B008GMVYA4 EBOK (19 page)

  Madison’s eyes flickered open, bright circular lights
passed above her head as she was carried through an unknown building. The
ceiling was concrete like an indoor multi-story car park. She could feel the
motion of footsteps underneath her and two large arms clutched at her weak body
- one arm wrapped around the arch of her back and the other cradled her thighs.
She opened her mouth to speak but her eyelids fell shut again before she could
mutter a single word, her body sucked back into unconsciousness.

* 
                                                                                                                                                        
 *           *

A bright light awoke Madison from the blackness that had
penetrated her mind. She opened her eyes, focusing on the spot lights on the
white ceiling above her now. Slowly, she tilted her head sideways to take in
her surroundings. Brendan was carrying her down a long, very elegantly
decorated corridor. The walls were painted a clean white and the carpet was a
dark grey, but it looked very elegant and expensive in comparison to the décor
Madison was acquainted with.

Brendan’s arms were wrapped tightly around her fragile body
and she could feel his cool breath on her face as he walked casually along the
corridor. His eyes were focused towards the end of the corridor, his expression
was peaceful and his eyes glazed. 

“Let me down” Madison whispered.

Brendan froze in the middle of the hallway. He stared down
at her, slightly startled that she had awoken without him noticing. His eyes
scanned every inch of her face in concern.

“Please…” she whispered again, her voice croaking under the
strain.

“Can you stand?” Brendan asked unsure.

Madison nodded. She wasn’t sure whether her legs could take
the weight of her body; they still felt like jelly and her body felt limp, but
she didn’t want Brendan to support her any longer. Brendan sighed and put her
reluctantly down on her feet. He gripped her arms tightly as her feet met the
soft grey carpet. She wobbled a little, but found her footing easily. Brendan
kept one arm around her shoulders as she started too stumbled down the corridor
besides him.

Brendan stopped her at the second door on the right from the
end of the corridor. He ushered for her to lean against the wall next to the
door. Madison didn’t fight him, she allowed him to manipulate her body so she
was lent her side against the wall. Her body was completely under his control,
every movement obeyed his command.

He pulled a set of keys from the pocket of his black duster
and inserted one of the keys into the lock. It clicked open. Brendan removed
the keys slipped them back into his pocket - pushing the door open slowly.
Madison stood up from against the wall a little too quickly – sending her into
a dizzy spell. She fell backwards – Brendan caught her around her waist
stopping her from falling back into the wall. He pulled Madison towards him,
pressing his cold body tightly against hers. Their eyes met. Madison felt her
face being drawn to his like gravity. His eyes melted away her flesh and she
felt his eyes glancing down towards her warm, pink lips - urging her to kiss
him.

Something in the corridor disrupted Brendan’s gaze and he
straightened up to peer down the corridor.

“Let’s go inside” he said quietly.

Madison didn’t reply. She stared at his features, lust
building inside her. He removed his arm from around her waist – Madison hadn’t
noticed that he had dropped his arm to her waist. Brendan stared at her for a
moment, and then turned to step through the door. Madison followed silently,
still overwhelmed by what had happened and what could happen now. She entered a
brightly lit, massive, open plan living room/kitchen. To the right was a circle
of expensive leather corner sofa’s, in the centre stood a vintage dark brown
coffee table and a 60inch flat screen plasma TV hung from the far wall. DVD’s
and CD’s were stacked neatly in cabinets next to the TV. Dark brown varnished
floor board covered the length of the apartment and the walls were painted a
simple white. Various paintings and photographs hung from frames on the wall,
making the very modest apartment more homely.

This was truly the most beautiful and expensive apartment
Madison had ever seen, it was surreal and even more exquisite that anything she
could have ever dreamt.

“Brendan, where have you……” said female’s voice, from one of
the neighboring rooms. Gabby entered the room from a door next to the Plasma
TV, her sentence trailed off as she clapped eyes on Madison.

“What
is
she doing here?” Gabby demanded gesturing
towards Madison, her eyes peering at Brendan over a confused frown.

