Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Oct 29, 2007 18:44:58 GMT
Water.
The noise of running water was sounding in Madeleine’s ears, tinkling and chiming sweetly the way naturally running water does.
Her eyelids fluttered open.
All she could see was clear azure sky above her, marred only by faint white cotton wisps of cloud.
Now, the noise of children playing joined the sound of the running water.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around…
She glanced around her, noting the bubbling stream and nearby forest.
It was all terribly familiar… from the stream… the forest… the clearing… the caravans and aluminium ‘trailers’…
Lylis.
She sat up abruptly, taking in the scene around her. The children skipping in the clearing were unfamiliar, and the caravans were new, but everything was exactly the same as she remembered.
But why was she here?
The last thing she remembered… the last place…
Oh, bugger.
She’d been shot… she’d sent out a wave… she’d fallen…
Was she dead? Or was she dreaming?
She ran her fingers anxiously through her hair. Okay, think logically. If she was dead, why would she be in Lylis? Why…?
“Hey, Maddie.”
The words, coming from the sweetest familiar voice, sounded right behind her. She twisted her torso around awkwardly, her jaw dropping as she saw the face that she hadn’t seen for a year, and had longed to see the most.
“Shaun?”
He grinned cheekily at her. “The one and only.”
She looked him up and down, stuttering slightly. “You… w-what… huh?”
“I was hoping for a hi and a hug,” smiled Shaun. “But that’ll do rightly.”
“I … oh my God!” she exclaimed, jumping up and throwing herself at him, hitting him like a missile and wrapping her arms around him.
He was so solid… so real.
She couldn’t be dreaming.
“Hey, sis,” he muttered, bending down to kiss the top of her head lightly. “Long time no see.”
She pulled back and stared at him. “Er, Shaun… no offence or anything… but you’re dead.”
He rolled his eyes. “Really?”
Madeleine ignored this, her head starting to throb. “So… am I dead?!”
Shawn started to laugh. “Nah,” he said, in his deep, gruff voice. “You’re pretty much alive.”
Madeleine closed her eyes briefly, before opening them to stare at her brother again. This was… wow. He was exactly the same, still as tall, and muscled. His dark hair still fell over his face in the way he’d found so annoying before, and his devil’s angel’s eyes were still as dark, and still lit up in exactly the same way as he laughed. It was an awful thing to admit, but even if she was dead… she wouldn’t mind. If she was dead now – well, she was here, talking to her big brother again? The brother that she’d missed so much for so long… they could talk again, they could hug and play chess and…
But … oh, no… what about their parents? What about school, her Warriors? She couldn’t be dead.
If she was dead, then she couldn’t see Lee anymore.
That was when her heart started to sink.
“Pretty much?” she asked, weakly.
He just grinned. “I’d forgotten how daft you look when you’re confused.”
“Shut up,” she muttered automatically, hitting him uselessly, a million thoughts whirring inside her confused head. “What’s happened? Why am I here? The battle – I got shot, didn’t I? What -?”
“Okay, be quiet a minute,” he said, sitting down on the ground and stretching out his legs. “Sit.”
She flopped to the grass. “Okay, tell me.”
“Okay… don’t flip…” said Shaun warily.
Her eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“You’re in a coma,” he explained, in a soft tone.
“I –what?”
“You did get shot-”
“In the leg,” she interrupted. “I know.”
“Well, you fell – after you sent out one d**n impressive airwave, might I add – and smartly whacked your head off a bloody rock.”
“I couldn’t help it!” she cried indignantly, kicking out at him.
“Joke!” he exclaimed, laughing. “Come on, stop it with the abuse! I haven’t seen you for a year and you’re attempting to hurt me – I feel so loved, Maddie!”
Madeleine’s mouth twitched into a smile.
“Better,” he said, smiling at her. “Are you going to listen to the rest?”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure.”
“You got knocked out by the rock, and you were unconscious for about an hour or so. The loss of blood… well, it stopped your heart.”
“So how come I’m ‘pretty much alive’, then?” demanded Madeleine. “Shaun!”
“Shut up, I’m getting there. Honestly,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Someone found you and brought you back to the Carers, and Nurse Gornray managed to resuscitate you.”
