Another brain baby was born. I wanted to do something that wasn't Transformers to keep myself from overloading. I was actually eating lunch when I came up with the idea for this story. Since then I've been writing it like whatever god of writing had possessed me. But I love Disney. The whole franchise is just so vast, it's hard not to find one thing that you like. Enough chit-chat. It's story time!
I don't own anything belonging to the Disney franchise.
The fireworks lit up the Florida night sky in a dazzling finale. On-lookers gaped in awe at the miracle of sparkling colors. The crowd's applause replaced the crescendoed symphonic conclusion. They cheered at the beautiful entwinement of visual and audial art. That is, all but one.
A girl, about fourteen years of age, wore a look of boredom at the brilliant display. Her warm, brown hair, pulled into a ponytail, added to the dominant appearance of her tall, tanned, physical build. The show's sights and sounds had long since brought a smile to her face.
"I swear," her mother exclaimed, "those Imagineers make each show more exciting than the last!" Unconfined awe oozed from her voice.
The girl scoffed in disgust. "It's no different. All they did was add some fireworks, projectors, and a new soundtrack."
Her father frowned. "Now Madison, there's no need to be rude. Just because you didn't enjoy it doesn't mean the rest of us can't."
"Don't be a meanie Maddie!" a small voice chided. Andrew, Madison's six-year-old brother, wagged his finger at her. His twin, Tracy, joined in.
Madison growled in annoyance. "Shut it, pip-squeaks. You don't tell me what to do!" She utilized her height as she stood over the twins in a domineering fashion. They stepped back in fear, remembering her dominance over them.
"Madison! Stop scaring your siblings!" her mother scolded. "I will not have you ruin this nice day."
Rolling her eyes, she backed away. "I'm going to the bathroom." she stated, already walking away.
"Be careful!" her mom yelled. "We'll meet you at the car!"
"Yes Mom." Madison replied, not actually caring to hear her mother's words. She worked through the crowd, slowly progressing to the restrooms. The building was empty upon her entry.
She exited a few minutes later to find the park empty. The utter silence made everything seem more eerie. Madison was scared, but she wouldn't admit it. Donning a fearless facade, she traversed down the lifeless Main Street. A sense of foreboding came over her, and it grew the closer she came to the exit. 'Something's wrong. It shouldn't be this empty.' She pressed on, only pausing when faced with an iron gate. It prevented her from exiting the park. 'They locked me in!' "Hey!" she yelled. "Let me out!"
A shadow rushed across the street. Madison barely caught the shape out of the corner of her eye. Her growing sense of foreboding shifted to terror.
The speakers buzzed to life with static as a voice recording began to play. "To all who come to this happy place, welcome..." She recognized the voice as Walt Disney. His friendly voice would have eased her fear if not for the menacing twist the speakers seemed to add.
"Somebody help me!" she hit her fists against the gate in hopes that someone would hear the uproar. The figure flitted on the edge of her vision and her urgency grew. The sound byte started repeating itself, chilling Madison to the bone with each new repeat.
"HELP! PEASE! SOMEBODY!" Her yells morphed to screams. Madison felt nothing but sheer terror and fear. Tears streaked her face and her fists frantically beat the gate.
Madison fell to her knees, fear finally taking her strength to stand. Strained, white knuckles gripped the gate's bars. Unrestrained sobs racked her body.
The hairs on the back of her neck prickled to a new presence, undoubtedly the shadowy figure. She stared out the gate to the world beyond, losing all hope when seeing that no one would come to her rescue. "Someone...please..." She gave one final plea before she was enveloped in darkness.
The dawn of a new day greeted Madison with a warm embrace. She blinked her eyes blearily, mind not quite yet awake. That changed when memories from the night before came crashing back. Fresh fear made her sit up, frantically searching for the danger that had been behind her. In her rush, she fell off the bench on which she had slept to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and searched the buildings around her for the threat. Her panic subsided when she deemed the area to be safe.
Madison quickly left the park through the now open gates. 'Now, how do I get to my family?' She wracked her brain for a solution. 'They've gone back to our hotel, but I don't know how to get there. My phone?' A quick search revealed that it was gone. 'Stolen. Great. Think Madison! How can you find your family?' She then remembered that they had planned on going to Hollywood Studios today.
She looked at her watch. It read 8:01. 'I hope the monorail is running.' Thankfully, it was. Madison arrived at the park's entrance with little difficulty. She picked a spot where she would be able to see all of the incoming visitors and waited.
'Why don't you just go ask to use a phone?' she argued with herself. The idea made more sense than hoping and waiting that she family would come. 'If I don't see them within the hour, then I'll call.' She agreed to the compromise with herself.
