Her Life Reborn

Chapter 6

For a long while now, Madison felt like she was floating. It was a lovely light feeling that cradled her senses but it was also dark. She realised she couldn’t see. Her mind seemed to be working in slow motion as she tried hard to figure out where she was. She tried to feel, but the synapses of her nerves stood still. 

Soon enough the blackness began to fade and Madison regained control of her dormant mind. She wanted to open her eyes, but that was still difficult. It felt like she was trying for a full hour just to lift her eyelids before they obeyed. 

Maddy blinked the foggy haze away and there was a white ceiling above her. The air and lighting were familiar.

I’m home?

Maddy propped herself up and rubbed the miasma from her eyes. When did she get home? What happened to school? Pinpricks on her cheeks alerted to the coming of a cold dread. It slowly crept up on her and wrapped its dark fingers around her chest and squeezed. 

Did I have another seizure…?

She asked herself, wandering why she was still able to move, or breathe, or how she was even awake.  Her parent must have known about it, otherwise why would she still be home? her mom would’ve had her on a one-way trip back to the hospital.

Maddy swung her leg off the edge of her bed, and then the other. She could’ve sworn she wasn’t this heavy before. With a stead push and heave she was on her feet.  She was wearing her khaki pyjama shorts and Goodbye Kitty shirt. It was a funny satirical picture poking fun at the Hello Kitty brand. 

A picture of a little red man tossing Kitty.

Madison stopped on her way to the living room when she heard voices. They belonged to her parents.  She approached quietly, avoiding all the creaky floor boards in the house. She tip-toed, out of sight of the crack of the open door, and next thing she knew she was eaves dropping on her parents.

She felt bad about doing it, but what could they be talking about in secret if it wasn’t about her?

“She has to go, John,”

That was her mother’s voice,

“No, Evelyn, leave her be. She’s had enough of that damn place.”

That’s her dad. Were they really talking about her? Maddy placed her ear as close to the door as possible without touching it.

“She needs it John, she may not like it but it could save her. Why are you fighting me on this?”

Her mom sounded desperate.  Maddy had never heard her mom use such a pleading voice before. It hurt her a little to hear her like that.

“Evie, there’s nothing they can do. Nothing that would be good for Maddy.”

Her heart stopped.

They are talking about me.

“What are you talking about?”

“The only option left is to keep her in hospital on life support,” he was quiet for a moment, “indefinitely.” 

Maddy had to slap her hands to her mouth to stop herself from gasping out loud.

Indefinitely? They want to keep me in a hospital forever?

She could feel her heart crack and start to crumble, and tears streamed freely, without her trying to stop of blink them away.

She could hear her mother wince.

“John I,” Evelyn sniffed, on the verge of tears herself, “I can’t. I just can’t.”

Maddy heard her father’s voice shushing her mother, trying to soothe her. Her mother was really crying now. Hiccupping and muffled moaning against something.

Her father’s chest most likely.

“I can’t do this again,” her mother sobbed, “I can’t. I just can’t.” 

Next thing Madison knew, she was running. She was too upset to register where she was going. All she knew was that she had to go.

How could they? Stick me on life support forever? How could they actually do that to me?

Maddy replayed what she heard over and over in her mind, and each time just seemed more unbelievable than the last.  She didn’t want to spend her last moments rotting away in a bed, hooked up to machines.  She didn’t want to have to wait for faceless men and women dressed in white to replace tubes and needles that would pump her full of medication and nutrients so that she would never have to eat.  That wasn’t living.

That's just the stage before death, and I won’t do it.

Maddy stopped running when she realised she couldn’t breathe anymore and her legs and lungs were on fire. Her hair was sticking to her sweaty face, and she was breathing so hard hair even got into her mouth. She sat down and waited for the embers in her chest to cool down.

Where am I anyway?

She looked around and identified the surroundings. She had run nearly three blocks away. She was kind of impressed with herself for being able to run so far in a full sprint.  When Maddy caught her breathe she thought about what to do now. She didn’t want to go home, and she couldn’t get to Lynn or Ephraim without a lift. It was way too far to walk. So she just wandered around the familiar road and let her thoughts meander in her head.

The pavement was cold under her feet. She was so shocked she ran out in her pyjamas.  Maddy was glad there weren’t other people walking around. She didn’t have the internal strength to get laughed at - at the moment.  It was late in the afternoon and the sky was bruised and battered with grey clouds. There a slight nip in the air that she tried to rub off of her arms to keep warm.

She must have been walking for about twenty minutes. But felt much much longer. She was coming up on an old run-down house with dark windows.

That’s where Mr. Beaumont lives? 

Maddy considered, playing with the option in her head, wondering if it would be okay. She didn’t exactly have anywhere else to go aside from home.

Oh what the heck.

The dead grass crunched and pricked her feet until she got to the first three front steps.  The wood looked aged and rotted, and Madison was afraid they’d break beneath her.  She stepped on the first step and it held. She came up to the door and held her fist to knock, but didn’t.

Would mister Beaumont even be home?

It didn’t look like it. Everything was dark and quiet. Not a single sign of life lingered.

Then again, she thought, if he really isn’t home the door should be locked, right?

Maddy tried the door handle, it screeched and cracked loudly, and the hinges seemed to get stuck on the muck collect around it, but it opened.

“Who leaves their house alone unlocked?” Maddy wondered aloud.

Someone cleared their throat.

pleaaaaaaaaaaase comment >.< how am i spose to know if this story is crap or not :/