B008GMVYA4 EBOK (29 page)

She spent most of Saturday pacing up and down the wooden
floor of the lounge, as her stay at Leon’s grew longer so did her anxiety and
restlessness. She barely managed to sit still for five minutes without moving
or anxiously tapping the arm of the sofa. Also she was sleep-deprived which
affected her concentration and mood. After a few decent nights’ sleep in the
spare room with Brendan, Madison’s sleep pattern began to change. First she
began to have a disturbed night’s sleep, awaking every hour or so. Then, as the
end of the week approached Madison didn’t seem to sleep at all and she spent
most of the night watching TV downstairs in the lounge while Brendan slept,
only sleeping for a few hours now and then when her body couldn’t physically
stay awake any longer.

Since Brendan and Madison shared a kiss on the first night
after arriving at Leon’s, there hadn’t been another reoccurrence of the kiss.
They cuddled a few times during the night as they shared the same bed in the
spare room, but nothing had gone any further. Brendan spent most of his day in
the basement of the house with Leon. They would disappear for almost a whole
day without rising for something to eat or drink in Brendan’s case. To
Madison’s surprise Leon ate human food, so she was not without a decent meal
each day and for a Vampire, Fred was an amazing cook who prepared Leon and
Madison the most amazingly flavored dishes. For the majority of the day Madison
was left in the company of Fred. They had both begun to bond and Fred was
beginning to warm Madison. They would spend most of the day together gossiping,
Fred loved to talk about the past and all the funny things her, Brendan and
Leon used to get up too. Madison liked to listen to all the stories, learning
more about Brendan’s life before she knew him. Within a few days Madison knew
Fred’s life story. She told her that Brendan had introduced her to Leon and for
her it was love at first sight. She always referred to Leon as ‘the one’ when
she spoke about how they first met. Fred was passionate about Leon, always
exclaiming to Madison what a good guy he was and how she would happily lay down
her own life to protect him. She said
‘her life began the first day she met
him’
. Madison found her enthusiasm for their love both touching and moving,
in many ways it was the way she felt about Brendan.

They talked about Fred’s life before she was a Vampire and
how she had found a certain kind of sanctuary in becoming a Vampire - escaping
a life of unspeakable abuse and being reborn again. Madison related to this
more than Fred knew and the desire to be set free was becoming unbearable for
her.

Madison approached the subject about becoming a Vampire with
Fred on several occasion, only for the subject to be changed or for Fred to
make her excuses and leave the room swiftly. The hungry curiosity growing
inside of her never seemed to be satisfied and the information was not being
fed to her as directly as she requested. Frustration had become a key aspect of
her anxiety and she had also grown curious to what type of demon Leon was. He
ate human food, from appearance he appeared to be very much human, yet he was a
lot older then Brendan and had somehow been involved with The Coven. Madison
threw various questions at both Brendan and Fred, both of who deflecting the
questions with a sharp subject change or more swift exits.

Madison spent most of her days in constant speculation,
frustration, anxiety and nervousness of what was to come in the upcoming days.

In a quick blink of the eye Sunday had arrived. Madison had
still not been able to get in touch with Stephanie and the frustration and
anxiousness was beginning to come to a head. Inside, Madison was fighting a
losing battle. The morning was spent with Madison pacing up and down the creaky
floor boards of the lounge. This was beginning to become a daily ritual for her
and she was sure she was beginning to wear the floor boards thin with her
obsessive pacing. Like most morning’s Brendan and Leon had returned to the
basement where they would spend the rest of the day. Madison had no idea what
they did down there but didn’t question it either. A sick feeling grew in the
pit of her stomach and she felt as if she needed to vomit but reality was she
hadn’t eaten anything since last night and her stomach was empty. Butterflies
of anxiety flapped around wildly in her stomach, which didn’t help the sick
feeling. Her head was light and fuzzy, but her body was erratic and
fetidly. 

