MADISON

I find a pair of blue eyes that I eventually find hard to focus on along with a smile full of little white teeth.

"Alison?" I say with my voice forced and hoarse.

"Daddy she woke up!" she shouts making me jump before she runs out and that's what really wakes me up. I look around to find my reflection on the mirrors that surround me. Why am I in the lab? When did I get here?

I am connected once more to an IV that drops a transparent fluid into my body through my wrist. I have a black bracelet that has several little blinking lights. On the mirror next to me I find out that my hair is a complete mess, my skin has a yellow tinge and that Im wearing a hospital dress.

"Morning sunshine," Wen enters the room with Alison next to him. Wait. He enters with Alison so she previously had gotten out... how? He stands next to me and checks on the bag with the liquid, then take out a syringe.

"No," I say hiding my arms and that makes him look at me raising his brows. "You are not doing anything to me." Talking ends up being hard as I have to force my voice for the words to get out.

"It just has to get red," says Alison and when I look her. Wen takes advantage of it to take my arm. "It doesn't hurt," says Alison right when the needle punctures my skin.

It hurts.

"Well done Ali, that's how we do it," Wen congrats her and takes out the needle changing it for a wet cotton. "It wasn't that hard right?" he says and takes my blood with him.

"Look," says Alison climbing up and crawling quickly to reach me. It surprises me to see that she's wearing denim shorts and a green blouse with a butterfly on it, instead of the white clothes she usually has on her. She shows me her arms and I don't see anything. Anything. I don't get what's going on.

"Surprise," Dylan is the next one to get in, followed by my mother and Sarah.

"Welcome back," says Sarah and leans to give me a kiss on my forehead.

"Where did I go?" is all I am able to ask but everyone just look at each other. "What's going on?"

"You slept too much!" Alison is the only one that replies and my mother makes a sign for Sarah to take her out.

"Let's go with the puppy Ali," she says taking her on her arms and she nods excited before leaving. Dylan follows them after telling me to get better and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

"Mom?" I ask and when she looks at me I think she's about to cry.

"We won," she tells me. "Now shes an official American citizen," she explains and I nod, smiling.

"That's good news, she seems happy," I say and she nods before a tear travels down her cheek.

"She's a sweet child, you were just like her," she says before her voice breaks and my father and Wen join us. This time the crystal door closes behind them.

"What's going on?" I say with a lump in my throat. My mother just keeps crying.

"You are sick," Wen begins to say when nobody else decide to do it. "At the prom, your heart stopped working how it was supposed to, so your blood wasn't circulating the way it should have been till you fell unconscious." I frown. I can't remember anything. As far as I know I was just dancing with Dylan and suddenly appeared here. "We got you back with this machine," he points up at the Signefrex. "But you are still too weak. You slept for two complete days."

"Why?" I ask.

"We don't know, your immune system is very weak now. We don't know if it is a virus or a disease, we don't know," says my mother and Wen nods along with my father. "But this explains the fever, the faints and the tiredness." I nod without anything else to say. What else am I supposed to do? I can't do anything against it, it's not like my body would suddenly recover just for thinking of it.

"I would like to talk with Madison, privately," says Wen a few minutes later bringing me back from my thoughts. My face is wet from my tears. My mother looks from me to him, unsure.

"I have nothing to talk with you," I say seriously but no one seems to take it in consideration. My mother just squeezes my hand like telling me to be strong and then she just leaves the room with my father.

I follow his movements without looking anywhere but his blue eyes till he sits down on the edge of the bed. I don't know why but I feel lack of breath when he starts talking.

"I suppose you understand that what you and your mother did affected us in many ways. Don't you?" I just keep my eyes on him and when I say nothing he forces half a smile raising his eyebrows. "What did Georgina tell you?" I frown and look away from him.

"I don't want to talk to you," I reply.

"Do you know the reason why this room is full of mirrors?" he makes a gesture with his hands to show me the five mirrors that form the room. "So that we don't miss any movement or reaction of whoever is in here."

"Interesting," I reply sarcastically and he sighs. "Why don't you just tell me what you want and leave me alone?"

He nods.

"When we granted your mother full custody of you in order to get you out of here, she signed some contracts with the Investigation Centre and us to keep your background confidential," he explains. "But it also kept her from telling you anything about this: she had to keep it hidden. If any of your parents ever broke that then the pact had to be cancelled."

"What do you mean?"

"I think I made you intelligent enough to know what I mean." My heart begins to beat faster and the little bracelet begins flashing and beeping. "I thought that ignoring it at the beginning was the best, especially because of you and what it implied in your life. I never thought you were going to do that idiocy you did to be honest, but then, you took the girl." I gulp and he forces me a small smile. "After the trial we believed the best thing to do was to make your mother pay for the broken dishes along with you so we made what the contract established effective immediately. Your custody is now mine and your mother has no longer authority over you."

