B008GMVYA4 EBOK (46 page)

A cold tremble plagued her body as the darkness tried to
suck her in. Terror washed over her, accelerating her heart beat even faster
and causing her to pant and whimper uncontrollably.

Shuffling continued louder behind her, gradually gaining on
her. The nightmares Madison had been plagued with since arriving in London has
only heightened her fear of darkness and being chased by the unknown, this
caused her to panic further.

She leapt forwards, landing just outside the border of
darkness. Screwing up her eyes as the light penetrated her, causing her eyes to
hurt, Madison sighed in relief – she felt safer in the light. Inhaling deeply
filling her lungs with the cold, rasp air, she exhaled loudly lifting her leg
to take a step further into the light.

In one quick motion Madison’s raised leg was pulled
backwards, she crashed to the floor face first. Her chin slammed into the stone
floor, grazing it, ripping a large flap of skin off. Madison wailed in pain,
biting her lip as she tried to suppress it. Her head throbbed from the impact,
hands with sharp finger nails grabbed at her ankles pulling her back towards
the darkness, grazing her knees.

The ice cold hands of The Black Orchid gripped at her legs,
Madison stretched out her arms, her fingers searching the stone floor for a
crevice that she could hold onto.

Madison screamed as her body slid across the floor backwards
from their pull. The darkness now covering the whole of her lower body as the
boys tried to pull her back into it.

Her face stricken with fear and struggling to keep herself
out of the darkness, blood splashed down from her chin onto the stone floor.
Madison was sure that if the violently shaking building, the exploding bulbs
and screams hadn’t attracted The Coven, the blooded stone floor surely would.

Pushing the pain in her chin aside, Madison concentrated on
using all her energy to free myself from The Black Orchid’s clutches.

Tears trickled down her cheeks as panic whirled around
inside of her. Her hands searched the floor frantically as she was slowly
dragged further backwards.

Her fingers grazed across a large crack, digging her fingers
into stop herself from slipping, her body became ridged and straight as she
fought against them.

The icing hands moved slowly up to Madison’s lower back,
pulling her more hastily now. Madison’s other hand found a stone slab which was
more raised then the other paving stones, gripping hold of it, using both hands
Madison began to pull herself out of the darkness back into the light.

Kicking her legs she tried to remove the boy’s hands from
her legs as they tightened their grip on her. Using all the strength she had
left, she continued to pull herself out of the darkness. Sharp finger nails
scratched at her lower legs as she tried frantically to kick them off, the
hands slipping lower and lower down her legs as she pulled herself further out
of the darkness. She felt a warm sensation of blood trickling down her legs
from the razor sharp nails that cut the material of her jeans and pieced her
flesh. She kicked out hard, her foot impacted with the hard torso of one of the
boys knocking him backwards. This was enough for her to wriggle free from the
other set of hands that grabbed at her legs. She pulled the whole of her body
from the darkness. Her jeans on the back of her legs had been completed ripped
in large scratch mark lines. Blood soaked the torn jeans and dripped onto the
stone floor from the deep gashes to her legs.

Scrambling around on the floor, Madison pushed herself to
her feet and dashed down the centre of the large room towards the elevators.

She ignored the pain in her legs and the deep gash to her
chin, which had now bleed all down her neck onto her t-shirt – her only focus
now was to get out alive. The Coven would locate her soon, they would smell the
blood and then she was dead. And now she had The Black Orchid after her, it was
just a matter of time before both one of them caught up with her and at the
moment The Black Orchid was hot on her heels.

 
The scratches and cuts on her arms from where
the glass bulbs had exploded down on her had already started to heal.

She wiped away the sticky, salty tears that stained either
side of my cheeks.

The skin around the deep gash of her chin felt swollen and
sore, she could feel a heavy sensation from the big droplet of blood that hung
at the end of my chin as it began to dry – closing the wound.

