was honestly starting to scare her. She began putting more and more thought into her plan to do away with Kyle. Madison also began researching nonstop. There had been no known cure to what she was struggling with and that in and of itself was terrifying to her. Some nights she'd lay awake in her bed just thinking of other ideas. If this one didn't work, then what?

Recently, Madison's attempts to hide whatever illness she had, proved to be a failure. The coven sat at the dinner table while Spalding brought in the food. To the left of Madison sat Zoe. Her bright smile and laughter comforted her during her inward struggle. Her brown hair framed her face delicately and her eyes sparkled. Madison was off in her own world as she pretended to be apart of whatever conversation the other witches were having.

"Girl, you okay? You've barely touched your food," Queenie asked, giving her a raised eyebrow. "What? You want my dinner too, bitch?" Madison shot back. "Oh, you want to start now, do you?" Queenie yelled, grabbing her fork. "Girls, girls," Cordelia quickly added, raising her voice. She motioned to Queenie's hand to which she sighed, dropping the silver utensil.

Zoe gave Madison a look of disgust which hurt the blonde more than anything in the world for reasons she didn't know of. While on the opposing side, Nan shot her a look of pity. She sometimes wished, no, constantly wished Nan didn't have the gift of reading people but she couldn't do much about it. Then the coughing began.

Madison tried to mask it as if she had choked on her water, grabbing it immediately after it began. It started slow and minute but rose to a coughing fit. She couldn't stop it, let alone know how to. The blonde sat up and waved her hand to let them know she was fine and just needed a minute. Madison stumbled upstairs into her bedroom, trying to catch her breath. It felt like knives scratching across her throat after every breathy upheave. Tears glossed over her bottom eyelids, daring to fall.

"Was she choking? What was that?" Queenie asked as she looked to Cordelia for answers. She sighed before shrugging. Nan stayed quiet. She wanted Madison to be the one to speak on her own behalf. "Can I go check on her?" Zoe asked her headmistress politely, receiving a nod from Cordelia. The brunette slowly made her way up the stairs.

Madison had her arms clasped around the sink, the common stance she found herself in lately. She looked down with her eyes squeezed shut, trying to slow the coughs.

"Madison?" The blonde quickly shuffled away from the sink. "What do you want?" "I wanted to make sure you were okay after, you know... You made quite an exit," Zoe awkwardly chuckled the last bit. Madison heaved a sigh before responding, "I'm fine, Zo." Zoe felt her heart tingle at the nickname. "I probably just choked on air or something stupid," Madison mumbled. "You sure?" Zoe asked, tilting her head in like a puppy. Madison nodded quickly, just wanting to be left alone. Zoe gave up and headed back downstairs. The rest of dinner was silent for the most part. Madison decided to stay upstairs after the whole ordeal and take a nap. Cordelia let her. She had an inkling as to what had been going on with Madison but didn't want to touch on it until she was sure.

Another day had passed. Madison rolled over in her bed to the sound of Zoe's phone going off, once again. She looked around but saw no sign of the brunette. Then she remembered, Cordelia had sent her on a mini field trip to get her footing in the new town she now inhabited. She figured she had just forgotten it. Her head rung and she wanted nothing more than some peace and quiet. Instinctively, Madison grabbed her roommate's phone to turn it off or silence it. She instantly regretted reading the text that appeared in front of her as she groaned.

Kyle :) : Hey would you maybe want to go out on that second date you mentioned today? I was thinking we could play some videogames at my place, if you like videogames that is.