I feel like I lost all my breath. I suffocate and feel like I am going to faint but instead of that I let out a little cry that lets out the tears from my eyes. Did my mother know this? What's going to happen with me?

"What do you want from me?" my voice breaks at the end.

"I'm going to be totally honest with you. I think you are intelligent enough to deal with it... Do you remember that blue syringe back in LA?" I immediately remember the pain, the nauseas and how the only thing I wanted to do was sleep.

"That made me sick," I say out loud when I notice what it implies and Wen begins clapping.

"Wow you are really smart," he says faking his surprise and the bracelet begins to make noise again. "That substance is impossible to be traced inside your body. It attacks every single system and organ. It's going to make you start failing like an old car sweetie, little by little until there's nothing left of you to repair," he says having fun. I gulp. Am I going to die? "I told you we weren't going to let this just go away. You caused too many problems and who knows what you could cause later. I am not taking any chances," he makes a little caress on my cheek cleaning the tears that run through it one after the other. I don't move, I don't even react, I just keep crying.

"My mother is going to destroy you," I threaten him between my cries and he nods raising his eyebrows.

"I wouldn't expect anything else. That's why you are our perfect distraction luv," he says letting me go. "She is going to do anything that is on her power for you to recover. Pills, injections, maybe she would even use Alison trying to save you. But any of that would only make the substance stronger. She's going to try everything to get you back and I'm going to let her do it."

"I am going to tell her." He laughs.

"Go ahead, that will help us even more." He stands up and forces me another smile. "Unlike your mother, we did think of everything." I gulp in reply before the tears begin flowing faster out of my eyes. "It's going to be really painful for you once it begins," he keeps pressing, "but fortunately I have an alternative for you."

I raise my crying eyes to look at him. "I would save you in exchange of you coming with me to London."

"I would rather die before going anywhere with you," I reply.

"Well if that's what you want no one can't stop you then," he says raising his hands and I just gulp. "I thought you were going to think of Levy and your boyfriend before deciding anything."

"Why would you want me in London?" I ask this time and he smiles.

"As I told you before, we just want your mother to be distracted, Madison, and you are the perfect tool," he says. "You would be able to go to college there if that's what you want to do. You'll be living a very normal life away from the troubles that youve caused here--and youll be under my watch, obviously. Then, when all of this matter is over, if you behave, I might even let you return with your family and your friends. "

"That doesn't make any sense," I accuse him.

"Maybe not to you, but I won't waste time explaining every single detail to you now," he says. "You should thank me instead for letting you choose."

"Thank you?" I say annoyed. "For making me decide between dying or living a miserable life?!"

"Oh come on, London is not that bad," he jokes and the fact that he dares to joke now makes me explode in rage.

"I hate you!" I shout, "I hate you! I'm not a toy you could use however you want! You're sick! Leave me alone!" I cry.

"Oh, don't act like a child," he says calmly over my cries. "The cards are on the table, sweetheart. I don't need an answer now, I am sure you'll get a clearer idea sooner or later about what you would like to do. There's no need to hurry."

"Get out!" I cry covering myself with the blanket so that I can't see his stupid face anymore and let myself drown in my tears and cries.

I hate being in the middle of this mess. I'm not winning anything, I just keep losing every single second that passes by. I am exhausted, I am sick and tired of this shit.

Why did I have to hear that talk? Why couldn't I just mind my own business and keep living my boring 'normal' life? Why did my mother have to save me in the first place? If I could just go back to that moment I would have preferred to die. I wouldn't have mind. I wouldn't have known I was missing everything in this other world. I wouldn't have cared. I wouldn't be feeling this way.

I wish I could die right now, I wish that stupid substance in my body would kill me right now so that I don't have to see anyone's face ever again. So that I don't have to hear any more lies or truths I never wanted to hear.

Why can't I just think of me before anyone else? Why can't I just do whatever the hell I want without caring about how it would affect others? How does anyone decide for me before I get to do it myself?

I want this to be over now.

EDITED BY: @JADEFOLIAGE

THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY YOU GUYS! I'M SO PROUD I GET TO MAKE IT IN TIME FOR THIS CHAPTER! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT? WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT? DO YOU THINK THAT MADISON IS GOING TO ACCEPT THE DEAL?

MAKE SURE TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW AND VOTE IF YOU LIKED IT!

Read you later.

-MF. Hernandez

Next Chapter: March 1st, 2019.