“Madison… is having a few housing problems. She’s going to
stay with me for a while” Brendan said without hesitation, throwing Madison a
sympatric look.

Madison slumped against the wall next to the front door, her
body still half in shock.

“What?!” Gabby spat, her face creased in disapproval.

“Gabby, what are you even doing here?” Brendan asked
annoyed.

“You disappeared after we left the club. I was worried. I
came back here to find you. When you didn’t answer, I let myself in” she said
more calmly.

Brendan stared at her, studying her expression.

“Brendan, what the hell is going on? What’s wrong with her?”
Gabby continued pointing to Madison. Gabby scanned her face and the cut on her
cheek from the bread knife.

Madison listened to Gabby’s questions but she did not
register her disapproval or disgust, she was still too hazy from
unconsciousness to fully perceive what was happening around her. Both Gabby’s
and Brendan’s voice sounded muffed and distance in the ringing of her ears.
Madison‘s brain was in overload, it was still having difficulties processing
everything she had witness tonight.

“She’s in shock” Brendan said, turning to look at Madison
sympathetically again.

Madison felt his eyes on her, but she did not direct her
gaze away from Gabby.

“What! Why?” Gabby demanded, confused.

“Look, I’ll call you tomorrow and explain everything. Just
not now, okay?” Brendan said as he approached Gabby. He put his hand around her
left wrist and pulled her towards him so he could whisper into her ear. They
whispered contently for a moment, Gabby stared at Brendan in shock. Then her
expression relaxed and she turned to look towards Madison again – glancing to
Madison then back to Brendan. He turned and gestured Gabby towards the front
door, one hand on the arch of her back pushing her forwards. Gabby scowled at
Madison as she crossed the room towards the door, she was clearly jealous with
Madison stay with Brendan and frustrated that she was being asked to leave.
Gabby stopped in the open doorway and stared at Madison who was still prompt up
against the wall – only inches away. Her shockingly, bright, green eyes
penetrated Madison’s skin and she couldn’t help but stare back at Gabby - her
eyes were unnaturally bright and beautiful. Her skin a milky white and a
healthy pink tinge to her cheeks - Gabby was stunning. Madison saw little
reason for Gabby to be jealous when she was outrageously beautiful in
comparison.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Brendan?” Gabby spat,
her eyes still glued to Madison.

Brendan didn’t answer; he lowered his head as if he was
beginning to doubt his own decision now. Gabby broke her glaze and stormed out
of the door. Madison directed her eyes back to Brendan who closed the door
slowly behind Gabby.

“Sorry…” Brendan said apologetically.

Madison smiled weakly at him, her whole body wobbled like
jelly.

“Come on, let’s get you to the sofa” Brendan said grabbing
her forearms and guiding her towards the white corner sofa. 

Brendan helped her to sit, he then straightened up to study
what damaged had been done. There was a two inch cut on her cheek that had
already begun to close, some bruising forming on her back and legs from falling
onto the wooden floor and her eyes were red and puffy from crying. Her face was
pale and drawn from the shock and most of her injuries had been inflicted
mentally.

She felt nothing; her mind was completely blank and unable
to process what had happened tonight. Madison felt as if she was in a daydream,
she knew what was happening around her was real but she couldn’t process
anything for longer than a couple of seconds. Her eyes stared straight ahead -
through Brendan as if he hadn’t been stood in front her.

“I’ll get you a drink” Brendan said, flashing a concerned
look at Madison.

Brendan walked across the room into the kitchen, he opened
and closed a few doors and there was a sound of glasses jingling.

Madison stared blankly at the large black TV that hung on
wall opposite. She struggled to pull information that she had experienced and
heard tonight. She needed something to focus on, something real that could
bring her out of this state of shock and back into reality. Everything seemed
too blurry for her to focus on. The image of her housemates dead white eyes and
razor sharp, black teeth flashed into her mind. Bile began to rise at the back
of her throat at she remember the decomposing smell that had spilled out from
the bathroom and the sight of blood splashed up the tiled wall. Madison
swallowed hard, forcing the bile back down again. Her eyes watered from the
painful ball in her throat, causing the fog in her mind to begin to clear.

