Chapter Two

The next morning, I awoke with sweat all over myself, yet again another nightmare. They seemed to become more frequent as I get older and getting worse. Its like I am living in all over again, in real time. Sometimes they seem like innocent dreams, but to me, any memory is a nightmare for me, as I wish that they weren’t taken from me and that I could have that type of life everyday as I got older and older.

*MEMORY – 1689*

Five-year-old Madison

"Butterfly, my dear, it's time to get up for breakfast. We are all waiting for you" My mother gently shakes me awake, I slowly open my eyes and instantly put the blanket over my head, trying to block out the light that shone into my room. Mother must’ve opened them while I was sleeping.

"Mama, its soooooo bright, why do I have to get up so early" I ask a bit muffled as the blanket overed my mouth a little. I heard my mother giggle at my reaction to the light, I

Slowly pulled the blanket off my face to peer at my mother, she just sat there looking at me with her one hazel-brown eye and one pale blue eye, and a bright smile on her face. I scrunched my face and put the blanket over my face again. She still didn’t move for a few more minutes, until she started to tickle me. "Stop mama, pwease stop”!

I said, in between laughter, she then threw the blanket off me and then started the tickle attack again. I must’ve been laughing very loudly, because I heard father eater the room and ask us, with a wide smile on his face, "What's going on in here". They both knew the only way to get me out of bed was to tickle me. My father too joined into the tickle party.

*PRESENT – 1702*

A knock was sounded at my door and then I heard Aunt Ce say, "Madison, it’s time to get up your late for breakfast and the boys have started to eat, you know what that means" I get up and head towards my closet, I pick out a lovely long flowery dress, and put on a pair of white flats. Afterwards, I walk downstairs into the dining room, when I entered into the dining room, I saw the boys were getting scolded by Aunt again. I wonder what they did this time, they were always up to something. I just giggle and head to my spot. The maid brought out my meal, this morning it some fruits and toast, with black tea. After finishing my meal, I went back to the library and grabbed a new book, The Prince and decided to head outside to my favourite spot. Its an old tree that sits on the hill, it has a great view, on one side you can see my whole Aunts garden and on the other, was a river. Sometimes I would go to the river on a hot summer’s day. With the boys always being loud and causing trouble, it’s the only spot close to Aunts house that is quiet and peaceful. I’ve been up here hundreds of times, but this time, I noticed something glittering in the grass, just below the tree. I kneel to inspect it, to only find a necklace, only to find that it was my mother’s necklace. Father gave it to me after mother passed, as a little token to remember her by. My father made it specially for her, it was a silver cross with vines and small red roses, the strangest thing is that I lost it many years ago, around when I was about thirteen years old, I knew I didn’t loose it up here, so I didn’t know how it could’ve made it up here in the first place, I decided to just forget about it and put it on. Tucking it under my dress to keep it safe, not to lose it again.

I then sat down under the tree and lend up against it to read my book, but it seemed after a bit. With the soft breeze, birds chirping and the rustling of the leaves, I ended up drifting off to sleep. "Madison! Wake up", Grey was shaking me, I opened my eyes, to see Grey next to me. He looked red in the face and was breathing quite heavily; he must’ve been running around looking for me. I’m hardly ever in this spot, I have many different spots and this one always seems to be the last one they look. I must’ve been sleeping for a while as no one normally disturbs me, but I guess they had to this time, because I wasn’t in my room.

"Mother, has been looking for you, it’s lunch time and she noticed your not in your room, So she requested us to go find you” Grey said, getting up and started to run back towards the house, “I’ll meet you there, I want to eat, otherwise Henry may eat my food too” He yelled back at me. I just giggled, Henry would totally do that, or he would play a prank on Grey. I grab my book and get up off the floor to head back towards the house, as I got closer to the house, I could hear the boys yelling at each other and my Aunt yelling at the boys. Henry must’ve pulled a prank on Grey, when I got to the dining room, everyone seemed to have cooled down. “Madison, I search everywhere for you dear” Aunt said, then looked down at my dress, “Madison, your dress has grass stains all over it, you know how I feel about that” she said, disappointed, but left it at that. I looked down and she was right, there was a bright green stain. I wanted to brush it but knew I would either spread it or get into trouble again. So, I decided to ignore it and sit down at the table. The maid brought out a plate with two meat pies and a glass of cider.

After eating, I decided to go finish the rest of my book in the library, when I entered the library, I noticed the fireplace was lit, which met that my Aunt was in here again. She had an allocated area in the library, but no one is allowed in that area. I decided to go sit by the fireplace, there is a leather sofa that was close by, so I sat down onto it. I opened my book and got lost in it, once again. When I ended up finishing the book, I noticed it was close to dinner time, so I put the book away and headed up to my room to wash up. When I was finished, dinner was ready. So, I went back downstairs and into the dining room and sat down at the table.

The maid brought out bowl of beef stew, bread, and a glass of cider. Once we all finished dinner, the maid cleaned up the table and returned with a small plate of fruit pies and black tea for everyone. We all finished our meals and headed off towards our rooms for a good night’s sleep. We all said our good nights and left. When I entered my room, it was lit up by a single candle that sat next to my bed on my bedside table. One of the maids go up to each of our rooms and light them for us all to see. I climbed into bed and blew the candle out.