A sad little story.
Twenty two years ago a child girl was born out of an arranged marriage between two wealthy families. It was a loveless marriage; her father and mother utterly despised each other, but under the pressure of their family they had agreed to have a child, who would become heir of the company. The father was sorely disappointed when the child was born, for he hoped it would be a boy. Instead, the Gods had granted him a baby girl. Angry and disappointed he banned the child and her mother to the left part of the mansion, seeing them as little as he could. Luckily for the little babe, the mother loved her as much as her father despised her, if not more. She named her Madeline and tried to give her as normal as a childhood as was possible under the circumstances. And so Madeline grew up within the walls of the mansion.
One fateful day when the little girl had just turned four, a group of armed man broke into the mansion. Their purpose? To kill the heir to what was starting to become the largest banking company in Neo-Tokyo. The child's mother was warned by one of the servants. In her fear Madeline's mother pushed her child in the arms of the servant and pushed them into a closet in her room. In her haste she left the door slightly ajar. Within seconds the men had made their way into the room and had shot the woman. All this was clearly visible for the little child. She tried to call out to her mother, but the hand of the servant muffled her sounds. All she could do was watch with those blue eyes of hers whilst tears were running down her cheeks.
For a few weeks after the incident, the girl spent most of her time in her room, hiding herself in one of the dimly lit corners whilst hugging a blanket that still faintly held her mother's sent. The servants kept their distance from her, not knowing what to do with the little child. After a few weeks an unknown woman unexpectedly entered her room. The child covered her head with the blanket in an attempt to hide herself. She trembled with fear. As she felt the blanket softly being pulled away she came face to face with a young woman with light brown, waving hair and soft brown eyes. The woman told her not to be afraid whilst she drew the girl close to her, softly stroking her blonde curls.
She took the girl away from the left part of the mansion, explaining to her that she would be her new mother. The girl did not fully understand what all this meant, but was simply glad that someone had shown her kindness. When she was a little older she overheard one of the servants talk about her new mother. Apparently she had been the mistress of Madeline's father; the one woman he had always loved, but was unable to marry before. She was known to be a kind woman and was greatly respected by everyone. The woman raised Madeline as if she were her own and it did not take long for the little girl to grow attached to her.
Nine months later, give or take a few days, the girl's stepmother gave birth to a child; a baby boy. They named him Matthew. The child's father was ecstatic, proudly holding the little child in his arms. Seeing this, the little girl felt taken aback. Would there be place for her, now that a new child had been born? However, her doubts were quickly taken away by her stepmother who proudly showed her the little child explaining to her that this was her little brother, expressing the wish that Madeline should play with him and teach him all that she knew. Madeline solemnly promised that she would do so. She would become the best older sister the child hold possibly wish for.
But her happiness was not to last long. That same evening disaster struck yet again. Madeline was sitting at the dining table by herself, as her father was still avoiding her and her stepmother was of course too weak to attend dinner. She was happily eating her favourite dessert, a chocolate fondant, whilst thinking how much fun she would have with her new little brother. After finishing her dessert she started to feel nauseous. She rung for one of the servants to come to her aid. As a servant came rushing in he found her lying on the ground next to her chair. He immediately called for assistance and she was rushed off to the hospital.
Madeline was later told she had been in a coma for two weeks and that the doctors had feared for her life. Apparently someone had mixed a very potent poison in her dessert. They told her that she was lucky to have survived. This was the second attempt on her life within the short five years that she had lived. But why would they have targeted the little girl when a boy, a rightful heir had just been born? The answer was very simple, news had not yet gotten out about the birth of the new babe, causing everyone to think that Madeline was still the rightful heir.
Upon her return home she was called into her father's office. Without even so much as turning his chair to look at the little girl he informed her that her stepmother and stepbrother had been removed to a safe place. She was forbidden to ever refer to her little stepbrother again. When she tried to ask why this was so, her father got angry, telling her that it was none of her business and sent her to her room. She was alone again. The only people she had regular contact with were the three servants and her tutor. It took her a while before she could eat normally again. Not long after that, another poison incident occurred. This time the poison had been put into one of her favourite cookies. Her father, however, absolutely refused to hire someone to taste her food for her. This went on for two whole years.
