What Have I Become? [Pathday 3]

[Madison]

"Is it me?
Or have I deceived myself?
I thought I heard you call my name,
out in the pouring rain."

March 15th, 2014

Even before she had become a vampire, Madison had always had trouble with keeping track of days, time and dates. If it hadn't been for all the deadlines for contracts, making sure the loan with the bank was going through, and bargaining with excavation crews, she might have missed the day that was coming. Gods knew she'd forgotten it enough times in the past. Only to remember after the fact and then use it in a self-harming manner to make herself feel riddled with guilt and shame. But this year was different, if only because it was an even number that was divisible by five and ten. For some reason that always made anniversaries of anything seem more important. She was ready for it this year. Well, as ready as any person could be for something like this. The telepath had sent her human thrall out during the day time to pick up flowers from Jardin De Fleurs over in Honeymead. Brick had been tasked to purchase twenty star gazer lilies and to meet Madison with them at Grey's Saloon shortly after dusk.

The last rays of what could be seen of the sunlight turned the edges of the horizon a swirl of purple and pink with hints of orange. Emotionless, pale, blue eyes watched from the window of the Veil Tower apartment. A slow, paced and yet unneeded breath was drawn into dead and useless lungs as her head tilted towards the glass and her forehead met the cold window pane. The exhale left no fog on the glass for her to see as she lifted her head back up, squared her shoulders and mentally tried to steel herself against the brewing storm of emotion she was shoving down as deeply as she could. She knew her resolve wouldn't hold forever but the least she could do was not lose her **** while she still had to be seen by the public eye. Especially now. It was time to leave.

Part of her wanted to take the transit in attempts to delay the inevitable and to take the time to continue denying the reality of this day in time. The last thing she wanted was to risk the ability of keeping herself composed the entire ride. Not to mention the fact that Brick had just sent her a text message to let her know he'd be a the bar in under ten minutes. Taking herself by car didn't seem to be in her best interests either. Madison doubted what her ability to drive herself home would be and didn't want to leave her car there only to have to go back and retrieve it later. Teleportation was her best bet. Quick, easy, painless. Exactly what the rest of this night wouldn't be. She just needed to be careful about the exact location she teleported herself to. The space behind the Cherrydale transit station seemed to be her best option. Taking another slow and steady breath before releasing it at double the length she had taken it in, Madison closed her eyes and focused.

The comforts of Luffy's apartment disappeared from around her as she felt that familiar pull. It was but a mere moment before her heels had gone from the carpeted floor of the bedroom to sinking into the dampened ground from melting snow. She took a second to regain her bearings and started walking. Each step was measured yet slightly forced. As though there were weights around her ankles trying to drag her down. There was a pressure forming in her chest, below the sternum just under where her throat met her collarbone. If her heart could still beat, it would have been quickening its pace to relay the anxieties that she was feeling. She hoped it was early enough in the night that Grey's Saloon would still be relatively empty.

'At least no one else will be there,' Madison thought to herself, 'If he even remembered.'

The street light flickered overhead when she stepped out onto the pavement to cross the street from the transit station to head to the bar. The blonde woman, donned in black dress clothes from head to toe, barely paid any mind. Even with her ivory pale skin and ultra-light blonde hair, all she would need to do would be to pull the shadows to her to surround herself like a child in a safety blanket to disappear from sight. The urge to do just that was there but somehow Madison resisted. Perhaps it was the flash of headlights that passed over her form as the familiar sounds of Brick's conversion van pulled around the corner of the block and drove straight towards her. She stopped, her hand raised to shield her eyes from the light as he pulled his van up alongside of her and dropped it down as he continued past her. Turning so that her gaze could follow him as he drove to the back of the dead end to turn his van around. The lights hit her again and this time she turned her face to the ground instead of shielding her eyes. She didn't look up until he had pulled up beside her in the street. The click of him unlocking the door greeted her instead of a hello and she reached up to pull the passenger door open and climb up into the seat.

Brick's normally smiling face was somber and he didn't say a word as he twisted in the driver's seat to reach behind him and pull forward the bouquet of lilies from the back seat. The corners of his lips twitched, in a grimace, in a sad smile, Madison couldn't really tell. He handed her the flowers and her own hands reached out to take them from him slowly, gingerly. Like they would wilt in her hands immediately if she didn't treat them like they were made of the most fragile substance on Earth. Still without a word, he turned his attention back to the road in front of him as hers turned to the flowers in her lap. A finger traced the edge of a flower petal as he pulled away, taking Madison to her destination the next street over.

