B008GMVYA4 EBOK (6 page)

Madison
stood the suitcase upright, letting go of the handle to flex the muscles in her
arm. Her arm screamed with pain as it relaxed without the weight of the
suitcase -releasing some of the tension. Madison examined the red imprint of
the handle on the palm of her hand. Her fingers throbbed as the cool air
soothed the burning skin. The buzz of electricity from the Underground train hummed
from the pitch black tunnel at the end of the track to her left. A whistling
sound thundered through the tunnel as the train sped through the air towards
the platform ahead. The wind thundered through the tunnel whipping Madison’s
hair up into the air in a wild frenzy, it showered down over her face and
shoulders. She brushed it away letting it flow out wildly behind her. Madison’s
gaze turned towards the businessman who was still shouting down the receiver of
his phone, his free hand that held his briefcase now covered his other ear from
the sound of the train - drowning out the screeching of the brakes. She watched
curiously as he shouted “bye” to someone and slammed the phone shut angrily,
placing it carefully in the inside pocket of his jacket. The businessman’s eyes
flickered over to Madison’s direction, he was conscious of the fact that she
had been watching him. Madison met his eyes for a moment, she looked away
quickly again towards the train that was now stopping slowly at the platform.
The businessman held his gaze, his eyes narrowed on Madison before he slowly
looked back towards the train. The train screeched to a halt next to the
platform, a high pitched buzz of electricity filled the air. A loud hiss
sounded from the hydraulics as the doors slid slowly open. The businessman
quickly walked towards the carriage and entered the Underground train. Madison
grabbed the handle of her suitcase and followed slowly, entering a different
carriage to the businessman. The brightly lit carriage seemed dim and dismal
compared to how the Underground normally appeared, a small light flickered on
and off with a fault. Madison’s eyes scanned the empty underground carriage.
Her legs ached underneath the weight of her body. The walk from one platform to
the other was too much for her drained, tired body to manage under the
circumstances. She pulled the heavy suitcase to the front of the long row of
seats on the left hand side of the carriage doors. She slumped down in the seat
next to her suitcase. Her body relaxed and tingled as the weight of her body
was lifted from her feet. The aisles of the Underground carriage were wider
than the aisle of the train, allowing Madison to stretch her legs out fully.
She sighed loudly and allowed her body to fall limp. The pressure in her arm
was immense from lugging the large suitcase around for hours. Madison’s eyes
felt heavy and she struggled to keep them open, slowly her eyelids fell shut,
her body momentarily became light as sleep threatened to take a hold of her. A
cool breeze disturbed Madison from her sleep and her hair flowed forwards
spreading out across her face. Madison sensed that the breeze wasn’t the cool
air from the underground tunnel, but a gust of wind from something moving very
fast. Her eyelids flew open, her gaze automatically located to the two black
figures that sat side by side, motionless, on the left hand side of the
carriage. She jumped, her heart beat fastened as she realised the two boys that
followed her through the underground were sat no more than ten feet away from
her. Their heads were still lowered in an unnatural fashion, the hoods of their
jumpers pulled up over their foreheads, masking their features in thick black
shadow. Madison couldn’t pinpoint what she found so frightening or uneasy about
the two boys. Living in Thatcham Madison had experienced many circumstances
where it felt as if she was being followed by a teenager dressed in same kind
of attire, but nothing had ever progressed further. However, there was
something about these two boys that made every hair on her body stand on end.
Just the sight of them made Madison’s blood run cold and her heart bounce
against her rip cage as if it was trying to escape her body in absolute fear.
It was the kind of feeling you get when you walk into a haunted house, when you
know something is out of place and even though you have no reason to be - you
know you should fear the unknown.

