Chapter 1

Prelude

The ladybug struggled to remove its plastered body from the the concrete of the terrace railing. Madison Allen giggled as she continued to position her magnifying glass to catch the most sun and trained the beam on her prey as it frantically wiggled its little red and black polkadot body in its fruitless effort to get away.

"No use," Madison said as the insect finally combusted. She watched it burn for a few seconds before using her fingers to flick it over the edge of the terrace onto the ground where it would join its many other friends who had met the same fate.

She was bored now and would rather be watching television but you-know-who wanted her to play outside more. This was the new thing since they had returned from Harper's Island over a year ago.

Madison sat in the swing and thought back on the tragic events that had happened on Harper's Island. Tragic, that's what everyone kept saying: you-know-who, her nanny, all the different doctors she was taken to, her teachers, the kids at school, the newspapers, the tv news shows -- everybody. But Madison didn't find the events tragic at all. What people didn't understand was that there was a natural order to things and when the things got out of order, shit happened. At least that's what John Wakefield had told her when she talked with him at the jail. And she believed him. He was a lot smarter than everyone else. They said he was dead, yet everyone was still talking about him.

Madison didn't know what exactly got out of order on Harper's Island but she didn't waste time worrying about it. There was too much shit that was still going to happen and she wanted to make sure she didn't miss anything. She needed to watch for the signs. She needed to fulfill her destiny. Wakefield had told her that, too.

She giggled. "Shit." She liked that word!

A/N: Is it me, or did the writers not seem to know what they wanted to do with Madison's character?