The Hunting Of Locksworth Tower

Chapter 4: I Remember

( Flashback#4 Madeline's POV. )

I remember talking to Big Brother Victor and then everything went dark as I closed my tired eyes. I had a cold sweat about me and I felt as if it were winter as the, warm, spring air brushed against my skin.

I remember feeling a warmth against my forehead as I began to slip off into the land of sleep.

I remember feeling calm and happy when I Finally met Victor in person. I feel ashamed, he had to see me in such condition. I feel, I was rude to have not been able to fight my eyes as I began to drift away faster and faster until I was in darkness. My world of happiness trapped inside the back of my mind. The place where I am loved and wanted. A place where I can see Big Brother Stephen.

I was about two or three and I lived in the Locksworth mansion for a while. Mr. Locksworth looked down at me with loving eyes, then. That was until he found out that I was not his daughter to love, but another man's seedling.

"It is funny if you ask me." I remember telling Sam, my teacher. He used to call me little sprout. I asked him why he called me that.

" I call you that because of your outstanding love for nature and your beautiful, green and blue, eyes. You have such lovely eyes for such a lonely child. Just looking at you makes me feel like the world could be a better place for people like you and me, you see, my little sprout. You are a lovely little creature, full of beauty and grace. You could draw your dreams and they may some day, come to life. You are a one of a kind, Madeline. You are still growing, so I will call you sprout now, but when you grow to be a Bella, I shall call you a flower." He told me with a genuine smile and his happy, hazel, irises sparkling in the sunlight that shown through my window.

I remember the time he drew me a daffodil for my birthday. That was also the day I accidentally called him ' Dad '. He smiled and said nothing about it. He just hugged me and stroked my hair, like any father would do. He was the most important person to me and Mr. Locksworth took him away from me.

I do not hate him. Rather, I think his heart is just broken. My Mother did something wrong and I was the affect. She cried as he ordered a maid to stay with me in the tower. She did not know what to do, but fall to her knees in defeat.

I remember him grabbing my neck and pushing down on my small body as I fought to breathe through the presser of his hands around my neck.

I remember Big Brother Stephen screaming for him to stop and knocked him of balance and away from me. I tried to cry, but my throat was starting to swell and nothing would come out or in.

I remember my brother picking up my small limp body in his warm arms and running off. I remember hearing him screaming for help. I was nearly gone when help finally came. The maid took me away from my brother's arms and into hers as she hurried to the infirmary.

I must have passed out from the lack of air in my lungs because that was the last thing I remembered after waking up. I cried, only to be comforted by Stephens singing. Even though he was a boy, his voice was lovely and I loved to hear him sing me lullabies and poems. But I also herd him sobbing and a warm liquid fell upon my cheek as I laid there listening to him. I wanted to know why he was crying, but even if my throat was not swollen, I had not yet learned to speak.

I Remember a maid taking me out of Stephens arms and wrapping me in a soft blanket. I wanted to cry for Stephen, but I was too tired and feel asleep.

Skip forward eleven years and I finally meet Big Brother Victor and . . . Well, here I lay, ill and in constant slumber. Yet, I still hear Stephen's lovely berceuse.