Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) (2 page)

‘
But I’ve got a project to finish for tomorrow ...’

‘
I’ll help you with it after tea. We’ll get it done no
problem. Go on, I’ll see you later.’

‘
Okay then.’ He said and shouted after his mates, ‘Oi, wait a
minute.’

Madison
watched as he ran after them, trailing his schoolbag along the
pavement. Her friends finally caught her up.

‘
Ben’s such a sweetheart,’ Keisha said. ‘I wish my brother was
more like that.’

Maddy tried to
kid herself nothing bad would happen. Here she was walking normally
with her friends. Things would be fine. She tried to banish her
foster parents from her mind. Tried to stop worrying about the
power they had over her and Ben’s lives.

‘
I gotta tell Trevor about my suspension before Gordon calls
him,’ Maddy said, her low, husky voice even quieter than normal.
She kicked a Coke can and sent it reeling into the road.

‘
Come to my house tonight, then you won’t have to tell him
nothing,’ Lois offered.

‘
Yeah, but then I’d still have to see him tomorrow.’ She sat
on a wall and the others stopped walking.

‘
Just tell him yeah? He’ll shout at you and then it’ll be
fine.’

‘
Yeah.’ Maddy wasn’t convinced. Why had she spoken back to
Haggis? She should’ve just kept quiet and said sorry. But, as
always, her mouth took over. She’d be leaving school soon anyway
and thought the most she’d get would be a detention and a bit more
kudos with her mates. How could she have known Haggis would be such
a total bitch?

Maddy was
always on edge - terrified Trevor and Angie would get rid of her if
she was too much trouble and then she’d be on her own, away from
her brother. It always lay there – a cancerous worry in the pit of
her stomach, a simmering fear of separation.

‘
Right, I’m just gonna go home and tell him. Maybe Angie’ll be
there and it won’t be as bad.’

‘
If it all kicks off, come round mine okay?’ Lois repeated her
offer.

‘
Thanks.’ Maddy hugged her friends goodbye and turned left
down the High Street.

Bangra music
blared out of a cut-price clothes shop, a young couple swore at
each other outside the ABC taxi firm and Dixons had another sale
on, advertising cheap laptops and £100 off 32’ plasma screens. A
few kids from school sat at a table outside Ali’s Caf, their bags
strewn over the narrow, dusty pavement.

‘
Oi, Greene!’ one of them called out. ‘Heard you flipped
Gordon the finger. Nice one!’

She looked up
as she walked past and vaguely recognised some lads in the year
below. She raised her eyebrows in acknowledgement and walked on.
Maddy waited at the lights next to a harassed woman trying to keep
hold of a squirming toddler’s hand. When the green man appeared,
the woman dragged her stumbling child across the road. The heavy,
humid air pulsed like peppery treacle and Maddy was aware of a
throbbing pain in her temples. She hoped it wouldn’t turn into a
migraine.

Please let Angie be home, please let Angie be home, please
let Angie be home
. She chanted in her head
as she headed up the weed-filled path to the small terraced house
she called home. She held her breath and turned the key.

‘
That you, Ben?’ Trevor’s voice came from the small kitchen at
the back of the house.

‘
No, it’s me. Ben’s gone to the park.’ Maddy pushed open the
kitchen door. Trevor was making a cup of tea. It didn’t look like
he’d been drinking, which was a relief at least.

‘
Want one?’ He gestured to the kettle.

‘
Yeah, go on then.’

Trevor used to
work as a black cab driver, but there had been an incident
involving drinking and driving. Nothing had been proved, but he’d
lost his job all the same and he hadn’t managed to find another
one.

‘
Good day?’

‘
Mmm.’ Maddy’s heart beat fast.

‘
Very informative, Maddy.’

She took a
breath. ‘Tre-vor.’

‘
Ye-es.’

‘
I’ve got some news, but it wasn’t my fault.’

‘
It never is, Maddy. Spill.’