Using the sleeve of her t-shirt, she gently dabbed the open
cut, cleaning the wound carefully, she from the sting of contact with her
t-shirt and the semi open cut. A throbbing sensation tingled at the back of her
legs leaning over and she gently tried to examine the back of her calves.

The boys nails were razor sharp, they had cut through the
tough material of Madison jeans and flesh like butter.

Standing up straight she ran her hand over her head, she was
hesitant, more scared then she had ever been in her life, but she also had to
be strong, coherent, able to think quickly and precisely if she was going to
make it out of The Coven alive. Not only was Gabby, Trace and the twins intent
on killing her, but now she had upset The Black Orchid and once The Coven catch
wind of her blood they too would be pursuing her. As Brendan had disrupted The
Black Orchids plans to obtain the scroll, they were now coming after Madison,
as payback or possibly leverage.

She felt sick to the stomach from everything that had
occurred tonight. She had lost her best friend and Faye, and now she was
fighting for her life – none of this seemed hardly fair. The emptiness inside
her was still raw, the thought of Stephanie scared and alone brought instant
tears to Madison’s eyes and a ball formed in her throat. And the fact that
Faye’s lifeless body was still unfound in the club distorted her. Whenever
there faces crept back into Madison’s thought she felt completely dumb, almost
catatonic.

Madison struggled to think straight, there were too many
things for her to think about and everything was becoming jumbled. Every
thought seemed like it had a white cloudy firm over it, stopping her from
bringing an individual thought forwards. Her whole body was exhausted, every
movement and every inhalation, left her body excruciating pain. She was in
complete astonishment that she was still standing. As soon as the adrenaline
wore off, she wouldn’t be able to walk for days.

Madison stared at her reflection in the mirrored walls of
the elevator. My face was pale and drawn, huge black circles hung underneath
each eye, causing her to look as exhausted as she felt. There was couple of
small scratches on her forehead, probably from the shards of glass that rained
down on her from the exploding light bulbs. Her checks were red raw and puffy
from the many tears that washed down over them. Her eyes were blood shot and
dull, usually they sparked in bright lights. Her eyes were empty, emotionless –
they were no feeling or hope left in them. There was a deep gash of Madison’s
chin where she had impacted with the floor. The blood that she had removed
earlier had now returned - dripping slowly down her neck. The skin around the
cut looked red and very sore, if she survived tonight she would be left
permanent scarred.

Her blue skinny jeans and black t-shirt were covered in dust
and a grey powdery substance that she had picked up from lying face down on the
stone floor. Her hair was almost white with the amount of dust and debris which
had fallen from the stone ceiling during the violently shaking room.

One side of her right Ugg boot was torn due to the razor
sharp nails of The Black Orchid and the fleecy material of both boots was damp
and stained from being scuffed on the stone floor.

Madison looked thin, she had lost nearly half a stone over
the last few weeks and recent events had really taken its toll on her.

She had made it across the candle lit hall to the elevator
without The Black Orchid pursuing or any further surprises, but Madison knew
the fight had not ended here.

The elevator jolted to a standstill.

Madison shifted awkwardly on the spot; her legs were
beginning to hurt. The control panel next to the elevator doors read
Ground
Floor;
she waited for the gold doors to spring to life. The control panel
on the left side of the two elevator doors flashed to life, symbolizing the
outline of two doors, with red flashing arrows pointed outwards either side of
the door, instructing that the doors were about to open.

The doors sprang to life moving slowly apart, Madison
stepped forwards intending to slip through the gap as soon as it was bigger
enough for her to fit through. The doors suddenly stopped only partly open a
couple of inches. Madison started at the doors suspiciously.

The motor of the doors hummed softly as it tried to pull the
doors open. The doors did not move - an invisible force prevented the doors
from opening.

Madison reached through the gap with both hands, gripping
the outside of the doors to try and force them apart.

The doors were stiff and heavy, there was no way Madison
would be able to force them apart on her own. A flashing red light caught her
attention, she stepped back from the doors and examining the control panel to
the left and hitting the buttons. The two flashing arrows changed direction,
now flashing inwards, symbolizing that the doors were about to shut.