A heavy atmosphere hung around the house. Fred seemed
distance and hadn’t been pottering round the house this morning like she
usually did. She spent most of the morning sat at the breakfast table with a
cold cup of coffee in front of her. After lunch she livened up a bit and ran a
duster over every window seal of the house. Madison had broken her marathon
pacing to help her stack a pile of books that were spread out across the coffee
table.

Bang!

The front door slammed shut. Madison and Fred exchanged a
worried look.

Madison froze. Her heart beat erupted quickly in her chest -
thumping against her rip cage. She struggled for breath and her eyes flickering
towards the open lounge door. Had the moment finally arrived where Gabby had
found her and would swoop in for the kill before Fred could even lift an arm to
stop her?

Fred appeared at Madison’s side, her eyes lowered and glued
to the lounge door.

She eyed Madison wearily as the sound of footsteps filled
the hallway. Fred’s ears twitched at the loud sound of Madison’s heart beating
rapidly next to her which muffled the sound of the footsteps in the hall. They
both stared in anticipation as to who might appear in the doorway. Fred’s
facial features became soft, her defensive posture eased and she moved away
from where she stood protectively over Madison.

“It’s Leon and Brendan” she said flopping on the sofa.

Leon appeared in the doorway. Madison’s heart beat slowed
and her pulse returned to normal.

“Everything okay?” he asked eyeing the fading worried look
on Madison’s face.

She nodded and looked over to Fred who stared at Leon
suspiciously.

“Everything’s fine!” Fred answered, making eye contact with
her.

There was something in Fred’s expression that Madison found
unsettling. She found all three of their facial expressions unsettling and she
could shake off the daunting feeling that they were hiding something from
her.   

Madison had come to the conclusion that Fred’s horrific past
was to blame for her hatred towards humans, but over the last few days she had
come to look at Madison with compassion and sorrow. She had come to care about
her new helpless human friend and this was something that unnerved Madison more
than the odd looks Leon gave her. Fred cared for what was going to happen to
her and Madison was in the dark to what that might be.

“What’s going on?” Leon demanded, staring at Fred for
answers.

Madison stared at him; he seemed angry and uptight about
something.

“Nothing! We just weren’t sure who it was? We didn’t
realised you had gone out!” Fred said annoyed.

It was becoming clear to Madison something was going on
between them and she was becoming increasingly more upset and anxious that she
wasn’t a part of what was happening.  She felt deceived by Brendan, they
had confided in each other up until this point and now he was beginning to keep
secrets from her.

“Where’s Brendan?” Madison asked abruptly.

“He’s upstairs” Leon replied.

“Ok. Thanks”

Madison walked past Leon and headed out of the lounge, along
the corridor and began to climb the stairs up towards the spare bedroom. As
Madison reached the top of the stairs she looked up to see Brendan blocking her
path. He stood at the top of the stairs motionless staring down at her.

 “Brendan! You scared me!” she gasped.

“Sorry, what are you up to anyway?” he asked a little too
suspiciously.

“Looking for you! What’s going on?” Madison demanded, her
patience beginning to wear thin.

Brendan looked down at his feet shyly. He was caught off
guard but not surprised by her question.

“Shall we go for a walk?” he asked, his beautiful, crystal,
blue eyes catching the light as he looked up at her.

“Ok” Madison replied slowly.

Brendan joined Madison on the stairs and they both walked
slowly down towards the front door.

The wind was cool and refreshing. It lifted some of the fog
which had been hanging around Madison’s head for days. The air was crisp,
awakening her senses as if she had splashed freezing cold water into her face.