Her fingers continued to trace the leaves and petals quietly. Using them as an attempt to distract herself but it wasn't working. A knot was forming in the pit of her stomach and her shoulders were drooped as if someone had placed a heavy yoke across them. Not a word was said the entire ten block drive until after Brick had pulled into the parking lot of the abandoned church, put the van in park and turned off the ignition.

He even sat quietly for a few minutes before he spoke, his tone full of concern, "I can come with you if you'd like."

Madison simply shook her head and readjusted the flowers in her arms. Another deep breath was taken as her right hand reached out to grasp the door handle. Her fingers wrapped around the cool metal tightly, white-knucking against it like it would help ground her emotions back down into her core. The breath escaped her in a sigh as she pulled on the handle and pushed the door open with her knee. Sliding from her seat, she finally looked up at Brick, her eyes finally starting to show everything that she was desperately trying to hold back.

"Thank you," her voice traveled through the air in a whisper he could barely hear, "I need to do this myself."

"I really thought,
I thought I saw your face.
But after a second look,
I saw I made a clear mistake.

[Madison]

~*~ Memory #1 ~*~

"Mother I miss you.
At nights I just wish,
you were here, with me.
So we can laugh and talk again."

March 24th, 1994

Snow crunched beneath the weight of the woman's black dress shoes as she held the hand of her nine year old niece beside her. Several feet ahead of them, her husband, her brother-in-law and four of their male friends, all dressed in black suits, trudged forward as they carried the rich mahogany casket trimmed in gold. The family pastor walked alongside her quietly and up ahead the Oldtown Graveyard caretakers waited patiently beside the digger, a mound of dirt and an empty grave that would soon be filled. Her grasp tightened around the child's hand within her own as flecks of icy snow bit into what skin they had exposed.

Another few more feet and the casket was being settled at the foot of the grave site. The men stepped back from the casket and formed a semi-circle around the bottom end of it, with her and the child in the middle. Her husband came to stand at her right and her brother-in-law gave her a terse, weary and forced smile as he took Madison's other hand into his own. Madison looked up at her father with questioning eyes. She knew who was in the casket and she knew what was about to happen but what she didn't understand was why they had needed to come all the way to Harper Rock, Ontario to do it. This wasn't home and she wanted to go home.

This wasn't her first experience with death. The first time she'd seen something die, it had been a goldfish she'd won at a school carnival. It had died three days after she brought it home and gone belly up in the small spherical tank they had purchased for it. Her mother and father had given it what they called a "sea burial". Madison was only seven at the time and hadn't put two and two together that they didn't live anywhere close to the sea and that her father had flushed the baby fish down the toilet. But she had understood what it meant for something to die.

Nine days ago, during recess at school the elementary school secretary had chased Madison down on the playground where she'd been playing with her friends. Her friends had teased her as the woman led Madison back into the school, mocking her for what they had thought was her getting into trouble for some unknown bad deed. But instead of a scolding from a counselor or principal, the young girl had found her father waiting for her in the office. His presence confused her, especially since he looked sick. He looked tired and his eyes were puffy and blood-shot. The principal and the school counselor were with him and both of them looked very somber as they cast their gaze upon the third grader. They made Madison sit down in one of the blue-colored plastic chairs. Then her father got on his knees in front of her, took her tiny hands in his and told her the bad news.

Five days later the family had a closed casket visitation at their church. Madison didn't speak a single word to anyone that entire day. After an hour of people she knew and didn't know coming up to her and telling her how sorry they were, touching her on the shoulder, running their hands along the side of her head over her hair, hugging her and kissing her cheek, the young girl had simply gotten up and snuck past the cord and sign that blocked the stairwell up to the balcony. It was another hour or so before her father and others had come looking for her. Her dad, as stressed and emotionally ragged as he was, let emotion get the best of him and he had yelled at her for the first time since the crash and Madison cried for the first time that day.

"Mother I miss you,
But I'll just kiss you
And send it on the wind.
'Cause you know,
I plan to see you again."

Now, she stood quietly, her hands both taken by the adults on either side of her. Holding so tightly, as if she would blow away on the wind if they let go. The preacher man was talking. A worn and well-used bible in his hands, the tassle of the bookmark blowing in the wind. She barely registered the words he was saying.

"...Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted...."

Her mind tuned out his words as he finished his sermon. Madison's face stayed tilted down towards the ground, staring at the footprint in the snow in front of her. The way the ridges of the sole left a pattern in the crushed down powder. It wasn't until her aunt's hand was squeezing her right one that she looked up. Her aunt was looking down at her and her eyes and head nodded towards her left before letting go of her hand. Looking to her father, he too was looking down at her and he was holding a star gazer lily in his hands. Her mother's favorite flower. He offered it to her and slowly Madison's gloved hand reached up to take it. Her father bent over to whisper in her ear what she was to do with it and when.

