Becoming Maddie (The Casterhouse series Book 1)

by Hannah Gittins

  Maddie whimpered, past experiences meant that she knew this wasn’t going to be good.

  Reaching into the car Charles pulled her out by her hair, not caring if her elbow wacked against the door or if she fell to her knees. If anything he liked hearing her cries of pain and the tears falling down her face. Grabbing the top of Maddie’s arms he pulled her up so that she was semi standing, semi leaning against the car, then he got in her face.

  “What did you say to me bitch?!” Charles growled at her. “You asking me to take you back to the asshole you spread your legs for?”

  Maddie said nothing, she had learned a long time ago that anything she said now would be the wrong thing. Besides her lips were shaking so much that she wasn’t sure they would be able to form words. If she was really lucky the sore arm and screaming scalp would be the only pain she felt right now.

  “I am going to have to clean you fucking well before I put myself anywhere need your filthy pussy.” Charles spat at her letting her arms go.

  Straight away Maddie fell to the ground, hard on her knees. The cruel curl of his lip said that he again liked that or maybe he was just enjoying having her kneeling down in front of him.

  “You are a fucking whore but you are my wife and, whether you like it or not, that’s for life.” Charles said grabbing her hair again and dragging her around the car.

  He took her, half walking, and half crawling, to the passenger door. He pushed her against the car, he then opened the door and shoved her in. Maddie tried to make her limbs work so that the blow as she hit the middle console was not too painful. It didn’t really work and her forehead smashed against the hand brake making the throbbing in her head more painful, something she also thought wasn’t possible.

  Charles reached in and moved her in to the right position so that he could buckle her in.

  “Don’t want to be stopped by the police for you not having a seat belt on.” Charles said, his tone back to sweet and charming. “Not when I have so many plans for us sweetheart.”

  Maddie still didn’t say anything but instead watched him walk around the car to the driver’s side. He got in without looking at her and turned the car back onto the road.

  “It won’t be long till we get there.” Charles informed her. “I have to go out again to get some things but I will take care of you before I go. The place I am leaving you in is not ideal but I can work round that for now. More importantly it will do before I can get the money together for us to head out of the country.”

  Whimpering next to him, Maddie looked down at her hands. She was slowly starting to get the feeling back in them. It wouldn’t be long till she would be able to move her feet. The drug was finally starting to fully wear off.

  Should she do something now? Or wait a couple of minutes for the feeling to be fully back in her whole body?

  The car was still moving so it didn’t make sense to jump out of it so that was out. Maybe when they had stopped at whatever location he was taking Maddie too she could try to break free then. Except Charles would know the area better than she did so that was basically out. Well it could be used if all else failed or, if on the very tiny chance, she knew the area he took her too.

  Surely Sarah and Claire would have notified the police by now. Detective Miller would be on the case as soon as it was reported, at least she hoped so.

  This all meant that maybe Maddie shouldn’t do anything to rock the boat. As long as she could stay with it long enough and handle the pain then maybe she would be able to make it out of this whole mess alive and in one piece or a piece that was only slightly damaged.

  Maddie had stood up to Jessie a couple of days before. Perhaps she should do that with him, show him that she is not scared of him anymore. Then again maybe not. Standing up to Charles would just make things worse. The punches would be harder and more bones would be broken.

  It wasn’t worth that.

  It seemed to Maddie that her best option was to wait, let Charles do what he wanted to do for now and hope that the police make it to her really soon.

  Having been so focused on her game plan Maddie had not noticed her surroundings or how quiet Charles had become. Not wanting to look at him directly she peeked out of the side of her eye.

  Charles was staring out the front window with a frown on his face. It didn’t seem to be an angry face but more a thinking hard face. Whether that worked in her favour on not remained to be seen.

  Quickly flicking her eyes to the front again, Maddie tried to see if there was anything that passed them by that she recognised.

  At first she didn’t. It could have been the panic or the fear that was stopping her from taking in what was actually around her but slowly the scenery started to sink in to her shocked brain. They were three villages over from Casterfield. Maddie couldn’t think of their names off the top of her head but she remembered driving through them when she first came to Casterfield. Mainly she remembered the town square they were passing now because the main roundabout had a huge statue of a fish in it. She wondered the same thing that she did then now,

  ‘There are no rivers near here or seas so why have a statue of a fish’.

  Instead of taking the turn off that led out of the village, Charles took one that led deeper in. A few turns later and Maddie found herself being driven into a cheap hotel’s parking lot.

  “This is it.” Charles said with a matter of fact tone. “I know it’s not much but like I said Maddison, this is just a pit stop on our journey. God, I can feel you silently judging me. I was never fucking good enough in your eyes.”

  Flicking her eyes to him and then back out the window, Maddie knew she had to say something this time but she couldn’t work out how to play it.

  “It looks fine Charles.” Maddie careful muttered.

  Her lips felt weird, numb, like she was trying to push out words after having her mouth numbed at the dentist. There was something wrong. Was it the drugs she had been given? Shock? Or something else?

  Charles seemed to be satisfied with what Maddie said because he turned to her with a big smile on his face.

