Inevitable (22 page)

“
It’s me, Mum. It’s okay, everything’s okay,” Maddie said
cautiously, barely a whisper.

“
No! No! No! You’re one of them! You’re not taking her from
me! You’re not fucking taking her!” Annie screamed, shaking her
head frantically from side to side and shakily brandishing the
hammer. I rushed to Maddie’s side, pulling her back a step. She
shrugged me off and crouched down in front of her mom.

“
Mum, listen to me… its Maddie. Please, Mum, it’s me.” Maddie’s
voice was cracking. I crouched beside her.

“
You’re not taking her!” Annie yelled and before my brain had
chance to process what was happening, Maddie was flat on her back
with Annie hovering over her.

Instinctively
I threw my arms around Annie, pinning her arms down by her sides
and restraining her. She kicked and struggled and made noises which
sounded like she was fucking possessed. Maddie broke into a sob and
relief washed over me – she was okay.

“
Maddie, call an ambulance,” I whimpered, straining to
breathe after Annie managed to jerk a knee straight into my
balls.
Fuck
.

“
Let go of me you bastard!” Annie
roared, fighting relentlessly against
my hold. “You’re not taking her away from me!”

Maddie
clambered to her feet and it was then I noticed a trickle of thick,
dark blood slithering from her hairline and down her cheek.

“
Jesus, Maddie, are you okay? You’re bleeding!”

“
I-I’m… I’m okay,” she stuttered, tentatively pressing her
fingertips to the source of the bleeding.

“
Ambulance,” I reiterated, the strength in my arms wavering
as Annie thrashed the shit out of them. I felt weak and nauseous
after the kick - my balls throbbed like a motherfucker and the
sweat pooling in my palms was making it difficult to keep a firm
grasp on her wrists.

Maddie nodded, tears welling in her eyes as she reached for
the house phone and dialled 911.
I heard her mumbling down the line but
couldn’t hear what she was saying over Annie’s incessant
cries.

“
You’re not taking her!”

“
Annie, listen to me,” I said, surprisingly calm. “I won’t
let them take her away. I promise, Annie, I’m here to help you… I
won’t let them take her.” I tried to rationalise with her, even
though I didn’t know what or who the fuck she was talking about.
Her body relaxed instantly – her muscles giving up their
unrelenting fight.

“
They can’t take my baby. Don’t let them take my baby,” she
whimpered, her body falling limp in my arms.

“
I won’t, Annie. I promise.” I lowered her to the floor,
cradling her in my arms. She buried her face in my chest and sobbed
into my blue shirt. My fingers automatically stroked her
short red hair and I
shushed her like a crying infant.

“
Mum?” Maddie asked cautiously, crouching beside us on the
floor.

“
Get away from me!” Annie yelled to Maddie, struggling
against me once again. I calmly motioned Maddie to scoot back with
my hand. She shook her head at first, resisting, but then I mouthed
‘it’ll be okay’ and she nodded.

“
She’s gone, Annie. Nobody’s going to hurt you,” I whispered.
She relaxed again and stuttered incoherent ramblings into my
chest.

My arms ached
to get to Maddie who was hugging her knees and shivering in the
corner, but at that moment I knew she was safe – her mom wasn’t. If
I let her go she could’ve hurt either herself or Maddie. I rocked
Annie back and forth in my arms whilst we waited the painfully long
fifteen minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

When
they got here they kept their distance initially. Annie refused to
leave me – she had formed some irrational bond with me. The crew
didn’t push her. Instead they coaxed her gently with words, but
then realising this was ineffective, the female paramedic with
curly orange hair nodded to me as if she needed my help to get
through to her.

I still don’t
know how I did it. I don’t know how I did any of it – how I knew
what to say. It just spilled automatically from my mouth.

“
Annie, these people are here to help you – just like me.
You can trust them, Annie, I promise.”

“
No!” she protested, “they’ll take her!”

I cupped her
hands in my face, staring intently into her troubled eyes.

