Discontinued

Chapter IV: Lost Count

"Ugh!" Her mother grunted, and looked over a pair of pants, flipping them around and looking at Madlynn. She sighed exhaustingly and shook her head, "Damn pants, you can never tell how they're going to fit with testing them," she shrugged and shoved the clothes at Madelynn, "Go try those on, I want to see them!"

Madelynn sighed and rolled her eyes, but did as she was told. She turned on her heel and stalked to the change rooms, asking the sales assistant for a room. When she entered, she dumped the clothes into a messy pile on the wood bench, and glowered. I don't want to try on clothes mom! She grunted.

Madelynn started pulling her shirt over her head, then stopped for a moment, looking at herself in the mirror. She couldn't help but scowl at herself, her hair was messy and her clothes were twisted around herself. God, really? She asked herself. She hated her hair. It was a strawberry blond colour, and ran past her shoulders, completely straight. Her eyes were a stormy grey brown, and her skin was fair and pale. She was short, maybe 5.4" feet tall, and everyone considered her a little tyke. She hated that too. She only weighted around 105 lb., but that wasn't horrible was it?

Shaking herself out of that train of thought, she stripped and slipped into a pair of washed out jeans and a tight fitting v-neck shirt. She quickly opened and shut the dressing room for behind her, and walked over to where her mom was. Even though she would rather just try them on and ignore her mothers demand, she felt that today was a day if rest. She didn't want to give her mother more stress to work with than she already had. She was thinking proudly at her decision, until she heard a soft murmuring coming from behind a rack-- her mothers voice.

Madelynn walked up and stood behind another rack, peeking through the clothes at her mothers form; she was hunched over, cellphone in hand and pressed to her hear urgently. Madelynn frowned, what was she doing? Her mothers lips moved rapidly, and sound came out, but it wouldn't transfer into words for Madelynn. She stood there, and shook her head. Only then did she suddenly hear her mothers voice again.

"-- You're saying that she will be there, no doubt? She's already here now? Good grief, you don't hesitate. So the proof was on the USB, correct? It wasn't photo shopped?" Miss Swanee paused, then nodded in understanding, "it makes sense that she looks older now... Haven't seem her in all of five years it seems! How on earth did you find her again? Literally? Where are Lori and Jack, then? No evidence of them? That's insane! I've known Lori my whole life, and Jack another fraction of it before their disappearance! Everyone was devastated, you can't tell me they were documented as never existing!" Her voice shook as it rose, annoyance and irritation rolling from her tone. Her shoulders shook and she started sobbing out, shaking her head, "No... My sister is not gone! You can't call and tell me that... That she never existed! I may be human, and she too, but that doesn't make any sense! How could you have her daughter then, if she never existed?"

Madelynn's eyes widened and her eyebrows rose to her hairline. Her dead cousin? It couldn't be true. She died when she was in the midst of thirteen years old. It was impossible do her to have lived through what her mother had described as the 'home raid attack' on the Flores home. She was talking about her right? She couldn't quite remember his name, but she knew she had a brother around her age when they were alive, and she had dark hair and fair skin, not much else. Not even her name. It came blank to her.

She had used to hang out with her cousin when they were little, and she knew her aunt Lori and uncle Jack fairly well. Aunt Lori was her mothers year older sister, and they're relationship was very strong until she vanished. In fact, the while family and her own were almost always together, but excluding one member. Her cousins brother was not so much into hanging our with her, or the rest of the family she rarely saw him in person or even in pictures. She couldn't remember his name, age, what he looked like, or what happened to him at all. Her mother thinks that he's still alive and either forgot who he was or didn't want to be found. Madelynn sadly shook her head at the thought, but why?