B008GMVYA4 EBOK (10 page)

Madison sat up in bed, beads of sweat rolled down her
forehead. She panted as she scanned the room frantically expecting to see the
same arms coming for her out of the darkness of the room. The bedroom was a
bright golden orange from the sun which poured in through the small bedroom
window. Madison had failed to draw the curtains before she had fallen asleep
this morning, allowing the sun to illuminate the room freely. Her suitcase remained
at the foot of the bed where she had left it and the bathroom door was open
ajar. Madison blinked several times and rubbed her eyes, the glare from the sun
made her eyes ache. Lifting both arms into the air she stretched her achy body.
The muscles in her arms pulled and throbbed from dragging the heavy suitcase
around last night. Squinting, she glanced at the clock -
8.05am
it read.
She had been asleep for little than five hours, but it was long enough for her
to feel refreshed and more coherent. Looking down Madison realised she was
still naked; she quickly pulled the duvet up over her small round breast and
tugged it under her armpits. Leaning forward over the foot of the bed Madison
searched around on her floor for her handbag. Her finger tips met the soft
strap of the leather handle; she pulled the handbag onto the bed and grabbed
her mobile phone from inside – flipping the small black phone open. The
conscious decision to ring Stephanie had not occurred to her, but before she
knew it she was dialing Stephanie’s number. Over the years Stephanie had become
accustom to Madison’s late night calls where she generally sobbed hysterically
down the phone because Phil had trashed the house or repeatedly woke her up
with one of his 'all night mega-benders'. Mega benders normally consisted of as
much alcohol as Phil could possibly consume, picking up some council estate
trash from the local pub, taking her back to Madison’s house where they would
listen to loud music, smoke pot and have sex repeatedly in the lounge. One
night stands were common for Phil. Madison often came home to find a half-naked
equally drunk woman in the lounge. Phil never brought another woman back to his
bedroom, he rarely slept in his own bedroom since Madison Mother dying – a part
of him still saw it as the marital bed, so he never used it. This sort of
behavior could go on for days with various different women until Phil got bored
and went back to his comatose state.

She placed the phone to her ear, it began to ring instantly.
Madison sighed and braced herself; she wasn’t sure how Stephanie would react.
She would be hurt and angry that Madison had not contacted her as soon as the
incident happened, but she would eventually realise the lengths Madison had
gone to was for the best.

“Hello” Stephanie answered after three rings.

“Hey, Steph” Madison said casually.

“Hey babe, what’s up? Why are you ringing now? Thought we
were meeting up after work?” Stephanie said a flicker of suspicion in her
voice.

Madison explained what had happened and how she had left
Thatcham and travelled to London to escape Phil and the life she had been
forced to lead for so many years. She left out the parts about Brendan and the
two hooded boys, they were irrelevant and Stephanie would only worry if she
knew Madison was hallucinating.

Stephanie remained quiet throughout the conversation, she
hummed in agreement to parts that Madison needed her approval and gasped in
shock at the parts that made Madison well up once again. She told Stephanie
everything up until the moment she had picked up the phone to call her. There
was a paused in Stephanie’s response. Madison imagined Stephanie absorbing the
information, a horror stricken expression spread across her face.

“Umm… Maddy? I don’t know what to say… Why London? You know
without a doubt you could have come to mine.  We would have looked after
you!” Stephanie finally said a flicker of hurt in her voice.

Stephanie was her best friend and up until now, she had
relied on her completely. Stephanie’s and Julie’s house had always been a safe
haven for Madison, which she called on more often then she should have,
Thatcham no longer felt safe for Madison – so she had to leave.

“I know. I just… couldn’t. Steph, I love you. But I can’t
stay in Thatcham any more, there’s too many bad memories there for me” Madison
tried to explain.

“But still… London? Why don’t you stay somewhere a closer?”
she asked, hurt still crippling her voice.

“I don’t know. I guess I started to think about all those
times when we were younger and we talked about moving to London together,
renting an apartment here? It made sense at the time and it‘s far enough away
for Phil not to bother looking for me” she protested. 

