B008GMVYA4 EBOK (31 page)

Fields stretched across the horizon, dotted by a few grazing
cattle. The sky was a tranquil light blue and there was not a cloud in the sky
- it was beautiful.

Madison shuddered as a warm sensation flew up her spin.
There was only one thing left to do now. She reached inside her jeans pocket
and pulled out her mobile phone. Flipping open the phone she scrolled down the
contact list and hit
call
when she reached Stephanie’s number.

It rang four times before a croaky voice answered.

“Hello?”

“Steph? Oh my god, I am so….sorry! Look, something’s
happened and it’s really important that you don’t come this weekend. I will
explain everything soon, but please! Just stay at home!” Madison blurted
hysterically without taking a single breath.

“Madison…. Maddy……please. Help Me!” Stephanie wept, fear
trembling her voice.

“Steph? What’s wrong? Where are you?” she asked frantically.

“Madison! Madison! Help Me! HELP ME!” Stephanie screamed in
the back ground as the phone had been taken away from her.

Madison’s heart thudded loudly in her chest and adrenaline
erupted through her veins causing her hands to shake and her heart beat to thud
loudly in her chest.

“Stephanie! Stephanie! Please, Steph! Where are you?! Oh my
god! Oh my god!” Madison shouted panicked.

She pressed her free hand to her forehead in desperation,
keeping the phone pressed tightly against her ear.

“Hello Madison” cooed a beautiful, angelic, familiar voice.

Madison froze. There was not a doubt in her mind who that
voice belonged to, it was the same voice that had haunted her every time she
closed her eyes, the same voice which caused every hair on her body to stand on
end - It was Gabby.

“I’ve been getting acquainted with your friend here... She
turned up a few days ago looking for you. She was very worried. She hadn’t
heard from you and understandably thought something had happened. As I am such
a Good Samaritan I took it upon myself to look after her for you. There are so
many nasty things out here in London; it would have been only a matter of time
before she would have been gobbled up by something. Besides, we’ve been getting
to know each other. She’s been telling me so….much about you” Gabby hummed, her
voice emotionless as always.

“Don’t you fucking touch a hair on her head or I’ll…”
Madison spat in a violent rage.

“Or your do what? Run off crying again!” Gabby laughed.

“Please don’t hurt her, it’s me you want. Not her” Madison
pleaded, shocked at how quickly she backed down and became a pawn in Gabby’s
mind games once again.

“Well, maybe I can give you a chance to save your friends
life? After all, I consider myself a negotiable type of gal” Gabby said pleased
with herself.

“What do you want?” Madison croaked helplessly.

“Meet me tonight at
luxuriance
. Come alone and don’t
try anything funny or you really will be alone in this world and the next”

The phone went dead.

Madison arm flopped to her side, she froze in shock. She
felt sick to her stomach, she gagged but nothing came out. Wiping the saliva
from her mouth she pressed her lips together, fighting back the urge to gag
again. Beads of sweat slid down her temples and dibbled down her cheeks.
Madison flipped the phone shut and slipped it back into my pocket - standing up
straight. Her next thought came out of instinct - Brendan.

Madison turned in a 360 degree motion and ran at the
direction where the lodge had been.
She froze on the spot. The section
of land on the opposite side of the road where the large Iron Gates and lodge
had once been were now was gone. In its place was a fenced off field that
resembled the field on the other side of the road. There were no fern trees, no
gate and the thick clouds of fog had vanished. There were no trace that a house
had ever one been built there. The land was completely flat with healthy green
grass on it completely bare of all life that wasn’t livestock.

Madison stared at the landscape, searching for any trace of
a wooden house, but there was nothing. Franticly tears began to pour down her
cheeks and her mouth hung open in disbelief. She blinked hard and reopened her
eyes to find the lodge was still nowhere in sight - there was nothing but empty
fields. Still not convinced Madison sprinted towards the fence, digging her nails
into the soft wood. It was real. The lodge had really vanished.