Madeleine raised her hand to her temple and rubbed it. “Oh.”
He smiled sympathetically. “Oh.”
“So… I’m alive, then?” she asked. That was the important bit.
“Sort of,” Shaun answered, gazing at her intently, waiting for her reaction. “Your heart’s beating, and you’re breathing with oxygen tubes, if that’s what you mean. But you’re completely unresponsive. The brain scans have been coming up… well, you’re brain-dead.”
“I’m…what…?”
Shaun stood up, and reached down for her hand. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.”
Madeleine let him pull her up, silent.
Dead. Brain-dead. Hooked up to machines…
“Lylis?” Shaun asked, walking towards the forest, holding her hand in his strong grip.
She took comfort from the warmth of it. “I guess so, but who are the kids?”
Shaun glanced over towards the children skipping cheerfully near the caravans. “I don’t know,” he said softly, leaving Madeleine to think that maybe he did know.
Still, she decided that it would be better not to ask.
“Why am I here, Shaun? Why Lylis?”
He grinned. “I don’t know. It’s your afterlife, not mine, remember?”
Madeleine winced. “Ah. God. Afterlife?”
“For want of a better word.”
They were walking along the outskirts of the forest now, following the stream. Madeleine’s mind was spinning, whirring at one hundred and eighty nine miles per hour. Thoughts that were half-formed, thoughts that didn’t make sense, thoughts that unfortunately did make sense…
“Who found me?” she asked, to break the silence, for something else to focus on.
Shaun didn’t answer, but just kept walking.
She sighed. “How long have I been…‘brain-dead’ for?”
“A week now.”
Madeleine’s jaw dropped with dismay. “So, why now?”
Shaun stopped walking, and turned to her. “Right, okay. Again, don’t flip.”
She swallowed as she looked at her brother, who looked so pale standing against the dark emerald forest.
“When you… died, you were going pretty fast. They found you about an hour and a half after that, and they managed to resuscitate you.
“You’ve been in a pretty stable condition, closer to life that anything else. But the other day you … started to deteriorate.”
The words fell over Madeleine, but she couldn’t really process them.
Dead…resuscitated… deteriorating…
“So, right now, you’re half way between life and death.”
“What?!” she exclaimed, gripping his hand tightly.
He winced. “Ssh a second. What it means is that you’re here, and you have a choice to make.”
“A choice.”
Shaun flicked his hair out his eyes and stared at her intently, his dark eyes unreadable. “You can go back to life, or you can come with me to the afterlife.”
Immediately, the two sides of Madeleine’s heart and brain separated and started to argue.
Stay with Shaun… wow. She’d wanted to be with him, to be near him, to laugh with him, to talk to him for a year now – and if she went with him, she’d go to a place where, if what she’d been told was true, that was happy, with no wars or tears or sadness or…
And her grandparents would be there… and her great-granddad, Davey! She’d always wanted to talk to him about the legacy that he’d left for them. For Shaun, and for her.
But… how could she leave life? Her parents – it would kill them. They had just about coped through losing their son, and Madeleine wasn’t entirely sure that they would be able to stay afloat if they lost another child.
And her Warriors – they’d be under the control of Levi Ryder. No one deserved that fate.
And Lee…
“That’s one hell of a choice,” she mumbled.
Shaun smiled wryly. “I can guess. I suppose that in a way, I’m lucky that I didn’t have to make that choice.”
She glanced up at him – at his height of 6 foot 3, he towered over her. “You didn’t?”
He shook his head. “No. I was already too dead to turn back.”
Madeleine swallowed. “Oh.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said softly. “It was a f*cking awful thing –”
There was a huge, loud thunderclap that resounded in Madeleine’s ears, bouncing off the rocks and trees.
Weirdly, Shaun started to laugh. “I really should stop doing that. I’m not supposed to swear.”
Madeleine’s jaw dropped for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. “Was that-?”
“Yep,” grinned Shaun. “The one and only.”
“I … ah… oh. Wow.”
He chuckled. “Come on, use your words.”
“Forgive me if I don’t have many coming to mind right now.”
“I guess that’s fair enough.”
Life… or death?
Fight or flight?
Madeleine was a fighter – she knew that. She’d been told it all of her life.
