Helios Awakened (The Helios Chronicles #1) (36 page)

“Andrew, please wake up. Helios, baby, everything’s alright, sweetheart. I love you so much, please, baby, Helios, please, wake up,” Madison said in a kind and gentle voice but it was laced with a sense of urgency and panic.

He could hear Madison’s sweet voice beckoning him but it confused him as he couldn’t figure out why she was in this particular dream, she didn’t belong there. Andrew’s eyes shot open, he was drenched in sweat, and his hand was over his heart in a protective manner. He sat up abruptly, looking around. His eyes darted around the room and then rested on the woman sitting next to him.

“Madison?” he asked confused.

She nodded as he grabbed her and held her tightly. She laid them back on the bed and his entire body enveloped hers as she allowed her hands to gently caress his shoulders and back. Soon he was asleep again, whimpering. Madison had been awoken by his scream only to find him clutching at his heart, his body dripping with sweat. She didn’t know what this particular nightmare was about but at least this time she was able to settle him down. Madison kissed the top of his head.

“I love you, Andrew,” she whispered sweetly as he snuggled closer to her.

By the time Madison’s alarm went off, Andrew was sleeping soundly. He had spent over an hour whimpering in his sleep before he finally seemed to rest comfortably. Madison, on the other hand, had only gotten a few hours of rest after she had been awakened by Andrew’s nightmare. She gingerly slipped out from his embrace so that she could take care of her grandma.

“How is he?” her grandmother asked, sitting at the dining room table and watching as Madison flipped the bacon in the frying pan and then removed it to a plate.

Madison sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. He’s still sleeping.” She looked up at her. “I know he needs to start leaving in the mornings again, Grans. This was the last night, I promise,” Madison said sadly.

“You don’t need him here still? It’s only been a week.”

“I will always need him but I know you aren’t comfortable with it,” Madison answered as she set a plate in front of her grandma.

Grandmother Downing nodded and began eating, watching as her granddaughter picked at her food. She wasn’t sure what she would do once she left.

“So this nurse that you’ve hired for the weekend...” Grans began before taking another bite of her French toast.

Madison looked up. “Grans, please don’t give her a hard time.”

Grans smiled. “She’s not going to be poking at me and everything, is she, because if she does I will kick her out of my house.”

“Grans, honestly,” Madison chuckled. “She will do what I do. Are you sure it’s okay? I know it’s only been a few weeks since I left the last time.”

“Oh it’s fine. You and Andrew will have fun. Santa Barbara is very beautiful. Your grandfather took me there once.”

Madison smiled and nodded as her grandmother regaled her with tales of her grandfather and their trip through Santa Barbara. Madison laughed and smiled when she was supposed to but her mind was not completely focused. She glanced towards her bedroom.

“Maddie, why don’t you go bring Andrew something to eat. I’m sure he will be hungry. I’m okay,” she said, reaching her hand over the table and tapping Madison’s hand.

Madison smiled and got up. “Thanks, Grans. I love you,” she said, kissing her cheek.

She had made him a plate along with a cup of coffee, black with a little bit of sugar, just the way he liked it. She carefully balanced the tray to the bedroom, setting it on her dresser. She picked up her own coffee and took a sip, glancing at him. His head lulled to the side and a small smile began to form as he stretched slightly. His nostrils moved a miniscule amount and Madison giggled as he reacted to the aromas the drifted towards him. His eyes slowly opened and he smiled shyly at her.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” Madison said, walking to the bed.

He smiled and sat up while Madison placed the tray on his lap, taking her coffee. He took a sip of his own coffee and grinned as he picked up a slice of bacon.

“This is really sweet. What’s the occasion?”

“Well, I thought after the night you had you would appreciate it,” she replied, taking a sip of her coffee.

Andrew held the bacon in front of his mouth for a moment before actually biting down on it. He chewed and then glanced at her, noticing that her eyes were puffy and dark. She hadn’t sleep well. He took a deep breath.

“Did I have a nightmare?” he asked, putting the rest of the bacon in his mouth.

“You don’t remember?”

He shook his head and swallowed. “I generally don’t unless I wake up right in the middle of one. But normally I can’t fall back to sleep afterwards.”

He moved his fork around the syrup on his French toast. Although he didn’t quite remember his nightmare, he suspected it was about his mom since he and Olivia had talked about her. He instinctively brought his fingertips to his chest, moving them slowly over his scar. He then turned to Madison, who was watching him intently.

“Remember when I told you my mom was crazy?”

“Yes, I remember you mentioned it briefly.”

He nodded. “I told you before that my parents used a lot of drugs. I think I said that they would try pretty much any type of amphetamine.” Madison nodded again. “Well, at the time, I didn’t know what they were doing but when I got older I realized it had been Meth. My mom already had some...” he paused and chewed on his lip before blowing out a loud breath. “My mom had mental problems and the drugs made it worse,” he said and looked down at his plate.

“Why don’t you eat, baby, before it gets cold. We can talk about it afterwards, okay?” Madison said compassionately.

He didn’t reply but continued to look at his food before he reluctantly started eating. Of course once he started he realized just how hungry he actually was. He was not looking forward to this conversation but he knew that he should tell her. Madison patiently waited for him to finish and then took the tray to the kitchen and refreshed their coffees. As she handed him his cup back he smiled at her. He turned to his cup, looking into his coffee mug, hoping he could find the courage to actually say what he needed to say. There were many people who knew what happened to him but he had never told anyone the details, not even Jayden. He had told him his mother had hurt him but nothing else. He reasoned if he was going to tell someone everything that happened to him it would be Madison.

