The Shadow Zone 2: Winning Madeline Read Free Page A

simple.
    There were a few families in the small community though not many children. There were an abundance of older people, it seemed, and those who were entirely on their own. Those who were able to produce something useful like clothing, weapons, or tools did well. Others, like her, did the best they could with what they had to work with.
    Madeline had never wanted to sell herself for money. Her parents had raised her in a similar community to this one, and her father, along with a couple of his friends, had maintained large crops of vegetables and sold them. She’d had an older brother who was to have inherited the business. The son of one of her father’s partners had showed an interest in her. It had seemed right. He’d been attractive enough, and in those days she’d known she couldn’t do better than to find a husband, someone to protect her. They could help with their fathers’ business and make a life of their own.
    When her father had disappeared, her life had fallen apart.
    People disappeared all the time. It had been the way things were her entire life. People vanished. There were scary stories about the devil’s parties and stolen souls. They were the sort of stories that were only supposed to be scary in childhood but these grew worse the older she got, and more and more she realized that there must be some truth to them.
    When her father vanished, so did her family’s sense of security. Her brother had been eighteen but their father’s partners decided he was too young and they claimed her family’s portion of the business. Just took it. Her brother was allowed to work for them for practically nothing.
    The young man who she thought might one day be her husband began raping her not long after that. Madeline’s mother and brother both knew about it though she did her best to keep it from them. Her mother, who’d made herself ill from the grief of losing her husband, died within weeks. That left Madeline with a brother whose eyes she couldn’t meet. She couldn’t stand the rage there that came from the fact that he was powerless to protect her. She was a burden to him and knew he’d be so much better on his own.
    So one night she’d left and found this community where no one knew her. Another older woman had taken her in, showed her the ropes of prostitution. She’d been aware of such women all her life and it was a common thing to see. Yet she never thought she’d be doing it.
    The humiliation she expected to feel wasn’t so hard to bear. It was better to willingly trade herself for money, something she could use, than to be forced and get nothing but pain. After a while she had a few regular customers and began to earn a modest living for herself. Sometimes it was for money, sometimes it was for food. Things weren’t the way she wanted, but her fate hadn’t been as bad as it could have been.
    “Maddy,” a tiny voice called to her.
    She glanced up from watering her garden to see the small daughter of one of her neighbors, a widower who paid for her services once in a while, making her way through the garden. The girl was no more than seven and Madeline tried to keep an eye out for the child since her father was working all day, leaving her alone. There were sick people out there with a taste for children and the girl’s loving nature had twined around her heart, making Madeline feel very protective of her.
    “Come here, Ivy.” She motioned the girl to her. Reaching into her pocket for the scrap of cloth she used as a handkerchief, she dipped it into the water and began to wipe the dirt from the girl’s face. “How are you this morning?”
    “Okay.”
    The girl’s stomach growled with the ferocity of a small, vicious animal.
    “Are you hungry?”
    Ivy nodded, the soft brown curls of hair bobbing.
    Madeline took her hand, led her around to the front of her shack. She had the bread she’d saved for her own breakfast.
    “Here you go.” She handed the child the stale bread, poured