She watched silently as her uncle, his friend and the cemetery people moved forward to lift the coffin so straps could be placed beneath it. Using the lift, the casket was raised and moved forward until it was centered over the rectangular hole in the ground. The only sounds were that of the wind and the soft whir of the motor of the lift as they began to lower her mother's coffin into the ground. Once it stopped, her father squeezed her hand. Hesitantly Madison let go, looking up at him as though to ask if she really had to do this. He simply nodded her forward and she took a slow step towards the grave. She stopped at the border of the mat that surrounded the grave, staring down into the earth her hand holding the lily reached out as far as it could so that the flower hung over the hole. Time seemed to slow down in her mind as she released her grasp on the stem and the flower fell down into the earth to land on top of the casket. Her father stepped up beside her and repeated the process. And then her aunt.

Absolutely numb physically and emotionally, Madison just stood there staring down into the hole as flowers fell upon the casket until the hand of her uncle fell upon her shoulder before he lifted her up into his arms. He held her against him and turned to walk away but she stared over his shoulder, watching as her father threw the first fistful of dirt down into the hole. Burying her face into the crook of her uncle's neck and shoulder she asked, "Can daddy and I go home now?"

She couldn't see it but her uncle frowned, reaching up to rub his hand over her back as he didn't respond. Madison didn't know yet that she and her father wouldn't be returning to the States. It had been decided by the family that it would be best for them to stay there, in Harper Rock. Where both sides of the family could help the girl and her father cope with their loss. When she finally was told, Madison felt like she had suffered two deaths. The death of her mother and the death of the only life she had ever known.

So much I wanted to show you
So much I wanted to give.
I thought our time would be much longer
Missin' my best friend."

John Tesh - Mother I Miss You

~*~ Memory #1 ~*~

[Madison]

Once upon a time an angel held my hand,
She wiped away my tears and helped me understand.
Our time on Earth is brief, there’s lessons to be learned,
Each precious day God gives us another page turned.

March 15th, 2014

Moisture seeped through the cloth that covered her knees as the telepath knelt on the ground in front of the headstone. Her ankles were crossed beneath her, her hands held one another in her lap as she stared down at the flowers she had placed at the base of the granite tribute. They didn’t look like they belonged. The bright pink and white flower was a stark contrast to the dreariness that surrounded them. The snow had begun to melt during the sunlight hours over the past few days; a teaser that sooner or later spring would come. This was Canada though, it was probably later. The green of the leaves stood out just as equally as the tufts of grass around them were brown and dead from months of being buried by snow. The lilies were a splash of color in what seemed almost like a black and white world. Madison’s pale, blue irises rose from the flowers and her right hand reached out to brush her fingertips across the engraving of her mother’s name in the granite.

Jillian M. Jenkins
Sept 3rd, 1962 – Mar 15th, 1994
Beloved wife, loving mother

Every chapter full of memories, times of joy and tears,
Triumphs and defeats, through every passing year.
She loved us unconditional, always by our side,
When no one else would listen, in her we could confide.

The tip of her tongue escaped from her mouth to run over the dry skin of her lips. The urge to say something, to talk to the memory of the one who had given her life was felt but the words were bottle-necked at the back of her throat. Feeling as though they would choke the life from her if she had a life to take. A heavy sigh escaped her before a deep breath was drawn back in and her eyes fell back to the ground, her head hanging down in shame.

”I never said I’m sorry,” Madison began in a tone that could barely be called a whisper, ”Sometimes it’s hard to remember what you look like. What your voice sounded like. To think that I’ve lived more of my life without you than the amount of time I got to spend with you. I didn’t know it then, but I lost both of you and dad the day we buried you. At least you went quickly. You didn’t have a choice.”

“I haven’t seen dad in over three years. I think I’ve been here more times to see you than I’ve gone out of my way to see him and I haven’t been here in two years either. I know we got interrupted last time. I’m sure you know this by now…maybe. Mike’s gone from me too. It’s been two years since that too. I want to say that I think you would have liked him but I don’t think you would have. But then again, I don’t know how much you’d even like the person I’ve turned out to be. I don’t think I like the person I’ve turned out to be.”

Madison’s whole body felt heavy. As if she could sink down into the ground, let the Earth swallow her and give her a grave of her own. But Madison was no necromancer and unless there was an earthquake to sunder a rift in the ground to swallow her up, she knew she was stuck right where she was. Madison was so absorbed in her thoughts, in the feelings that welled up within her with no way to escape that she didn’t take notice of the sounds of carefully placed footsteps approaching her from behind.