Electricity
buzzed as the brakes were released and the Underground train leapt forwards.
The doors of the carriage slid shut, locking Madison inside the train with the
two hooded boys. The tracks clanged underneath the carriage as the train built
up speed. Darkness clung to the windows of the Underground carriage as the
train was sucked into the darkness of the tunnel. Reflections of the inside of
the carriage danced on the black windows., the dancing shapes and distorted
images from inside the carriage made Madison nervous, but she couldn’t pull her
gaze away from the two boys for more than a moment. The two boys held their gaze
on the empty space before them. Both boys sat perfectly still, their body
language and posture still mirrored one another - unnaturally. The underground
from Waterloo took no more than 15 minutes to reach central London. Today, 15
minutes would feel like forever for Madison. She pulled her
ipod
out
from her coat pocket, popped the earphones back in and hit the play button.
Madison’s head was filled by the sweet sound of an acoustic guitar again, for a
moment she forgot herself. The peculiar two boys and the bizarre dancing
shadows on the windows of the carriage had unnerved her and in the split second
it took for Madison to forget herself in the music again, her heavy eyelids
fell shut blocking out the strange boys and the growing shadows. She exhaled as
some of the tension was released from her body. Two seconds passed before she
found herself again - every moment from the last few hours came rushing back in
stirring her from the sanctuary of the music. The pain, sadness and confusion
all flooded in like water rushing through the open gates of a dam. Madison
struggled to breathe and control her emotions as they were still so raw and
overpowering. Her eyelids flew open as she realised where she was for the
second time that night – it had become difficult to shake the sleep that
gripped her. Her gaze automatically flickered over to the two boys. Movement in
the reflection of the window behind the two boys caught Madison’s attention.
She gasped quietly as she caught sight of man stood across from the two boys.
Madison turned sharply in the direction of the stranger. He looked about 26 or
27 years old, dark brown hair that hung down either side of his shapely cheek
bones. His hair was straight and shiny; every hair was pristinely in place -
almost in too pristine and his hair in too good condition for a man. His
features were soft and he was extremely handsome. He almost looked like a wax
work from Madame Tussauds, his skin was too flawless and the stubble on his
neck and jaw looked like it had been drawn on.
 
Madison couldn’t make out the colour of his eyes from her position, but
she imagined they would be blue and stand out beautifully against his dark
hair. He was dressed in black denim jeans, a simple black jumper and a black
fashionable leather jacket. This dark handsome stranger reminded Madison of
some the celebrities she read about in her trashy magazines - perfection to the
eyes. She couldn’t help but feel suddenly self-conscious next to the flawless
beauty of the stranger. She realised that in her haste to leave Thatcham she
hadn’t even bothered to run a brush through her knotted, frizzy hair and the
thick layers of foundation that she had applied to her face to cover up the
read swollen bruising hadn’t done a great job at concealing the damage, and had
now become cracked and very orange against her normally pale complexion.

The
handsome stranger appeared to be in deep conversation with the hooded two
teenagers. Madison couldn’t hear what was being said over the loud twang of an
electric guitar in her ears, but he didn’t appear to be getting any response
from the two boys. There was no movement in their posture or change in their
fragile frames, their heads still hung down towards the floor, the threatening
dark shadow from their hoods consuming their facial features.
 
However, all three appeared calm and
comfortable as if they had known each other for years. There was no awkwardness
coming from the new stranger to indicate there was any tension between him and
the two boys, all three of them were oblivious to Madison who watched eagerly.
Madison was so fascinated by the dark stranger that she had forgotten to
breathe; she caught her breath and coughed as the oxygen filled her lungs. This
seemed to interrupt the flow of his conversation, slowly the dark handsome
stranger turned to look in Madison’s direction.

Madison
caught her breath as his brilliant crystal blue eyes met her hazel eyes.
 
Never before had Madison seen eyes so unique
and stunning as this dark handsome stranger’s. The hairs all over her body stood
on end as the warm sensation of blood rushed around underneath the surface of
her skin.

