By the way, someone wanted to know how Madeleine would act without Edward. A very interesting question. I, truthfully, didn't take that avenue, so I didn't show anything about that side like in 'New Moon' (Twilight series). One thing I wanted to say though, is do not take this chapter as the core of Madeleine's character. People change throughout their lives. Think of everything, then as Madeleine is in this chapter. Once more, the chapter after this shows Madeleine's character better.

Anyway, Enjoy!

M: Luke Cahill... It doesn't matter. I am not going back to Jane's. We are writing this!

L: But- but the game's on! It's in the second quarter! It's almost halftime!

M: Halftime! Halftime is where there is no football on. Come on, it's a pretty short chapter. We can write this!

L: I wish you'd just stayed at Jane's. Why didn't you anyway? She was offering you free pink nail polish. It was 'such' a deal!

M: If she was offering free nail polish remover on the side, I might have done it. Besides, I froze all their toothbrush bristles in ice, folded the bed sheets so they wouldn't be able to get into them, and hid Jane's oil paints. I thought I'd skip out of town before the trail grew hot.

L: And I thought ruining her painting was mean... How do you know those two aren't going to suspect you the second they climb into bed? Katherine's going to be pissed when she finds her-

M: 'Awesome, mechanical' toothbrush frozen solid? It's not mean! I was just teasing! And it's not like they can't melt the ice off the brushes!

L: Roasting toothbrushes over an open fire. Catchy.

M: Knowing Jane, I'll bet she can make a song out of that. I'll double dare her sometime...

L: Well for heaven's sake, get on with it! Tom and Edward are in the front room watching the game and eating all the nachos while I have to sit back here with you! Hurry up and start writing!

Two Years Later;

Chapter Thirty-one;

Retaliation

Luke walked down the hall and opened the lab's door. He was tired by Six, annoyed by Seven, and you never wanted to talk to him at Eight, but there was one thing he still needed to do. Frowning slightly, Luke jiggled the key in the lock to open it. It did, easily. And he walked into the room.

Pushed against the back, was a wooden table that went that length of the wall. He allowed himself a moment to smile slightly in pride at his accomplishments. It hadn't been easy, but by edging a few mixing secrets out Katherine, it was done. It was done to absolute perfection. And then, he would be able to complete his dream -and his promise.

Luke stepped up to the table, not noticing that the small window in the left corner above the table was cracked open. He reached for the vial in the middle of the table. This, is the greatest minute of my life. Of the world. He picked it up.

"Drop it."

Luke frowned. There was nobody in the house. Where had whoever-this-was, come from? "Who are you?"

"Anything you want me to be." The voice behind him answered. It was neither sweet, nor sour; loud, nor soft. "And I don't think I necessarily have to be human to scare you. But that doesn't matter. Drop the vial. Now."

"Why should I?" Luke wished he had his dagger on hand.

The voice spoke softly, a threat clearly heard. "I can be your worst nightmare."

"I don't have nightmares." Luke shot back. He could feel his eyes narrowing. If he could just reach that stupid pen knife he always kept in his pocket.

"Everyone has nightmares." The voice whispered. He could sense it getting closer. "At one time or another. Turn around and go against the back wall. Stay there."

Luke's eyebrows pulled together. "Why?" He demanded.

"Because a nightmare," The voice turned into ice, locking him in place. He had heard the voice before. He was certain of it. Somewhere... "Just might come true."

There was a crack of laughter that broke the air. "You want me to believe that." He set the vial down on the table. It was probably best to keep it out of the line of fire if things got rough. He spun around on his heel. "You want me to believe- What?" He nearly burst out laughing again. The person that had been behind him was a pale boy in a too-large tunic. His hair looked scraggly since single black strands hung down from under his mangled straw hat. The boy had green eyes as well. Piecing green eyes. After his laugh, Luke nearly jumped when he looked at the boy. It looks like him- back from the dead.

"Are you going to listen?" The boy asked.

Luke crossed his arms. It was ironic as the top of the boy's head just managed to reach Luke's nose. "Depends. What are you here for?"

A slow smile leaked across the boy's face. "It depends, like you said. Only that depends on if you're going to listen or not. Do I have to ask the question again?"

"Who are you?" Luke breathed.

The boy's face gave an obvious twitch to hide a smile. "You don't recognize me?"

"Should I?"

The boy thought for a moment. "Perhaps. I think it depends on what you want to remember. I actually prefer not to remember you. But that's different."

Luke scanned the boy up and down. He was thin, but he didn't seem to be lacking anything in the strength category. He was wearing boots, speckled with mud, but they were the kind for riding that he had seen a lot of the country yokels using. Now what business had he had with any of the country people lately?... "No, I don't recognize you."