With gentle words of wisdom she led us on our way,
Down the paths of righteousness if ever we did stray.
She saw the light in everyone and gave with no regrets,
Always from her heart lets us not forget.

”I don’t know what to do anymore mom. I can’t even think of something you would say to help me make this right. The last advice you gave me was when Susie Beakman cheated off my spelling assignment. I don’t think proving myself through a re-test is going to help this time. I’ve failed so many people mom. You, dad, Aunt Judith, Mike, Robert, the d’Artois, the people I’m responsible for turning to this life. I’m a disappointment to everyone who has ever mattered to me.”

“I wouldn’t say that’s completely true,” a familiar female voice spoke from behind where Madison knelt on the ground.

Madison scrambled to her feet and turned to face her aunt. The woman stood a foot or so back, looking like a much older version of the vampire before her. Madison’s gaze was cast towards the ground, avoiding looking at the other woman. The amount of guilt that consumed her was overwhelming. Aunt Judy had no idea that Madison had found her only son, Adrian, turned him into a vampire and hadn’t been able to save him in time before paladins had taken his life. Judith stepped forward, reaching out to lift Madison’s face so that she could look at the woman she hadn’t seen in three or four years. Her eyes took on a look of concern as her gloved thumb brushed over the scar that curved around Madison’s left eye.

“I knew you would come. Your uncle and I have been worried sick about you Maddie. You haven’t called or come to see us in years.”

”I’m sorry,” Madison whispered, not knowing what else to say.

Judith gave her niece a small smile. Madison had always struggled throughout her life and had struggled even more when it was beyond the time to ask for help. Regardless of all the times she had relapsed, the amount of times she disappeared from their lives, she and her husband would have done everything and anything they could have to help her, if only she had asked.

“You should come to the house. I’m sure Greg would like to see you.”

Madison nodded dutifully, glancing back at her mother’s gravestone. There was so much more that she wanted to say but it just gave her reason to visit again before another year was up. Judith’s hand found hers and gave it a squeeze. The pair of women held hands as they had done twenty years prior before they turned and walked away.

Angels com in many forms, for me it is my mother,
With love I cannot say in words there’ll never be another.
Every day I turn the page in my heart will ever remain,
Everything she taught me as I stroll down memory lane.
(Poem snippet from Kathy J Parenteau – My Mother My Angel)

[Madison]

~*~ Memory #2 ~*~

The inside of the car was absolutely silent. No one said a word, the radio was off and the only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of cars passing by on the street. Madison was slumped over in the passenger seat of her aunt's nineteen-eighty-eight Oldsmobile. She sat with her body twisted so that she could lean against the door frame with her head against the window pane, her back towards the older woman who drove the vehicle. Part of her was glad that the radio was off and that Aunt Judy wasn't talking yet. Gods knew that it wouldn't be a simple conversation and her head was throbbing from the hangover induced headache. But the glass, the glass felt so good against her forehead. That is until Aunt Judy purposefully hit a pot-hole which caused her head to bounce hard against the window.

A whimper escaped Madison as her hand came up to rub at her head. She turned back towards the front of the vehicle, sitting properly in the seat so she could lean against the back of it instead. Her head still turned towards the window though so she didn't have to face her aunt.

A few minutes more of silence passed before words were spoken by Judy, "What in God's green Earth where you thinking, Madison May?"

Madison stared out the window, wincing at the stern sound of the question and quietly replied, "I wasn't."

"Obviously not! You are sixteen years old and you already have a criminal record! Do you understand the severity of what you did last night? Do you!?"

Aunt Judy's voice was getting louder with every statement and every question. It physically pained Madison to listen to her in the state that she was in. Cross and uncaring, she didn't think before she spoke, "I'm not deaf you know. You're right ******* next to me."

The car screeched to a halt in the middle of the street. The car behind them blared on their horn as they swerved around the back end of Aunt Judy's Oldsmobile and flipped Judith off as they passed by. Aunt Judy sat in the driver's seat, foot slammed on the brake pedal and stared at Madison with an icy glare. Madison knew instantly that she should have bitten her tongue and thought about apologizing but knew that the moment her mouth opened, Judy would be on her like a fly on ****. Which was what Madison felt like at the moment, ****. Another car blared their horn at them as it switched lanes to get by them. Judy stared at her for a few more seconds before she took her foot of the brake and continued to drive.

"I don't know what's going through that head of yours Madison. Out past curfew, drinking in the woods. Assaulting that poor girl. What did she even do to you? Did she even do anything to you or did you just think it was fun to hurt someone else?"