Stephanie fell silent again. Madison could almost hear
Stephanie’s brain ticking through the receiver of the phone.

“Where are you staying?” she asked finally, her voiced was
laced with concern – the hurt had now begun to diminish.

“In a Travel Lodge at the moment. I’m going to look for
somewhere more permanent today, probably just a bed-sit or something for the
time being and then hopefully find a job. When I‘ve found somewhere to stay,
you can come stay with me… that’s if you want too?” Madison said excitedly.

“You just try and keep me away” Stephanie laughed.

Relief washed over Madison, it would have ended her
completely if she had lost Stephanie over this. Stephanie was her family and
friend, she was everything to her.

“Just… Be careful. London is a dangerous place for a good
looking girl like you to be there alone” Stephanie continued.

“I don’t think anyone would want to come near me with the
way my face is looking at the moment” Madison chuckled. The image of the
Brendan popped into her mind, she was overwhelmed with a need to tell Stephanie
about the dark handsome stranger, but she knew today wasn’t the right time. She
would fill Stephanie in on Brendan when things had settled down.

“God, Maddy! Are you okay?” Stephanie said sympathetically,
concern heightened in her voice.

“Yeah I’m fine, honesty. It looks worse than it is” Madison
lied. The pain behind her eye socket throbbing once again. She put her hand to
her forehead and rubbed it, trying to clear some of the frustration and pain.

Stephanie fell silent once again. Madison knew Stephanie
well enough to know she didn’t believe her lies, but she also knew that
Stephanie wouldn’t argue with her about it.

“Maddy, phone me later please?” she asked gently.

“Of course” Madison said, nodding in agreement.

“Ok. I’ve got to go to work. Ring me tonight.”

“Yep. Bye, Steph. Love you”

“Love you” Stephanie said hanging up.

Madison flipped the phone close and threw it onto the bed.
She touched the swollen lump beneath her eye socket and winced as it stung
instantly from her touch. She sat on the bed feeling slight relieved by the
sound of Stephanie’s voice, her mind wondered over what to do next. She had
told Stephanie that her next move was to find a permanent place to live.
Madison knew that she couldn’t stay in the Travel Lodge more than a couple of
nights, the cost per night would soon eat up her savings if she didn’t mind a
permanent place to live soon. Getting motivated, she threw back the bed sheets
exposing her naked body to the cool air of the bedroom. She got out of bed and
headed to the suitcase at the foot of the bed. Madison led the suitcase down
and unzipped it exposing a mass off screwed up clothes and accessories. She
pulled out a simple white bra and a pair of white pants, a pair of blue baggy
trousers, a plain white t-shirt and a pair of socks. Madison got dressed on the
floor of the small bedroom, pulling one item of clothing on after another. Once
she was dressed she took out the toothbrush from the front pocket of the
suitcase and grabbed the makeup bag which was buried underneath a pile of
jumpers and headed to the bathroom. Madison brushed her teeth and gently
cleaned her face. Carefully, she began to examine the damage to her eye in the
small mirror above the white basin. It was swollen, but the pink patch at the
bottom of her eye socket had now begun to turn purple. It was angry and sore,
but Madison knew she had to cover it up as best as she could if she was going
to leave the Travel Lodge today. Large dark circles hung around her each of her
eyes, the dark circle around her damaged eyes blended perfectly into the
bruising - she would try to cover those up as well. Her hair was a little wild
from going to bed with wet hair, but with a quick brush it would be
presentable.

Madison pulled out a veil of foundation from her makeup bag
and squeezed a large dollop into her hand. Being gentle of the bruising she
began to rub the foundation into her face, blending it in. She persistently
added more foundation and blended it, trying to cover up the bruising below her
eye. It was too purple to be fully covered by the foundation, but she now
looked reasonable. No one would notice at a distance. Madison finished her
makeup with some blusher, giving her pale face some colour and a little bit of
mascara to enhance her eyes.

