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The Queen of Hearts

Chapter fifteen

Madison tried to scream, tried to kick out, but it was futile- the man was too strong.

The hand across his mouth moved briefly, only to be replaced with a cloth that was tied tight behind his head. A dark, cloth blindfold followed and then his arms were yanked behind his back and bound tightly with what felt like strong, thin rope.

“I’ve been looking forward to this moment,” the man told him, yanking open the car door and shoving Madison so he sprawled across the back seat. The door was slammed and then the attacker slid into the driver’s seat and pulled the car back onto the road.

Madison didn’t know how long he lay there, but it seemed like forever. He was deeply afraid, knowing in his heart that he was going to end up like Alysia or Rob, or even worse, like Jamie. He didn’t know who the man was, but he seemed crazy, psychotic and it was more that likely that he was the murderer.

The boy lay for so long that his arms began to cramp behind him. It seemed to take forever until the car finally slowed and eventually pulled to a stop. He heard the sound of the driver climbing out of the car and then the back door was yanked open.

Hands grasped his ankles and pulled, causing him to slide against the seat and his skirt to ride up. He shivered suddenly as the coldness outside hit him. The hands then slid up to stroke his thighs roughly and the killer leaned closer.

“We’re finally home,” the deep voice rasped as the man yanked him out of the car. “You’re going to have to learn to like this place…you’ll be spending your last few days here.”

Madison was then lifted and flung across a broad shoulder where he tried to struggle, but again, it was to no avail and the killer merely set off away from the car at a slow pace.

The crunching sound beneath the man’s feet told Madison that he was walking on gravel but soon enough it changed to a smoother surface and the killer stopped briefly. Then came the sound of a heavy, creaking door being opened and the boy was taken inside a building.

It was only when they were inside that the man set Madison down and then the blindfold was pulled off. The boy found himself standing in the entrance hall of an old, abandoned mansion, before a wide, curving staircase. There were thick layers of dust everywhere and trails of dead leaves and mud trampled over the black and white tiled floor.

The staircase itself looked old and rotten, with big holes that threatened to pull people down to their depths. It didn’t look like it was possible to get up them, but strong hands grasped his shoulders, manoeuvring him towards the stairs. They took a route, winding between the holes and rotten patches, with Madison constantly trying to stop himself slipping until they reached the top.

He was then lead down a dark, musty corridor that had portraits of figures in old fashioned clothing hanging on the walls. It smelled as if it had been left for many many years, abandoned a long time ago.

They travelled for what seemed like a long time before they reached the end of a corridor and an old, heavy, oak door. The door opened to reveal a dark closet, one that had once been used to hold many things and now had only a pile of what looked like fur coats in one corner.

It was only when Madison was shoved into the small closet and he was let go, that he could finally turn and face his captor.

He was shocked at what he saw. The man was tall and broad, like he had expected, but his skin was a sickly pale, even paler than Madison himself. He had long, dark brown hair that hung in greasy, unwashed trails to his shoulders, and dark brown, mean looking eyes. He had a scar on his cheek, long and red that made his face look extremely ugly. All in all, he was completely terrifying.

Madison stepped back as the man entered the closet, approaching him, but he was stopped by thick fingers grasping his chin and the killer leaned closer until the boy could feel the stench of hot breath across his face.

“You are so beautiful,” the man told him, “Much more beautiful than any of the others I had here. More beautiful than that friend that I brought here.”

He stepped in closer, pulling Madison against his body, smiling when the boy tried to pull back, almost shaking in fear. “But he was stronger. He fought me at every turn. Even when I held his head under the water, he was fighting me…it made it even more fun to see his body go limp and lifeless.”

The words hurt. He was reliving Jamie’s last moments, but the boy had been different. Jamie would have been strong, believing that he could find a way out of there and get to safety, while Madison stood and shook in fear, giving in to his worst possible fears and resigning himself to his fate. Jamie would have stood strong and fought back with all his might, but Madison believed it would be useless.

Even with everything that had happened, his worst fear, more than death itself, was that he was never going to see Zach again. After the night they had shared, a night when Madison had finally gotten everything he had ever wanted, he was now doomed to die, to never see the man he loved again. He tried to imagine Zach finding him in an alleyway, a bloody playing card clutched in his cold, dead hand.

After his death, the man would move on. He would find other people to love and eventually forget about Madison, and that thought hurt more than he could ever have known.

The killer released Madison and suddenly shoved him down onto the floor where he cried out behind the gag as his back hit the cold, hard stone. Before he could move, the man was suddenly on him, his heavy weight pressing down on the boy’s thighs.

“I’m so glad you’re finally here with me,” the man told him, brushing back his hair almost tenderly, but the touch made Madison feel sick. “All those others were just jacks in my plan, but you are my queen. Queen of Hearts to my King of Hearts.”

He stroked the boy’s hair once more, but Madison jerked his head away, trying to escape from the touch. The man suddenly shoved on his shoulder, pressing it down towards the stone hard enough to hear a sickening crack and Madison screamed at the white-hot pain.