Panic flew over her in waves. Her heart jumped into her
mouth and the urge to vomit was returning.

“
Brendan? Brendan?
”
she screamed.

Brendan’s name echoed in the distance, but there was nothing
but silence.

“What the hell?” Madison whispered in disbelief, almost
laughing at how crazy this all seemed.

Releasing her grip from the fence she pulled out her phone
once again and flipped it open, she scrolled down her contact list until she
found Brendan’s number. She hit
call
and flung the phone up to her ear.

“
I’m sorry, but we have not been able to connect your
call. Please try again later
”
said an automatic recording.

Madison slammed the phone shut and slipped it back into her
pocket. She threw her hands up over her head and buried herself in her arms.
Stephanie’s broken voice echoing in her head, her words full of pain and fear.
She didn’t know what to do, but she knew she couldn’t waste any time. Stephanie
was depending on her and with or without Brendan she had to help her.

Madison kicked the fence in frustration. Debating with her
consciousness whether to stay and to attempt to find the lodge or try to find a
way back to London. She couldn’t afford to waste any time and searching field
after field for the lodge would only waste more time and give Gabby the
ammunition she need to kill Stephanie.

Madison screamed in frustration, her mind whirling around
the factors of the decision she had to make. Finally her legs made the decision
and her mind followed.

Brendan watched from the dirty, stained lounge window as
Madison silhouette walked motionless down the front garden. He felt a sense of
emptiness and hurt you have after a big argument with a loved one. He couldn’t
understand her frustration or her anger at his decision to collect their
clothes by himself and she knew that his only intentions were to keep her safe,
but she had become angered by this within the last few days. The truth was he
had grown to care about her greatly. There was something about Madison that not
many normal ‘human’ people could see, a goodness that was concealed by pain and
hurt. She had a love for life which not a lot of people would still have after
having lived
her
life. Although they had never really spoken about it,
Brendan had come to the conclusion that it was bad and too hurtful for her to
even mention. Since the first moment he had met Madison he had felt drawn to
her. It was like gravity, something he couldn’t control no matter how hard he
tried to resist it. A first he thought it was the clear pain in her eyes that
had drawn him to her, he had seen it the first night they met at the
underground. Even behind the thick sunglasses she wore it still couldn’t
disguise the complete lack of hope and immense pain that had been inflicted
upon her. Their run in at l
uxuriance
had been complete coincidence but
that night Brendan saw something different in Madison. Fate had brought them
together and whatever the reason was, Brendan was pleased.

He watched her from the window until she was out of sight;
he imagined if his heart was still beating it would be pounding right about
now. He hated her being pissed at him and especially for something so trivial.

“Is she alright?” Fred asked curiously from behind.

“Yeah, I think so. She’s just a little upset at the moment.
She wants to be by herself…” Brendan said turning to face Fred and perching
himself against the large bay window.

“Sulking more like…” Leon murmured.

Brendan shot Leon a cautious look and Leon responded with a
wide smile.

“What?!” Leon chuckled after a few seconds of glaring.

“What have you told her?” Fred asked, slumping back down
into the arm chair.

“Not a lot” Brendan said shamefully.

“Do you not think she’s got a right to know the details?”
Fred asked frustrated.

“I can’t face telling her. She’s got enough to worry about
with Gabby and the prospect of leaving. Telling her about the Black Orchid
would only make things worse and if I can get her out of the UK without them
finding out, she’ll never needs to know” Brendan sighed.

“Brendan it’s the Black Orchid! Or have you forgotten what
their capable of? They will never stop hunting her to get what they want! Their
minds are only on the prize and nothing else. You can’t run, you can’t hide. If
she’s been bargained for something they want, then their coming for her!
Distance means nothing to them, the whole world is their play ground and it
doesn’t matter who is stood in their way. You will never win!” Fred protested
angrily, the fear had overwhelmed her.

“What other choice do I have? Fight them? I don’t stand a
chance!” Brendan spat angered by Fred’s words of concern.

“Brendan, look I never….” Fred said apologetically.

