insomnia [✔]

scene. iii

"I hope that didn't freak you out too much?" Gar exclaimed as he finished putting on his sweatshirt.

"Definitely not! It was really impressive! My skepticism flew away." answered Madeleine, arms crossed.

Basically, she was a little scared, but she'll never want to admit it. Anyway, she really admired the boy's power. She thought he had the makings of a superhero. Or at least the abilities.

"Your turn," smiled Gar.

Madeleine waggled her eyebrows. She had no extraordinary abilities. For her, it was even a certainty. No matter how strange her visions, the young woman did not want to believe that she was an exceptional being. She couldn't transform into an animal, and laser beams didn't come out of her eyes.

"I don't have any superpowers, Gar. I'm just a little weird..." replied Madeleine.

"Maybe you refuse them..." Gar said.

"Look, maybe it's better if we just forget all about this." declared Madeleine.

"Madeleine..."

"Maybe I'm not such a good person...I'm starting to think I'm very, very bad"

"You don't have to be perfect to be a hero. We all have things we regret having done, mistakes we wish we hadn't made. But, hey! It happened, and you have to deal with it, move on."

"What I've done is very serious, Gar... I'm afraid I'll end up hating myself if I ever try to find out more. It would probably be better if I didn't meet the boy from the Circus. "

"Why are you so pessimistic?"

The young woman felt a wave of toxic emotions invading her until submerging her like a tide. Her worries were rippling, and all that guilt she'd been trying to suppress came crashing down. Her past felt like a Pandora's box. Each time she lifted the lid, a little more darkness came out. There was a reason she couldn't remember her childhood.

"I...killed my parents..." murmured Madeleine "They died because of me!"

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Madeleine was standing in front of a bay window, looking at the buildings. The view was impressive, but also gave rise to somewhat dark desires... She wanted to dive, in the hope that everything would stop. Dive, then rise to the surface having left her worries at the bottom of the water. But it was not the redemption that awaited her, if she were to throw herself from the top of one of these buildings.

Gar had distanced himself. Not because of the revelation she had made, but rather because he saw that there was no point in rushing her. He was still around in case she needed anything. Several hours passed thus. The fell and Madeleine was still staring at the bird's eye view. Gar called her from the kitchen to ask her if she wanted to eat anything in particular, but she answered in a flat voice that she didn't want to eat.

Gar didn't insist, but it still bothered him a bit. He felt responsible. He doubts for a moment, and says to himself that the young woman was perhaps right, and that it was better to forget everything and go back to their separate ways. But, he couldn't bring himself to let her down. She needed help, like that time when thugs surrounded her and she was going to sacrifice herself for her friend...

Madeleine had more potential than she could imagine, but she refused to see it because of the dark side that implied.

Since the sun had set, it became difficult to distinguish the outlines of objects. Gar therefore approached a switch, but abruptly stopped in his gesture. He was like frozen, and his eyes changed color to purple. A strange phenomenon was operating. He thought he had come back to himself, he was in a house. There were people in anti-contamination suits, like those who protected against radioactivity or bacteriological risks. He tried to speak to one of these people, but they didn't seem to see or hear him.

It was then that he saw a little girl sitting on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, cup of hot chocolate in her hands. People in jumpsuits were trying to reassure her, but she was still in shock. Gar moved closer and was surprised to recognize Madeleine.

"What happened here?"

Gar looks around, but still doesn't understand the situation. As several guys in coveralls walked back and forth between upstairs and downstairs, the green-haired boy ran up the stairs. There were two bedrooms facing each other, on either side of the corridor. Gar decided to enter the one on his right first.

The door was ajar, so he pushed it gently. Inside, he discovered a person's back, facing the window. He recognized Madeleine as he had met her. He took her by the hand to make her turn on herself. Her eyes were entirely purple and bright. But her face was expressionless. Gar hold her in his arms, but she slipped away between him, in the form of purple sand. Then, cracks appeared all over the room, as if it had destroyed itself. Gar hurried back to the hallway as quickly as he could, but it was dark and he felt like he was falling.

The landing was brutal. So it's half stunned that the green-haired boy got back on his feet. He straightened up and immediately looked for Madeleine. He saw her through a window. It looked like one of those police interrogation rooms, except everything was pristine white. The atmosphere was almost medical. The dark-haired young woman was dressed in a white hospital pajamas, and wore a badge with an identification number. There were still men in contamination suits around her, but Gar couldn't see what they were doing. So he approached the window. He discovered with horror that Madeleine was firmly attached and had a kind of stick between her teeth.

"I have a bad feeling. A really really bad feeling..."

A guy in a jumpsuit that covered him from head to toe, flicked a syringe filled to the brim. The liquid was a strange orange color. He seemed to say something to Madeleine and she nodded. The man with the syringe then gave a discreet sign to his colleagues, who approached. One held Madeleine's head to immobilize it, and the others checked the ties that fastened the young woman to the chair.

Without warning, the man in the jumpsuit planted the syringe in Madeleine's neck. She fidgeted, yelling at him to stop, but the man who must have been a scientist, cold-blooded, only withdrew the needle once the fluid was well administered. The dark-haired young woman began to convulse right after.

"Nooooo!" Gar shouted, then in rage he changed into a tiger and broke the window to get through and join Madeleine.