“I was supposed to be watching out for the police.” He took a deep breath. “But I was really hungry. I hadn’t eaten in probably 3 or 4 days and my dad had been inside the building a long time.”

Madison reached her hand up and gently stroked along his cheek. He turned to her, a sad and forlorn look on his face. He hated to have to tell her something like this but he also knew that she wanted to know everything about him.

“I left the car and went looking for food. While this was happening the cops raided the building and it just so happened that at that moment my dad was arguing with whomever he was getting the drugs from and um, well, he killed him. I was hiding under the sink so I didn’t see any of it but when I finally left the building and got to my house my mom was pretty messed up.” His breath started to hitch as his heart rate accelerated.

“It’s okay, baby. You don’t have to say anything else,” Madison said reassuringly, seeing the panic that was starting to rise within him.

He shook his head and continued, “My mom was real upset that my dad was picked up, she was, um, jonesing really bad and just talking crazy. I eventually fell asleep and when I woke up she was on top of me, straddling my waist.” He looked down again and took a deep breath. “She was staring at me, holding a piece of glass.”

He set his coffee down and demonstrated with his hands how big the piece of glass was. Andrew started breathing real fast and closed his eyes as he slouched forward. Madison quickly started running her hands up and down his back. She didn’t like where this was leading, and looking at Andrew, who was on the verge of breaking down, was making her heart ache. He sat that way for several minutes before he finally sat back up and took her hand in his. He brought her fingers to his chest and moved them along the scar above his heart.

“My mom did this. She stabbed me and herself five times before she collapsed on top of me. And even when I crawled across the floor to the door to get help all she could think about was my father. She didn’t care that she hurt me. She just kept crying that my father was gone. That was all that mattered to her,” he said, raising his voice. “She was treated for her injuries and then put in the psych ward where she killed herself a day later. Since my father was in prison and my mother was dead, I was put into the foster care system,” he finished, removing her hand from his chest.

“I’m so sorry, baby.” She ran her hand through her hair. “How come you didn’t go with Olivia and Aaron?”

“I wondered that myself but I guess my mom had said during her intake that she didn’t have any family and my dad said the same thing. Social services never confirmed that, they just shoved me into the system.”

“I guess they didn’t really have ways to track that kind of thing back then, did they?”

Andrew shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Do you think about her often?”

He shook his head. “No, not really. Not like when I was younger.” He traced his fingers around his tattoo. “This was my first design.” He paused and had a puzzled look on his face.

“What’s the matter?”

“I got this when I was fourteen and, at the time, I just wanted to cover up the scar. But now that I think about it, the design made perfect sense.”

“How so?”

“My mom used to call me her sun when she wasn’t messed up. At the time I got this I just wanted to cover up the sun with darkness and thought of an eclipse, but in hindsight it’s sort of weird that I did it.”

“Why?” Madison asked confused.

“Well, because my mom always called my dad her moon.” He glanced down and Madison could see the beginning of a smile forming. “She was really poetic at times. When things were good and she and my dad were happy, we were sort of like a normal family.” He glanced at her. “I remember that she would take both of our hands and say she was the earth and then she would make us walk around her, like a game, saying that we were orbiting around her.” Andrew smiled, remembering them doing this until they couldn’t stop laughing. “We would do it until we would get dizzy and then dad would pull her down laughing and she would grab me.” He looked down, suddenly forlorn. “She would hold me close to her and then my dad would wrap his arms around the two of us. I would feel so safe and think that things were going to be different but...” he sighed. “It never lasted, and a few days later they would be using again.”

“At least you had some good memories of them,” Madison said, trying to find a bright side.

“I guess.” He ran his fingers along the outline of the moon on his chest. “In a way though, I put the truth on my chest,” he said taking a deep breath.

“Why’s that?”

“The moon always eclipsed the sun in my home. I think she hurt me because she blamed me for taking my dad away from her. I think she wanted to kill us both because she couldn’t imagine her life without my dad.”

“Oh baby,” Madison said running her fingers into his hair. “She was sick, baby, and I’m sure they both loved you.” He shrugged. “What made you think about all of this?”

“When I talked to my aunt and uncle, my aunt was really upset and later she talked to me about my mom.” He rested his head against the wall. “I should have had you with me. That was really hard to do. I don’t want to tell anyone else without you.”

Madison sighed. “Yes, I agree. My grans was supportive but I could see the hurt in her eyes. We can tell Callie and Jayden this weekend and I guess his parents as well.”

He glanced at her. “What do you know about this thing we’re doing? I don’t really have anything dressy,” he said with a worried expression.

“I don’t think the festival is actually fancy. I looked online at previous years and people were in shorts and stuff.”

“That’s good. What about the hotel?”

She frowned. “Ya know, I keep forgetting how wealthy Jay’s parents really are. They’re just so laid back and their home is very nice but it isn’t over the top or anything, but, damn, the hotel we will be staying at is something else.”

Andrew sighed and frowned. “Great!”

“I’m with you on that one but...” Madison said, giving him a playful kiss. “It’s right on the beach.”

He grinned as he turned his face so he could kiss her more thoroughly. He took her coffee and set it next to his on the nightstand as she straddled his lap, bringing her hands into his hair. She kissed him passionately as he ran his hands up and down her back. Andrew felt as if a tremendous burden had been lifted off of him. Someone knew, and not just someone, but his Madison knew. He pulled away from her slightly.

“I’ve never told anyone what happened to me,” he said sincerely.

Madison’s eyes watered with his admission. “I love you so much, Andrew, and am so honored you felt comfortable enough to tell me.”

He wiped her tear streaked cheeks. “Now, you know everything.”