Madeline and Master Kane

Madeline and Master Kane

A Creepypasta Written By Jacob Jones

In a old house in Paris all covered with vines,

Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.

They left the house at half past nine,

The smallest one was Madeline.

If you were a child growing up in the 30s, 40s, maybe even the 90s, 00s or in our current decade, you may have heard of this phrase before. That is because it was the opening stanza for one of the most famous children’s books of all time, Madeline.

Madeline has been around for many years, and it has seen success not just getting a book series and a tv show, but also a feature length movie. Not bad for something like Madeline.

What’s that? Oh, you’re right! I should probably give context. Madeline was first published way back in 1933 by a man named Ludwig Bemelmans and for quite a few years he wrote many adventures on that little girl who could do just about anything. He died a while back, but not before passing the series onto his son John Bemelmans and posthumously releasing a book called Madeline’s Christmas.

But did you know that there was one more book Ludwig planned to write? It’s true. When he was on his final months of existence, He planned a final story that was made seemingly to ‘kill off’ Madeline for good. He never went with it given how popular she was and noted concerns from publishers from the...shall we say, ‘darker’ storyline than usual.

Regardless, he did manage to write the entire story out and put it in his library for safe keeping incase the day would ever come that someone would be curious enough to want to find out. Well friends, I am happy to say that the day is here and John Bemelmans has granted me full permission to tell you how this final story would have played out.

Note that I said how it would have gone, and not “give you the entire story”. It isn’t because I don’t want to or anything; But should I do so here, I will be liable for a lawsuit for copyright violation, and as a connoisseur of lost media, I would like to keep my reputation intact.

The good news is that I can tell you the name of this book: Madeline and Master Kane. Now the name of Kane may mean something to you should you be a fan of this thing called wrestling, but what no one knew was that Ludwig was the one to come up with the character (though in a different context and perhaps not as fleshed out as the one on TV).

Alright, enough stalling. Let us actually begin the process. It all begins as normal, twelve girls, straight lines, nines, and of course Madeline. It was time for the girls to head off to bed, all dressed up in the pajamas.

“Good night dear girls, Thank the Lord you are well!

Good night, good night, Dear Miss Clavel!”

That part was also very typical of a Madeline book. When you think about it, Madeline has a very formulaic style, but to each their own. Another status quo of these books was that Miss Clavel would wake up in the middle of the night and declare that something was not right.

And lo and behold, it was one of those times. So what went wrong this time? Had something gone missing? Was there a fight without pillows? Nay dear friends, it was something much worse as Clavel would come to find out. With all the little girls crowding over one bed in particular in concern. Miss Clavel asked to see what was going on…

And to her shock, it was an orange haired girl that went by Chloe, bloodshot eyes and all. She was bawling loud and was lamenting over a terrible cough and felt ‘like an inferno’. Miss Clavel checked her temperature and to even more cause for alarm found that she was a fever of 106! It was then that Chloe began to cough harder and harder until…

She coughed up large globs of blood.

Now all this was serious enough, vomiting blood and a high temperature meant of a serious illness. But something about this felt more...realistic than usual. Like if it was the calm before a major storm.

And then, in a sludge like manner, Chloe began to cough up and eventually hurl out extremely hot, almost blood like sludge. It would burn through the covers and would then infect that poor girl, sending her and her body to a world of incredible orange and yellow light. A great inferno had begun that day, and Chloe was it’s victim.

As everyone screamed for Miss Clavel to do something, Madeline was able to run as fast as her little legs would carry her and get some water from a bucket. She would splash the water onto her burning victim of sickness and relieved her of some disaster, though she was now a smoky gray in her skin color and had passed out long before Madeline could save the day.

The doctor was called immediately after, but despite his vast array of knowledge in medicine, even he had to admit that he had never seen anything like it. He took her in the ambulance and drove her to the hospital, the hope for all being that Chloe would recover and make a swift return home.

She didn't.

A few days after the funeral, the now eleven girls were shown playing a game of tag. All seemed well and good at first, everyone was having fun chasing each other, hoping to be the next one it.

And then, trouble struck. Someone had begun to moan about her skin burning from inside. A blonde haired girl, sort of looking like Madeline but not quite was revealed to have mysteriously garnered a nasty sunburn. Madeline suggested that she had not taken sunscreen today and went to go get some. When she got back, she saw the other nine gathering around their roasting friend…

For she had grown as red as a lobster and could move not a step. She was glued straight to the ground and just barely able to speak in complete sentences. Everyone made way as Madeline put the sunscreen onto the blonde haired girl, but a mysterious thing happened. Instead of getting better or her skin peeling off, it began to melt. In fact, her entire body was slowly melting like a popsicle during a heatwave.

I can remember looking at her face when she was disintegrating into nothing, thinking it was one of the most haunting sights I had seen in all my years. Lord have mercy, it was one of the most nauseating drawings Ludwig had ever concocted.

So what about the blonde girl? Well, as she neared the end of her life cycle, She warned them all of a master who ruled above them all that had come to take everything back. And they were to be his pawns. And with that...she was gone. Never again to laugh or play with her friends. For that blonde haired girl, she too had fallen victim to Master Kane.