The boy stared up at him with a sly smile, and then pulled off his hat. Luke noticed a stick being pulled out with it, and then he knew, even before the hat had been pulled off completely. There was only one person in the world who would dare to impersonate a boy. "Madeleine Cahill," He breathed. "Why are you here?"

The Murderer smiled sweetly up at him, tossing the hat and stick carelessly under the table. But Luke could see that there was a difference in her eyes. This wasn't the Madeleine he had known and fought against for all his life. She had switched the tides. She had made herself the cat, and had placed him as the mouse. And if it there was one thing Luke hated, it was being a mouse. "I had some business with a rat. I was thinking on that for a while. It seems like they happen to run in my family. Quite an inconvenience. Don't you think?"

"You're the only rat there is." Luke shot back.

Madeleine's eyes glittered. "I wasn't that sure." She breathed. "I've learned that there's more than one kind of rat. There's white, and black, and brown, and gray, and the kind that has fleas and carries the plague. The kind that killed my brother."

Luke suddenly felt cornered. Nobody had ever talked to him about Lucas. Definitely not after he died. Especially not like this. Madeleine stared up at him. Her eyes weren't like he'd ever seen them. The laughter that had always been there was gone. She was serious. And mad. And although he knew what other people could do when they were mad, there was one person that was the wild card. Madeleine. "If you say another word." Luke hissed through his teeth, "So help me I'll-"

"What?" Madeleine stared back into his eyes, unafraid. She was partly laughing, a small smile twitching on her lips. Trying to intimidate her wasn't going to work. "You're going to what? Try and kill me? You'd have to get out of the room first to get your dagger. I won't let you do that. And fortunately, I prize myself on being a bit more swift and agile than you. What are you going to do?"

The reply was stuck in Luke's face, taunting him, poking him in the side and daring him to poke her back when there was a knife in her hand. "I promised you that I'd kill you." He whispered. Only Madeleine's green eyes stared back up at him. Too much like Lucas. "And I promise you that I will. And if I don't, then someone will. I know that much."

Madeleine's expression changed. She was thinking. "I know that promise." She nodded slightly, respecting it. "But there's also another promise you made me. One you broke. Are you going to keep that one?"

"If I broke it, can I still keep it?" A wry smile twitched it's way across Luke's mouth.

"If you wanted to. Go away from the table." Madeleine shot back. The words were like a musket shot. Luke turned around and took a few steps so Madeleine was between him and the table. Madeleine's mouth twitched down. "Farther."

"You didn't tell me how far away I had to stand."

The green eyes glittered with maliciousness. "Against the wall." Luke didn't move. It was funny, he was almost frozen in place, time spinning around him. But he couldn't feel anything. He watched, unseeing as a dagger with an ivory handle was flipped out of Madeleine's pocket. She held it down by her side. "Against the wall."

Luke stepped back to where she wanted him. "What do you want?" He finally blinked, pulling himself together.

"I saw you that night." Madeleine whispered. She stepped closer to Luke. He could see all the tiny mosaics in her eyes, glistening. "I heard that snap."

"So?"

The corner of Madeleine's lip curled up into a snarl. She could of been a vampiress with her black hair and pale skin. "You're the murderer," She whispered. "Not me."

"What are you talking about?"

He watched Madeleine's hand curl a millimeter more tightly around the dagger. "When you murdered Edward."

Luke felt something snap inside him. "Now look here Madeleine, I-"

"You what?" Madeleine cut him off for the second time. "You what? You're going to deny it? I saw your foot there! I saw it!" Her face was six inches from Luke's. "I didn't even stoop that low. Not to lie."

"I wasn't going to say that." Luke breathed.

"Sure you weren't." Madeleine whispered back. She stepped closer, forcing Luke to press up against the wall. She raised the dagger and held the tip of the blade to his throat. "The one thing that trips you," She breathed. "Is you don't believe you're human. I may be human, but you are too." There was a soft breath. "I could kill you." Her eyes looked like a cat's waiting to pounce on a mouse. "It would be easy, you know that don't you." Madeleine's eyes glittered. "Like slicing butter." She paused, judging Luke's reaction. Then she dragged the dagger tip lightly over Luke's throat. He drew in a breath.

"I could go for the throat, or jaw," She placed the dagger at his jaw bone. "Or the heart." The dagger wasn't lowered from it's place. "If I were in your place, you wouldn't hesitate to kill me." She spoke the truth, but Luke couldn't help thinking of one place where he had been over her. He could of killed her, but he wouldn't. He couldn't. "But I'm not like you." The dagger-holding hand dropped and Madeleine stepped away.

"I don't want blood on my hands." She whispered. "There's plenty on them. What about you?"

Luke didn't reply. He was busy enough trying to figure out what she meant.