The killer dug his fingers into the dislocated joint, eliciting whimpers of pain from the boy beneath him.

“I won’t tolerate disobedience,” he growled, pressing Madison harder into the floor. “If you want to live your last few days in one piece, you will do exactly what I tell you. Do you understand?”

Fingers hooked beneath the gag and pulled it off and before Madison was given time to respond, lips were suddenly pressed down upon his own. A tongue was forced between his lips and large hands held his head so he couldn’t move even in the slightest. He was forced to lie and accept what the killer was doing to him.

When the man pulled back, he grasped Madison’s chin once more.

“I asked if you understood?” he asked menacingly and the boy stared up at him. He contemplated resisting, telling the man to go to hell, but he knew he would end up getting even more hurt. His shoulder stung like hell, his entire left arm completely useless- he didn’t want to end up with more of his limbs in a similar state.

The boy eventually nodded and the killer climbed off of him with a smirk, getting up to tower over him.

“I hope you enjoy your stay, my Queen,” he mocked, before turning and leaving the closet, slamming the door closed with a loud bang, flooding the room with darkness. A few seconds later, Madison heard the sound of a key turning in a lock and then retreating footsteps and he knew he was finally alone.

It was a few moments before he moved, trying unsuccessfully to push himself up into a sitting position, but the pain in his shoulder was too intense. He finally settled with shifting himself towards the pile of coats and collapsing on top of them, his breathing heavy and laboured.

He tried to think of his options, but there were very few. Locked in a closet with no windows and complete darkness, his only hope was to wait for the killer to come back. He could try and distract the man, or slip past him, but both options seemed impossible considering their difference in size, his injury and the fact that the man was a psychotic killer. It was hopeless…there was little he could do.

It was incredibly cold in the closet and Madison tried his hardest to get one of the fur coats on top of him, to warm him up even a little. He finally managed it after what seemed like half an hour of struggling and by the end his shoulder was aching terribly.

After some hours of laying on the floor, it seemed obvious that the killer wasn’t going to return, at least for that day and he resigned himself to a night spent alone, shivering in the darkness with only thoughts of Zach to comfort him. He thought back to the night they’d spent together, how good he’d felt, how, for once in his life, he was truly and utterly happy. Now he would never know that again. It was an utterly chilling thought.

His mind kept wandering to Jamie also. Weeks before, the boy had been in the same position as him, probably lying on the same coats on the same hard floor, wondering about what was going to happen to him. But then Jamie had been dragged out of the room and eventually murdered, his body dumped like trash in an alleyway.

Jamie’s death had been quicker. The boy had been captured, tortured and killed in the same night, but the man had mentioned that Madison would be spending days in the mansion. He wondered just how many days. Perhaps the killer intended to keep him locked in the closet until he was dehydrated and half starved, going mad from the loneliness and craving daylight.

Eventually, he decided the best thing to do would be to sleep and he settled down against the coats, trying to get himself at least somewhat comfortable. The pain in his shoulder had been reduced to a dull ache that made it very hard to sleep and it was some hours before he was finally able to drift off, slipping into dreams of torture and murder and all the bad things that were going to happen to him over the next few days.

For two days, Madison was left alone in the closet, without even a brief visit from the man that had captured him. By the end of the two days, his mouth was so dry that it was hard to swallow and his stomach was constantly growling at him. His shoulder was aching more and more and his limbs often cramped from lying in the same position all the time.

The closet seemed to grow colder and colder over the two days and Madison spent the time almost constantly shivering, his teeth chattering loudly in the silent darkness.

Eventually, however, when he was beginning to think that the killer had forgotten about him, he heard heavy footsteps outside, then the key scraping in the lock before the door was pulled open.

Madison instantly cringed and screwed his eyes shut as the light flooded in. After two days in complete darkness, it was a shock, the light hurting his eyes.

The man entered the closet and bent to grab Madison by the arm, unfortunately on the side of his injured shoulder and as he dragged the boy to his feet, he was rewarded with a choked wail of pain.

When Madison could finally bring himself to open his eyes, he turned his head to look up at the man, finding him looking cleaner than he had two days before, his hair freshly washed and he was wearing a cheap looking suit.

“I missed you, my queen,” he said, leaning in to force the boy into another kiss. After two days with so sustenance and no movement, Madison was in no position to fight him.

When the man pulled back, he headed off down the corridor, dragging Madison after him. The boy was taken to the master bedroom, a wide space that held a beautiful four poster bed and wide, sweeping windows that were caked in dirt.

He was shoved onto the bed after his hands were untied while the man moved to a cupboard and rummaged around for a few moments. When the killer turned back towards him, he was holding an armful of material that seemed to be a dress.

“Put this on,” the man demanded, shoving it at Madison. It felt like silk, in a rich burgundy colour, but it smelled musty, like it had been in the cupboard for a long time. “I will wait outside the door. You have five minutes and if you’re not done by then, there will be consequences.”

The killer headed towards the door, but stopped before disappearing, turning to Madison with a menacing look in his eyes.