‘
Well, I’ve been suspended, but Haggis, I mean Miss McKinley
lied to Mr Gordon. She said I threatened to smack her in the face,
but I …’

‘
Jesus Christ, Maddy! Can’t we have one sodding term where
there isn’t some drama or another?’

‘
But, it wasn’t my f ...’

‘
It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t your fault. You’re like a
broken record. I do not know why me and Angie put up with this
crap.’

He towered
over Maddy, who scowled back at him. A familiar bitterness settled
somewhere between her throat and her chest. The reminder she was on
her own, that nothing was secure. If it had been just her it would
be okay, she could have just told them all to piss off and been
able do her own thing. But Ben needed her and she couldn’t let him
down. Trevor’s face darkened and globs of spit shot out of his
mouth, landing on her cheeks.

‘
Why can’t you be like your brother? He hasn’t ever given us
one second of trouble, but you! You’re just a disaster area, you’re
a nightmare. Angie’s gonna be destroyed over this. We’ll have the
social services cross-examining us again. It’s just hassle, hassle,
hassle, all the time.’ He pushed back his thinning hair. ‘Madison,
this is just about the last straw.’

Maddy dropped
her defiant stance. ‘I’m sorry, Trevor. Don’t split us up, please.
Ben’ll be no good without me. You know what he was like when he
first came ...’

‘
All I know is you’re trouble and you’re too smart for your
own good. You never know when to button your lip. If it’s not
school, it’s boys, or fights or some bloody thing or other. I’m
getting too old for it and you should’ve thought of Ben before you
started threatening to smack a teacher in the face.’

‘
But I didn’t …’

‘
I’m home!’ Trevor and Madison both looked up to see Angie
walk through the kitchen door, sunlight shining on a halo of dyed
auburn frizzy hair.

She looked at
their faces. ‘What’s going on?’

Maddy started
to explain, but Trevor interrupted.

‘
Madison’s got herself suspended from school and I’m thinking
of adding ‘homeless’ to that description.’

‘
Oh, Maddy, what’ve you done now?’

‘
Get upstairs, while I talk to Angie.’ Trevor growled at her.
Madison tramped up the narrow staircase. He hadn’t said he would
definitely kick her out. There was still some hope. She lingered at
the top of the stairs and strained her ears. Their voices were
muffled, but Trevor soon turned the volume up.

‘
I am not having her hanging around the house all day, every
day while she’s suspended. And if she goes out she’s gonna get into
even more trouble. We should never have taken her on in the first
place.’

‘
Don’t say that, Trevor. She’s had a rough time.’

‘
We’ve all had a rough time. Don’t look at me like that. I’ve
made up my mind.’

‘
Ben’ll be distraught. He worships his sister.’

‘
Ben’ll be fine. Maddy, get your arse down here
now!’

‘
Please calm down, Trevor. Drink your tea.’

‘
Tea ain’t gonna do anything. Pass me the bottle.’

Maddy came
back into the kitchen to see her foster dad flinging the steaming
contents of his mug into the sink and pouring himself a slosh of
whisky. The room felt like a hot stale mouth. Hope curdled to sour
anger. That familiar surge of helplessness overtook her, the dread
she’d hoped not to feel again for a long time. Angie put a
reassuring hand on Maddy’s shoulder and gave it a small squeeze.
Maddy flinched and shook it off.

‘
You, my girl, are really winding me up.’ Trevor jabbed a
thick finger towards her.

‘
I’m not your girl,’ Maddy muttered under her
breath.

‘
What’s that?’

‘
I said I’m not your girl.’

‘
Oh.’ Trevor raised his eyebrows at Angie. ‘She says she’s not
my girl.’ He looked back at Maddy. ‘Well whose girl are you then?
Because I don’t see anyone else rushing round to claim
you.’

‘
Trevor, that’s enough. And we don’t need anymore cheek from
you either, young lady. I’ve just got in from work and all I want
to do is put my feet up with a cup of tea, but instead I walk into
World War Three. Come on now, both of you just calm
down.’

‘
I’m going out,’ Maddy stormed into the narrow
hallway.

‘
No you are not going out. Come back here. We haven’t finished
talking yet!’ Trevor was yelling now.