  “I knew you would understand. I knew you would get that we need to do this before we can really move on. Both staying here and your punishment.” Charles grinned.

  Lifting a trembling hand to her face Maddie wiped away a tear that had slid out of her eye. She had to stop crying.

  Maddie may not be able to stand up to him, show him that she wasn’t scared of him anymore but she could stop him from getting full satisfaction from beating her. This time she would hold in the cries and the tears. Maddie knew how much Charles loved seeing the pain he caused her. There would be times when she wouldn’t be able to fully hide it but she could hope for strength and keep as much to herself as she could.

  As Charles pulled into a parking space she took several deep breaths and tried to think of all the things that she had in her life now, all the people, to remind herself of what she was fighting for.

  Happiness. Freedom. Love.

  Charles got out of the car and walked round to her side and opened the door for her. He gave her a pointed look when she didn’t straight away undo her seat belt and get out. Taking another deep breath she did what he wanted and got out of the car. Charles closed the door behind her and took her hand straight away. He wrapped his fingers round hers and squeezed so tight he was crushing her bones.

  Swallowing back the pain Maddie hoped that she managed to keep a straight face.

  With his other hand Charles pulled a set of keys out of his hand and jingled them in front of her face.

  “I got a room that has its own entrance just in case you got any funny ideas.” Charles said laughing. “Wouldn’t want you trying to run back to your fuck buddy.”

  Suddenly stopping, and pulling on her arm so hard that her shoulder hurt, Charles spun Maddie to look at him. The hand that had the keys in it came up to hold her chin, the keys crushed against her, hurting her. Maddie bit her lip.

  Aiden held her chin
right before he kissed her, how dare Charles try and ruin that for her. Maddie bit her lip harder so that she didn’t say anything. It was awful having to listen to the things he said about Aiden and their love. Now he, probably unknowingly, was tainting a sweet touch that she and Aiden shared.

  “If you even think about running back to that wanker you will regret it Maddison.” Charles growled at her. “You are my fucking wife, I fucking own you. If you managed to get back to him I will not let him live like I have done now. No, I would cut off his fucking cock for a start. Then I would have hours playing with him.”

  Sucking in air, she felt her eyes fill with tears again. The images his words created running through her head.

  Maddie couldn’t try and run.

  No matter what happened, even if the police didn’t come looking for her, she could never run.

  “I see that got your fucking attention.” Charles said yanking on her arm as he started walking towards a door on the far side of the main building. “That reminds me. I had to tie up some lose ends before I came to get you.”

  They reached a red door with the number 113 written on it and a small peephole. There was nothing about it that was remarkable, at all, but Maddie knew this was no ordinary door. For her it was a door into the past, a door she had to go back through again. It was the beginning of her past becoming her future.

  A really painful past.

  As Charles unlocked the door he let go of Maddie’s hand but she never thought about running. Not for a second. The consequence would either be really bad for her or unthinkable for the love of her life.

  The door came open and a strong smell came out of the room. Like a kind of off food smell and copper. The curtains inside the room were all drawn and it was taking Maddie’s eyes a little bit longer than normal to adjust.

  Charles reached behind Maddie and pushed her into the room. Moving her feet quickly to try and catch her balance her foot landed in something slippery. Over she went, her arms flying around trying to catch a hold of something. She didn’t find anything. Charles stood in the doorway and started laughing.

  As Maddie hit the ground she landed in the sticky, slippery mess that had been her down fall. She had managed to bring her hands up to protect her fall a bit but she had still closed her eyes for impact.

  Opening them now she looked at what was on her hands and froze.

  Charles stood in the door way still laughing. If anything it was harder and louder now.

  “This is the lose end I was talking about.” He said finally walking into the room.

  Maddie was still looking at the sticking thick red liquid on her hands. Turning her head as slowly as she dared, hoping it would never reach its destination.

  There laying on the ground next to her was the beaten, bloodied and barely recognisable Craig.

  Her body reacted before her brain could tell it not to. Maddie’s mouth opened and she screamed at the top of her lungs letting all the fear she was feeling all out.

  Charles walked to her, bent at the waist and punched her. Quick and hard in face.

  “Shut the fuck up bitch before someone hears you.” Charles barked.

  Maddie barely had time to react to the extremely hard punch before she was up on her arms and emptying her stomach contents all over the floor. Over and over she hacked as any and all food left her system.

  “Fucksake!” Charles cried jumping back. “That fucking landed on my fucking shoes you stupid cow.”

  He flicked his foot trying to get a tiny bit of sick off his shoe. Maddie’s arms gave out and she landed in the mess all over the floor. This seemed to cheer Charles up. He chuckled and bent to clean his shoe.

  Her face laying in the blood and sick, her eyes looking into the dead ones of Craig, Maddie realised that this was a whole lot worse than she could ever imagine it would be. Charles had reached a new level of evil.

  * * * * * * * *

  Aiden paced back and forth in the too small family waiting room in the police station. The atmosphere was heavy and if he was actually paying attention he might have done something about it, if he had been paying more attention then that he might have realised that the atmosphere was mostly coming off him.

