The Story of Madeline Grimm

The RoboMaster (2001)

The story now continues with a young Madeline playing in the playground near her kindergarten. Her parents aren't there and they are no other kids. She is alone. But not to her, as she has the comfort of her imaginary friends. And she is imagining her most extraordinary adventure yet. A sea journey on the Santa Maria.
Little does she know that she is being watched, and has been for a few weeks. A strange man lurks in the shadows. A man with no face. This man has his fave concealed with a hoodie pulled over his head and has a strange obsession with Madeline. This man is known as the RoboMaster and is quite mysterious. He knows who she is and he knows about the Grim Reaper.
At 5:00 just before Madeline was about to walk home, the RoboMaster sprung out of the bushes he was hiding in. He slowly lurked up behind Madeline and then grabbed her arm. Madeline screamed in shock. She turned around and saw a man in a hoodie. He Screamed for help but no one was near by to hear her. "Help!" She then yelled to her imaginary friends. But she couldn't even see them. They were gone , and now she realised that they simply didn't exist. The world suddenly became very real to Madeline. And she was in grave danger. The man started dragging Madeline across the dirt. Pulling her by the arm. She tried to to resist but this strange hooded man had a firm grip. Kicking hysterically, she tried to break free but instead was hit over her head, silencing her.

When awaking, Madeline found that she was in a cold dark room. She tried to scream for help but her mouth was covered with duct tape. She then tried to pull it off, but her wrist was tied with zip ties to the chair she was sitting in. After a few minutes the door opened. Bright light shone into the dark room. She could faintly see the outline of a man walk up to her. He flipped a switch and immediately blue and green LED's lit up around her. She was in a highly sophisticated technological room with all kind of machines and gadgets. Then she could see the man. It was the same man with the hoodie. But he didn't have his face covered anymore, and she could see what he was. What it was. This 'man' had a robot head. A silver box with large glowing rectangles for eyes. He had no expression but Madeline could feel his pain. Madeline tried to speak but her voice was muffled and inaudible murmurs were made. A single tear rolled down her cheek. She was traumatised. And then he spoke. He had a bone chilling, synthesised robotic voice. And he said "Hello Madeline" and after a brief pause "it seems to me that you have a special little gift" the robot man place a cold metallic device in her ear. Then it injected a needle into her arm. "Now Madeline I need you to be a very brave girl for me. This won't take long, but I can't say it won't hurt either" The robot pulled a switch. A generator hummed. All switched in Madeline stopped resisting, and accepted her fate. On a screen behind the robot she saw a screen that said
nightmares downloading....
The Robot then took her hand, "by the way, my name is the RoboMaster" and pressed a button on a control panel. "I am the last person you will ever see, ha ha your imaginary friends can't save you now!" Then the RoboMaster stopped pressing buttons. The Generators stoped humming, but the process wasn't finished. A familiar shadow loomed up behind him, and the robot disintegrated into smoke. And then stepping out of the smoke was the Grim Reaper. He saved her. After unhooking Madeline from the device the two left the building, hand in hand.