SHELTER | DIXON

|7|

It was after dinner when Madison got back home. She was nine years old, entirely too young to be going anywhere on her own, but she just couldn't help it. When her father told she and her sister that his new girlfriend and her son were going to be moving in with them, she just couldn't stand to be around him. The moment he finished talking Madison was on her feet, grabbing her jacket from its coat hanger and running out of the house despite her father yelling for her to come back. Instead she ran through the fields on the outskirts of her home, crossing them all the way to the house her mother was now staying, back with her own parents.

Madison's mother and father had divorced some time after Josephine was diagnosed with cancer. Their marriage had fallen apart, and Josephine didn't want to hold her husband back when there was no way around the fact that she was going to die. There wasn't a cure available for pancreatic cancer, not when it had already spread by the time the doctors had realized it was there. 

Still, Madison had been angry at the divorce. Angry that her father would let her mother go like that. Angry that he wasn't fighting for her to stay, angry that he wasn't taking care of her like he should. Of course she was still young and there were many things she didn't understand, but she was still angry nonetheless.

So she had ran to her grandparents' house, and collapsed into her mother's weak arms, and cried. "I feel like he's trying to replace you, Mama," she had sobbed. 

Her mother had only smiled, the tenderest smile she had ever seen, and assured her that was not the case. "He's only trying to find happiness, Madi-girl," she soothed her daughter. "Do not deny him this."

Madison had fallen asleep in her mother's arms, but woke up some time later with the desire to go back home. Her father was sitting in the living room when she got there, his arm around his new lover as they spoke quietly while the television played in the background. "Madi, that you?" He called out, turning his head to make sure his daughter had returned. She simply shot him a dirty look before darting through the house in search of her sister, and with a sigh, he'd let her go.

She found her outback, chasing a blonde boy around the yard as they played tag together. Her sister rushed over to hug her when she realized Madison was home, and then went inside to get them some juices from the kitchen. In her absence, the blonde boy had climbed the steps unsteadily with his tiny legs and sat beside Madison. She knew who he was― that he was the son of her dad's new girlfriend― but hadn't bothered to learn his name. Still, her attitude hadn't bothered the boy at all. "M'Shawn," he told her with a toothy smile.

She side-eyed him, and then sighed "Madison," she said.

His happiness made her uneasy. She was nine years old and couldn't remember what the feeling felt like anymore. "I got two sissys now."

"We're not your sisters," Madison snapped rudely before she could stop herself. "Just 'cause your mom's with my dad don't mean we're family."

× × × × × ×

Her tears had long since stopped falling. Madison had the suspicion that she had dried herself out. The night air was cold against her skin, but she couldn't really feel it. She was numb to everything other than the feel of her brother's hair, matted with blood, which she couldn't stop running her fingers through as she knelt over his body. Daryl sat off to the side, his back to her with his crossbow in his lap. Madison had told him hours ago to leave her alone and get some sleep, but he ignored her. "Someone's gotta watch over ya while ya pay yer respects," he had grunted. After that, she let him be.

Her mind couldn't stop racing, taunting her with memories, increasing her grief tenfold with each new one she remembered. It only made her miss Shawn even more.