“
I’ve told you, Annie, I won’t let anybody take her. You can
trust me. These people are my friends – they want to help you. I
need you to go with them. I need you to let them help you. Will you
do that for me,?” A lonely tear trailed desolately down her cheek
and she nodded.

“
Yes,” she whispered. “I trust you.”

Annie loosened her tight grip of my shirt and slowly,
cautiously I stood up. I held my hand out for her to take
and pulled her
gently from the floor before walking her over to the three
paramedics in official black uniforms. My eyes flicked to Maddie
who was now standing by the front door with her hand over her
mouth.

“
She’s hurt,” I said to the
black-haired man, nodding my head towards
Maddie. He nodded back and immediately walked to Maddie’s side,
sweeping the hair which was now saturated with blood from her
face.

“
Can I go with her?” Maddie asked him. Before he got chance to
reply Annie started screaming and kicking against the orange-haired
woman.

“
No! She can’t! Don’t let her come! Please! No!” She blared,
shaking her head furiously and causing tears to spill rapidly down
Maddie’s cheeks. “Him!” Annie said, pointing to me. “I want
him
with me,” she
declared and then turned her eyes to meet mine. “Please don’t leave
me,” she begged.

I looked
at Maddie who was both sobbing and wincing as the paramedic grazed
her bleeding forehead with his fingers. He said it looked worse
than it was and should heal perfectly fine without stitches. I
couldn’t leave her. She needed me, and as yet I couldn’t get to her
because her mom wouldn’t let go of my shirt.

“
I-I…” I didn’t know what to do. I had a mentally unstable,
terrified woman pleading with me not to leave her and then I had
the woman I loved more than my own life shivering and bleeding and
needing my arms around her.

“
Go with her,” Maddie whimpered. “Please, don’t leave her on
her own.”

I nodded
reluctantly.

“
But I’m gonna call Trudy to come pick you up. She’ll take you
to the hospital.”

“
No, I-”

“
That wasn’t a request, Maddie,” I deadpanned.

After
jabbering a heap of incomprehensible technical shit to each other
the paramedics said it was time to leave. The orange-haired one
gave me a knowing nod as if she thought I knew what the fuck I was
doing. I didn’t - but somehow I did it anyway. The whole thing was
like some kind of out of body experience.

“
Annie?” I said gently. Her unfocused eyes landed on my face
and she gr
ipped my shirt a little too tightly, popping off a button.
“It’s time to go now. There’s an ambulance waiting outside and
we’re going to get into it. I’ll be with you the whole time. Okay?”
She nodded warily, her body shuddering with fear in my arms as I
led her outside to the ambulance.

I mouthed ‘I love you’ to Maddie on my way past, the
muscles in my arms burning to hold her. Then I supported Annie’s
weight as she climbed the ramp into the back of the
ambulance
,
sneaking one last glance at Maddie’s broken face before they closed
us in. She was scared and alone and there was nothing I could
do.

It broke my
heart.

Blaine

“
B
laine
?” Trudy answered apprehensively, as if she wasn’t
expecting to hear from me. Well, she wasn’t I guess – I should have
been in school.

“
I’m at the hospital with Annie. I need you to go and pick
Maddie up. She’s at
her house.”

“
What’s happened?” she yelled in a panic. “Is she okay? Is
Maddie okay?”
Did she not hear me say ‘Annie’ was in the
hospital?

“
Maddie’s fine. It’s Annie. She’s… well she’s… lost it. Look
I’ll explain when you get here, just get Maddie.”

“
I’m on my way.” She hung up without saying goodbye.

Sitting alone in a small, op
pressive room with puke-yellow walls, I
waited impatiently for Maddie’s arrival. The paramedics gave Annie
some kind of shot in the ambulance which knocked her clean out
almost instantly. Her eyes keep haunting me. Every time I blinked I
could see them – wide and afraid… lost. Jesus, she could have
killed Maddie with that fucking hammer. In fact, I think she would
have done if I hadn’t have been there.

