insomnia [✔]

scene. v

A coat and striped, undulating like a flag in an almost psychedelic effect. Madeleine's dream ended with an endless fall, which suddenly woke her up. She realized at the same time that she had fallen off the couch, now lying on the floor. A grumble escaped the young woman who tried somehow to get up on her forearms. A terrible headache seized her as she sat up, so much so that she had to grit her teeth while getting back on her feet. In the bathroom mirror, she noticed a small cut on her forehead. A hematoma surrounded the wound.

"Damn it! I must have taken quite a blow to the head!" thought Madeleine, then she opened the cupboard where she kept a kit with everything necessary for first aid. Finally, when she had finished dressing herself, Madeleine went back into the living room to check the time on her phone and she nearly choked when she discovered that it was almost 12 o'clock.

"Shit! I must have gone crazy! Risking so much getting fired... at this point, it's downright madness!" exclaimed Madeleine then ran to get ready as quickly as she could.

Madeleine headed straight for the café, fear in her stomach. She was already thinking about the discussion she would have with her boss, especially since she had no valid excuse for being so late. She even let herself be tempted by the prospect of not going to work at all, since she had already missed half a day. She was sitting in the bus without having made up her mind yet, until it reached its stop. The young woman had to resolve to go downstairs, although she still wasn't convinced that it was a good idea.

So she began to walk hesitantly, when a new headache set in. Madeleine decided to ignore the pain, promising herself to take an aspirin later. But, something strange happened as she walked down the sidewalk. Everything she saw turned purple. Madeleine looked down at her hands, and they too appeared purple. The young woman's vision was becoming more and more blurred, disturbed by sorts of flashes. During these flashes, images appeared and disappeared immediately. Madeleine didn't know what meaning to give them.

"This is crazy..." murmured Madeleine.

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Madeleine moved forward as if hypnotized, but meanwhile the world around her continued to evolve as if nothing had happened. She was therefore going to cross the pedestrian crossing mechanically, without taking heed of the cars which were now less than a meter away from her. A breath almost knocked her over and she felt herself losing her balance, still prey to her strange reverie. It was not the buildings and the effervescence of San Francisco that she perceived, but a small town lost in the middle of nowhere. She thought she was walking in the main street of a neighborhood, but in this city, there was no one...

"Do you hear me? Are you okay?" Said a male voice in this disturbing silence. Madeleine turned around and saw the boy she had met in the park a few days earlier.

"I'm lost..." Madeleine replied and her visions dissipated. Her return to reality was brutal, so much so that the car horns startled her.

She realized that someone was holding her face. This someone was the green-haired boy, so much so that in a first impulse, Madeleine asked him if he was some kind of stalker. He smiled and shook his head gently, saying "no". Then he asked the young woman if she felt better. Madeleine, who was unaware of what had happened, told him what she remembered before her strange episode of sleepwalking. She was going to her place of work and then she felt a violent pain in her head.

"Is that all you remember?" So the green-haired boy asked and Madeleine nodded without really understanding.

"Why... what happened?" She worried because of the puzzled look her interlocutor was giving her.

"You almost got knocked down..." the young man explained to him, "I was on the sidewalk opposite when I saw you. You seemed distracted..."

"Seriously..." sighed Madeleine, who thought it was normal not to discuss her visions with a stranger.

"Are you okay? For the rest, I mean… If it's not too prying, where were you going?" Asked the green-haired boy while trying to catch Madeleine's gaze.

"I'll survive..." Madeleine forced herself to smile. "It's crazy, but you always come at the right time. I should double my offer to thank you."

"Oh, no, i can't accept... It's really not worth it, I was just passing by. I had a few things to buy. But are you sure you're okay? You look...disturbed? " replied the boy.

"I insist! I owe you that, after all the trouble I'm causing you. By the way, I'm Madeleine!" Declared the young woman, avoiding answering the young man's questions. She was well aware of the dreadful face she must have had.

"Garfied!" The green-haired boy introduced himself. "But my friends call me Gar."

"Garfield, I think that's a cute name..." teased Madeleine before a throbbing pain made her wince a little.

"Do you..." Gar started, then going to ask Madeleine again if she was okay, but when she gave him a disapproving look, he swallowed his question.

In reality, Gar already had some suspicions about what had just happened. He suspected something abnormal, some sort of particular ability. What held him back was the uncertainty of whether Madeleine was aware of her powers or not. In the second case, she would need help to learn to control them and to see that she was not an isolated case. It was a speech given by a friend in Gar. A friend, who was also a protector, and a teacher. The green-haired boy had had the opportunity to speak to this friend about Madeleine. But, he still wasn't quite sure what she was capable of.

Today, he had seen her as if in a trance. And the color of his brown eyes seemed to have changed color, they shone with an odd purple clarity. A thousand questions formed in the young man's mind, starting with the nature of Madeleine's supposed powers. He had to be clear about it. But above all, he had to get to know her without rushing her. And that as if by something basic. He simply offered to go buy something to eat.

"Why not? I haven't eaten anything since yesterday and I'm starving. I'm not even kidding." replied Madeleine with a sigh.