B008GMVYA4 EBOK (14 page)

 Madison circled the room, checking every detail of her
new home – the whole room was spotless. The only place left to check was the
bathroom. The bathroom had been the worse room out of the two and Madison took
a deep breath before she pushed the door open wide. The smell hit Madison in
the face; she winced as it overpowered her. Several air-fresheners scattered
the bathroom expelling a lavender scent around the room. Although the bathroom
had been thoroughly cleaned there was still an overpowering smell that hung
around the bathroom, too strong for the air-fresheners to cover up. Either
something had curled up behind the front panel of the bath or under the floor
boards, becoming lodged somehow - making it irremovable. The smell would lessen
in time, when whatever it was had fully decomposed. For now, Madison would have
to make her trips to the bathroom short and sweet. She shut the bathroom door
and turned back to the main room. There was still a few hours before she was due
to start her new jobs, so she decided to unpack her clothes and get some food
in the house.

 Madison’s first night at her new job went well. She
was surprised at how quickly she picked the use of the tills and the mixing of
the drinks up. The night club had been busy and Madison soon realised it was
one of the highest profiled clubs in London. Customers had to pay for a
membership before they were allowed to enter the club, the membership starting
at a cool annual fee of £1,000.

After arriving at the club, Madison found that she wasn’t
the only new staff member to start that evening, a new bartender called Scott
had also started with her. As a child, she had always found it difficult to
make new friends, but she bonded with Scott instantly. He was two years older
than her and liked the same music and TV shows. He was funny and a genuinely
nice guy, so when he asked Madison out for a drink a couple of weeks later she
felt obliged to said yes. However, Madison soon regretted her decision. They
had a couple of drinks in
Luxuriance
after a shift one night, but
Madison soon began to feel uncomfortable, making her excuses and leaving
quickly. Put under the spot light she found she had little in common with Scott
after all and that her feelings for him stretched no further than friendship.
Although, Scott had first instigated that it was simply a few drinks between
friends, it soon became clear that Scott regarded her much more than a friend.
Since that instance, Scott suggested that they should stay behind for a drink
after every shift they had together. Madison always declined, but Scott had
become persistent, making suggestions at work and sending her multiple text
messages each day. Over the days since they had shared a few drinks together,
the text messages had become obsessive. He bombarded her at all hours of the
day and night with general chitchat and advances. Madison struggled to sleep
through a whole night without being woken up by the same recurring nightmare,
let alone six text messages from Scott asking if she was ignoring him.

