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MADDIE ALBAH
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JULY, 2018
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BLINDFOLDED
HONESTLY, WHEN the school holidays had started, Maddie thought she'd be sleeping in until late in the afternoon. Not waking up at the break of dawn. Even with her eyelids closed, she could tell it was still dark outside her bedroom windows. So, she didn't understand why her mother decided to walk into her room at this ungodly hour, shaking her awake.
Maddie groaned, frustrated she wasn't going to get her beauty sleep in as she turned away from her mother, stuffing her head into her soft Egyptian satin pillowcase. Squeezing her cognac brown orbs, she wished this wasn't happening. Unfortunately for her, it was indeed happening. Her mother's perfectly manicured hand on her shoulder as she hid beneath her covers, Vickie continued to rock Maddie back and forth.
"Get up, you need to pack," Vickie, her mother, said with a flat voice.
Her brows furrowed in sheer confusion at her mother's words. Pack? Why would she need to pack?
Pulling the cover away from her face, Maddie turned around to face her mother standing at the side of her bed, the light from the hallway shining in from her doorway. "Why would I need to pack?" she asked, voice deeper yet just a bit more than a whisper due to waking up.
"That isn't for you to know, Maddie," her mother replied, her cold tone still heard but that was normal. Her mother never seemed to show any affection to her eldest daughter, not even to the eleven month old baby she barely spends time with. Maddie was the one looking after her baby sister all the time while her parents worked. Her mother was a fashion designer and had her own fashion brand and magazine company. And her father was a simple man working as a baker at the closest bakery.
The least her parents could do was hire a nanny to take care of them. Especially when Maddie had know clue what the heck she was doing. After eleven months, she still didn't know the difference between a hungry cry or an I Need To Burp cry. They sounded so similar.
Alas, every time she asked for a nanny her mother just said: "I was seventeen when I had you and I was perfectly capable of raising you. You can do the same, you're almost eighteen. No excuses."
She always rolled her eyes when her mother said that. With the stress of grade twelve and trying to pass her subjects, it was very hard to study when taking care of a baby the second she got home. Maddie just wished her mother understood a child — under eighteen — shouldn't be looking after another child. It shouldn't even be a thought.
"Quickly, we're leaving at nine," were her final words before she turned on the balls of her heels and left Maddie's room, closing the door behind her. She furrowed her brows as she slowly sat up, staring at the closed door her mother had just left through. She pulled in her bottom lip and started gnawing at it in anxiousness, unsure of what was going on.
She could be sending you to a boarding school, her anxious thoughts said. But it's the holidays? she reminded her anxiety. Shaking her head to rid her racing thoughts of what her mother was doing, she threw her warm covers off her body and got out of bed. She walked into her large walk-in wardrobe, she could fit a double bed in here and it'll still have plenty of room for a bookshelf and desk. Getting to a small closet for random things she didn't want to be seen, such as old shoes she didn't want to get rid of, ugly hats her mother made her wear to fancy gatherings, and spare blankets. She squatted down and pulled out one of her two large suitcases from the bottom shelf.
Closing the closet doors, she turned around and sat on her boney knees, wincing a little at the discomfort before laying the pretty white marble suitcase one it's back, she opened it. Slowly, she realised she didn't know how long she needed to pack for. Unfortunately, she didn't want to bother her mother with a dumb question like that, so she just decided to pack for five days just to be sure. Getting up to her full height of 5'5 and travelling around her room in search of casual outfits, adding a few fancy dresses and shoes just in case this was one of her mother's fancy gatherings for her business.
Grabbing some shoes, she picks out her black and white Old Skool Vans and a pair of black three inch high heels. She dreaded wearing any sort of high heel, they hurt her pinky toe and rubbed the back of her heel. But her mother would do anything to make it look like she had the perfect family. Maddie wasn't fooled by the kind smile her mother gave everyone she met.
After she placed her two choice of shoes in the suitcase, Maddie grabbed a bunch of panties — without counting — and stuffed them into her suitcase. She couldn't be too under prepared with panties. And lastly, she grabbed two packs of pads, a spare toothbrush and toothpaste from the bathroom she shared with her little sister, and her hairbrush. Hopefully it'll be enough.
Zipping it up, she decided she had plenty of time to shower and wash the bird's nest sitting on her head — frizzy and unruly. The second Maddie stepped out her room, her mother walked past saying: "Honey wants you."
Her dark chocolate brows pulled down. She wants me? Or you just don't want to deal with your own daughter?
When her mother was just at the top of the large staircase, she turned around and looked into Maddie's cognac coloured eyes, staring at the seventeen-year-old like she was about to kill her, her blue eyes narrowed to slits. "Make sure she's ready as well, I have stuff to do. Remember we're leaving at nine."
Then she looked away and descended down the grand staircase, like the devil she was, chin high and elegant. Maddie would do anything to have a different mother, one that wasn't mean, or forced her into doing something she was unable to do, or made sure she wasn't stressed out with the amount of expectations on her shoulders. Anything would be better than dealing with her strict mother.
Sighing softly into her breath, Maddie bowed her head as her shoulders slouched before heading into the direction of Honey's room. The eleven-month-old's room was right next to Maddie's but the walls were so thick, she wasn't able to hear a single thing from outside her room.
Stepping inside, her cognac eyes darted straight to Honey on the floor, baby toys surrounding the child. Honey wasn't interested in playing with the toys, instead her cries were so close to making Maddie's ears bleed. Honey's deep blue eyes puffy and red as she stared at her older sister, her tiny hands reaching out to be picked up.