She thumbed the ‘open’ button, but it did not respond.

There was a loud clanging sound as the motor of the doors
reversed themselves abruptly, the doors sliding shut. Madison jumped back, her
eyes frantically looking from the doors to the control panel.

The elevator sprang to life, ascending into the higher parts
of The Coven.

Beginning to panic, Madison pressed all the buttons on the
control panel – hitting any floor, urging for the elevator to stop.

The elevator ignored all commands – continuing to climb
higher and higher.

Madison stared around the elevator, frantically searching to
an emergency stop button or some other means of stopping it, but there was
nothing.

The number
10
flashed red on the black screen of the
elevator control panel. There were only fourteen floors of The Coven and
Madison knew it was a bit too unlikely to be a malfunction with the elevator.
Something unnatural was causing the elevator to climb and only The Black Orchid
was strong enough to move the elevator at their-own accord.

Madison was being to feel Closter-phobic, the walls felt
like they were moving in and there was no air in the small space. Fear flooded
through her veins like a powerful drug bleeding into her body taking it over
with its black venom.   

She was beginning to hyperventilated, positive that the
oxygen had been sucked out the small box elevator. Gripping the handle around
the wall of the elevator, Madison hit the
stop
button on the control
panel with the palm of my hand. Nothing happened. She hit the button again,
more forceful this time. The elevator continued to ascend.

She grabbed at her t-shirt, pulling the collar away from my
neck as her clothes began to strangle her. The black control panel came in and
out of focus as she began to feel faint from hyperventilating.  Red arrows
appeared on the control panel, stirring Madison from nearly losing
consciousness.

Madison took a deep breath, beginning to get some oxygen in
her lungs as the elevator jolted to a halt. The number 14 now flashed on the
control panel, the elevator had ascended to the top of The Coven. Part of
Madison expected the elevator to plummet down to the basement of The Coven,
killing her.  However, this time the doors slid open like normal,
revealing an empty corridor.

Madison sucked in the oxygen from the fresh air; she began
to breathe normally - the panic subsiding for the moment. She stared at the
doors, half expecting them to snap shut if she was to walk towards them.
Freedom suddenly crossed her mind and the last thing she wanted was to be stuck
inside an elevator within The Coven. She had to take whatever opportunities
came her way. Madison leapt forwards, dashing through the entrance of the
elevator out into the corridor.

As soon as the fresh air in the hallway hit her, Madison
felt instantly better. The tightness in her chest disappeared and the lightness
in her head began to ease. 

The elevator doors automatically slid shut behind Madison as
she stopped in the center of the corridor. She scanned the corridor
suspiciously, it was silent.

The walls were large transparent glass that stretched along
the top half of the wall. The glass windows looked over meeting rooms and
various offices.

In the room ahead of her, stood a large dark brown table
with a dozen black leather office chairs circled around it.

The bottom of panel of the wall was white plaster, giving a
very corporate feel to the building. The floor was carpeted a soft beige colour
and the opposite wall was a mirror image of the right wall but the windows
looked out over London.

Shops and restaurants dotted around the streets which then
led into the suburban parts of London. The city was still and dark, not even
the moon had made an appearance tonight. There was something quite odd and
frightening about how quiet London was on this night, it was if tonight was
going to be a memorable night for London and as a result, the whole of London
was waiting patiently for something. Something had changed within London and
Madison couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It was like the turning of a tide,
a dark new wave rolled over the dark city.

The offices on the top floor were dark and deserted, but
they appeared normal – like something you would expect to see in a high-end
office block. Nothing to suggest the building was run by Vampires. Madison
imagined the above floors of The Coven ran like any other type of offices
during the day, disguising what the lower parts of The Coven contained. The
whole building was huge; the lower parts of The Coven larger, probably housing
over a thousand Vampires’. Madison had only seen a very small proportion of The
Coven and there were many other doors within the depths of The Coven that led
to places that Madison couldn’t even imagine.