insomnia [✔]

scene. iv

Madeleine came to her senses. Her eyes were dim. All her memories had come back to her. Everything. Not just what A.r.g.u.s had deigned to leave her. She remembered insignificant, yet precious details. Her mother's laugh, the smell of the sweet potato pie her father was bakings on sunday afternoons, Thanksgiving, birthdays... So many episodes of her life that no one had the right to take away from her!

The young woman now understood that an entire town had fallen asleep because of her. It was the first time her power had manifested. She now made this link of cause and effect. Yet she had no clear idea how it had happened, how she had done it. She will have to find out.

She couldn't see much because of the darkness in the living room, so she fumbled around for a light switch. When she found it, she let out a cry of surprise when she saw Gar lying on the ground, eyes closed. He looked unconscious. The young woman's heart began to beat faster when she realized that it was because of her that he was in this state. The young woman therefore squats next to the boy. She didn't really know what to do, so she gently grabbed his face.

She entered the young man's mind unwittingly. He was locked in a cage, in his tiger form. He roared fiercely, so that Madeleine hesitated to approach him. But she had to fix her mistake, so she reached through the bars. Gar scratched at her, slashing her forearm. The young woman gritted her teeth to keep from screaming in pain, and closed her eyes. She ordered Gar to wake up while telling him how sorry she was.

It lasted a few moments. But when she opened her eyes again, the bars of the cage had crumbled into purple sand. Gar was lying in the sand, in human form. He was breathing heavily, and looked exhausted. Madeleine knelt down, and took his head in her hands. Then she pressed her forehead to his.

Everything is back to normal. Madeleine had managed to free Gar from her grip. The dark-haired girl was greatly relieved and apologized again while helping the young man straighten up.

"That's was crazy..." whispered Gar "Are you okay? I saw what they did to you..."

"It's OK... answered Madeleine who seemed appeased "It belongs to the past..."

"Good..." Gar agreed.

"Uh... Gar? There's a... undressed man in the living room..." muttered Madeleine, putting her hand on as a blinder.

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A tall, black-haired, blue-eyed boy was hungrily devouring a bowlful of cinnamon cereal. He was dressed, but uneasiness was still remained. A dog was standing by his side. A medium-sized white dog, to whom he sometimes addressed himself by calling him "buddy" sometimes "krypto" (which was a strange name for a dog, Madeleine thought to herself). But the ice had to be broken, so Gar asked the young man what his name was. The boy stopped eating for a few seconds. He had barely swallowed his bite when he replied, "Conner."

"OK... So I'm Gar and she is..." the green-haired boy said to begin the introductions.

"You...!" Conner interrupted immediately, but he was actually addressing Madeleine "You were in my dream."

"Really?" replied Madeleine while giving Gar a look of incomprehension. The boy shrugged his shoulders, a sign that he didn't know any more than she did.

"You woke me up thanks to you. Madeleine…" Conner explained then took another spoonful of cinnamon cereal. Gar tells him he can't go on like this, so he goes and gets him a bottle of milk. Meanwhile, Madeleine listened, speechless. She thought she only had an effect on Gar, but it was likely that Conner was also affected.

"Did I say anything in particular?" asked the dark haired girl.

"Hm? You said: wake up! Wake up!" Conner replied, raising his voice to imitate Madeleine.

"I don't talk like that!" the young woman frowned indignantly.

Gar burst out laughing and Madeleine on hearing him threatened him saying, "Keep it up and I'll take you for a nap!"

She didn't really mean it, but she didn't want to be left out by the budding complicity between the two guys. Gar apologized, though his eyes were still laughing. And Conner, who hadn't acted to tease Madeleine, merely observed them while savoring his cereal without milk.

By force of circumstance, they now formed a crew. Madeleine didn't know what to think anymore, so she approached Krypto to pat him on the head. She thought he was the only normal living being in the room, but Conner unknowingly corrected her, saying they were both from a lab. Krypto was therefore faster, smarter and stronger than a normal dog and his eyes could shoot laser beams. Madeleine therefore stopped stroking the animal's head and murmured: "You'd be a nice doggy not to kill me..."

"You too have some kind of special abilities, I guess..." Gar said as he poured the milk into the bowl Conner was still holding.

"My mother, Eve Watson, told me that I'm the superman clone..." Conner answered.

"Amazing!" Gar exclaimed.

"I have Lex Luthor DNA too," Conner added, and he had a sulky face.

"Nobody's perfect," Gar replied, patting him on the shoulder.

"We all have a dark side. The trick is that you have to fight against it. Find the balance..." Madeleine mused, stretching, "By the way, I would take cereal, too."

"Uh... Sorry, looks like we're out of cereals" Gar answered "We can make pancakes instead, if you want?"

"Okay..." replied the young woman.