But did she want to fight this time? Death was… death was peace. Death was being with her brother again.
She cleared her throat. “Wh- what do you think I should do?”
He winced. “See, I can’t tell you what to do. It’s your choice. I mean, I know what I think you should do, but…”
“So tell me that then.”
“I think you should go back.” His voice was soft, a huge contrast to his tall, burly, could-crush-you-to-a-bloody-pulp physique.
She closed her eyes briefly. “Why?”
“I really hoped that you wouldn’t ask me that,” he grumbled. “You should know yourself.”
“I do know,” she protested. “But… I miss you.”
Shaun groaned. “For the love of-”
“Careful,” warned Madeleine.
“… er, peace.”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
“Don’t be Cecelia,” was all he said.
Madeleine frowned. “But… isn’t she with you, now?”
He smiled, his features lighting up. “Yes, she is – but she shouldn’t have done what she did. I’ll never forgive myself for the fact that she had to do-”
Self-blame was always one of Shaun’s more annoying tendencies.
“Stop that,” she said. “It’s not your fault.”
“Hmm,” he murmured. “Well, do you want your reasons?”
"Hit me." Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
Shaun simply nodded down at the water.
An image of their parents floated up.
"They haven't got to the school yet," he said softly. "Mum broke down, and Dad... well, let's just say he went out and punched a few trees."
Madeleine laughed weakly, but had to turn away at the image of Rhiannon Baudelaire crying.
Then, a movie-like thing of a Battle Training session taken by Levi played.
Madeleine's eyebrows furrowed as Shaun said. "Your Warriors are under the reign of bloody King Levi. He's an absolute di-"
A flash of lightning ran through the sky.
Shaun grimaced. "Well, not a very nice guy, shall we say. And your Warriors... they're broken, Maddie. Their Head has been essentially killed, and no one knows what to think. Everyone's lost. They need their hope back."
A few other stills and scenes appeared in the water, before Lee's face appeared in the water.
"Lee," Shaun said quietly, watching for Madeleine's reaction intently. "You asked me who found you, Maddie... Lee did. He found you dead and covered in blood, and he carried you back. I don't even want to think about how bloody awful that must have been for him. And now that you're dying... he's dying along with you."
Madeleine screwed her eyes shut, turning away from the stream.
But Shaun kept talking. "He really cares about you, Maddie, and I hope that you're smart enough to care about him too." He tugged on her arm gently. "Look, watch."
She turned unwillingly, and looked down at the stream.
Jude was beside Lee, who was holding her hand in the hospital bed, and looking at Jude with a fiery look in his eyes that made Madeleine's heart split in two.
Now there was sound, and Lee's voice floated out to her.
"God, oh god. They told me I'd saved her life- and I believed them! Nurse Gornray told me she can hear us; and I talked to her too. But I'm beginning to think she was lying. If Madeleine could hear me, she would've woken up when I asked her to. She would've smiled at me when I... when I wanted..."
She started to tremble, and Shaun reached out and held her arm, holding her steady.
"You don't... get it! I want... Madeleine's eyes to open and to see her smile. I want her to never have to fight again- to leave the school and never come back to this hell. I want her to... to meet her soulmate and marry him; I want her to be successful in her job and her life; I want her to... to grow old with that guy, and to have about fifty grandkids, all running about and making her happy. I want her to die an old woman- content and warm in her bed. I want her to die in the knowledge that's she's had a long, full, rich life, and that she's had everything she ever wanted. I want this stupid war never to touch her again. I want her to be happy. Is that so much to ask?"
"Don't make him Cecelia, Maddie," Shaun said gently.
Madeleine's left hand flew to her mouth as the images in the water faded away, leaving nothing but the clear water and the grey and white pebbles below.
"You okay?" Shaun asked softly.
She nodded, forcing her hand away from her mouth. "I'm fine."
"Does that clear your mind up any?"
Yes.
But she avoided the question.
"What's it like, in heaven, or wherever?"
Shaun sighed. "It's... awesome. It's... I can't describe it, but it's like everything we were ever told as kids... only better."
"Valhalla?" she asked, chuckling weakly.
He grinned. "Better. The only thing is, I miss everyone. I mean, now that Cecelia's here, it's... well, you know. Well, you don't, really, but you will."