Madison sighed and adjusted herself in the passenger seat so that she was sitting up properly. It would only piss off Aunt Judy more if she remained slouched over and acted like she didn't care even though she really didn't. What did Aunt Judy know about being a teenager without parents to take care of you? She'd had parents growing up. Madison didn't. Her mom was dead and her dad was drowning himself so deeply into a whiskey bottle that he didn't even notice when Madison stole an entire bottle of alcohol from him. He couldn't even be bothered to pick himself up off the floor to answer the phone so he could pick her up from the juvenile detention center.

"Well are you going to answer me?"

Another sigh escaped her, "I caught her with Nick."

A moment of silence filled the car before, "Wait, Nick Schuester? Weren't you two dating?"

"Not anymore we're not."

"Oh..." Aunt Judith stalled. While she hadn't grown up in the situation that Madison had, she could understand the rage that her niece had felt when finding her boyfriend with another girl. Her brother-in-law turning into a drunk meant that she needed to be the authority in Madison's life though, "That doesn't make what you did justified and it sure doesn't get you out of the fact that you were drinking on top of it."

Madison stayed silent. She knew that once the lecture was over that Aunt Judith would drop her off at home, talk to her dad, she'd get yelled at by her dad, possibly thrown around a bit and then he would get drunk again and forget all of it ever happened and she'd be off the hook. It was better off just letting Aunt Judy yell at her a bit and going home than mouthing off and getting snarky. Madison had learned years ago to just shut her mouth and be quiet when it came to her aunt and uncle. They at least were there for her when she truly needed someone or something. Like getting picked up at the detention center or a signature for a school trip or making sure she had food in the house.

~*~ Memory #2 ~*~

[Madison]

March 22nd, 2014

Madison slumped against the wall of the fourth floor of the building. She'd suffered several wounds at the hands of the creatures that inhabited these walls. With the help of Alexandrea, Luffy, Mircea, Odin and one other, the six of them had worked their way this far without major incident. As far as she was aware, she was the only one who had any major issues. It hadn't even been her directly that had the issue either. It had been her human thrall, Brick. Ever since she'd given him a Sanguivore's Bane, he had gotten quite mouthy with vampires. He got some sort of sick thrill out of the fact that when other vampires besides Madison bit him, his blood turned to poison in their mouths and caused them more damage than it did good. Sometimes it was like he failed to realize that even though he had the relic, a vampire could still do him great damage and it'd happened tonight several times over.

First it had been Phoenix and her doppelganger. Up until now, Madison hadn't known it was possible for a vampire to practically clone themselves. That or Phoenix had a twin that she had never known about previously which was just as plausible. After that incident, Madison had sent Brick to the hospital to get patched up and receive a few blood transfusions. When he'd snuck out of his hospital room after, he had come right back to the raid and gotten mouthy after someone else had bit him. He hadn't known who it was, or so he told Madison, but one of them had bitten him and he'd called one or all of them a douche. Next thing he knew, he was being attacked by Enver for it. Someone he knew, albeit not well, and someone he knew that Madison thought highly of. She'd been abnormally quiet after he told her and she had sent him right back to the hospital.

What Brick didn't know was that Madison was having a mental argument with Enver. Going back and forth about what had happened. Madison didn't give a **** what Brick had said to whom. Enver attacking a human, thrall or not, over a single spoken word was just absolutely ridiculous in her view and completely not what she had expected out of the man. She had threatened to pay him back in kind, and in turn, he'd threatened to do the same, claiming that it was Brick's fault that any of this had happened. The telepath failed to see this point of view. How could it be a human's fault that he got pissed off that someone he didn't know was trying to feed from him without permission? Just because he was a thrall didn't make him any less of a person. Sure if Madison demanded or ordered him to do something, he was compelled to obey but for the most part, she let him run the show and asked things of him instead of commanded him. It was amazing how time could change people.

[Madison]

~*~ Memory #3 ~*~

November 16th, 2013

"Is this everything then?" Brick asked Madison as he set the last few boxes of ammunition on the tabletop.

Pale blue eyes scanned the table, roaming over every weapon and box of ammunition that she and Brick had on hand. Her blonde head nodded silently as she calculated what would work best for the two of them and what they might need. The more armed they were, the better. They were outnumbered and outgunned and the more prepared they were the better. Who could truly be prepared for war though? And how far off the deep end had she gone to request of Brick what she was?

A sigh escaped her lips as her hands picked up a box of seven point six two by thirty-nine millimeter ammunition. As wrong as she knew it was to ask Brick what she had of him, Madison felt like she had no other choice. Something had snapped in her the night that Every had killed Enver. A switch had been flipped and there was no turning it back currently. She had to do this. They had to do this. If Tytonidae wanted to swoop in and kill anyone they wanted, it was only fair play that Madison do whatever she needed to. It didn't matter if she or Brick had to run after hits and hide separately during the day. As much as it wounded her pride to do so, it was the only way.

