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𝐌𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐍𝐍 𝐀𝐖𝐎𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐀 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐓𝐇 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒 and a light flickering beyond her eyelids. After stretching herself awake, she found that she had been curled up in front of a fireplace on a small, oval rug. The crackling of the fireplace was paired with the crackling of far-off thunder and the crackling of a record player as it lilted soft tunes into the air. It took Madelynn a moment to puzzle the pieces together, but eventually the picture became clear. 

She was home.

 A soft purring vibrated against her hip and Madelynn turned to find an orange-striped tabby cat curled up next to her. Madelynn blinked a few times in confusion because she didn't recall owning a cat, but she had been away for quite some time and didn't put it past her mothers to spontaneously adopt a stray. After all, that's more or less what they had done with her. 

After a few scratches behind the ear, the cat lazily wandered away, leading Madelynn's line of sight towards a scene that melted her heart.

Her mothers, Eloise and Janie, were swaying together in the middle of the living room, their arms holding each other closely as the music led their feet. Janie was resting her head on Eloise's shoulder and humming along to the tune coming from the record player while Eloise stroked the long strands of golden hair that ran down Janie's back. 

The beautiful moment entranced Madelynn and she found herself also moving to the melody, her head rocking from side-to-side as her curls bounced up and down. 

"This was the song that was playing when I first laid eyes on your mother," Eloise informed Madelynn with her eyes still shut and a smile pressing against her cheeks. "At Last by Etta James." 

"Wow, you guys remember that?" Madelynn asked in awe as she pushed herself off the floor and sat herself on the maroon couch a few feet away from her. Her eyes remained glued to her mothers the entire time.

"How could I forget?" Janie said with a chuckle. "Eloise was wearing that hideous jumper that she still keeps in the back of the closet."

"Hey," Eloise replied defensively, pausing their dancing for a moment to look down into Janie's bright eyes. "If I remember correctly, you complimented me on that jumper."

"I don't think you are remembering correctly, my dear," Janie retorted with a smile. "That old age has started to corrupt your memories."

"Well, if I'm old that means that you're old."

"And what a wonderful thing that would be, growing old together."

Eloise and Janie paused their playful bickering to share a deep kiss and Madelynn felt a bright blush bloom on her cheeks as she looked away in embarrassment. But deep down, Madelynn knew that this was what true love looked like. She had grown up listening to her mothers read her fairy tale stories about princes and princesses running off together in pursuit of a "happily ever after" but to her, no love story could ever compare to that of Eloise and Janie. 

Madelynn rested her head on the arm of the couch as she watched her mothers resume their dance. Their swaying picked up tempo as My Baby Just Cares for Me by Nina Simone filled the room. A warm weight against Madelynn's legs informed her that the tabby cat was once more curled up beside her. 

"What's the cat's name?" Madelynn asked her mothers as her hand stroked the tabby cat's soft fur. 

"What was that, dear?" Eloise asked. 

"The tabby cat," Madelynn repeated herself a little louder so that her mothers could hear. "What did you name him?"

"Oh, we called him Arnold Schwarzenegger," Janie answered over Eloise's shoulder.

"Arnold Schwarzenegger?" Madelynn asked, her nose scrunching up in confusion. "Why Arnold Schwarzenegger?"

"Because Janie saw the scraggly little thing running around in the yard one day and started leaving food out for it," Eloise explained. "I told her it wouldn't come back but lo and behold, I was wrong."

"When we saw him again two weeks later I said to Eloise, 'I'll be back' in the Terminator voice and voila, Arnold Schwarzenegger he became," Janie finished the story. 

A smile flashed across Madelynn's face upon hearing the story. "I like it. Arnold Schwarzenegger," Madelynn repeated, addressing the cat as she said his name. Arnold Schwarzenegger's amber eyes slowly blinked in response.

As the name echoed around in her mind, a strange feeling overtook Madelynn. "Arnold Schwarzenegger," she said again, the smile on her face fading into a frown. "A.S."

Once the letters left Madelynn's lips, the atmosphere in the room completely changed. The record player screeched as the vinyl began to run backwards, playing a haunting tune that pierced Madelynn's ears. The fire began to cast malicious shadows across the room that crept closer and closer to Madelynn, threatening to consume her. The air, which had been filled with the scent of fresh parchment, roses, and the crackling fire, became rotten and stale. 

"You shouldn't have said that," a raspy voice whined. Madelynn sought out the source and was terrified to find that it belonged to Eloise. 

"Now look what you've done," Janie said in a matching venomous tone. 

Madelynn watched in horror as her mothers' faces began to rapidly age, their skin crinkling and creasing until their features became unrecognizable. Their flesh then began to boil and bubble before it melted to the floor in gray splotches, leaving behind shiny white skulls with hollow eyes. 

One of the skeletons, who stood where Eloise once stood, rose a distorted hand towards Madelynn, its finger bones barely held together by splintering sinew. It took a step towards her and she could hear every single bone click and crack as it moved. 

"Please," Madelynn begged, staring into the vacant sockets of the skeleton's skull and becoming mesmerized by the darkness within. A thick fog began to tumble out from the sockets, choking the room and snuffing out the fire, but still, Madelynn could not stop staring into the inky blackness beyond those empty eyes. 

"You will forget about A.S.," a voice said, but it did not come from the skeleton. "Or else."

Madelynn's head snapped to the left where she could just barely make out the orange tabby cat sitting on the couch beside her, its golden eyes glowing in the gloom.

"I-I don't understand," Madelynn stammered. Her voice weaved in and out like a radio station that was out of range, some words getting lost in the fog. "Or else what? You've already taken my mothers from me!"

The voice beside her remained clear and steady, however.

"Ask Miss White."

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A/N: Sorry this update is so late! I've been working more lately so I've been really drained. Apparently, if you can't tell, I've been trying to out-scare myself with every chapter lol. Hopefully you guys are enjoying it and it's not getting too creepy! I don't have much experience writing horror but I'm finding that it's actually really fun to write!

Last, but not least, Miss White is next!