In the few short weeks Madison had been working at
Luxuriance
and spending her free time making her new home look as homely as possible,
she had purchased various items for her house such as pictures for the walls,
lots of scented candles to cover up the strange odor which still crept out from
the bathroom, some new cushions for the small sofa bed she slept and lived on
and a fluffy rug for the floor. Although the bed-sit wasn’t perfect it was
becoming to feel like home, but she still avoided inviting any from work home
with her as she felt embarrassed by the state of the outside of the house and
the communal corridors. The rest of the building still looked very much the
same since the day she had moved in, if not worse. Quite often there was an odd
smell that lingered around the upstairs corridors of the house. She could never
figure out exactly what it was, but it was unpleasant. The majority of the time
she would be forced to hold her breath as she made a dash from her room to the
front door and back again. The journey home from L
uxuriance
had also
become difficult. During the day the alley that joined bedsit onto the main
road was fine, but during the night it was caked in a pitch black and difficult
to see through. Her mind constantly played tricks on her as she walked the long
alleyway towards the bedsit, dark eerily shadows danced on the walls and
unnatural shrieks and moans echoed the alley. Madison spent most of the day
exhausted, if she wasn’t plagued by the terrifying nightmare of being chased or
harassed by her stalker, Scott, through text messages, she was kept awake all
night by her roommates that seemed to sleep all day and stayed up all hours of
the night. They banged around and made scratching noises on the walls, this
would continue all night until the sun rose and then they would fall silent.
Madison was certain that Bernie and the other tenants were making these noises
to scare her, but she never questioned him about the noises. As Madison’s
shifts varied and she was leaving and arriving at all hours of the day and
night, she only caught glimpses of the two other tenants that lived directly
across the hall - they were a couple. The man was in his early thirties and
completely bold with a tattoo that stretched across the top of his head and ran
down his spine. The tattoo was of Celtic symbol which swirled around into one
large black pattern. Bernie had told Madison that his name was Rich. Rich’s
girlfriend was a small Chinese girl called Suzie, she a lot younger then Rich,
in her late teens. She had black hair that was cut into a bob with a thick long
fringe that covered her eyes. She was extremely shinny, all her small bones
poked out from underneath her olive coloured flesh. Bernie had mentioned to
Madison before that Suzie had an eating problem, but Madison never queried this
with him. On a few occasions when Madison left for work she could see Rich and
Suzie watching her from their window. Rich was always topless, the only item of
clothing Madison ever saw him wear was a pair of tan cotton trousers. Suzie
always wore the same dirty, white, vest top and blue jeans. She always clung to
Rich, one arm draped over his shoulders and the other around his waist. She was
warmer towards Madison than Rich. If Madison caught Suzie on her own she would
smile and look away shyly. However, Rich was unsociable and rude towards her.
He would stare at Madison, not out of curiosity but out of hatred. Madison had
never done anything to offend him, but for whatever reason - he didn’t like
her.

Phil still hadn’t contacted Madison, and Stephanie had
mentioned a few times that she hadn’t seen or heard from him. Madison wasn’t
surprised. Although she felt hurt that he didn’t seem concerned for her well
being, she tried not to think about him or her old life – deep down she knew
that Phil was still at home drunk. Madison was much happier and settled with
her new life in London, but she still struggled with what had happened in the
past. Even though she never allowed herself to think Phil and the damage to her
face had now healed - the damage within still remained. The gaping hole in her
heart was always present, no matter what she did it, never seemed to heal.

Bernie knocked on Madison’s door every few days for a
general chitchat and sometimes a cup of tea. Madison had warmed to Bernie over
the few weeks she had lived in the bedsit. He was still creepy and probably one
of the filthiest men she had ever met, but he was still the only one in the
bedsit that made an effort to talk to her. Bernie had a problem with
information, when he knew something he couldn’t help but tell someone else.
This allowed Madison to piece together information about the other two tenants.
Bernie had quite an odd reaction when he spoke about Rich and Suzie, his
expression would change and he would look around frantically - making sure no
one could hear him.  Bernie explained that Suzie had moved into one of the
rooms in the attic, but had started seeing Rich soon after she moved in. She
had only been living at the bedsit for 2 months before they decided to move
together and they had been living together ever since. Bernie never went into
too much detail and Madison got the impression that their relationship was
violent. She had once thought she heard sobs originating from their room, but
hadn’t been sure at the time as they were too distant and muffled for her to be
certain. Before Bernie got to the good parts of the story he would become
spooked and make his excuses and leave. Madison always found herself a little
disappointed when he left, she felt strangely curious about the couple across
the hall and was starved for answers.

Madison spoke to Stephanie every night and was pleased to
hear she was coming for her first visit next week. They would have to share a
bed, but that was nothing unusual for the childhood friends. Stephanie was
starting to look for a job in London and was coming down for some interviews
she had been pre-arranged. If she was successful, they would start looking for
a place together - somewhere in a nicer area. Madison was both excited and
nervous by the pending visit from Stephanie. Her small room looked the best it
had in years, but she was concerned what Stephanie would think of the rest of
the house and her bizarre housemates.

Madison’s phone vibrated on the arm of the sofa. Her eyes
drifted from the old brown TV over to the small screen of her mobile phone.
Faye
calling
it read. Quickly Madison flipped the phone open and held it to her
ear.

“Hello” she said.