That's what she told herself at least. This was the only way to get underneath the skin. To violate their sanctity and peace of mind by going into their home uninvited and bring the war to them instead of sitting back and just waiting for them to come for her. The only problem had been was that Tytonidae holed up in their tree all the damn time and no matter what she did, Madison just didn't have the powers of a Shadow and couldn't just climb the ***** and burn it down from the inside out. But Brick could. Brick could enter without needing to be invited.

Picking up her own rifle, Madison made sure it was fully loaded before handing it off to Brick along with a box of ammunition to go with it. She showed him everything he needed to know about how to use it and then showed him to another table, this one covered in an assortment of swords. This time, she let him have his pick. But he didn't opt to trade his for the one that she normally carried even though it was of a slightly better quality. Instead he kept his, explaining that he was used to its weight and was more comfortable using it. Madison didn't argue and just went over the plan on attack one more time with him.

They'd been over the plan what seemed like a thousand times and Brick was getting antsy. Regardless of what Madison thought, he too wanted a piece of Tytonidae. He may not be a vampire but his best friend was one, all of her friends were vampires and he'd heard enough stories about them from her to know that they were bad news and deserved what they had coming to them. When Madison had laid out her plan and requested that he take the initiative, he hadn't hesitated in agreeing to do what she bid. She didn't even need to compel him to do so. He wanted to. Finally he convinced his vampire that he knew what he needed to do and that he would be in contact with her the entire time through his blue-tooth ear piece. It wasn't until she had him on speaker phone that he was allowed to use the tome that Pi had given him to utilize the Den and its numerous amount of fade portals.

From the Den, to Bullwood, to Cherrydale. Brick had made his way across the town and was now making his way through the woods on the northwest edge of town just south of the mausoleum. When he finally came to his destination, he dropped the duffel bag from his shoulder and pulled out a set of metal sheers so that he could cut a hole in the fence line big enough for him to squeeze through it. After the hole was cut, he readied his weapons and hid the duffel bag on the outside of the fence before going back to it and pushing his way through it. To his surprise, when he got to the base of the giant tree, he found himself unable to enter no matter how many times he tried to pick the lock. He explained the situation to Madison and she groaned, explaining to him that Tytonidae had used a ritual to keep people like him and wraiths out. She had told him just to come home after that but Brick was determined.

Instead of going home, he pounded on the door and shouted up the tree, "Knock knock bitches!! Any body hoooome!? Come out and play with me or are you afraid of a teeny tiny human!?"

For several minutes Brick stood outside of the Eyrie. Pounding on the tree trunk and shouting taunts and insults up towards the top. Sooner or later one of those bastards were going to come down and it wasn't much longer til one of them did. As soon as the door opened, Brick swung, missing Velveteen as she came out of the Eyrie. As soon as he missed he bolted, forcing the dark haired woman to chase him about the base of the tree. It wasn't long before another joined them. Micah, the queen *****'s husband. The three of them went back and forth exchanging blows until Madison was shouting in his ear to run. She was keeping an ear on the battle through his earpiece and an eye on his well-being with her mind. It was hard enough to concentrate with her being quiet and even harder with her screaming at him. He tripped up a few steps, enough to give Micah the time to wound him yet again. Brick knew that this battle was pretty much done for and that if he didn't run now, he would never run again. Period. It was better to run and live to fight another day.

~*~ Memory #3 ~*~

[Madison]

March 25th, 2014

Another night, another raid. Every time she turned around she seemed to be finding out about new raids throughout the city and she cherished every whispered rumor that brought the news to her. It was amazing to her how quickly some of the people she went after regrouped after their base had been destroyed by vampires, only to reform and set themselves up for destruction yet again. Madison didn't mind in the slightest. Raids gave her a place to vent. Somewhere to release all her anger, her frustration, her disappointment in herself and those around her. No one blinked twice at each other when they were ridding the city of these gangs and cults. It was completely socially acceptable to break into a building and annihilate everyone inside for their own personal gain.

Madison though, Madion just liked to kill the beings inside the walls and each and every raid that came her way she was getting better at. She hoped it would only be a short matter of time before she was the one able to race to the top the fastest and win a rare prize for herself. It hadn't happened yet but she'd come close a few times. Since then she'd practiced at least every other night with her rifle, honing her shot and occasionally mixing powers in the action list. Eventually she knew she'd need to start practicing with a sword. Relying on her gun solely wasn't going to get her to the top of all the places she wanted to conquer. Perhaps if she asked Luffy, he could help train her in melee combat.