Brendan held a glass of brown liquid out towards Madison;
she took it reluctantly examining the strange brown substance.

The glass shook in her uneasy hand as she sniffed the liquid
trying to identify it. It smelt strong, alcoholic but not like any alcohol
Madison had ever had before.

“It’s Brandy, it will help with your nerves” Brendan said
sitting down beside her.

She stared at the brown liquid for a moment, before slowly
taking a large slip consuming the Brandy in one large gulp. Her throat burned
as the liquid went down; she winced and swallowed a few times trying to remove
the taste. She screwed her face up in disgust as she could feel the Brandy
moving slowly down into her stomach. Brendan chuckled taking the glass from
her.

“More?” he asked.

Madison nodded and redirecting her gaze to make eye contact
with him. His beautiful crystal blue eyes stared down at her in admiration. His
hair was a little messy from the fight, but it still hung down perfectly either
side of his cheeks. Brendan placed both glasses down on the coffee table and
wandered back to the kitchen to retrieve the bottle of Brandy. He returned
moments later with a half-full bottle of Brandy in his hand. He poured himself
and Madison another glass of Brandy and placed the bottle down onto the table.
Madison picked up her glass, only taking a small sip this time. The Brandy
warmed her body up and made her feel more relaxed, the first glass had gone
straight to her head.

“What were they?” Madison muttered, speaking without fully
understanding the question.

“Their called Skin Crawlers” Brendan replied after a short
pause. He stared at Madison, studying her response to his answer.

Madison frowned in confusion and disbelief.

“Skin Crawlers are scavengers. They don’t hunt their own
prey, their lazy and normally feed off corpses and other dead things they can
lay their hands on. They tend to live around graveyards, hospitals or morgues.
Places where they could find fresh corpses easily - the city morgue is a few
buildings over from your house. Generally, if they kill humans they target the
ones alone and vulnerable. It‘s likely they targeted you because of this and
because you brought me to the house”

Madison knew that her housemates had realised she was far
away from home and didn’t have any close friends around her. She was an easy
target for them to prey upon and bringing Brendan to the house had only given
them the nudge to kill her. She imagined the reason they hadn’t killed her
before had been for Bernie, who had other plans for her. She had never
mentioned to Bernie that Stephanie would be visiting in a week and how she
could potentially alert the police if Madison didn’t responded to her calls or
texts. She felt scared. Would Bernie and Rich pursue her now for revenge? Her
mind was jumbled and confused with uneasy frightened thoughts. She took another
large gulp of Brandy trying to ease the confusion. Madison had never heard of
Skin Crawlers before, it was a term something she expected to hear in fictional
stories or movies not something she thought she would hear in real life. Her
mind swarm with the knowledge that what she had been taught as a child was
false and suddenly, this whole new world had opened up to her – making the
world seem bigger. Things she had never perceived as something to fear had now
become the danger she faced. 

“Their numbers were in the thousand in 1665, when the Black
Death hit London. As you can imagine, it was an all you can eat buffet for
them. The Skin Crawlers numbers spread just as fast as the disease, killing
weak men and women, preying on the orphan children – turning them. It was an
infestation, and like all infestations it had to be exterminated. So it did.
Their numbers dwelled after we annihilated the larger groups, but some escaped.
Fleeing London and never returning. Generally, Skin Crawlers live in packs… I
was surprised to see a group of three living in living together” Brendan
explained.

Madison found herself processing the information easily -
she was curious. The way her housemates had acted made sense now - awake at all
hours of the night and asleep throughout the day.

“I had been living with them for three weeks... Rich had
always been a little hostile towards me, but nothing like what had happened
tonight. In three weeks I had lived there I had never felt threatened like
that, not even once” Madison stated dazed, she stared at the glass of Brandy in
shock.