“Hi Madison, we need at hand at work can you come in?” Faye
asked apologetically.

Madison couldn’t help but sigh in frustration. She hadn’t
had a proper day off in weeks and was enjoying a lazy day in front of the TV.

“But, it’s my day off…” she moaned.

“I know, but we really need a hand. Carly’s gone sick and
Melissa hasn’t turned up… again. It’s stupidly busy for a Friday night and I
would really appreciate the help. I‘ll pay you double if you could come in?”

Madison thought for a moment. She really did need the money,
Stephanie was coming next week and she had the few days off work so they could
spend quality time together. They had even planned to go shopping, something
Madison had been dying to do since she had arrived in London.

“Ok. I’ll be there in half an hour” she said a little
unwillingly.

“Thanks, Maddy. See you shortly” Faye said and hung up the
phone.

It was already 9.30pm and the club would shut at 3am,
Madison hardly saw the point coming in for four hours but she could really do
with the money and Faye had promised to pay her double. Reluctantly she stood
up from the sofa and walked over to the TV – switching it off. She pulled her
work clothes out of the new chest of draws she had recently purchased and
headed to the bathroom to change. The smell in the bathroom had improved
greatly since Madison had moved in, mainly because she left the bathroom window
open constantly – allowing the fresh air to flow freely throughout the day.
Once Madison had changed and tied her long wavy hair into a ponytail she
returned to the living room to put on her black work pumps.  She popped
her phone into her handbag and switched off the lights, the room falling into
complete darkness. She left her room and locked the door.  As she stepped
into the corridor a shadowy figure moved quickly. Madison jumped back against
her door; her heart jolted and missed a beat. Rich stood motionless in the
doorway of his room. His almost entirely black eyes stared at her, anger distorting
his features. He was topless and wearing his normal tan trousers with no shoes
or socks. He was muscular - muscles bulged on his arms and chest. Rich frowned
at Madison, causing his thick black tattoo to stretch further over the top of
his head.

“You frightened me” Madison said shyly.

Rich didn’t reply.

Madison met his gaze. His eyes were wide and empty; no
humanity was present in them. His posture was lowered forwards as if he was
gawking at Madison like a bird of prey. A revolting smell filled Madison’s
nostrils; she wrinkled her nose and breathed through her mouth. The same smell
had been present in the corridor many times since Madison had moved into this
building. She guessed that like her bathroom, something had become trapped
under the floor boards and died, and with the amount of holes on the exterior
of the house it could have been any type of animal. However, the smell became
stronger the closer she got to Rich and Suzie’s room. Madison imagined that it
was probably filthy in there and had never been cleaned. Madison broke eye
contact and moved quickly towards the stairs. Rich unnerved Madison out in a
different way compared to Bernie, Madison was generally scared of Rich, whereas
Rich was just a bit slimy. Rich was quiet, but not a shy quiet more of an
eerily quiet type of person where you just don’t know what they are thinking.
He was unsocial, unpredictable and clearly violent towards women. Madison
quickly ran down the stairs, taking two steps at a time and leapt towards the
front door, leaving Rich still motionless in the upstairs corridor. She yanked
the front door open, flew through the gap and slammed it shut behind her. She
sighed in relief as she stood on the stone step outside the front door. A
bitter cold shiver ran down her spine, causing every hair on her body to stand
on end. She stepped down the stone steps and walked casually down the garden
path and out of the gate into the road of the alley. Like she did every night,
Madison looked back at the house as she began to walk past it down deeper into
the alley. Her eyes automatically redirected to two figures standing in the
window of Rich’s bedroom window - Rich and Suzie stood in the window. Rich was
crossed armed, his head lowered watching Madison. Suzie had her right elbow lent
on Rich’s shoulder and her left hand placed on her hip as she too watched
Madison, but not angrily like Rich had. They both continued to stare until
Madison had passed the house and had been concealed by the thick darkness of
the alleyway.