"Will I?"
"You and Lee."
She twisted herself round to stare at him, jaw dropping. "What?!"
He looked at her with something kind of like pity. "Jeez, you are that stupid."
Automatically, her arm extended and her hand slammed into Shaun's arm.
"Oooh, like that hurt," he said mockingly, but grinning. "Come on, you're besotted with him. Falling in love. Maybe even in love - are you?"
"I..." she stammered. "That's none of your-"
He started to laugh. "I knew it."
She blushed. She loved Shaun to pieces, but hell did he know how to get her to blush.
Then, his hand smacked into the back of her head.
"Ow!" she cried, rubbing her head. "What the hell was that for?!"
"You stupid b-... I mean, you very silly woman. Why the heck did you dump Lee for Levi Ryder, of all the people?! For goodness' sake, Maddie, what on earth is wrong with you?!"
"I ... shut up..."
There was a silence as all of this ran through Madeleine's head.
She couldn't leave him.
"This isn't a dream, is it?"
"Of course not," Shaun snorted. "A dream wouldn't be this convincing."
"And it's not the neurons firing, is it? I read about th-"
Shaun rolled his eyes, cutting her off. "No, it's not, and I can prove it."
He reached into the stream, and pulled out a smooth pebble, the water droplets on it glinting in the sunlight.
"I guess you're going to go back, then?"
She nodded. What else could she say?
He smiled. "Take this. When you wake up, you'll still have it. Then will you know it was real?"
He dropped it into her hand, and her fingers curled around it.
"Do I have to go now?" she whispered.
"Better sooner than later," he said, standing up, and Madeleine only realised then that they had been crouching at the water's edge.
He pulled her up, and taking her hand, led her back to the clearing, where the children who had been playing before were gone.
"Where did they go?" Madeleine asked, looking around her.
"They went on," Shaun replied simply.
She turned to face him, realising that she was trembling slightly. "I'll miss you."
He grinned wryly. "I know. I'll miss you too. It's the one thing about the afterlife that sucks - I can't have you there."
"So why did you want me to go back?" she asked, confused.
Shaun grinned. "I hope you'd ask that. You're going to live, Maddie. You're going to do everything I never got the chance to do, and more. You're Head of the Warriors, and I'm so proud of you, because you're doing a d**n good job - no matter what people say."
She didn't fail to notice that there was no thunderclap there.
"So do I get a hug before you go?"
She hurled herself at him, putting her arms around him and basking in his warmth as he hugged her back, breathing in his familiar scent and trying to imprint every single detail in her memory.
He pulled back, smiling sadly. "Alright then - until Valhalla."
"What -no!" she panicked. "Not now, I-"
"It's okay," he said serenely. "We've said all that needs to be said. I love you, you know that, right?"
"Of course I do! I love you too, please, just one more minute-"
He laughed, and leaned towards her. "Wake up, Maddie."
Back in the hospital wing, Madeleine's white, white hand clenched, uselessly trailing along the sheets of the bed.
"No," she said urgently. "Not-"
"Wake up."
Whoever said that coma victim's eyes fluttered open was a liar. As Madeleine tried to open her eyes - well, let's just say it was painful, forcing them open. She was pretty sure that she could feel skin tearing.
When her eyelids eventually opened, Nurse Gornray was standing at the foot of a bright white hospital bed, smiling at her. "Welcome back."
She screwed up her eyes again - well, that was a waste of time - at the sudden glare of the light being switched on. "Ow."
Nurse Gornray chuckled as she moved forward to check Madeleine's stats. "I need to ask you a couple of questions, okay pet? What's your name?"
"Madeleine Amélie Baudelaire," she said blearily, blinking furiously to try and get her eyes used to the bright glare. "How long have I been here for?"
"A week," the nurse said, slightly surprised. "It's now Monday, the 29th. Your parents are on their way."
The twenty-ninth. Why did that date have such a significance?
Madeleine's left fist closed, and her fingers curled in upon something cool and smooth.
No way...
And suddenly, the significance of the date hit her.
Madeleine propped herself up on the pillows. "Did we win?"
Nurse Gornray grinned. "We won."
She sat back, and exhaled.
Yes.