One day the entire house was in a buzz. Without giving an explanation Madeline was dragged out of her room by one of the servants and brought to the bedroom that had belonged to her stepmother. As she entered her room, her father brushed past her. He looked rather... upset. She did not know that it was possible for him to feel such an emotion. As she looked towards the bed her heart sank. There her stepmother was laying, but in a much altered state. Her son was sitting on the bed next to her, wiggling his legs from the bed. She told the girl that she had requested to be brought here so she could speak to her one more time. The little girl started to cry, not knowing how she would be able to cope with loosing another mother. Clasping the little girl's hands with her bony fingers her stepmother implored her to look after her son if anything were to happen. Madeline nodded as she was unable to utter a word. Upon this the dying woman gently stroked her hair until her arm slowly fell on the bed and she ceased breathing. And again the little girl found herself unable to do anything but watch and cry as she saw yet another mother die. How she got to her room she could not remember. The two weeks after her stepmother's death were merely a blur. Then she suddenly remembered her promise she made to her stepmother; she would look after her little brother. But her father had already removed her brother from the house. No one could tell her where she would be able to find him.
Three more years passed which were filled with loneliness and the occasional visit to the hospital. The girl was now developing a severe eating disorder and became very afraid to venture outside the house, even if it was only into the garden. Upon her tenth birthday, however, her father sent her a companion, or well, a body guard. Mind you, he did not do this out of concern for her, but seeing that she would shortly have to fulfil her social duty as the 'heir' of the family, she was of no use to him if she did not dare to go outside. Moreover, she was of even less use to him dead. Her father had sent her a boy named Terence who was six years older than her. As they were as one says 'stuck with each other', it did not take them long to grow attached to each other. He was like an older brother to her; he was kind, but also strong and extremely reliable.
Madeline learned a lot from Terence. Amongst other things, he had decided to teach her how to fence, so she would be able to protect herself a little if needs be. She proved to be a quick study and had soon surpassed her master. He also convinced Madeline to take up cooking lessons so she would be able to prepare her own food. However, the number of times that she had been poisoned had left its mark on Madeline. She had little fun in cooking or eating now a days. She could not tolerate the smell of sweets or desserts; they would often enough maker her vomit. But cooking her own food did enable her to keep herself at least healthy. In this manner she lived quite a peaceful life with her new found friend for another three years.
It was a night in November, dusk had fallen and Madeline was peacefully sleeping in her bed. Suddenly she was aroused by her door being swung open. She sat straight up in her bed. Terence pulled her out of her bed and dragged her out of the room. She asked what was wrong, but he merely put his finger to his mouth, motioning her to be silent. Just as Terence opened the backdoor they were suddenly attacked by a group of men who were dressed in black. He told her to run; he would hold them off. Of course the girl had no intention to leave her friend behind to fend for himself. At this Terence gave her a push, causing her to fall backward into the lawn and quickly locked the door. She now had no other choice but to run... and running she did. Where to she did not know. She finally reached a little, deserted cottage near the road where she stayed to rest.
The next morning she was found there by one of her father's men and brought back to the mansion. She was informed that the only reason that the men had been able to enter the house was because there had been a power outage in Neo-Tokyo. Terence had not survived the attack; his body had been sent back to his home town. Madeline was devastated. Not only had she lost her dearest friend, her father had not even allowed her to say goodbye to him. But this time she did not cry. Over all those years she had simply run out of tears. That devastation soon made place for anger. She refused her father's offer for a new bodyguard and talked her father into allow her to pursue fencing so she would be able to protect herself. She did not want anyone else to die on her account ever again. She bought herself a sword, one that never was to leave her side again.
It was at this time that she also started to search for the place where her father was keeping her brother. She had not forgotten her stepmothers wish, but had been too young to do anything about it. With the help of the family doctor, Dr. Michael Aldric, she was finally able to discover the location. Her brother was being kept in what might best be described a huge bunker. As she was now, she would be unable to penetrate the place. The doctor also informed her that he would be kept in that place until he came of age. When that time came, he would succeed their father's position as head of the company. Until that time, she had to keep up her role. With the help of the doctor she started a special training program, which would enable her to penetrate the base and visit her brother to see if he was alright.
It was only after three years of training, when she was sixteen years old, that her training was completed. She had managed to get her hands on one of the uniforms worn in the base and with a lot of sneaking, creeping and climbing, and not to forget lock picking, she had been able to get to the room where her brother was being kept. He was quite startled at the sudden intrusion and was inclined to ask for help, but she persuaded him not to do so. She explained to him who she was and what it was she came here for. The boy seemed not to hold any recollection of her (which of course was not very odd), but seemed to believe her story nonetheless. She could only stay with him for five minutes, for the boy was rarely kept unattended.
After having made it out of the base she visited her father and told him of her 'adventure'. He was so enraged that he hit her and ordered her to be locked up in her room without food for a week. This was a small price to pay though, for she had finally been able to see her brother and by telling her father, she had ensured that the security in the base would increase. Her brother would be save. Through the years she has kept up her training as well as her occasional visits to her little brother. She still informs her father once she returns, no matter what the consequences may be, as the protection of her brother is the only thing she truly cares about.