  He had been in this god awful room for what felt like hours when he should be out there doing something! It wasn’t that he didn’t understand that this should be left to the people that were trained to find kidnapped people. The thing was this wasn’t any kidnapped person this was Maddie. His Maddie.

  Sat in the chairs against one wall, staring at the door opposite, was Maddie’s hand-picked family. Sarah was huddled under John’s arm. Her face pale and she had not taken her eyes off the grey dull door. Aiden didn’t need to ask, he just knew Sarah was willing Maddie to walk through the door. John just held his wife, his face set in stone.

  Fiona had been unable to sit still. Instead she had gotten everybody a coffee and was now quietly talking on the phone to Maddie’s parents. Fiona had asked if Aiden wanted to talk to them but he didn’t want anything to do with them. They had turned Maddie away after her husband had beaten her. They could have stopped this all from happening and saved her years of pain.

  No, he wanted nothing to do with them at all.

  Eddie stood with his arms crossed in one corner. Since the man that took Aiden and his sister in as a kid had entered the depressing room, he had said nothing. Eddie left his wife to fuss around, knowing that was what she needed. In return Fiona left Eddie to stand and talk to no one because that was what he needed.

  Claire had wanted to be in the family room too but an angry looking receptionist had told her and her husband Richard that the family room was full. Fiona had started to argue declaring that they were all ‘Maddie’s family’ and that meant that they would squeeze in if they had to.

  Richard cut in and said that they would wait in the reception.

  One time, when Fiona came back into the room after checking on the couple, she informed everybody that Harry and Alice were there too.

  When the same receptionist tried to stop Marvin from coming into the room Aiden glared at her, for a long time, until she looked down at her feet. He then told her, in no uncertain terms, that Marvin was basically Maddie’s child so he was going into the family room wither she liked it or not.

  In the room he now lay, staring at the door, waiting for his Mistress. The poor husky knew something was wrong, was on edge because of it, but didn’t fully understand why. He was not leaving Aiden’s side.

  Fiona had also called Jean to fill her in on the situation. Jean said that Aiden and everybody else would need her there. Fiona convinced her to stay put in the hospital because they had to focus on Maddie right now and not be worrying about her.

  For Aiden, this was all background noise.

  Rubbing a hand over his face, Maddie was the only thing inside Aiden’s head. They weren’t good images of her laughing, playing with Marvin or the satisfied look on her face after the best sex of his life.

  No, instead his head was filled with the worst images you could imagine. Maddie bloody and beaten, her crying out in pain as she got punched again and again. The worst was the image of her lying on a table in a morgue somewhere. Maddie, so full of laughter, lifeless.

  Turning he moved to pace back across the room when he saw Marvin lift his head and give a little whine.

  Aiden moved quickly so that he was stood right in front of the door as Detective Miller walked in. The man stopped short clearly not expecting anybody to be stood right on the other side.

  “Mr Scott.” The Detective said.

  Aiden crossed his arms and put his feet shoulder width apart. There were many things that he was good at but patience had never been one. In a situation like this it was clearly not even in his ability at all. That and he needed to be ready for any news that was about to be shared.

  “Aiden.” Aiden said fed up of the formalities. “Tell me what is happening.”

  The Detective nodded and opened up a little black bo
ok.

  “Call me Chris then.” He started. “There has been some information come in that means I have to leave right now. I have also called for three back up police cars coming with -”

  Before Miller had the chance to finish Aiden had clicked his fingers calling Marvin to come to his side, which the dog did straight away, and dug his truck keys out of his pocket.

  “I’m following.” Aiden stated, before swiftly raising his hand to stop the man in front of him from objecting. “Don’t waste time by trying to convince me to stay or arguing with me. My fiancée is out there somewhere waiting on me rescuing her. So let’s go so I don’t break that trust she has in me.”

  As Aiden had spoken it wasn’t the Detective that reacted. Instead there was a female gasp from behind him.

  “You proposed to her?” The still paled face Sarah asked.

  She was leaning forward but still John kept his arm around her. Aiden didn’t know why but this question seemed really important to Sarah or rather the answer did. Aiden stared at her for a moment, wasting what he thought was precious time, trying to contain his need to push Miller out of the room and speed to Maddie.

  “No.” Aiden semi-snapped trying not to growl. “I haven’t asked her yet but I know she will say yes.”

  Sarah nodded quickly. The woman then almost jumped out of her chair before striding over to Detective Chris Miller and jabbing him in the chest.

  “You will leave right now, you will find my best friend and get the asshole locked straight back up.” Sarah basically shouted. “Maddie Smith is going to marry this man right here and together they are going to have the happily ever after she fucking deserves.”

  Miller opened his mouth then seemed to think again so closed it again. He caught Aiden’s eye and gave him a chin lift before walking out of the room. John stood and walked over to his wife.

  As Aiden and Marvin started to follow the police officer out of the room, Sarah grabbed his arm. Turning back to look at her with an angry retort on the tip of his tongue, Aiden managed to stop it after seeing the look on the woman’s face.