The noise of running water was sounding in Madeleine’s ears, tinkling and chiming sweetly the way naturally running water does.
Her eyelids fluttered open.
All she could see was clear azure sky above her, marred only by faint white cotton wisps of cloud.
Now, the noise of children playing joined the sound of the running water.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around…
She glanced around her, noting the bubbling stream and nearby forest.
It was all terribly familiar… from the stream… the forest… the clearing… the caravans and aluminium ‘trailers’…
Lylis.
She sat up abruptly, taking in the scene around her. The children skipping in the clearing were unfamiliar, and the caravans were new, but everything was exactly the same as she remembered.
But why was she here?
The last thing she remembered… the last place…
Oh, bugger.
She’d been shot… she’d sent out a wave… she’d fallen…
Was she dead? Or was she dreaming?
She ran her fingers anxiously through her hair. Okay, think logically. If she was dead, why would she be in Lylis? Why…?
“Hey, Maddie.”
The words, coming from the sweetest familiar voice, sounded right behind her. She twisted her torso around awkwardly, her jaw dropping as she saw the face that she hadn’t seen for a year, and had longed to see the most.
“Shaun?”
He grinned cheekily at her. “The one and only.”
She looked him up and down, stuttering slightly. “You… w-what… huh?”
“I was hoping for a hi and a hug,” smiled Shaun. “But that’ll do rightly.”
“I … oh my God!” she exclaimed, jumping up and throwing herself at him, hitting him like a missile and wrapping her arms around him.
He was so solid… so real.
She couldn’t be dreaming.
“Hey, sis,” he muttered, bending down to kiss the top of her head lightly. “Long time no see.”
She pulled back and stared at him. “Er, Shaun… no offence or anything… but you’re dead.”
He rolled his eyes. “Really?”
Madeleine ignored this, her head starting to throb. “So… am I dead?!”
Shawn started to laugh. “Nah,” he said, in his deep, gruff voice. “You’re pretty much alive.”
Madeleine closed her eyes briefly, before opening them to stare at her brother again. This was… wow. He was exactly the same, still as tall, and muscled. His dark hair still fell over his face in the way he’d found so annoying before, and his devil’s angel’s eyes were still as dark, and still lit up in exactly the same way as he laughed. It was an awful thing to admit, but even if she was dead… she wouldn’t mind. If she was dead now – well, she was here, talking to her big brother again? The brother that she’d missed so much for so long… they could talk again, they could hug and play chess and…
But … oh, no… what about their parents? What about school, her Warriors? She couldn’t be dead.
If she was dead, then she couldn’t see Lee anymore.
That was when her heart started to sink.
“Pretty much?” she asked, weakly.
He just grinned. “I’d forgotten how daft you look when you’re confused.”
“Shut up,” she muttered automatically, hitting him uselessly, a million thoughts whirring inside her confused head. “What’s happened? Why am I here? The battle – I got shot, didn’t I? What -?”
“Okay, be quiet a minute,” he said, sitting down on the ground and stretching out his legs. “Sit.”
She flopped to the grass. “Okay, tell me.”
“Okay… don’t flip…” said Shaun warily.
Her eyebrows furrowed slightly.
“You’re in a coma,” he explained, in a soft tone.
“I –what?”
“You did get shot-”
“In the leg,” she interrupted. “I know.”
“Well, you fell – after you sent out one d**n impressive airwave, might I add – and smartly whacked your head off a bloody rock.”
“I couldn’t help it!” she cried indignantly, kicking out at him.
“Joke!” he exclaimed, laughing. “Come on, stop it with the abuse! I haven’t seen you for a year and you’re attempting to hurt me – I feel so loved, Maddie!”
Madeleine’s mouth twitched into a smile.
“Better,” he said, smiling at her. “Are you going to listen to the rest?”
She rolled her eyes. “Sure.”
“You got knocked out by the rock, and you were unconscious for about an hour or so. The loss of blood… well, it stopped your heart.”
“So how come I’m ‘pretty much alive’, then?” demanded Madeleine. “Shaun!”
“Shut up, I’m getting there. Honestly,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Someone found you and brought you back to the Carers, and Nurse Gornray managed to resuscitate you.”
Madeleine raised her hand to her temple and rubbed it. “Oh.”
