insomnia [✔]

scene i.

Sitting in the back of a taxi, after giving the driver directions, Madeleine dialed her best friend's number. But, oddly her smartphone was offline. The young woman cursed while trying again, but without success. Maybe her phone had ended up being obsolete? She had had it for years, without ever deciding to change it. So she put the phone in her bag, and sighed while leaning against her file.

"Something wrong, pretty girl?" inquired the driver, looking in the central mirror.

Madeleine rolled her eyes, showing a bad mood that would put off more than one. But she had met a perseverant guy, because the driver showed his interest in her without any subtlety, thinking perhaps that she would end up giving in. It didn't happen. The dark haired girl, hard as steel, royally ignores the advances of this man.

"C'mon, you could be more polite! You're obviously not from Gotham. If I were to take a back road..."

It was the icing on the cake. Madeleine fixed her gaze on the driver. The man smiled, thinking he had scared her off with his little act, and that she would be more willing to be cooperative. However, he noticed with amazement that the young woman's irises were changing color. They were turning purple, violet. The driver's breathing quickened, he couldn't free himself from that strange purple gaze.

During this time, the car was still rushing along a small road lined with majestic trees announcing the forest. The foliage filtered the light considerably, thus adding to this eerie atmosphere. A piercing cry resounded, surprising the birds which left the trees to fly away, towards the sky. Finally, the small car slowly arrived in an alley. Opposite stood the imposing silhouette of a mansion.

Madeleine opened the door by operating the controls on the driver's side. Then the driver also alighted, his arms dangling. A few minutes ahead, he was in the back seat. The dark-haired girl asks him with an exquisite smile to retrieve her suitcase from the trunk, which the man hastens to do, with surprising docility. This scene wouldn't have been surprising if the taxi driver's eyes weren't completely purple.

"Thanks!" smiled Madeleine "Now go back where you came from"

"Fine, ma'am," the taxi driver replied, actually getting back into the taxi.

"Oh... I was about to forget!" exclaimed Madeleine, approaching a lowered window "Like nothing happened here, right?"

"Nothing happened here..." repeated the taxi driver.

"Yeah. You got it. Leave me alone now."

The taxi started immediately and Madeleine moved away to let it maneuver. She stood in front of the pavilion, watching the vehicle shrink until it disappeared completely in the distance. There, she let out a small laugh and snapped her fingers, certain that the taxi driver would be freed from her grasp. Because it was indeed her who had put him in this state, making him his puppet. Otherwise, the ride would have been incommanding for both him and her.

Moreover, she was far from suspecting that someone had witnessed the whole scene from one of the windows on the first floor. She dusted off her clothes, then took a deep breath to cheer herself up. Confronting a stalker was one thing, but meeting a mysterious millionaire was another. For a moment, she thought she had forgotten everything she needed to say. She shook her head, trying to ease her stress.

"It's not like this man is a monster... apart from fortune, he's an ordinary man. Yes, he's an ordinary man. So there's nothing to worry about"

Madeleine inhaled, exhaled, then prepared to knock on the door. Nevertheless, a big clawed paw landed on her shoulder at the same time. She shivered and she didn't want to turn around to see who she was dealing with. Not immediately. She tried to play down the situation by saying to herself: "but... what am I afraid of? to be kidnapped by a moody prince turned into a beast?" The thought made her laugh nervously, and then she, armed with courage, spun around, ready to take control.

Nevertheless, the beast turned out to be a little joker who was very satisfied with his prank. He had green hair, and his face looked familiar to Madeleine. She had seen him somewhere before, that was for sure. The green-haired boy, meanwhile, gently shook his head with an incredulous smile, then invited the young woman to follow him. They bypassed the imposing building and entered an interior courtyard. Madeleine took full advantage of it, imagining what castle life could be like.

Finally, they entered through a small service door which led to a large kitchen. Madeleine's improvised guide smiled a lot and often turned to her to make sure she was behind him. Madeleine didn't hold it against him, because after all, rich people could be weird too. She therefore contented herself with observing the place with a mixture of curiosity and wonder.

As she toured the premises a bit, the sound of pans caught her attention. She met the gaze of the green-haired boy, and the latter had just caught up in extremis with a number of kitchen utensils that were going to crash on the floor. The young man gave a smile that was supposed to mean "everything is under control" but still wavered under the weight of all this bric-a-brac. Madeleine suppressed a giggle, then went to help him.

In no time, everything had been put back in its place, and the green-haired young man could now devote himself to his initial mission which was to cook pizzas. He had announced this with a sparkle in his eyes and overflowing enthusiasm. Madeleine then conceived the idea that it must be a young chef who was a little crazy, but undoubtedly very talented.

"It reminds me of this Italian restaurant..." declared Madeleine pensively, "I must not have gone there often, because I have almost no memory of it. On the other hand, the food was excellent. I have good memories of it. Seems like I was with a friend..."

The young man smiled discreetly while kneading the dough. He didn't want to rush Madeleine at the risk of breaking his promise to respect her decisions no matter what. Madeleine had deliberately chosen to erase from her own memory a considerable part of the memories they had in common, judging that it was best for her to resume a normal life. Too much had happened in such a short time...

In fact, several months had passed since the confrontation at the carnival. Still, it felt good to see Madeleien again after all this time. Even if he couldn't say it to her face, he had missed her a lot, and thinking about her often left him pensive, oscillating between pain and bittersweet joy. He thought now that she was there, right next to him and that was all that mattered at the moment.