"Honey, are you okay?" Maddie asked, walking over to the crying child desperately reaching out. She kneeled down, wincing just a bit at her boney knees being uncomfortable before setting her hands under Honey's arms and lifting her up into a hug. Maddie stood up and started bouncing as she paced the length of the room, shushing softly.
"What's wrong?" she asked, as if expecting the child to answer her. Honey's hand on her shoulder started to grip the baggy sleeping shirt she was wearing to death, almost afraid Maddie would disappear. She held her baby sister a little bit tighter, in an attempt to reassure Honey she wasn't going anywhere. Especially in the care of her parents.
Honey's cries seemed to quiet down after a few more minutes patting the baby's back and whispering calming words. And once Honey was simply babbling into her ear, Maddie went and sat down on the fancy fabric covered chair. When she sat down, she sank down a little bit more due to the cushions' softness. She placed Honey on her lap, struggling just a bit when trying to get the child's strong grip off her shirt. Honey had the strength of hulk.
"Do you know where we're going this time?" Maddie asked her sister. Honey only stared at her with her deep blue eyes, the colour of the ocean on a good day. Maddie was almost jealous her sister got blue eyes so pretty everyone always seemed to compliment them. However, she was content with her cognac brown coloured eyes as they had a red undertone that made them gorgeous in their own special way. Especially when the sunlight hit them and made them pop.
With her sister's stare so intense and without a single thought behind her deep blue eyes, Maddie assumed she didn't know where they are were going either.
"We should go and freshen up," Maddie whispered, more to herself honestly. "Before mother yells at us for not being ready on time."
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Sitting in the backseat of her mother's expensive car, her mother turned around in the driver's seat, a pair of white Beats headphones in her hand. Maddie furrowed her brows at her mother, questioning her softly with her cognac brown eyes. Vickie only rolled her eyes, looking agitated that Maddie hadn't taken the headphones yet.
"What are you waiting for? Take them," Vickie said, shoving the headphones forward to push Maddie into grabbing them. Maddie's body jolted in shock before quickly grabbing the expensive headphones, staring at them in her lap. "And put this on," her mother said, grabbing her attention as she looked up and away from her lap.
Maddie's confusion only deepened when she saw her mother holding a black bandanna out to her.
"What am I doing with these?" she asked softly, her voice just above a whisper. It was an attempt at not provoking the devil any more, because the looking on her mother's face was not one that said she was in the mood for dumb questions. She grabbed it out of her mother's perfectly manicured fingers.
"Put the headphones on, and cover your eyes with the bandanna. I don't want you seeing or hearing anything that will give away where we're going." Without another word said, Vickie turned back around and started the car. Maddie obeying her mother, slipping the wireless headphones on, which were already playing music. Probably from her father's phone, he was sitting in the passenger seat with his dark brown eyes on Maddie through the rear view mirror.
He noticed his daughter staring, forming a light smile on his deep pink lips, popping out from his dark skin. Maddie returned the action before covering her eyes with the black bandanna and tying it behind her head. It was difficult to do, trying her absolute best not to get any hair in the knot as well. When she was sure it was knotted properly, she leaned back, hoping she wasn't going to be thrown into a boarding school, somewhere far away from Honey. Except she doubted it when both her parents had placed a suitcase each in the boot as well.
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The harshly gripped hands on both her shoulders stopped pushing her, leading her to come to a sudden stop. She knew the hands on her shoulders belonged to her devil of a mother, as they squeezed just a bit too tightly and might leave bruises on her light bronze skin.
Maddie could tell she had just been on a few hour flight, for how long? She had no clue, but she knew it wasn't longer than eight hours. Inside the building, it was cold on her skin and making her light bronze skin start to be dotted with goosebumps, the hairs on her arms standing up. Her nose was cold with each breath she inhaled, and the air smelled stale and musky.
Slowly her headphones were taken away and the noise flooded in her ears, loud and hurried. The bandanna still remained over her cognac brown eyes, preventing her to see. She still had no clue as to where she was, or where she had been flown to. She could've landed in New Zealand for all she knew, although she wouldn't have minded considering she's heard how beautiful it was.
"One the count of three, take your blindfold off," her mother's flat voice said, void of any emotions.
"One. . ."
Her veins were rushing with anxiety, unsure she even wanted to see where she was.
"Two. . . Three. . ."
Maddie hesitated for a few extra seconds, her shoulders tensing as she had expected her mother to growl at her for not listening to her. But when her mother didn't do such a thing, she slowly raised her hands up, holding the bandanna with her fingertips as the fabric squished under the pressure before pulling it off and away from her eyes. She blinked a few times due to the sudden brightness attacking her eyes, causing them to sting with pain.
Once she was comfortable with the brightness she opened her cognac orbs, and looked around noticing she was inside an airport, people rushing around with their suitcases, parents yelling at their children as they were afraid to miss their flight. It was just all chaotic and made Maddie feel trapped, surrounded by so many people all at once. Soon her eyes met familiar blue eyes, the corners of her eyes wrinkled with age, a slight glare staring at Maddie. Unintentionally or not, it still scared her.
Oh no. Please, no.
Her grandmother, the original devil herself, a deceiving smile on her thin wrinkled lips smeared with cakey pink lipstick. Maddie's grandfather stood next to the old woman, he looked bored and definitely seemed like he didn't even want to be here.
ＡＵＴＨＯＲ'Ｓ ＮＯＴＥ
Word Count: 2300+
How was the chapter lol? I'm thinking I might write the next chapter as well, just so that when I do actually start writing this book, I'll only have to write 20 chapters. Lmao anything to make myself finish the book faster, honestly. I hoped you enjoyed the chapter!
Love you!
— DYLAN.