The sky had been a dismal gray since they had arrived and
even now he seemed as if there was little chance of some blue sky breaking
through. The clouds swirled around in a circle, a small black hole formed in
the sky at the centre - it was the eye of the storm. Madison looked up towards
the looming black hole above her head as she stepped down the creaky wooden
porch steps with Brendan. There was something not right about the storm brewing
above the wooden house. The weather had remained the same for days, it hadn’t
broken nor had there been any change such as a quick shower or the wind had
increased and everything was oddly ‘the same’. Madison noticed many odd aspects
about the environment around the house. The birds sang for precisely one hour
every morning from 6am-7am, she had timed them one morning during one of her
particularly bad sleepless nights. What was even more peculiar was that Madison
had not seen a single bird since arriving, but yet they sang every morning like
clockwork. Although she thought these things were weird she couldn’t bring
herself to mention her concerns to the others and some unknown forces seemed to
prevent her thoughts from turning into words. This didn’t worry her though and
she couldn’t help but just not care about the strange things that happened
around the house. No animals, the weather remained the same, the wind blew at
the same speed continuously and there was never the sound of rustling trees or
bushes. The trees and bushes moved with the blow of the wind, but still there
was no sound. Still, Madison carried on like normal, curious about the strange
aspects but unable to ask.

Brendan stopped on the gravel driveway and stared at her.

 “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Yes, Sorry. I zoned out for a moment” he replied.

Madison nodded but she was not convinced.

Brendan put one arm around her shoulders and ushered her
over to the large stretch of grass which ran down next to the length of
driveway. The garden wasn’t very wide, about 100 feet or so, but it was
extremely long. It seemed to go on forever, the fern trees that towered over
the bottom of the garden seemed small from where they stood. The grass was a
lush green almost too healthy to be real but it crunched realistically under
Madison’s feet. The garden was still and she felt the breeze on her face but it
made no sound as it burst through the neighboring trees. There was no sound of
traffic or another living soul, the whole garden was eerily quiet but neither
Madison nor Brendan could bring themselves to mention this.

“Brendan, I need to know what’s going on?” Madison finally
spat.

Brendan didn’t answer, his eyes darted around the landscape
as he searched for the right words.

“Is it Gabby or The Coven? Do they know where we are?” she
asked frantically searching for answers.

“No, they don’t know. Not yet anyway!” Brendan said
hopeless.

“What then? Is it something to do with Fred and Leon? Leon’s
being acting weird for days and now Fred’s off with me! Not to mention the
atmosphere that’s been hanging around the house for days! All three of you are
ganging up against me! Having your secret little meetings when you think I’m
asleep or out of ear range! Yeah I know about them!” Madison protested a little
too strongly.

“Leon and Fred are just worried, that’s all! Leon doesn’t
want The Coven finding this place. It’s very important that we leave soon so we
don’t draw and unnecessary attention to Leon and Fred” Brendan said
defensively.

“Oh right….” Madison said embarrassed.

It hadn’t crossed her mind until this moment that she was
putting Leon and Fred in danger just by being here. Her thoughts had been so
wrapped up recently in the paranoid delusion that her three companions were
plotting something behind her back that she had forgotten what was important in
all this mess - that they were helping her. They were all risking their lives
to ensure Brendan could save Madison’s – a selfless act for someone who hardly knew
her.

Her face fell as she realised how foolish she had become
over the past few days - her paranoia had finally come to a head.

“Don’t beat yourself up; none of this is your fault” Brendan
tightening his grip around her shoulders.

“Yes it is!” Madison choked on her words; soreness began to
develop in her throat.

“How is any of this your fault? If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s
mine!” Brendan protested annoyance clear in his voice.

“Gabby’s not trying to kill you Brendan; she’s trying to
kill me! Maybe I should just give her what she wants!” Madison spat in responds
to Brendan’s tone.

She struggled removing his grip storming ahead along the
grass in anger.

“Don’t talk like that!” Brendan shouted, grabbing her
shoulder once again and pulling her back towards him - twisting her around so
they were face to face.

“…I’m not giving up on you, and you shouldn’t give up on
yourself!” he continued.

“I don’t want anyone’s blood on my hands! I am so scared”
Madison moaned angrily.

Brendan let his hand slip from her shoulder and slid down
onto her arm. Slowly, he cupped her left cheek in the palm of his hand; this
was something Brendan continuously did when he wanted to show her comfort.

“I won’t let that happen! You have to trust me!” he reassured.