[Author's Note: Inspiration has finally struck! I've been wanting to write a fic about Madison FIVE-EVER and I finally got around to watching a bunch more Class of 3000, BUT THE STORY IN S2E5: SAFETY LAST, WELL IT WAS PERFECT! So now, Class of 3000 Grimdark fantasy. EN-FREAKING-JOY! I know I will writing it... :D]
Chapter One: Let Down Your Hair
"Lalala, la~lala... Laaa, lala..." The girl skipped, singing to herself, the red hood she wore snug along blonde hair as she let the rest of it flow in the wind, her dress matching the breeze as she frolicked along the path. Today, Madison was going to her grandmother's house, and why wouldn't she be excited? The skies were proclaiming their tears of joy for her elucidating afternoon, or so it seemed like maybe they would. Rain was something of a blessing, Madison knew from all those boring science lessons back home... The school seemed so far off now that she was on vacation.
Her lavender dress didn't really go too well with the red hood she wore, but to her it was all the same, she wasn't trying to look her best, simply her brightest; Madison's grandmother loved her bubbly personality, and she loved her grandmother, it all worked out just fine.
However, on today of all days, something didn't seem quite right. Perhaps she should've taken Lil' D up on his offer of an escort... They'd grown rather close, and as uncaring and lethargic as the boy might be, Madison knew that he only had her best interest in mind. But to tear him away from his drum practice... It wasn't like the fiddle, flowing and jumpy, as she was, and she found often that Lil' D's personality tended toward the more rhythmic, pulsating beat of the drum. His words weren't so thought out; basic, soft, melodic... For a moment, she stopped near a bush full of flowers, breathing in the scent as she held thoughts of her love in her mind. His dark skin, so smooth despite his rough demeanor. His sense of style purely rebellious like the clashing garments she wore now...
A pair of eyes in the darkness loomed, piercing gold flashing among the broken greens of the forest. What was this...? A little girl had wandered too far from her home, the Wolf noticed, as he prowled along the brush, skulking among the foliage unseen and hungry.
Madison resumed her skipping, pacing along the thorny rose bushes and the dried-up scrub brush, the dirt path her only guide. Her grandmother didn't exactly live too far outside of town, just in the middle of the edge of the woods...
"Perrrfect," Luna said to himself in his mind, his fangs dripping hot, he was ready to devour this tasty morsel... He followed her swiftly, silently, his predatory instinct taking hold. She would be dinner!
As Madison skipped to a crossroads, he made his move. Unassuming, innocent, she rode along, the small trail of dust she left in her wake no consequence to her ankles, but ambushed as she was, her first reaction was a loud gasp when that furry figure lept from the bushes at her. It tackled her, and together they rolled along the ground...
Madison's bared arms and collarbones were tickled by the fur. The gnashing jaws she paid no mind, instead squeezing the soft animal to her body, giggling and standing with it as she hugged him.
"Oh, I just knew I'd find me a sweet lil' thing out here!" she exclaimed, and reached into her basket, which she'd made sure to set aside upon being tackled, producing a small collar and a leash. Fastening it about Luna's neck, she smirked in satisfaction, and pet the Wolf; he was so absolutely adorable!
"You look just like my weirdo principal back at school! So I'll call you Luna," Madison stated, nodding curtly; the Wolf even seemed to have a similar mustache! Really, it was impressive... Madison watched the thing cower from her, unable to move further away with the cord she held firmly in her hand attached around its neck.
He only came up to her waist, a really big dog...
"Well, Mister Puppy, to grandmother's house we go! Too bad we don't have a horse... or a sleigh," Madison said, and off she went... Something still nagged at her mind, however, there wasn't a thing she could tell that was off, despite the fact she still felt it in her very bones. Again she wished her friends were here... The next stretch of woods seemed unfamiliar.
She'd made this trip before, stopped to pick berries along the way... But the berries she picked now were dark, blackberries... She distinctly remembered red, raspberries; it was why she wore such a cloak, to match the lovely juicy morsels alongside the road. But these blackberries, while tasty, as she tried one, didn't seem... Normal at all!
She perked up, dear Madison did, and her head was on a swivel as she peered at the landscape about her.
This was definitely not the way to grandmother's house any longer.
She felt cold, though she wore a cloak, and she felt swallowed by it enough to loosen the broach holding it closed about her neck. She took a slow breath, the dust about her ankles starting to finally itch. She should've worn longer socks today... Her shoes were turned a greyish brown by the stuff. However, where she stood, snow was scattered about her, and the Wolf, well... She'd practically been dragging him along.