He didn’t
look at Madison with annoyance or anger, but he looked at her with compassion
and warmth – as if he had known her all his life. Madison couldn’t help but
stare at the intriguing stranger, her heart raced in her chest as their eyes
locked on each other. She felt a sense of calm staring into this stranger’s
eyes and found herself becoming lost within the seducing colour of crystal
blue. Catching herself, Madison looked away in embarrassment suddenly realising
she had held the strangers gaze for longer than she had intended too. Quickly
she lowered her head, looking down towards the opposite end of the train. Her
cheeks flushed pink.
 
The bruising
forming under her eye throbbed painfully, reminding her that it was still
developing angrily underneath the layers of orange foundation. After about ten
seconds Madison gathered the courage to look back around towards the dark
stranger. Her direction of gaze was quickly altered by the sight of the two
boys who had twisted their torsos towards her, their heads still lowered –
shielded by the dark hoods of their jumpers. She quickly looked away, closing
her eyes tightly. Madison hit the stop button on her
ipod
from inside
her coat pocket, she couldn’t risk the unexpected - she knew she had to have
all her senses available should anything happen. There was silence - no one
spoke. Madison heart pumped loudly in her ears, illuminating any other sound
within the Underground carriage. The force from the train’s brakes pulled her
body forwards and left, as the tube slowed and came to a halt. She opened her
eyes and glanced back quickly towards the three strangers. The dark handsome
stranger continued to watch Madison. His enchanting eyes twinkled brightly full
of interest and amusement as a smile stretched out across his face. She eyed
him for a second, quickly directing her gaze towards the automatic doors of the
carriage as a
ding
sounded to signify
they were about to open. Placing one hand on the handle of her suitcase,
Madison glanced back over towards the two boys as she got up from her seat. Her
eyes met the empty seat of the carriage – the two boys were nowhere in sight.
Scanning the carriage her eyes flickered over to the dark handsome stranger who
had remained where he stood in the carriage where Madison had first spotted
him. He stared directly at her, an amused smile spread across his perfectly
pink lips. His stunning crystal blue eyes shone brightly with excitement as he
watched Madison with fascination.

Wearily,
Madison pulled the handle of her suitcase up and walked slowly towards the
exit. Although she felt no fear from this handsome stranger she was still
suspicious of what his intensions were and why he had stayed behind when the
two boys had disappeared silently ahead. Had they come up with some form of
elaborate plan to trap her? And when they trapped her, what would they do to
her?
 

He stood on
the left hand side of the door from her, the same amused smile on his face.
Madison found it hard to believe that there could be any evil or indecency
behind his extraordinary eyes, but she wouldn’t stick around to find out. She
wanted to leap through the carriage doorway out onto the platform and make a
run for it. She wasn’t sure what was happening and fear began to pick away at
the surface once again. Madison lowered her head, breaking his gaze as she
hurried towards the exit.

“Can I help
you with that?” said a deep, but equally beautiful voice.

 
Madison stopped dead in her tracks. She was
taken aback by the gesture that this stranger had offered her. Slowly, she
lifted her head to look towards him. The smile on his face was softer now,
kindness sparkled in his eyes - something the Madison had not been able to
notice from a distance.

“Uh um… I’m
fine. Thanks” she lied, the muscles in her arm was already starting to tighten
and ach again.

“I insist”
he said, his soft smile widened revealing a set of perfect white teeth.

Madison
studied every detail of his face, she was confused and unsure what his
intentions could be. She thought for a moment that maybe he wanted to rob her?
Either way, he would be vastly disappointed when he discovered her heavy
suitcase contained nothing but women’s clothes and not expensive ones either.
Madison felt a strange sense of trust for this handsome stranger. He was the
kind of man any woman would kill to be with, the kind that made all the hairs
on the back of your neck stand up just by the sound of his voice, that would
send silvers down your spine when you were close enough to breathe him in and
when he traced his fingers over your skin, your skin would tingly for a few
seconds after he removed his touch.