Throughout the next few pages, the demises of the little girls only continued to grow more and more disturbing. A brunette with fluffy hair named Danielle had her head explode after garnering a massive headache caused from this master unleashing what was called a ‘stampede of bloodthirsty elephants and sonic voices that yelped in pitches unsung by mankind’. Meanwhile, another girl had drowned in the bathtub after seemingly being strangled underwater. Her throat marks were said to be ‘burning marks of vermillion’.

Still another went insane from hallucinating about this ‘Master’, declaring that she had found his identity from a blackened world of nothingness and that he was known simply as Kane. Eventually, she had finally cracked and after declaring she would find him, she jumped from off the balcony and landed neck first on the ground, a gruesome snap being heard in the process.

But the worst of them all was the dirty blonde haired Nicole. She had been traumatized by the actions of this Master Kane and wondered why he was trying to kill her friends…

The next morning, she was found hung on the chandelier in the dining hall, seemingly having committed suicide. As they mourned their loss, they noticed a note left on the table where they broke their bread and butter. Madeline was the one to read it and it revealed to them everything they had yearned to know.

The worries were confirmed. Someone by the name of Kane had declared himself to be the original master of the boarding school. This ‘Master Kane’ had accidentally burnt himself to death after a field trip to a volcano went terribly wrong. Before this, he had always been in awe at fire looked like and what it represented. It was like a seductive women, a femme fatale if you would. And like with every addiction, you just could not keep him away from it.

So imagine his disgust when he found out what had happened to his school one dark day in the afterworld...

He then issued a challenge, tomorrow night, he was to strike one last time, anyone who was still alive was free to try and stop him from taking away the remains of the boarding school. There was a great reward in the tragic letter. Should they manage to defeat him, he would bring the school back to what it was, return all of their friends and never return. But he also declared that their attempts would be futile.

Needless to say, it didn’t take long for those little girls (and Miss Clavel) to make their decision.

The next day seemed to go on as normal, but there was an underlying omen under their movements and demeanors that tonight would be the final night of their existence. But not Madeline, oh no. She was ready for Master Kane and hoped and prayed to God on high that Master Kane was ready for her.

That night, they broke their bread, brushed their teeth and went to bed, dreaming of them facing off this horrifying creature and saving the boarding school as they knew it.

In their dreams, the remaining little girls and Miss Clavel went off the black sea of nothing to find Master Kane to very little success. Despite their efforts, and the many taunting chuckles that came with it, Master Kane remained elusive to search for. This drought of findings would last until one of the little girls heard the screams of their beloved teacher that confirmed of his existence. As Miss Clavel’s eyes burned to a crisp, the little girls saw what could be only described as the most haunting thing they had ever seen.

A red and black patterned face with brown hair glistened with embers all across him. For the red, seas of lava and infernos raged on for moments without end. On his black stripes, ravenous specks of coal with an almost unbearable amount of smoke on the side. And what of his brown hair? What did that do? Strangle any fool who wished to tangle with him or either send that person to a place on his face that he felt would be perfect for him…

Or leave him choking until he gave away their oxygen.

As the little girls mourned the death of their headmaster, Master Kane could only say three words to them. Words only someone as demonic and wicked something like him would dare to say at a time like this...

"LET. THEM. BURN."

And then, the battle begin. The six little girls charged up to Master Kane, their intent as clear as day as they began to do everything they could in their quest to defeat him and bring back their friends from old. But they soon realized that someone like Master Kane was not very well known for staying down, in fact, he was the exact opposite.

As the great fight raged on, the numbers began to dwindle at an alarming rate. One girl drowned in a pool of lava, another burned away at the sight of flames eating her skin, someone was eaten in an almost cannibalistic matter by the many bits of coal, and yet one more suffocated from the smoke fumes infecting her lungs…

And don’t even get me started with what happened with that one girl who thought would be wise to climb from the top of Master Kane’s head from his hair.

So there we had Madeline and Master Kane left go fight each other, and for a good while Kane was taking her to task, throwing everything he had at her. And yet somehow, Madeline was able to dodge them. In a blaze of fury, Master Kane demanded to know why it was that she kept going even though everyone she loved was gone.

This part made me shed a tear, as Madeline declared that her friend were in her spirit. She then closed her eyes, thought as hard as she can and came up with the ultimate weapon against arson. A hose filled to the brim with water. Fearing what she would do, he attempted to calm the situation and make peace with Madeline. But it was too late.

And then, the final act. As she poured and doused Master Kane with water very few had seen in such capacity, his face began to lighten up in certain areas, almost like big white circles over where he once burned. And once Madeline had nearly broken him, he let out one final scream as he went for a final parting shot. A mushroom cloud, sort of like the ones you see during a nuclear explosion…

And it all went white.

And then, darkness.

Empty, cold, darkness.

For all parties, that was all there was.

There wasn’t and never again would be anymore.

The look of horror on me and John’s face when we finished reading the sickly story that came was almost unparalleled, neither knew what to say or how to say it.

“Christ…” John finally got something out of him, “No wonder it was rejected…”

“It makes you wonder,” I said, starting to ponder about how something like this could have been made. “If Ludwig was willing to make something like that…

What do you suppose he could’ve done to her if given the chance?”

It was a question we never figured out. And perhaps, we never will know the truth about this story. Who knows? Maybe Master Kane is still out there somewhere, and this story was more fact than fiction...

Maybe...just maybe...

Master Kane is closer than you think.

FIN.