He smiled sympathetically. “Oh.”
“So… I’m alive, then?” she asked. That was the important bit.
“Sort of,” Shaun answered, gazing at her intently, waiting for her reaction. “Your heart’s beating, and you’re breathing with oxygen tubes, if that’s what you mean. But you’re completely unresponsive. The brain scans have been coming up… well, you’re brain-dead.”
“I’m…what…?”
Shaun stood up, and reached down for her hand. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.”
Madeleine let him pull her up, silent.
Dead. Brain-dead. Hooked up to machines…
“Lylis?” Shaun asked, walking towards the forest, holding her hand in his strong grip.
She took comfort from the warmth of it. “I guess so, but who are the kids?”
Shaun glanced over towards the children skipping cheerfully near the caravans. “I don’t know,” he said softly, leaving Madeleine to think that maybe he did know.
Still, she decided that it would be better not to ask.
“Why am I here, Shaun? Why Lylis?”
He grinned. “I don’t know. It’s your afterlife, not mine, remember?”
Madeleine winced. “Ah. God. Afterlife?”
“For want of a better word.”
They were walking along the outskirts of the forest now, following the stream. Madeleine’s mind was spinning, whirring at one hundred and eighty nine miles per hour. Thoughts that were half-formed, thoughts that didn’t make sense, thoughts that unfortunately did make sense…
“Who found me?” she asked, to break the silence, for something else to focus on.
Shaun didn’t answer, but just kept walking.
She sighed. “How long have I been…‘brain-dead’ for?”
“A week now.”
Madeleine’s jaw dropped with dismay. “So, why now?”
Shaun stopped walking, and turned to her. “Right, okay. Again, don’t flip.”
She swallowed as she looked at her brother, who looked so pale standing against the dark emerald forest.
“When you… died, you were going pretty fast. They found you about an hour and a half after that, and they managed to resuscitate you.
“You’ve been in a pretty stable condition, closer to life that anything else. But the other day you … started to deteriorate.”
The words fell over Madeleine, but she couldn’t really process them.
Dead…resuscitated… deteriorating…
“So, right now, you’re half way between life and death.”
“What?!” she exclaimed, gripping his hand tightly.
He winced. “Ssh a second. What it means is that you’re here, and you have a choice to make.”
“A choice.”
Shaun flicked his hair out his eyes and stared at her intently, his dark eyes unreadable. “You can go back to life, or you can come with me to the afterlife.”
Immediately, the two sides of Madeleine’s heart and brain separated and started to argue.
Stay with Shaun… wow. She’d wanted to be with him, to be near him, to laugh with him, to talk to him for a year now – and if she went with him, she’d go to a place where, if what she’d been told was true, that was happy, with no wars or tears or sadness or…
And her grandparents would be there… and her great-granddad, Davey! She’d always wanted to talk to him about the legacy that he’d left for them. For Shaun, and for her.
But… how could she leave life? Her parents – it would kill them. They had just about coped through losing their son, and Madeleine wasn’t entirely sure that they would be able to stay afloat if they lost another child.
And her Warriors – they’d be under the control of Levi Ryder. No one deserved that fate.
And Lee…
“That’s one hell of a choice,” she mumbled.
Shaun smiled wryly. “I can guess. I suppose that in a way, I’m lucky that I didn’t have to make that choice.”
She glanced up at him – at his height of 6 foot 3, he towered over her. “You didn’t?”
He shook his head. “No. I was already too dead to turn back.”
Madeleine swallowed. “Oh.”
He squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said softly. “It was a f*cking awful thing –”
There was a huge, loud thunderclap that resounded in Madeleine’s ears, bouncing off the rocks and trees.
Weirdly, Shaun started to laugh. “I really should stop doing that. I’m not supposed to swear.”
Madeleine’s jaw dropped for what felt like the fiftieth time that day. “Was that-?”
“Yep,” grinned Shaun. “The one and only.”
“I … ah… oh. Wow.”
He chuckled. “Come on, use your words.”
“Forgive me if I don’t have many coming to mind right now.”
“I guess that’s fair enough.”
Life… or death?
Fight or flight?
Madeleine was a fighter – she knew that. She’d been told it all of her life.
