A Little Adventure Wouldn't Hurt

Madeline Darsby was just another bookworm in a sea of cell phones and laptop screens. Book spines found her fingers at a young age when she would do nothing but dive into pages of another world. She would immediately be drawn to fiction and often lived in those fantastic worlds were knights fought for princesses and witches brewed strange spells. Once she finished a world she would jump to the next, always trying out different places to make her imagination burst. Sometimes she would wander into ghost stories, only to be chased out by some horrible man eating monster or terrifying ghost. But she would always creep back in, waiting for the danger to subside, and words to bring her temporary solace until she would meet with the monsters once more.

Despite her thirst for books, she would often stand out with her copper locks that accented her freckles nicely which she always tried to hide behind her glasses. Madeline was often picked on for those crimson speckles just beneath her hazel eyes. Freckle face and pizza head were just to name a few. At first it bothered her, but the more she sought solace in literature the more the insults seemed to roll off her back. She didn't even notice after a while or care, knowing that nothing could harm her in the comfort of her books.

Madeline had a one track mind as to where her feet were taking her. She had been saving up money for the past few weeks at her part time job at the local cafe. Tips were grateful in aiding to her cause to visit the new bookstore that had just opened up in town. It had been open for at least a week and already people were drawn to it; so much so that there were rumors of people disappearing in the shop. Madeline's mother worried about that gossip and how it spread through the town. Already two women had gone missing with no sign of their return. Even the bookstore's owner appeared to know nothing other than the female's appearances and that they had supposedly disappeared no sooner they left his store. Officers Crowley and Marley, two cops in the town's crime force, had thoroughly examined the shop to see if the old man was lying; from their search they found that the old man had been right and that they were nowhere in the shop. The only clues found were loose hairs from the women's heads, but even they offered no information. Friends and families of the women were questioned and provided nothing useful other than the fact that the women claimed they were going to the bookstore.

Madeline shrugged off those rumors like the insults she had received from bullies. They were stories people had made up to scare people away from the shop. Though her conscious began to work, asking her questions and making her rethink her idea of the vanishing women. They couldn't have just disappeared into air; they weren't ghosts as far as anyone was concerned. There had to be more than met the eye in this case and maybe, just maybe the police knew something. Maybe it was all a giant conspiracy and the newspaper only told the people so much before they kept the actual truth to themselves.

Or maybe Madeline was just imagining things.

Her imagination did tend to get the best of her at times, despite her firm grasp on reality. Today her imagination wouldn't dominate her unless she was nose deep in a book filled with a thrilling adventure.

The street ahead of her vanished a little past the bookstore before her and converted to sand sweeping down to the sea. The bookshop was rested before the ocean which made Madeline wonder if the owner picked the place for a scenic view. Smiling to herself, Madeline knew she would have done the same thing if she was running a business in a beach town. As she neared the store, she watched the moon rise from the skies and the sun slowly set into the sea. Her mother's bakery would stay open at this time of the night, especially in this balmy summer. More people were out and about on the streets in the hanging lamp lit twilight. Tourists roamed the streets, looking for something new and her mother's bakery was no exception. The woman not only baked the usual pastries, but often whipped up her own creations like a maple cruller with bacon icing and pecans. That was the best concoction that everyone loved, but Madeline's heart belonged to the vanilla fudge pound cake. Madeline smiled, knowing her mother would be busy at least until ten serving the mouths of visitors. She wouldn't have to worry about her interfering with her plans.