‘
I’ll see you later,’ and then she muttered, ‘or
not.’

‘
You walk out of that door and that’s it, Maddy. I’m warning
you!’ Trevor lunged forward and grabbed her arm.

‘
Get off me!’ Maddy shook him off and slammed out of the
house.

She didn’t know what to do. She felt shut down. Something
tightened and closed inside her. She didn’t want to talk about this
with her friends; it was too scary and exhausting to say the words
out loud. Words like
homeless
and
separation
or
care home.
Maddy worried about Ben and what he would think
when he got back and found her gone. She’d promised to help him
with his project, but now he’d have to finish it by
himself.

After walking
for a while, she found herself back on the busy High Street. The
noise, dirt and heat, added to her feelings of turbulence and fear.
Familiar surroundings seemed alien. Maddy craved peace, calm and
normality, but she didn’t know where to go. The park would be
packed with kids by now and she couldn’t face talking to anyone she
knew, besides, Ben might still be there. Walking for about ten
minutes, she negotiated her way past A boards, pushchairs and
groups of ambling school kids who took up the whole pavement. Then,
across the road, she saw an elderly woman shuffle out of a red
brick building. Set back from the street, beyond a small neat
garden, it squatted securely in the shade of some leafy trees. It
looked like a public building, maybe a small drop-in centre or
something, but as Maddy approached she saw it was a library.

Crossing the
busy road, she headed up the ramp and passed the old woman, still
inching her way down towards the road, gripping the rusting
railings for support.

Maddy walked
in, slightly reassured by its solidity and musty old scent, the air
blissfully quiet and cool. She looked around and headed to the
least busy section. Her eyes roamed across the book spines, not
really concentrating as she didn‘t know what she was searching for.
Then she recognised a familiar title and prised out a tatty copy of
Jonathan Livingston Seagull. She loved that book.

She spied a
vacant chair and table at the end of the aisle, sat down and looked
at the blue and white cover. Wouldn’t she love to be a seagull.
She’d make the most of that freedom, savour it, hovering, swooping,
gliding, diving. She inhaled the book. It calmed her and she turned
to the first page. Black thoughts receded as she unfocused her eyes
across the blur of words.

Just as her
breathing steadied, a voice made her start. She looked up and saw a
man. He was telling her the library would be closing in five
minutes time. The anger returned. She glared at the man and scraped
her chair back. He smiled apologetically and backed away. Where
could she go now? Not being a member of the library, she couldn’t
even check the book out with her. She looked left and right, made
sure no one was looking and wedged the thin volume down the back of
her skirt, pulling her school shirt over the top.

Maddy made a
swift exit, back out into the humid unfriendly evening, starving
and thirsty as she’d had nothing to eat since lunchtime. Her bag
was back at the house, but anyway she’d given her last two pounds
to Ben. She located a cough sweet in the front pocket of her skirt
which had half melted to its wrapper. Using a blue varnished nail,
Maddy spent a couple of minutes peeling the bits of paper off it
and finally plopped the sticky cube into her mouth. It tasted
pretty disgusting but it was better than nothing.

Shania Lewis was having a party later, which probably
wouldn’t get going till at least nine - more than three hours
away.
She’d left her mobile in her bag at
home, but anyway, it had no credit and the battery was almost
dead.

All she could
do for now, was just keep walking.

*

The party was
already spilling out into the street when Madison arrived. She
pushed her way inside and nodded to a few people. In the kitchen,
the sight of a bowl of Hula Hoops induced a feeling of euphoria and
she crammed a handful into her mouth. Then she spotted the fridge,
leant down and hooked out a cold can of beer. As she straightened
up, she felt two hands snake around her waist.

‘
What the ...’ She whipped around ready to spew some vitriol,
but saw the hands belonged to a boy she’d seen around. The arrogant
one with the sardonic smile.

Fifteen
minutes later, they were staggering up the stairs, kissing and
laughing. His dark stubble scratched her chin and his warm smell
made her light headed and reckless.