insomnia [✔]

act. i - cold september

Madeleine was terrified. Her parents weren't waking up, despite all her desperate attempts. So, she ends up convincing herself that this was all a dream. A bad dream. So the little girl returned to her room. She lay down in her bed, and covered herself entirely with her sheets. Behind her closed eyelids, she wanted to believe that things would return to normal. Yesterday, she was desperate to find sleep, and now she only wanted one thing, it was to wake up.

She told herself that everything would be fine, but her limbs were shaking. Madeleine could not imagine then, that the whole city would share the fate of her parents. When she opened her eyes again, she went back to her parents' room. Obviously, the parental room would be empty, since in the real world, his parents woke up at dawn to go through files heavy as logs. They would, however, have breakfast together. Her father would prepare the coffee, while her mother would take care of the pancake preparation. Finally, the coffee was always too bitter and the pancakes a little burnt, but for nothing in the world Madeleine would have given up these mornings.

Even so, reality eventually takes over. But that was not the reality to which Madeleine aspired. This reality was more of a nightmare than anything else... Two weeks passed. Two weeks of painful loneliness for a child, who had always counted on her parents, because of her young age. She ate biscuits, fruit juice cartons, and tried to fend for herself. Madeleine was lying to herself, saying that sooner or later her parents would wake up.

At the end of the second week, during which the girl had remained locked in her house, people in anti-contamination suits knocked on the door. Suspicious, Madeleine replied without opening the door that her parents were resting and that it would be better to come back later. She didn't know that it was actually one of the medical teams and police protection then deployed throughout the city. These people had received the order to make an inventory, and to help the victims of this strange epidemic.

However, a woman who introduced herself as an agent in the service of a certain A.r.g.u.s., broke away from the group. The agent spoke in a calm but firm voice that betrayed his habit of being in charge. This detail did not escape the little girl, who therefore redoubled her caution. But there was a flaw. The agent revealed to Madeleine that her neighbors were also suffering from a strange sleep, almost comparable to a coma, and asked her if it was the same for her parents too. The child then asked in a quavering voice, if it was serious, and the woman answered that no one could answer this question, for the moment. But that on the other hand, they had to act as soon as possible. Finally, the woman omitted to say that the dead were already counted in the dozens...

Madeleine had been wrapped in a blanket, and a cup of hot chocolate had been placed between her hands. The woman to whom she had opened the door of her house, had not ceased to promise her that everything would be fine. The little girl had listened to these words, without really understanding them, without really believing them. People in overalls took her blood pressure, asked her if she had a headache, a feeling of dizziness, nausea... Madeleine hadn't answered anything, far too preoccupied by these people who had come upstairs, with the A.r.g.u.s agent at their head, to see her parents.

Then a long time had passed, with no one coming down. People in jumpsuits try to distract her, were talking to her, but she wasn't paying them any attention. And then the little girl decided enough was enough. She got up from the sofa without saying anything, and ran up the stairs. They tried to stop her, but she freed herself and managed to reach the floor. She rushed into her parents' bedroom, the door of which was open. Inside there were more people in coveralls, and then the A.r.g.u.s agent on the phone. On the other hand, she does not see her parents.

"Where are Mom and Dad?" she asked as worry finally twisted her stomach. Her question remained unanswered, so she repeated the same thing, screaming, on the verge of tears. The agent of A.r.g.u.s then came to stand in front of the girl, and bent down to be at her height. She thus placed her hand on the cheek, in a gesture wanting to be comforting.

"They left..." confessed the agent, because both had died of cardiac arrest, a few minutes apart. The team had done what they could, but the names of Mr. and Mrs. Andus were now added to the list of victims.

The two bodies had been placed in stiff bags. Reason for which, Madeleine had not seen them. How could she have guessed that the two people who meant the most to her were now stored in bags, like inanimate objects? The agent deemed it unnecessarily painful to show the child any more, so she took her by the hand and led her down the hall. A lone tear rolls down Madeleine's cheek as she and the woman slowly descend the stairs.

From that day on, Madeleine was never the same again. The shy and carefree little girl that she was gave way to a lucid child. Very lucid about the reality of the world around her, she learned very early to defend her own interests. When A.r.g.u.s decided that she did not present a risk to the population, despite her exposure to an unknown disease, she was entrusted to an institution welcoming children without family or relatives who could take care of them. This was after spending five full years between the white walls of a laboratory and isolation rooms.

It was an agent she had never met before, who was in charge of her transfer. She got into a black car with tinted windows, and he was in the driver's side. He was dressed in a very formal suit, and exuded professionalism. It was easy for the young girl to guess that he was a rule freak. However, the agent tries to make conversation during the trip they were supposed to share. Madeleine then stared out the window, expressionless. However, he tried to reassure her by telling her that he, too, had spent several years of his life between orphanages and foster families.

However, the future remained for Madeleine as cloudy and opaque as a foggy morning. She seemed, on the surface, not to care, but deep down she kept a certain obsession. Her childhood being over for a long time, the girl found herself in an uncomfortable in-between. She was both young, but no longer possessed that naivety observable in other young people of her age. If she had toughened up? Without a doubt. Madeleine was convinced that life would deprive her of those she loved, so she made a promise to herself not to become attached to anyone...