She left the bathroom, grabbed her leather waist-length
jacket and slipped it on. She picked up her handbag, throwing her mobile phone
inside and popped her Ugg boots on before heading toward the bedroom door.
Madison pulled out a pair of black sunglasses from her handbag and slipped them
on, she picked up the plastic key card from the dresser before exiting the
room.

It was a little before 9am - Madison would have to check out
of the Travel Lodge at 2pm, so she had a few hours to find somewhere more
permanent to stay before she would be charged for another night.

A middle aged woman sat behind the reception desk in the
lobby, she smiled as Madison approached.

“Good Morning, checking out?” she asked politely.

“Not yet. Do you know where I might find the nearest estate
agent?” Madison asked shyly.

“Ok. There’s one about half a mile down the road in that
direction” she said, holding out her bony little hand and pointing to the
right.

“It’s right in the middle of town next to
Jane’s bakery
”
she continued.

“Great, thanks” Madison smiled faintly behind the large
overpowering sunglasses.

*    
                                                                                                                                                     
*              *

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky; the whole horizon was a
beautiful shade of summers blue. The sun was warm against Madison skin, but
there was still a slight chill in the breeze which caused her to zip up her
coat. She strolled down the pavement, not really rushing, taking in all
surroundings. Small shops and boutiques lined either side of the road. They
were beautiful compared to the shop in Thatcham, quirky and trendy window
displays stood in each shop window.  Madison could have spent days
riffling through the shops exploring the every inch of them, hunting for bargains
and little antics to furnish her new life with. A Sea’s of people flowed out
from the entrance of an Underground terminal; they headed straight towards
Madison who shifted awkwardly on the pavement. She had never seen so many
people in her life, it caused her to constantly change direction and weave in
and out of people. She found herself being pushed and pulled in all directions,
she almost felt panicked by the amount of people and how easy it would have
been to become lost within the bodies.

She searched frantically around for some sense of direction,
and then a familiar sight caught her eye. A large pink sign with white fancy
writing stood out from behind the crowd -
Jane’s Bakery
it read.
Baggett’s and different types of breads were stacked on shelves in the window
of the shop. A sweet smell of fresh pastry filled the air which made Madison’s
mouth water and stomach rumble fiercely. Just as the receptionist at the Travel
Lodge had said an Estate Agents sat directly next door to the bakery. Madison
approached the window and examined the adverts. Most of the properties in the
window for rent were beautifully furnished penthouses and luxury apartments
rather than the normal lower class apartments. They were all extremely
expensive and completely out of Madison’s price range. After scanning every
advertisement in the window without little success – she decided to go
inside.  A bell sounded twice as she pushed open the door the Estate
Agents. A young woman from behind a computer screen popped her head up and
smiled politely at Madison. She had short blonde hair that was cut into a bob,
thick blue eye shadow smudged across her eye lids and bright pink lip gloss.
She was in her late 20’s, but the excessive makeup and too many sessions at the
sun beds made her appear older than she actually was. Under all the fakery she
was a naturally pretty woman with clear skin, good cheek bone and beautiful
grey/blue eyes. Madison smiled awkwardly and scanned the advertisement on the
wall.

“Do you need any help?” she asked in a southern accent.

“Umm… yes. Maybe? I’m looking for a small apartment to rent.
Something really cheap and fully furnished. Ideally I need to move in there
today” Madison replied walking over to her beach coloured desk she sat behind.

She thought for a moment. Her faced became puzzled, she eyed
Madison trying to figure out her story and why she was in such a hurry to move
into somewhere today.

“I may have something for you. Take a seat” she gestured
towards the small red chair in front of the desk. Madison sat down; she scanned
over the papers the estate agent had spread across her desk.

“What sort of price range are you looking at?” she asked,
following Madison‘s gaze to the papers on her desk and pushing them aside.

“About £400 a month” Madison said, looking slightly
embarrassed and refocused her gaze to make eye contact with her.