"You killed Edward." Madeleine breathed. "You killed him. You purposely set out with a mission, and you did it. Did you even think about it? Did you think about what it was going to cause? Did you pause? Did you hesitate? I have three children. And the oldest two can barely remember him. I have a little two year old-" Madeleine's voice broke. "That can't remember her Father at all." Madeleine took a deep breath to calm herself, but she still blinked with her watery eyes. "Did you think about that?" She whispered.

There was nothing Luke could reply.

"You didn't care about the people you hurt. It didn't matter to you."

Luke didn't say anything.

I loved you! Madeleine wanted to scream. I would of given anything so you and I would be friends again! But the words wouldn't come out. She could only stare into the impassive face -so much like her own. The person who had murdered the one she loved. Madeleine turned away to her left. Lining the right wall were sacks and jars, all containing some substance. Madeleine ran her eyes over the wall and counted them. Sure enough, there were 38.

She stepped over closer to the wall and picked up the first sack. It was lighter than it looked. Clover; for Lillia. And each one of the glasses and jars went; being smashed. And the bags were torn and crushed into the ground. Each one was for a person. One that Madeleine had known in her lifetime that had been hurt in some way by the clues.

L: I was so mad when you did that...

M: Hm... I wonder. Of course you were mad. That was stated like- five times!

L: You don't have to be so pushy about it. I'm not Jane you know...

Luke watched Madeleine's destructive path with a horrified gaze inside his impassive demeanor. He let himself give a soft sigh of relief though, when she passed the small bag that held a few ounces of gold. He had worked for so long trying to find that- He didn't want to think of the consequences if she destroyed it.

Sliding his hand into his pocket, Luke slowly pulled out his pocket knife. He adjusted the weight in his hand, getting comfortable with it. And then there was a heavy thump as a dagger slammed into the wood not two inches from his left ear. Luke didn't move. Madeleine walked up, one hand on the dagger, but her face was almost pressed up against Luke's; eyes boring into his. "Don't."

"Why not?" Luke suddenly found he'd been holding his breath. "Is it against the law to hold a knife?"

"Remember," Madeleine whispered back, almost a sneer on her face. "What I said about you, thinking you're invincible?" There was an nearly unseeable shake of her head. "Don't."

Luke gave an upward thrust with the small knife, but only felt a 'whoosh' of air, as it was swept out of his hand and knocked into a corner. Madeleine's green eyes glittered at him. "I said; don't try it."

Luke's eyes began to glitter.

Oh can't I.

Madeleine wasn't prepared for the thrust sending her backward to the floor. She also wasn't ready for the lunge as he picked up his knife again. But one advantage of being Madeleine Cahill was that she could think on her feet, and that meant- thinking fast. Madeleine rolled over and pushed herself up just as Luke's knife plunged into the ground where she'd been laying. Madeleine's eyes scanned the room. The only way she could probably get Luke to simmer instead of boil, was to hold something over his head.

Glass, glass, pile of clues, junk, glass, and her eyes lit on the small bag of gold. Madeleine avoided another thrust, then plowed over to the thin crack between the right wall and the table, grabbing the bag of gold on the way. "Don't move." She hissed to Luke.

"Why should I?" He snapped. Madeleine could see every inch of his body poised to strike, ready to kill her. But he didn't move. "Why?"

Madeleine bent down till she was almost under the table, and pushed up. She felt the table rise with her hands, but it hid her view and she couldn't see anything except wood, and Luke's horrified face. She heard the shattering of hundreds of little glass tubes, and when the last one hit the ground, she let the table down with a thump. She looked Luke straight in his eyes. "That's why."

He was so stunned he couldn't move. Madeleine slid back out of the crack and tossed the bag of gold on top of the broken glass. It was then she saw it was leaking; a thin stream of gold flakes pouring out. She turned to Luke again. "That's for Edward."

The brown eyes zeroed in on her. For a moment, they held an emotion close to amazement, and then a roaring, snapping hatred poured in as he lunged at her. Madeleine turned to the side and Luke's knife plunged into table wood. Madeleine held her dagger in one hand while he tried to pull it out. His back was turned away from her, and it was a perfect shot, but she couldn't make herself do it. She couldn't let herself kill him. He's my brother. And then the moment was past. Madeleine had lost her chance.

Madeleine met Luke's eyes, but she could feel there was nothing more for her here. That was, unless she wanted to get killed. And that couldn't happen. She had three daughters to care for. Three daughters to love and most of all, to protect. She had to protect them from the monster who was dancing around her, striking, lunging, avoiding. He wouldn't hesitate to kill them- Madeleine knew. He would kill them just as heartlessly as he had killed Edward- and destroy her heart besides.

With the motivator, Madeleine's eyes gathered a new spark of life in them. She waited until Luke had lunged again. But she didn't just side-step, she flung herself onto him as he stumbled forward. He slammed into the wall. And then she kept her shoulder pressed hard against him so he couldn't move. There wasn't fear in his eyes, just hate. But he couldn't move to do anything about it.