But did she want to fight this time? Death was… death was peace. Death was being with her brother again.
She cleared her throat. “Wh- what do you think I should do?”
He winced. “See, I can’t tell you what to do. It’s your choice. I mean, I know what I think you should do, but…”
“So tell me that then.”
“I think you should go back.” His voice was soft, a huge contrast to his tall, burly, could-crush-you-to-a-bloody-pulp physique.
She closed her eyes briefly. “Why?”
“I really hoped that you wouldn’t ask me that,” he grumbled. “You should know yourself.”
“I do know,” she protested. “But… I miss you.”
Shaun groaned. “For the love of-”
“Careful,” warned Madeleine.
“… er, peace.”
She couldn’t help but laugh.
“Don’t be Cecelia,” was all he said.
Madeleine frowned. “But… isn’t she with you, now?”
He smiled, his features lighting up. “Yes, she is – but she shouldn’t have done what she did. I’ll never forgive myself for the fact that she had to do-”
Self-blame was always one of Shaun’s more annoying tendencies.
“Stop that,” she said. “It’s not your fault.”
“Hmm,” he murmured. “Well, do you want your reasons?”
"Hit me." Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
Shaun simply nodded down at the water.
An image of their parents floated up.
"They haven't got to the school yet," he said softly. "Mum broke down, and Dad... well, let's just say he went out and punched a few trees."
Madeleine laughed weakly, but had to turn away at the image of Rhiannon Baudelaire crying.
Then, a movie-like thing of a Battle Training session taken by Levi played.
Madeleine's eyebrows furrowed as Shaun said. "Your Warriors are under the reign of bloody King Levi. He's an absolute di-"
A flash of lightning ran through the sky.
Shaun grimaced. "Well, not a very nice guy, shall we say. And your Warriors... they're broken, Maddie. Their Head has been essentially killed, and no one knows what to think. Everyone's lost. They need their hope back."
A few other stills and scenes appeared in the water, before Lee's face appeared in the water.
"Lee," Shaun said quietly, watching for Madeleine's reaction intently. "You asked me who found you, Maddie... Lee did. He found you dead and covered in blood, and he carried you back. I don't even want to think about how bloody awful that must have been for him. And now that you're dying... he's dying along with you."
Madeleine screwed her eyes shut, turning away from the stream.
But Shaun kept talking. "He really cares about you, Maddie, and I hope that you're smart enough to care about him too." He tugged on her arm gently. "Look, watch."
She turned unwillingly, and looked down at the stream.
Jude was beside Lee, who was holding her hand in the hospital bed, and looking at Jude with a fiery look in his eyes that made Madeleine's heart split in two.
Now there was sound, and Lee's voice floated out to her.
"God, oh god. They told me I'd saved her life- and I believed them! Nurse Gornray told me she can hear us; and I talked to her too. But I'm beginning to think she was lying. If Madeleine could hear me, she would've woken up when I asked her to. She would've smiled at me when I... when I wanted..."
She started to tremble, and Shaun reached out and held her arm, holding her steady.
"You don't... get it! I want... Madeleine's eyes to open and to see her smile. I want her to never have to fight again- to leave the school and never come back to this hell. I want her to... to meet her soulmate and marry him; I want her to be successful in her job and her life; I want her to... to grow old with that guy, and to have about fifty grandkids, all running about and making her happy. I want her to die an old woman- content and warm in her bed. I want her to die in the knowledge that's she's had a long, full, rich life, and that she's had everything she ever wanted. I want this stupid war never to touch her again. I want her to be happy. Is that so much to ask?"
"Don't make him Cecelia, Maddie," Shaun said gently.
Madeleine's left hand flew to her mouth as the images in the water faded away, leaving nothing but the clear water and the grey and white pebbles below.
"You okay?" Shaun asked softly.
She nodded, forcing her hand away from her mouth. "I'm fine."
"Does that clear your mind up any?"
Yes.
But she avoided the question.
"What's it like, in heaven, or wherever?"
Shaun sighed. "It's... awesome. It's... I can't describe it, but it's like everything we were ever told as kids... only better."
"Valhalla?" she asked, chuckling weakly.
He grinned. "Better. The only thing is, I miss everyone. I mean, now that Cecelia's here, it's... well, you know. Well, you don't, really, but you will."