Occasionally the telepath would also get wind of different types of prizes to be found. Those whose locations were tucked away at the top of a business or stored deep within a network to be hacked. For the most part, Madison had mastered both of those. Very rarely did she not make it to the highest level of a building or the inner most core of a system. The first of every relic she found, she kept. There were a few that after she found out what they did, she had no interest in. Like the first Modulation Monocle she had found, the Buckle of Retreat and the Plutocrat's Band. None of them aided her all that much and when she found out the location of one, she went anyways and used them as practice for the relics that she would want to claim. By now she had one of each of all the relics she wanted that could be found these ways and now collected them to be sold and traded or given to people close to her that she cared about.

[Madison]

~*~ Memory #4 ~*~

May 14th, 2013

Madison stayed pressed up against the wall, biding her time as she watched the security camera down the hall from her. She assumed that she currently was just past its field of vision and that's why she hadn't heard any alarms yet but she would need to get past it to continue moving through the building. It turned in a set pattern and the telepath counted the seconds that it took the camera to go through its cycle and then ran through the cycle a second time to make sure it was set and that her numbers were accurate. When they seemed to be, she waited til the camera was no longer pointed in her direction before she quickly and quietly scurried down the hallway and positioned herself beneath it.

The internal triumph of skirting around this one camera was soon to be dashed when the telepath could hear the sounds of footsteps drawing near her. She cursed inwardly when she looked up and saw that the camera was in its paused phase, facing the direction she wanted to go and could turn towards the other direction available to her at any second. Without moving or making a sound, Madison waited as she listened to the footsteps draw closer. If her heart beat, it would have been pounding out of her chest the second that she heard a second pair of feet join the first. From down the hall the footsteps stopped when they met each other and she could hear the muffled voices of the two guards. This was her chance.

Glancing back up, she realized she had lost her place in counting the cameras movements. At this point, Madison didn't really feel like she had a choice but to get moving. As soon as the camera turned from the direction she wanted to go, she was moving down the hallway at a jogging pace. She slowed as she reached the end of the hall and plastered herself up against the wall again. The guard's voices were more clear now and she could tell which direction they were coming from. Poking her head just barely past the corner, she could see them about twenty feet or so down the hall. Looking back the other way, she could see the door that she had yet to break in to. That was her destination, her goal. She was pretty sure she'd checked every other room on this floor and had come up with nothing of major use. That had to be the door that held the artifact she'd read about. It had to be.

With each passing second, the telepath grew more anxious. It took everything she had to stay put and not bolt down the hall to test her skills against the speed of the guards getting to her. But she couldn't afford to get caught. Not now. Not when she was so close to achieving what she set out to do. Her head poked around the corner again to see what the guards were up to. Both of them had their backs to her! This opportunity seemed too good to be true and she didn't bother waiting to see if they'd turn around. Impatience got the best of her and she moved from her hidden position. As quietly and quickly as she could, she moved down the hall. Checking back on the guards every few steps. They still hadn't turned around and she almost jumped for joy when both of them started walking together in the opposite direction. Nothing was in her way now.

When she got to the door, Madison knelt down in front of it. The door had a pretty heavy duty, state of the art electronic lock on it. She almost snorted at it, completely unimpressed. Pulling her microcontroller out of her bag, the blonde set to work about getting the cover off the electronic keypad so that she could plug in the bit she needed to run her program. Getting the cover off took longer than the microcontroller running through the different number combinations to let her in. It took her less than forty-five seconds before she heard the soft click of the lock moving out of her way. Ripping the microcontroller out of the keypad carefully, she shoved it into her bag and checked over her shoulder before she slipped into the room. Whatever this Titan's Bracelet was. It was hers.

~*~ Memory #4 ~*~

[Madison]

March 29th, 2014

Another day, another dollar. Or in this case, roughly eighty-thousand dollars. Madison smiled to herself as she pulled out her tome and used it to get back to the d'Artois Den from the first floor of another raid. One that had a local area network that was well worth just hanging around in to hack repeatedly for source codes. It truly was a lovely thing. People bought up source code like it was going out of style, but the telepath sure hoped it didn't. Her new project was sucking down cash like it was a child on the night of Halloween after trick or treating. It sometimes made her feel sick seeing her bank account balance drop hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a few days. Lucky for her, she made a killing on the black market side of the auction house. Every single dollar spent would be worth it though. She just knew it.

