Lost - Edmund Pevensie

Chapter Thirty-One

Madelyn's year had somehow been a lot worse than Edmund and Lucy's already unfortunate one. Where they had at least the comforting memories and dreams of Narnia, Madelyn had even lost that. In the dreams' place remained a feeling in the pit of her stomach as if something was missing.

That entire year, Madelyn had felt as if something was missing from her life, however couldn't quite put a finger on what that "something" was. In the end, she always chalked it up to the general feeling of misery that dragged her through her days. Every day felt the same and she couldn't help but wonder if there was something else there for her; maybe she was supposed to be doing something else.

Lately, instead of her usual nightmares, she'd been having a recurring dream. It always started in a lush forest, with Madelyn following a majestic lion. He kept walking and she kept trying to reach him. The dream wasn't too much better than her usual nightmares considering that right when she finally caught up to the lion and reached out to touch him, she would fall. The ground underneath her would open up and engulf her into an endless fall. In the year that she'd been having the nightmare, she'd never actually been able to reach the lion.

In the past year, her aunt had begun to slowly stop visiting, which quite honestly was a relief. In fact, at this point, it had been about a month since she'd last seen or heard from her. It was odd, considering that the woman lived off of torturing Madelyn, but Madelyn decided that she'd just consider it a miracle and pray that it stayed that way. Nobody knew that she lived alone though. Madelyn could never tell anyone the truth about it.  If anyone ever found out, she would be taken out of her home and put into foster care or maybe even something worse. She would always tell the few people that decided to take an interest in her that she lived with her elderly aunt who didn't leave the house because she had lost most of her mobility with age. That answer usually satisfied anybody who bothered about her. Of course, not too many people took that much of an interest. Only a couple of teachers had ever bothered to ask.

Madelyn had never made too many friends in school. In fact, she spent most of her day alone, minding her own business which is why she was quite surprised when one of the girls in her class had decided to approach her and introduce herself as "Elizabeth Ackerr". Elizabeth Ackerr was a girl about the same height as Madelyn, with violently red hair, and electric blue eyes that could be seen from a mile away. Madelyn supposed she could call Elizabeth a friend. In fact, for the first time, she actually had someone that she talked to during school. The only problem was that Madelyn had a wall built up and was never able to let Elizabeth in. They were great friends in school, but outside school, Madelyn always remembered to keep a distance so that Elizabeth would never find out that her elderly aunt didn't really exist.

There was only one thing that gave Madelyn a real sense of peace. It was a small library she'd found just a couple of blocks away from her house. She'd found it a couple of months prior when she took a different route home from school. It was largely empty throughout most of the day except the elderly librarian who never forgot to say "hello" and "goodbye" to Madelyn. The lady wore large glasses with a dull pink frame and with a lens so thick, Madelyn was sure they weighed the woman down. She always wore florally patterned dresses that seemed to suit the woman's personality. The lady had brown hair that was heavily peppered with gray.

It seemed that Madelyn had read through almost half of the books in the library in the few months since she'd found it. She wasn't surprised though, considering she spent almost all of her free time in the library. Once the librarian had asked Madelyn what she would do if she ever got through all the books. It was a question that ad held her for a while, but in the end, she found an answer that seemed to satisfy her.

Madelyn had answered with a small smile, "I'll just reread the books. I don't mind."

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