Cassada Play 17 - Madelyn's Demise

Things had been going quite well for slacker Madelyn, or at least so everyone believed. She lived at home by choice after dropping out of college. She only attended in the first place because she knew her parents wanted it for all the kids. But she never wanted that life. All the studying. Bleh! Madelyn was born to party! So she dropped out and worked her way up the circuit to become a professional party host. She helped celebrities and stars throw the most lavish parties - and when her nieces and nephews had birthdays, they had amazing parties as well. She was good at what she did. And she was happy. Right?

Well the money was certainly good. The hours were around her schedule and she slept most afternoons to be out all night. She took her cash and redid the middle floor of her parents house. Her floor. It was where she and her siblings had grown up, but now it was all hers as everyone else had moved away to start their own lives. Even Darcy, the whoohoo queen, so rumor had it. And if there was a rumor, Madelyn knew about it. She even knew about that one that said her dad might be the father of Amy Aha's baby. Pffhh. Rubbish.

Madelyn's bedroom was small. She liked a cozy bedroom. All the running around she did all day was tiring and the last thing she wanted was distractions while she tried to rest. It had an attached bathroom. Nothing fancy except the dresser in there. Hey, a girl had to have a great wardrobe!She built a small office in the main part of the room where she wrote up contracts.
And the rest was for entertaining. She wished she could have the first floor so people didn't have to go through her parents boring living room and dining room to get to her "apartment", but Kim and Jordy weren't having it. So she made this part extra "wow-factor" to make her guests forget all about her parents quaint living quarters. She schmoozed here and then took them to the contract signing table.
After a time, Death came for Jordy and Kim. Jordy was more ready to pass along than Kim was.
But of course, Death does not negotiate and they both went. Madelyn, in her grief, sat around doing nothing for a few days. Then some friends dropped by and decided she should redo the house to suit Madelyn. "Well, I have been wanting to do that, but mom and dad said no. But I guess I could now. But this is their stuff. Their house." But it was Madelyn's house now. They had left the house to her and split everything else among the other 9 kids. Madelyn got no cash as she had received the house. Their will was quite specific to be fair to everyone. A part of Madelyn did not want to change the house, to erase her parents' presence there. But her friends insisted it would make her feel better. She moved roboticly in picking out the furnishings but did eventually redo the house.

The kitchen. She kept the painting her father had done. And her mother's plant.
Redid the bathroom.
And the living room. They really did need a bigger TV.
But the top floor... the big open area that had been the toddler play room. The bathtub that had washed all of their hinnys. And her parents bed. The bed that still smelled like her mom. Where she had curled up when she was sick. Could she change it? Could she not? Madelyn decided she couldn't stand to leave it as it was. It was just too painful to have them in the house like that.
Redid the bathroom first, that was easy.
And went in a completely different direction to make the upstairs a dance club. Complete with lighting, party atmosphere, leather novelty sofas in the VIP area, a bar, and a DJ booth.
But had she done the right thing? Certainly Jordy and Kim wouldn't want Madelyn to suffer, to be sad, to miss them terribly. But she did, still. No amount of redecorating made this not their house.
She visited them each day upon waking, which was earlier and earlier lately. Madelyn wasn't sleeping much.
Despite the fact that she wore her jammies almost all the time. She would stare blankly at the TV, even if it wasn't on.
Her friends didn't visit, didn't call. When they did call to ask her out, like always, she declined. Eventually, they stopped calling all together.
"Hi, Jason. Its Madelyn. I was wondering, Jason. Do you ever feel like, I dunno, like you can't breathe because life hurts so much?"
"Madelyn? Gee, you don't sound yourself. I tell you what, go take a nap, get some juice. I'll pick you up around 10 and we'll go dancing. We don't have to talk at all. You'll be back to your old self."

"Jason, I don't want to dance. And I can't seem to barely eat or sleep. I'm just so sad."
"Um, well, call me when you feel better then. I have to go. You're bumming me out." The same thing happened in the next two phone calls to her "best friends". Madelyn realized that being the life of the party, she'd never formed true friendships. She had a few siblings she was close with, sure, but they must be just as distraught over their parents' passing and Madelyn felt she couldn't bother them with her woes. If only she had...
She gave up. Death came for Madelyn not 10 months after her parents died.
Death shook his head as he looked around "All this stuff, all this money, no happiness. I see it again and again."
And Madelyn was gone.