Madeleine wanted to scream at him. It would of been so easy; just to pound her fist into his stomach. Scream, yell, take back Edward, and Olivia, and Gideon, and everyone who had been lost from her. Forever. It would of been so easy to thrust her dagger into his throat and see the red blood gushing onto the floor as he fell. But Madeleine remembered what she had told him. And she remembered the unequaled pain she had felt when Edward died. Would Luke's wife feel that way? Were his sons going to rush up into the house when they were back from town and find him dead? Was she going to make them go through the same suffering she and her daughters had felt? Or was she going to do the right thing? To set him free.

The blood-hungry eyes stared up at her, unafraid -unconcerned at what she would choose. Madeleine couldn't stand them. She could feel the hateful vibes echoing around her through the room. Pulsing, they rushed around her, holding her captive, rendering her helpless except for the sound of her own, giant, tick-tocking clock. It's a clock that can stop beating just as easy as Luke's.

Madeleine kept the dagger there, but she relaxed. There was no captive anymore, only the cat and the mouse were left. But which was which still had to be decided. "Why did you leave that night?" Madeleine whispered.

She could feel Luke's ribcage struggling to breathe against the pressure. Madeleine lightened up on him, but still kept him firmly pinned down. "What night?"

"When we weren't a family anymore."

Luke's eyes glittered. "You're a murderer."

"You're a murderer too." Madeleine whispered. "We swore we'd always be friends." There was a swallow before Madeleine went on. "You said that you'd always love me, no matter what I did. You lied."

"To a murderer!" Luke hissed back.

"To your sister!" Madeleine started to choke back sobs. "You lied!" There was a soft sniff. "I loved you." Her voice broke. "I loved you with all my heart. I thought I could trust you... but I was wrong. Wrong." They stared into each other's eyes. "I wished -and I prayed. I wanted you to come back. But-" Madeleine's voice shook. "You never did. Please," Madeleine whispered. "Don't make the serum again. It only tore our family apart. It'll just destroy yours."

Madeleine let him go. She backed up till she was near the pile of glass. Curiously, there was a small vial that caught her eye that wasn't broken. She scooped it up, found a list at the bottom of the pile and picked that up too. Stuffing them into her pocket, Madeleine looked back at Luke and pulled a piece of paper she had written on before she'd come. She held her dagger in one hand and fingered it. So much time had gone into it. So much work. But it would be better to remind, to warn, to help.

She slammed the dagger into the wall and laid the note on the table. "This is to warn," She slid her hand off of the paper it had been resting on, and laid it lightly on the dagger. "And this is to remind you what you did." Madeleine turned around and then paused. "I promise you Luke, the third time- I won't hesitate to carry out the threat."

Luke paused a moment too long before he flung his knife at Madeleine. It slammed into the wall just below the window. She was gone. Giving a venomous glare, Luke looked down at the note on the table.

Luke,

First time; warning.

Second time; threat.

Third time; you lose something you hold dear.

What a load of hogwash. Luke thought. He reached for the dagger, yanked it out of the wall and held it.

The handle was uncomfortable and too small for him. But he vaguely realized that it had been made to fit Madeleine's hand down to a T. The blade was steel, but the handle was pure white ivory. Luke flipped it over to the other side. There was a large, black engraved M on the front. It was just like the knife that he'd made when he was younger. Madeleine had copied it, using it as her diagram. He was her enemy, not her elder brother anymore. Yet she still followed him; still copied, and still tried to get his approval, that she wanted more than anything.

For the first time, Luke nearly felt remorse at what he had done. Nearly.

L: HALFTIME SHOW, HERE I COME!

M: I never knew someone could run that fast to a football game. My God, he could probably beat Tom if he tried. That would be pretty funny actually. Well, since Edward's going to dig a hole in the bottom of that empty nacho container, and Tom's going to break somebody's eardrums, I better get back into the front room. Steelers vs. Packers indeed... Dumb Superbowl...

Remorse. Nice right? It's so funny, I'm thinking of how this story would read, if I wasn't the one who wrote it. It sound completely different, let me tell you. It's so funny to think if I didn't know what would happen next. I still don't know how people put stories on the internet, but don't know what their next chapter is going to be about. I need to have the entire story down in my head before I begin to write it. But anyway, that's beside the point...

Credit for the italic parts actually goes to me, although the idea of Jane and a slumber party was Alex's idea. 50/50 this time. I think that's fair... I'm curious to know what people thought of the Superbowl commercials! (For all you people who weren't reading 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens, like me...) The Doritos ones were my favorites! I'm curious!

Question; What did you like and/or dislike about this chapter? How were the italic parts? I thought I did a pretty good job on those!