"Will I?"
"You and Lee."
She twisted herself round to stare at him, jaw dropping. "What?!"
He looked at her with something kind of like pity. "Jeez, you are that stupid."
Automatically, her arm extended and her hand slammed into Shaun's arm.
"Oooh, like that hurt," he said mockingly, but grinning. "Come on, you're besotted with him. Falling in love. Maybe even in love - are you?"
"I..." she stammered. "That's none of your-"
He started to laugh. "I knew it."
She blushed. She loved Shaun to pieces, but hell did he know how to get her to blush.
Then, his hand smacked into the back of her head.
"Ow!" she cried, rubbing her head. "What the hell was that for?!"
"You stupid b-... I mean, you very silly woman. Why the heck did you dump Lee for Levi Ryder, of all the people?! For goodness' sake, Maddie, what on earth is wrong with you?!"
"I ... shut up..."
There was a silence as all of this ran through Madeleine's head.
She couldn't leave him.
"This isn't a dream, is it?"
"Of course not," Shaun snorted. "A dream wouldn't be this convincing."
"And it's not the neurons firing, is it? I read about th-"
Shaun rolled his eyes, cutting her off. "No, it's not, and I can prove it."
He reached into the stream, and pulled out a smooth pebble, the water droplets on it glinting in the sunlight.
"I guess you're going to go back, then?"
She nodded. What else could she say?
He smiled. "Take this. When you wake up, you'll still have it. Then will you know it was real?"
He dropped it into her hand, and her fingers curled around it.
"Do I have to go now?" she whispered.
"Better sooner than later," he said, standing up, and Madeleine only realised then that they had been crouching at the water's edge.
He pulled her up, and taking her hand, led her back to the clearing, where the children who had been playing before were gone.
"Where did they go?" Madeleine asked, looking around her.
"They went on," Shaun replied simply.
She turned to face him, realising that she was trembling slightly. "I'll miss you."
He grinned wryly. "I know. I'll miss you too. It's the one thing about the afterlife that sucks - I can't have you there."
"So why did you want me to go back?" she asked, confused.
Shaun grinned. "I hope you'd ask that. You're going to live, Maddie. You're going to do everything I never got the chance to do, and more. You're Head of the Warriors, and I'm so proud of you, because you're doing a d**n good job - no matter what people say."
She didn't fail to notice that there was no thunderclap there.
"So do I get a hug before you go?"
She hurled herself at him, putting her arms around him and basking in his warmth as he hugged her back, breathing in his familiar scent and trying to imprint every single detail in her memory.
He pulled back, smiling sadly. "Alright then - until Valhalla."
"What -no!" she panicked. "Not now, I-"
"It's okay," he said serenely. "We've said all that needs to be said. I love you, you know that, right?"
"Of course I do! I love you too, please, just one more minute-"
He laughed, and leaned towards her. "Wake up, Maddie."
Back in the hospital wing, Madeleine's white, white hand clenched, uselessly trailing along the sheets of the bed.
"No," she said urgently. "Not-"
"Wake up."
Whoever said that coma victim's eyes fluttered open was a liar. As Madeleine tried to open her eyes - well, let's just say it was painful, forcing them open. She was pretty sure that she could feel skin tearing.
When her eyelids eventually opened, Nurse Gornray was standing at the foot of a bright white hospital bed, smiling at her. "Welcome back."
She screwed up her eyes again - well, that was a waste of time - at the sudden glare of the light being switched on. "Ow."
Nurse Gornray chuckled as she moved forward to check Madeleine's stats. "I need to ask you a couple of questions, okay pet? What's your name?"
"Madeleine Amélie Baudelaire," she said blearily, blinking furiously to try and get her eyes used to the bright glare. "How long have I been here for?"
"A week," the nurse said, slightly surprised. "It's now Monday, the 29th. Your parents are on their way."
The twenty-ninth. Why did that date have such a significance?
Madeleine's left fist closed, and her fingers curled in upon something cool and smooth.
No way...
And suddenly, the significance of the date hit her.
Madeleine propped herself up on the pillows. "Did we win?"
Nurse Gornray grinned. "We won."
She sat back, and exhaled.
Yes.