Taking the elevator up to the Depot floor of the Den, Madison barely was surprised anymore that the place was practically empty. Ever since her death she had noticed that less and less people seemed to be hanging around the Den during the day. Every now and then it was a bit more crowded but it wasn't ever like it used to be. After Doc decided to leave the family, it had gotten even worse. Madison truly didn't give two shits one way or the other. She hadn't paid her dues. She hadn't spoken to anyone besides Lyana and then Elliot and his new progeny Zane since her death and resurrection. She was still technically a member of Canidae d'Artois for now and all she cared about was that they hadn't kicked her out and locked down the building on her yet. The day was coming though. It was just a matter of time. Until then, there was no way in hell she wasn't going to utilize everything that the Depot floor had to offer with its shops, crafting bench, ritual altar and multitudes of fade portals that could take her to any corner of the city she wished. It was down right useful to be a part of even if she no longer did anything for them, much less spoke to her estranged family.

It was as she was going through all the files she had downloaded that her phone buzzed in her pocket. Pulling it out she saw Alexandrea's name and number flash across the top of the screen. A swipe of her thumb brought up the message and she took on a look of curiosity when she saw that it was a picture. Opening it up, her brow furrowed as she looked at the picture of a fire pit in the woods. Something seemed really oddly familiar about it. Besides the fact that Alexandrea's flavor text told her that she should know this destination. Slowly but surely the memory dawned on her and Madison couldn't help but laugh as she texted back, "Holy hell! What are you doing there!?"

[Madison]

~*~ Memory #5 ~*~

August 27th, 2001

The fire in the pit blazed brightly in the darkness of the woods, reaching heights of eight to ten feet at the minimum. Twenty to thirty high school kids milled about the fire, talking, laughing and most of all, drinking and getting high. Out here there was no one to bother them. No one to tell them no. It was far enough out that they really didn't need to worry about cops unless someone snitched on them. And woe to the person who snitched if they were ever found out. Snitches got stitches.

Two blondes danced around the fire, drinks in one hand, the opposite's hand in the other. If one didn't know them well enough, they may have thought that the two were sisters. The pair had sure played off on that enough to know that they could pull it off. Those who did know them, knew well enough that Madison and Alexandrea weren't related at all but they may as well have been attached at the hip. The pair shared everything. Clothes, make-up, homework, and occasionally, boyfriends. It was because of them that this clearing had even been found. That the party had been organized and enough booze had been stolen to give each and every person there alcohol poisoning.

Bubbling over in giddy laughter, Madison paused in their routine so that she could give a look around the fire pit. Her eyes were searching for one person in particular and she wasn't seeing him. Her eye furrowed in concern as she looked at Alexandrea, "Do you see Nick anywhere?"

Alex gave a look around the space, her body still moving to the music that blared out of a nearby vehicle. She shrugged when she didn't see Nick, "Nope."

"Well where the hell could he be?" Madison asked rhetorically.

"Maybe he went to go take a piss. Come on, he'll be around. You know he'll want a piece of us later."

A girl and her boyfriend walking past the blondes stopped when they heard their conversation. Emily Voss and Eric Hanson. Emily pointed to a trail on the opposite side of the clearing before she spoke, "I saw Nick head that way about twenty minutes ago with Sheila Vance."
Both blondes froze in their spot, eyes turning into slits as they looked at Emily and in unison asked, "You saw what!?"

A glance towards each other with a knowing look and both girls downed their cocktails and threw their cups in the fire before stalking off to find their boyfriend. It didn't take them long before they could hear whispered words and giggles from up ahead. Not even five minutes away from the clearing. Soon enough Nick and Sheila came into sight. Their faces locked together at the lips and his pants down with his hand up her skirt.

Madison saw red and was the first to act. Without a word she ran up to the pair and grabbed Sheila by her long brunette hair, dragging the girl forcibly from her now ex-boyfriend. Sheila let out a screech as Madison started hauling her across the ground. She started to kick and scream but it was only seconds before Alexandrea was right beside her with fist-fulls of hair after she had gone and kicked Nick in the groin. Together the pair dragged Sheila kicking and screaming back towards the fire pit.

The entire crowd quieted as the pair approached with their captive. All talk ceased and music was turned down. Every single pair of eyes was watching what would happen. Together, Alex and Madison tossed Sheila towards the fire and blocked her in. People started chanting for a fight and that's exactly what they got. Together the pair belittled, mocked, humiliated and then physically beat Sheila until she was battered and bruised. It wasn't until Nick had stepped forward to save Sheila from the blonde's wrath that there attention turned to him instead. Sheila was lost to the crowd after they zoned in on Nick. He didn't dare hit one of them in defense either. By the time they were done with him, it was unlikely that he would ever father children. They may have gone on longer but a set of flashing lights, the beam of a deer light and the words, "Everybody freeze" stopped all the fun.

~*~ Memory #5 ~*~