Rich and Bernie stared at the pile of ash on the floor. Rich slowly rose from where he knelt by Madison and joined Bernie at his side. Madison lay motionless for a second and then slowly pushed her body back up against the old sofa, curling up into a protective ball. Both Bernie and Rich threw back their heads, opened their mouths and released the same unnatural, animal-like howl Suzie had. Madison screamed as the noise pierced her ears again. She flung her hands up over her ears and struggled to see through the dizziness it caused. Bernie and Rich’s black teeth grew bigger and sharper than before and suddenly without warning, Bernie darted towards the bedroom door throwing it open and running out into the hallway. Rich glanced confusingly towards the Rich who was now darting over the corridor towards the staircase. When Rich had disappeared from sight, Rich redirected his gaze back to Brendan - flashing his teeth. He leapt towards Brendan continuing to flash his teeth wildly. Brendan dodged out of the way, and punched Rich in the side of the face. The strength of Brendan’s punch forced Rich up into the air and across the room into the opposite wall - knocking him unconscious. Rich fell to the floor and resurface. Brendan watched carefully for a second making sure Rich wasn’t going to get back up and grab him unexpectedly. When Rich didn’t move after a few seconds Brendan rushed towards Madison, his eyes full of panic and sorrow. Madison stared at him blankly, her eyes cold and emotionless. Her ears still rung from the high pitched howls of her housemates and she was in deep shock. Her heart was still accelerated, causing Madison to now hyperventilate. She took in short sharp breaths of oxygen; it hurt her lungs as she desperate tried to inflate them. Her shell shocked body lend lifelessly on the dirty wooden floor, Brendan scooped her up in his arms. She allowed her limp body to be cradled again his cold chest; he gripped her body tightly as he carried Madison out of Rich’s room into the corridor. Slowly Madison’s eyelids became heavy and her mind began to shut down allowing the darkness in close in around her. Madison faded into the calm, peaceful blackness – allowing it to consume her completely.
Chapter Seven: The Truth Will Set You Free
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 t
owards 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.
“I imagine they were going to turn you, hence why they hadn’t tried anything before” Brendan said a flicker of disgust in his voice.
What Bernie had said was true then? He had wanted them to be paired together, living the rest of their lives together as Skin Crawlers?
“In to a Skin Crawler?” she asked, even though she knew the answer to her own question.
“Yes, but after seeing you with me, they must have thought you were a too high of a risk to be changed. So, they tried to kill you”
A shiver ran down Madison spine from Brendan’s words. Madison realised now if she had listened to Brendan and gone with him in the first instance, she would still be naïve to that part of the world. However, i
f Brendan had not come back for Madison she would be dead now. Either way, Madison knew she would rather be dead than spend the rest of her life as a Skin Crawler - feeding off the dead flesh of bodies.
“It’s okay! You don’t need to be scared, they won’t come after you - not now they know you’re with me” Brendan said comforting, noting her horror stricken expression and her eyes narrowing as she struggled with her thoughts. He placed his long strong arm around her shoulders to an attempt to offer her some comfort.
Madison’s eyes widened as a thought popped into her head, something Bernie had said popped through the haze of her mind. “Why have you brought a vampire here?” If Skin Crawlers existed there was a strong chance that other types of demons existed as well. Madison had been so consumed with shock and fear, she hadn’t been able to fully process what Bernie had said. His question had left her mind rapidly as her three housemates turned into Skin Crawlers before her eyes. A sudden flash of panic rose as her mind became cloudy and confused again – now unsure what to do with the new piece of information. She trusted Brendan - he had saved her life. Now though, she wondered what his intensions were and whether what Bernie had said was true. There was no real explanation as to why Brendan had befriended her in the first place and gone to such lengths to help her. Madison watched loads of vampire films in the past and from them she knew they only saw human’s as meals on legs. Brendan had seemed so different if that was the case or was he playing some kind of sick game with her – preying on her while she was weak. If the Skin Crawler’s knew how alone she was, he would have easily been able to figure that out from the moment she arrived in London. He would have been able to tell just by the look on her face how vulnerable she was. And now she was alone in his apartment with him. It would be easy for him to kill her and blame it on the Skin Crawlers - no one would know apart from Gabby and by the reception she had given Madison when she had arrived it didn’t seem like she cared. If Brendan was a Vampire, it was entirely possibly that Gabby was too. Both of them had unnaturally bright eyes – shocking beautiful to be human.
B008GMVYA4 EBOK Page 14