As the top of the hour grew closer, Madison's hope dwindled. She was about to give up when she heard the excited yells of her twin siblings. Quickly standing, she sifted through to crowd after the children and to their parents.
Madison hurriedly weaves through, delighted to find her family. "Mom! Dad!" They continued on, not hearing her cries. They slowed as they came to the entrance's line. She ran faster to close the distance. "Guys! Gawd, am I glad to see you! You won't believe what happened!" She reached out her hand to tap her mother's arm...
...only to have her hand pass right through her. She pulled her hand away in shock. She could feel her hand, it was physically there. 'Something is wrong.' Madison tenaciously called to her parents. "Mom. Dad." No reaction. "Mom! Dad!"
A cold fear began to slowly creep through her. She turned to her younger siblings, hoping to elicit a reaction from them. "Tracy, Andrew, if you can hear me, please answer me! I promise I will never scare you again, I'll buy you a ton of candy, or jump on my bed! I'll give you anything, just please answer me!" her vain attempt fell on deaf ears. Tears threatened to come forth again.
"Honey, do you have the passes?" her father asked.
"Oh! Yes! We'll need those won't we?" Madison's mother laughed as she dug around her large purse. She scowled at its interior. "Now where did I put those pesky devils?" She dove back in and this time came out triumphant. "Got them!"
'My pass! Maybe seeing it will help them to see me!' Madison smiled at the glint of hope.
Her mother shuffled through the paper cards, counting them to ensure that they were all there. She frowned and recounted them.
"What's wrong?" seeing his wife's confusion, Madison's father inquired.
"I think we may have accidentally picked up someone else's pass. We have an extra. It has the name Madison written on it."
Her father tisked. "That's a shame, but there's nothing we can do about it know. Besides, I think they have a replacement policy for things like that."
Her mom shook her head and sighed. "You're right. No reason to fret about it now. Let's enjoy the beautiful day before us!"
Madison was frozen. She couldn't, wouldn't accept what had just happened. No one could hear her, people could walk through her, and now her family had forgotten her existence. 'It's like I'm dead, but I know I'm not. This is worse.'
She ran through the turn-stills and the crowd and shadowed her family. 'Maybe if I act like I'm there, they'll see me.' Madison knew that she was in denial, but she was desperate. Here she was separated by an invisible force from her family that had forgotten her entirely. It was even harder to accept since it had happened so suddenly.
It was too much. She finally gave into the bottomless sorrow that had grown inside her. Tears fell from her eyes in an endless river. Being so close, yet so far from the only family she had ever known was pure torture. Cruel and unusual punishment.
"Answer me!" Madison screamed. "Answer me you good-for-nothing, horrid, lethargic, deadbeat, louse, praty, sorry excuse for a family!" Her tormented sobs, as with everything else, continued to go unnoticed. Rage mingled with sorrow as Madison lashed out at her family. She ran through them, hit them, kicked them, kneed them, but her actions changed nothing.
She, once again, fell to her knees. Her sorrow-filled wails echoed of the buildings, ultimately to be drowned out by the laughter and chatter of the tourists. Her tears fell until there were no more, and then she wallowed in her self-pity. There she stayed, unaware of the passing time. Countless couples, groups, and families walked on, unaware of the invisible, intangible girl through which they walked.
After what seemed like eternity, one being finally saw the poor soul sitting lifelessly on the ground. He approached and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. She flinched, shocked at the sudden contact. The new presence was male, no older than seventeen, short-cut black hair, Ray Ban sunglasses, customary jeans, and a leather jacket. "Are you alright?" he asked soothingly.
Madison's brain fumbled to answer. It was still processing the fact that someone could even see her. "Y-you can see me?" her voice wobbled. "How?" She almost didn't want to believe that he was here for fear that it may just be an illusion.
A kind smile played on his lips. "If I couldn't see you, how would I know that you're here? And I guess I can see you because we had the same thing happen to us to get here."
An immense relief was lifted from her shoulders. 'I'm not alone!' The relief almost made her laugh. "I guess that's a good a guess as any as to why. I'm just glad that I found someone else that (italics) can see me!"
He laughed. "I know, right?" he held out a hand and lifted her to her feet. "The name's Jesse, by the way."
"Madison, Madison Cameron." she replied in kind.
"Nice name you got yourself." he complemented. "How about we get something to eat? You look hungry."
"Food sounds like a good idea, thank you." Happy that she was no longer alone, Madison followed the boy to one of the many restaurants.
Everything is turning for the better, right? WRONG! I'll give you a little info to go on. 1) Madison is the ONLY OC here. 2) Jesse is fairly new to the Disney universe. He's only been here about a year and a half. 3) He's an actual person, not a toon. If you use that info, you can get the gist of what's gonna happen in the next chapter! If you can't figure it out, then maybe someone will post it in the comments.