My body
juddered violently at the thought.

“
Blaine!” Maddie cried as she burst through the heavy grey
door. I’d ran over and taken her in my arms before my brain had
chance to process my movements.

“
Its okay, lish. Everything’s gonna be okay,” I whispered into
her hair before pulling back slightly to examine the wound to her
head. The cut was relatively small. The bleeding had stopped but it
was already starting to swell.

“
Where is she? Is she okay? What did they do to her?” she fired
without taking a breath.

“
Breathe, lish. Calm down and breathe,” I said softly,
taking her face in my hands. “They sedated her in the ambulance.
I’m not sure where they’ve taken her now. I’m told a doctor will
come and find us soon.”

In that moment
I noticed Trudy hovering in the doorway. She had her arms folded
firmly across her chest, almost as if she was restraining them –
stopping herself from reaching out to cradle Maddie.

Shit.

I didn’t think this through. Maddie was crying, shaking
with worry for her mom whilst her
actual
mom was standing pained and alone in the
doorway, unable to comfort her. Man, I felt like shit.

“
I’ll, um, go and see what I can find out,” Trudy stuttered
nervously, pointing out towards the nurses station. Maddie turned
and smiled, nodding gratefully at her. But then, the second Trudy’s
back was turned Maddie’s smile
twisted into a scowl.

“
Why did you tell Trudy?”

On reflection
I had absolutely no idea.

“
I’m sorry
. I couldn’t think of anyone else. Besides, you’re going to
need help with medical bills and shit. Trudy will take care of all
that.” Maddie rolled her eyes as if she was suddenly remembering
something.

“
Right, of course. You have to pay for healthcare here,” she
muttered glumly.

“
It’ll be taken care of. You really don’t need to worry about
that side of things.” She tried to force a small smile but it
didn’t reach her eyes. “Why don’t you like Trudy?” I asked
curiously and then wanted to punch myself in my stupid fucking
head. Drawing attention to Trudy was the last thing I should’ve
been doing. Maddie’s eyes widened briefly. I’d put her on the
spot.

“
It’s not that I don’t like her as such, she’s just… a
little overfamiliar for my liking. I mean… I know she knew me when
I was little and everything but she doesn’t actually
know
me. Yet she’s always
all over me – hugging me, holding my hand, staring at me all
longingly. If I’m honest it just feels weird.”

Christ, she had no fucking idea.
Guilt gnawed away at my insides,
reaffirming my decision that I would have to tell her
soon.

“
You know she’s really not that bad when you get to know
her.” I literally choked on a laugh when I replayed my words in my
mind. Was I actually
defending
Trudy?

“
Since when?” Maddie asked, cocking an incredulous
eyebrow.

“
I don’t know,” I uttered, shrugging, “she’s been keeping my
dad off my back recently.”

“
She knows?” she shrieked, her expression twisting into
anger.

“
No, no. She has no idea,” I lied, “she just thinks she’s
being nice, covering for me when I’ve skipped the odd morning
workout and shit.” She nodded briefly, appeased.

“
I’m scared, Blaine.”

“
I know you are, lish. I know you are.” I pulled her into me
and held onto her for dear life, resting my cheek on the top of her
head of soft, chocolate hair. “But I’m here for you.”

Then I led her
over to the clinical looking, white leather bench seat and rocked
her back and forth in my arms while we waited for news on her
mom.

Maddie

It seemed to
take forever for my mum to come round from her sedation, although
in reality it was probably just a few hours. Blaine stayed with me
the whole time – only ever leaving to fetch me cups of tea. He was
so supportive – calm and understanding. He seemed to know just what
to say and when to say it.

I was so scared when my mum didn’t recognise me. She was
literally…
mental
. I’d always known how to deal with her before but when she
didn’t know who I was I just crumbled. I was a crying, shaking
mess. Absolutely useless. But Blaine just took over. He calmed her
down. He held her like he holds me. He made everything okay. He was
quite simply… amazing.