Lightening Strike (CHERUB Fan Fiction)

Chapter One - Mind

10-year-old Maddison Alvey walked the streets of her neighbourhood carrying the shopping like she has done every Friday evening since her dad got sick. Her dad was bedridden with bowel and heart pains and she had been trusted with doing the shopping and cleaning everyday before and after school, for the last eight months since he was diagnosed.

Her fingers froze around the handles that pulled down her weight. At only ten years old, her countless months of carrying the shopping and helping her overweight father around had helped her to become a lot stronger than her school peers, some of the girls at school made fun of her muscles saying she was Alvey the pro-wrestler, however the boys seemed quite envious, constantly asking how she had grown to be so strong.

Her uniform consisted of a grey skirt, white cotton top and a ratty red cardigan which bore the school logo. It started to rain as Maddison neared her house and every step was colder than the last, she wasn't surprised because it had been cold ever since autumn started and now it was nearing the end of January and it always rained in the South. Whenever it rains, it would always remind her of her mother, since her mother Kaia Alvey, loved the rain.

"It means hope. Rain washes the bad stuff away." Her mother would always say to keep Maddison calm during rainstorms. Her dad would just laugh and smile at her mother. Her father hasn't smiled like that in years.

Her mother died when she was six of a heart attack and now it was just Maddison and her dad, but her uncle Hamley, visited every so often, but not as often as Maddison or her father, Robert Alvey, would have liked. She doesn't have any other relatives except her father and her uncle left, both of her grandparents died before she was born.

As Maddison fumbled for the lock in the cold, she heard a car engine rumble towards her up the road. A black BMW rolled into the car space outside the house, as the engine died, a man stepped out of the vehicle. A man dressed in a sharp, pin-striped suit with a stern-looking face and week-old stubble across his chin.

"Uncle Hamley!" Maddison smiled as she embraced her uncle, he smelled like a school cafeteria at lunchtime, and he could never work out why that is considering he worked at a bank.

"Mads, how's my favourite niece? You've grown at least an inch since Christmas!" Hamley gave Maddison a charming, cheesy grin. "Need some help with the shopping? You look like you're struggling there."

Maddison nodded and smiled at her uncle as she took the lightest bags whilst Uncle Hamley took the heavy ones with the milk and other heavy groceries. She moved the bags to one hand, pushed the key into the lock and turned it.

"Dad, Uncle Hamley's here!" Maddison shouted into the darkness of her home, "That's strange." Maddison spoke aloud as her uncle made his way into the kitchen and put the bags on the kitchen counter. Her dad usually spoke first as he'd listen out for Maddison's return home from school.

"Robert!" Hamley shouted as he walked into the living room and dining area. Maddison closed the door, continued through her home and put the bags down in the kitchen. She began putting away the shopping when she heard a creek and a thud coming from the living room.

"Dad?" She shouted, as she finished putting away the meat in the freezer.

"He's gone." Uncle Hamley stepped into the kitchen as his eyes filled with tears. "He's gone." He spoke again but the second time he said it, it was almost a whisper.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Maddison looked strangely at her uncle but then she gasped as it hit her. Gone.

"Mads don't go in-" Hamley began to speak but Maddison had already ran into the living room and, in the corner, her dad's lifeless body was folded on the ground. His mouth looked dry and his face was as white as snow, he looked peaceful. A lot more peaceful than he'd looked in a long time. His face would normally look in pain from the shooting pains from his bowels, but he finally looked at ease. A heavenly peace.

She let out a high screech as she fell to the floor in pain and agony. A shooting ache pulsed through her body. She didn't realise she was crying until she felt the drips of her tears touching her arms, which were limp on her lap. She crawled over to her father and began stroking his head.

"Dad don't leave me. Please don't leave me." She whispered to his limp body, his eyes closed but his bald head was shiny with sweat. He was wearing a plain grey t-shirt with his blue pyjama bottoms. Maddison's father never really had any colour co-ordination skills.

"An ambulance is on their way." Uncle Hamley knelt down beside the weeping Maddison, who heart hurt more with every passing second.

Maddison didn't know what she was going to do now, her heart fell into her stomach. Was she going to live with Uncle Hamley? Her thoughts swirled in an abyss of darkness in her head, she felt sick.

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Chapter 2 upload will be on 14-4-18 

PHOTO - Alyvia Alyn Lind, age 10, actress. Alyvia looks a lot like how I envisioned Madison.