On Trial

Madeline's Wrath

This chapter is FINALLY finished! Oh my gosh, I don't think a chapter has ever been so difficult to write as this one! I just really hope it's good and my efforts weren't in vain!

Madeline practically ran up to Madame's office, her feet aching with every step she took.

She'd come into the infirmary to make sure Cassandra was alright, before delivering the prisoners their breakfasts, only to find that her bed was empty.

She'd begged the medical staff for an explanation, but they said that they didn't know anything, and had just told her to ask Madame. And that's exactly what she was going to do.

She knocked on the double doors, and heard Madame's voice, from the other side of them.

"I'm busy!" She called, "come back later!"

She couldn't! This was way too serious!

"Madame it's Madeline, this is really urgent! I need to speak to you!"

A sigh.

"I just said I'm busy!"

"And I just said this is urgent!" Madeline snapped.

Another sigh.

Footsteps.

The door swinging open.

"Make it quick," The woman hissed.

Madeline dashed into the room and instantly began to explain the situation, before Madame could even blink.

"She's completely vanished! I-I don't understand! She's sick, she could die out there on her own!"

"Calm down, Madeline," Madame groaned, "the girl needed to go home to her family, she was so sick. She wouldn't stop crying for her dad, all last night and out of the goodness of my heart, I let her go home."

Madeline frowned. That wasn't true. It couldn't be. The medical staff would've known if she had been released, and besides, a prisoner release, even if it was only temporary, would take days, maybe even weeks to organize! It wouldn't just happen overnight. Did Madame think she was stupid or something?

"You're lying."

"Excuse me?!" Madame replied.

"I said, you're lying!" Madeline screamed, "you know just as well as I do, that a prisoner's release takes ages to sort out, it has to go through governors and all kinds of vigorous testing, before being legalized!"

"Madeline, this was a very special case-"

"Also, why on earth, after everything you've done, after everything you've called her, would you suddenly care about her wellbeing?! Why would you?!"

"How dare you speak to me like that?!" Madame screeched, "why do you care so much, anyway? She's just another prisoner, another criminal, in fact she's worse than all of them combined, she's a witch!"

"She is not a witch, she is a young girl! I love how you portray her as this "dangerous", "evil" creature, when you're the one who sent her to an asylum-!"

"I sent her to the asylum, so she could get some help! That's what they do in asylums!"

"Asylums do not help people, I know first hand! They're a disgusting, evil way to subdue! They treat their "patients" so cruelly, so unfairly, it's like torture, and for what?! They put people in those places for simply loving someone, who happens to be of the same gender as them, don't you realise how messed up that is?! It's outdated, it's inhumane!"

Madame scoffed.

"You know, I could fire you for this, right?" She smirked, placing her manicured hands on her hips, "if I did that, you'd have nothing, no more cottage, no more dogs, no more of those ugly, frumpy dresses, you wear, nothing!"