insomnia [✔]

scene. iv

When the young woman finally returned home, dawn was already rising. Even if the windows of her house were closed, plunging it into total darkness, before a finger pressed the switch to turn on the light. Nevertheless, Madeleine, much too exhausted, collapses on her sofa, immediately after having closed the door behind her, and without taking the time to remove her coat. She still gathers her last strength to remove her shoes and put them away at the bottom of the sofa. Once done, the young woman lay down completely with a sigh.

The images of the evening replayed in her mind like a film, and she felt nauseous at the mere memory of this swirling and exhilarating atmosphere. And then, she thought back to Eddie who had tried to kiss her by force, which she still couldn't believe. This gesture had seemed so inappropriate to her, that she even began to doubt that it had really happened. Madeleine shook her head to free herself from these unpleasant thoughts, then closed her eyes to fall asleep. Anyway, a long day of work awaited him the next day, or rather the same day because it was to be close to 4am.

Her wish was granted, as she fell asleep almost immediately. On the other hand, her sleep immersed her in a strange dream. She was in a circus, in the center which was flooded with light. The flashes came from everywhere, and she could not distinguish the faces of the spectators who were only dark silhouettes. She didn't know what to do, standing in dead silence. And then, the light of one of the projectors which was aimed at her, detached itself from the others to go and illuminate a person in the public. To Madeleine's surprise, it was Samantha.

Madeleine smiled then, convinced that her friend would know how to explain to her why and how, but Samantha was not herself. She wore an old military uniform, like that of the Nutcracker in the tale. His movements were jerky, almost robotic. Madeleine then had to call her with all her might, so that she would finally look in her direction. When this was the case, the dark-haired girl felt reassured and went to speak to her friend, but she started to shout:

"Ladies and gentlemen! For your greatest pleasure! Haly's Circus offers you a colorful first show! Without further ado, our knife-throwing specialist: Madeleine Andrus! A round of applause for Mademoiselle Andrus and her partner in tango, Eddie!"

Madeleine frowned when she heard the word tango, then realized that she was wearing a dapper red dress effectively suited for this type of dance. "What's the heck? I thought it was a fucking metaphor!" thought Madeleine, and then she looked around her, and clowns who made you want to cry with terror more than laugh, took Eddie away and installed him on a sort of giant disc where they took care to spin him. The blond was blindfolded, but smiling.

"I can't do that..." declared Madeleine. "That's out of the question. This is all pure madness! You're all mad. All of you!"

"Darling, just follow the music and remember the choreography that we rehearsed. Yes, do like the rehearsal and everything will be fine!" Eddie exclaimed.

His intervention only exasperated Madeleine more than she was. So she clenched her fists, feeling the anger rising, but her hand closed on the handle of a knife. The handle was engraved with a thorny rose design. The audience was growing impatient, and the creepy clowns were stalking her. They looked like Pierro, straight out of Commedia dell'arte. Madeleine under the effect of stress threw the knife she had in her hand. She had closed her eyes doing this, and was afraid to open them again.

"On target !" Samantha huffed.

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When Madeleine finally opened her eyes, she discovered with horror that the knife was planted right in the heart of Eddie, still blindfolded. Blood was running down his white shirt, so the young woman rushed to him to apologize, despite the clowns who tried to stop her because she was supposedly risking spoiling the show. Madeleine was now standing in front of the blonde and he was no longer smiling. She didn't know if she should remove the knife or not, and then giving in to anguish, she grabbed the object to pull it out of her victim's chest, but Eddie let out an excruciating cry.

The dark-haired girl jumped back, and the blade turned into a thorny red rose. Eddie, who in the meantime had been detached from the giant disc, with a graceful, almost dramatic gesture, removed the rose from his chest. You could see that red beads in the shape of drops had replaced the blood that had run a few minutes earlier on his white shirt. From now on, he advanced towards Madeleine, and knelt down when he was near her, to give her the rose. Madeleine shook her head, completely dazed. Eddie took her by the hand then, to make her waltz and the spotlights diffused a softer light with pale orange hues.

Everything faded away around them. It was total darkness illumined only by the single spotlight that followed their slightest movement. Eddie was spinning Madeleine in a waltz worthy of a fairy tale ball, but Samantha's voice kept ringing out. She was shouting, "Ladies and gentlemen, watch the show!" and her voice sounded strange. Madeleine searched for where she came from, but it seemed like nothingness around them. Neither beginning nor end. So she wanted to ask Eddie where they were now, but Eddie, still blindfolded, just smiled while telling her that she had been perfect and that he didn't blame her.

"This is madness. None of this is real!" exclaimed Madeleine, returning to her initial statement "I have to get out of here!"

This is how the young woman jostled Eddie, and started to run in an unknown direction. A searchlight was still following her, and then she arrived in front of three doors. These three doors were all similar, sky blue in color, but something in Madeleine told her that only one should be opened. She hesitated for a long time, then chose the middle one. There was someone inside, and the young woman had to step back to let him out. It was then that she recognized the boy in the park, the one who had returned her wallet. He was no different from her memories, and stood in front of her, smiling. Madeleine smiled back.

A terrible roar, however, interrupted this short moment of tranquility. Samantha was still screaming at the audience and saying "SHE HAS TO OPEN IT!" to which the spectators responded with enthusiastic cries. When Madeleine looked again in the direction of the doors, the one on the left had disappeared, so that only the one from which the boy had come out and the one on the right remained. "Since all of this makes no sense, we might as well go through with it" resigned Madeleine and she opened the third door, under the benevolent and somewhat shy gaze of the boy.

"If I'm not back in five minutes, call 911." Madeleine said to the green-haired boy.