"Uh oh, Principal Luna," she said, using her chosen name for the Wolf, "I don't think we went the right way... Where are we now?" Her thick accent slurred her words with her confusion, and she stepped along the snowy path for a few feet, until on her right the bramble gave way to a clearing in the woods. It opened up just enough sky that she could see it, a pillar of smoke, a likely fire pouring from a chimney or camp fire... People. It was supposed to be early Spring, the sudden snow had her shivering and upset, and so she hurried along in the cold, pulling the poor, confused pup along behind her. Luna was a precious little thing, but she knew it was a hungry Wolf, and her berries wouldn't feed it...
"It's okay, Principal Luna, we'll make sure we get you some tasty morsels," the girl said in her hood, riding her form as it was, and off they set for the plume of fumes rising from whatever was burning.
Nearing the place of the smoke's origins, however, they could both smell the cooking of meat... But what they found was unprecedented, and even further confusing, they heard two voices as Madison ducked behind a bush. She peeked through it's white-glossed branches, and the sight she beheld both terrified and intrigued her...
Kim and Kam, dressed rather inappropriately for both the weather and their usual time period, were walking along in the snow and conversing with one another.
"But I'm so hungry, Kam," Kim said, traipsing along in the crunching whiteness, lumbering in a melodramatic fashion toward the brown cottage producing the meat-smelling smoke.
"It smells so good... and look! Candy!" Kim was plastered to one of the candy-cane lamp posts in front of the oddly decorated house, Madison's eyes were wide with wonder as she watched the clearly edible scenery being eaten by a costumed version of her friend. Edible light fixtures? Kim wearing something that actually matched? Kam... Well, she could just stare at him all day anyway! Had she died and gone to heaven? The twins were approaching the door when suddenly Luna lept from their cover and began to bark profusely. She tugged at his collar, but to no avail, he seemed very guarded, and constantly shifted his position between Madison and the door to the cottage when the twins moved about.
The door finally creaked open. A woman stood in the doorway, or at least, she suspected it was a woman; her hair was so long it draped all about her body, the only evident features of her visage were her nose and ears...
"Professor...?" Madison started, but immediately, the inhuman shriek that the woman let out had her swallowing her words and fleeing as Luna tugged at her. Kim and Kam were on their heels, they ran together; however after a few minutes of quick sprinting, there were only the three of them... Kim, Madison, and Luna. They all panted when they stopped in a clearing... The dead silence around them in the winter woods pierced Madison's ears enough to allow them to ring, almost like one of Lil' D's cymbals... She wished her comforting crush were here right now, his smoothness reflected Mr. Bridges', she could've used the stability... Instead, a worried look had spread upon her face, and once she was alone with Kim and Luna, she couldn't help but to run everything that had just happened through her mind.
"Where... Am I?" she asked, and the girl with the olive complexion beside her placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know either," she offered, and looked around at the bushes surrounding them in the snowy center of the trees.
"We should probably try to find Kam," the girl stated, and Madison blinked.
"I'm sorry, love... Did you say Kam?" she questioned in her Southern way, and the exotic girl stared at her strangely.
"You speak very oddly," she noted, but shrugged, "he is my brother."
Madison blinked again, and looked to Luna, whom whimpered in an evidently canine fashion.
"Ah must be off my meds again," Madison stated mostly to herself, but Kim's head tilted to the side.
"What was that?" she asked, and Madison shook her head.
"Nevermind," she drawled, and looked around. It took her a second, but she noticed Kim was staring at her still, and she cocked her blonde head to the side, it caused her choker to push up against one side of her neck, but she paid it no mind.
"What?" Madison asked, and Kim frowned at her.
"Who are you? You look like some creepy circus performer," she stated, and Madison froze. Did... Did Kim not remember her?
"Kim... I'm Madison!" she shouted, and just as she finished, a crack of thunder issued overhead, the exotic girl looked up at the clouds above them.
"...Not going to ask how you know my name, we need to find shelter," she stated, and Madison gave her a worried look, but nodded. Together they set off into the woods, Madison forced to pull her red cloak about herself... Every so often, they could hear in the distance the witch that pursued them shrieking to herself in frustration... They'd eluded her, and all three of them hoped that maybe it would stay that way.
Around them the forest grew thicker... There was no sign of Kam, or any of the comforts they were looking for... Luna followed along behind Madison slowly, his tail between his legs, it seemed the cowardly, hungry wolf was going to have to wait for sustenance... Madison's guilt bit at her, but at the same time, her simple mind was processing everything very slowly... She'd only just now realized that she was no longer in a world she knew or understood, and rewriting an entire book like that with a mind like her own would be difficult...
Again, she wished Lil' D was with her.