“Leave it Fred!” Leon snapped, cutting her off mid sentence.

Fred crossed her arms, angered by Leon’s shortness.

 “Madison just doesn’t seem right? She says things and
then looks shocked and confused that she’s said them. She doesn’t seem to sleep
and she paces frantically up and down the lounge for hours and she’s seriously
paranoid. She’s beginning to lose all track of time and the mood swings are
starting to get on everyone’s nerves. What do you think it is? Stress?” Brendan
asked concerned, suddenly going back to the matter at hand.

“I suspected as much. She’s been restless lately, quiet and
withdrawn and then other times almost frustrated and energetic like she can’t
sit still. I wondered whether there was something more going on?” Leon said
rubbing his forehead.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked confused.

“It’s not uncommon, I haven’t witnessed myself but I
wondered if and how a human would be affected?”

Fred turned her gaze from the empty space she had been
staring into to listen to Leon closely.

“When I created the lodge I split realities. The lodge is
between the reality on earth and another reality. So in theory it’s in the gap
between time and empty space almost. I’m guessing because of Madison’s
reaction, humans can’t hope with the time difference. Their bodies have a bad
reaction to it; their brains go into overload - unable to process the necessary
information which helps them deal with day to day life. Time and sleep helps us
process and remove unnecessary information that we collate on a daily basis.
When humans are exposed to time lapses, so in this dimension time moves more
quickly than it does on earth, their brains can’t keep up with the level of
information that is processed, so it starts to overload removing relevant
information and reality starts to become a bit like a dream state. Her body
doesn’t know when it needs to shut down to go to sleep, so she’s awake most of
the day and night, and when it finally gives in to sleep the sleep pattern
doesn’t last long enough to remove any of the useless data. Therefore, Madison
is simply going crazy. Her body can’t process the time difference like we can,
we aren’t human after all. It’s like a never ending case of jet lag. If she’s
subjected to a long exposure it will have a dramatic effect on the body,
resulting in loss of self control, a comatose state, brain damage, about every
mental disorder known to science and in worse case scenarios - death” Leon
explained.

“Why are you telling me this now? We’ve all noticed a change
in Madison but only now have you decided to shed some light on this
situation?!” Brendan spat angrily.

Anger was like venom for Brendan he felt it pulsing through
his veins until it eventually ruptured causing him to spit his words wildly at
his targets. Brendan had always imagined that this feeling was a part of his vampire
trait and that older vampires would have used this feeling to attack their prey
when it ruptured. Since Brendan’s kind had evolved, they didn’t find the need
to attack humans so the urge had just evolved into aggression - mainly verbal
aggression.

“I’ve never witnessed it before, so I wasn’t sure what kind
of signs I should be looking for. She’s a strong girl; most people who had
experienced what she has in the last few days would be an emotional wreck! I
just thought it was some kind of kick back from what had happened and being
confined for so long” Leon defended himself, his Scottish accent strong with
the clearness of each word.

Brendan huffed in anger and shot Leon an annoyed look. They
could spend all day arguing about Leon’s lack of concern or unwillingness to
share his theories with them, but the reality was it was too late now. Madison
had been exposed to something that had already taken effect before Brendan
could prevent it and there was little he could do now but remove Madison from
the Lodge. Falling out with his best friend was the last thing he wanted to do
when Leon had been kind enough to offer them both sanctuary when they needed it
most.

“You’re leaving tomorrow; as soon as she’s left she will
return to normal. There shouldn’t be any lasting damage” Leon said
reassuringly, cracking a small smile.

“Shouldn’t?” Brendan asked more calmly but equally annoyed
at Leon’s lack of knowledge for Madison’s welfare in this matter.

“I hope… Honestly, I don’t know! I’ve never done experiments
on what would happen to a human when I created the Lodge. I never expected a
human to be brought here. This place was a safe house for me and Fred and
nothing else! You can’t expect me to think of every scenario before it’s even
happened?!” Leon said sarcastically, staring at Brendan with narrowed eyes.