“Don’t even think about escaping.”

He slammed the door behind him, leaving the boy sprawled on the bed with the dress in his arms. It was a few moments before Madison could work up the energy to move and he laid the dress out next to him before getting to his feet.

He contemplated trying to escape, but the windows were shut fast, and with the killer on the other side of the door, there was no way out. His only option was to do as he was told as he was sure the man would injure him further if he didn’t.

It was easy enough to slide his skirt down his legs where he kicked it off, but his sweater was a different matter. He got it off one arm without fuss but his shoulder ached terribly, protesting when he tried to slide the sweater off. It happened eventually, but not without a great deal of pain.

His clothing was dropped in a pile on the bed and he stood by the bed in just his underwear, shivering in the cold. The dress was easy enough to get up around his waist where it pinched in tightly, making it clear that it was made for a very slender woman. Thankfully, the female it had been made for hadn’t been very big in the chest area so it wasn’t too loose when he pulled it up, gritting his teeth as he slid it up the arm on his injured side.

It was an off the shoulder dress with a neck line that travelled straight across his chest. It fit very well and it was warmer on his legs than his tiny skirt had been, which was something he was grateful for.

He paused to look at himself in the mirror. He looked paler than he had been, probably as a result of the past two days and the dress made him look impossibly thin. Still, it looked good and at any other time he would have been happy about that, but all he could think about was what the man intended on doing with him.

Madison took a deep breath, then headed towards the door, stepping out into the corridor to find the killer standing there. His eyes seemed to light up as he regarded the boy, an almost evil grin spreading across his face.

“You look absolutely beautiful,” the killer told him, stepping closer. He reached up to tug on the bands in Madison’s hair, letting the locks fall loosely down his back. “You should have grown your hair longer.”

The boy watched him warily, wondering if he could find an opportunity to escape, but the man just looked down at him, a dark smile on his face.

“What are you going to do with me?” Madison asked finally, his voice barely more than a whisper. The killer just grabbed him by the arm, this time, his good one, and dragged him down the corridor.

“We’re going to have a nice dinner, you and me,” the brunette told him, leading him through a pair of tall doors and into a dining room.

It was lit with a number of candles around the edges of the room and on the long table, giving the room eerie shadows. There were plates of food on the table that looked appetising, especially after two days without anything to eat.

The man lead him to the foot of the table and pulled the chair out for him. Madison sat without being told not, not wanting to incite any wrath but the killer grabbed his bad arm anyway, yanking it painfully. He pressed it against the arm of the chair and wound a length of rope around his wrist, immobilising it. Madison suspected that it was to stop him running away, but he doubted he would get far anyway.

The brunette picked up Madison’s plate and moved up to the middle of the table where the food was. He seemed to bypass all the nice looking things and chose a pile of something he couldn’t name, something that didn’t look very edible at all.

When the man placed the plate in front of Madison, he grinned down at the boy’s expression.

“You’ll eat all of it, while I sit and enjoy my dinner. You can have better food when you earn it.”

He gave the boy a dark look before heading for the other end of the table, where he sat down with a plate full of the much nicer looking food. As he began to eat, Madison picked up his fork and prodded the food on his plate tentatively. It looked…disgusting.

The boy raised a forkful of the food to his mouth slowly, really not wanting to eat it, but he knew he had to. It tasted vile, like it had been sitting out for days and he fought not to throw up all over the floor.

Madison heard the brunette chuckle at the other end of the table, watching him closely.

“I meant what I said, my Queen,” he said darkly, “I want you to eat all of it.”

The boy forced down another mouthful, this time dry retching. He reached for the glass of water on the table and down half of it thirstily, hoping it would take away the taste, but it didn’t help. By the fifth mouthful, he was feeling intensely sick and it was growing harder and harder not to bring it back up again.

Eventually, he was unable to stop it. As he forced down another forkful, he suddenly felt it rising in his throat and he leaned over the arm of the chair just in time, bringing back up everything he’d just eaten.

He heard the killer jump to his feet and the striding footsteps approaching him but he couldn’t help it. By the time he was done, his throat was aching and his chest hurt from the heaving.

The brunette was at least nice enough to wait for him to finish, but then he untied the rope binding Madison to the chair, so angry he was almost shaking. Once the boy was free, he grabbed a handful of his hair and dragged him out of the chair, holding him up on his toes.

“You little bitch!” he screamed, yanking Madison’s hair furiously before shoving him to his knees next to where he’d thrown up on the floor. “How dare you? How dare you?!!”

“I couldn’t help it,” Madison mumbled, trying to push back so he wouldn’t end up with his face in the sick.

“You’re going to clean that up. All of it.”

The man disappeared for a few moments then returned with a mop and a bucket of dirty water.

“Clean it up, or I’ll make you eat it.”

Madison got to his feet shakily, leaning on the back of the chair as he took hold of the mop. It was hard to clean it up with the dirty water and the old, useless mop, but he knew he had to do it, or the man would end up forcing him to eat it. He was terrified now that he had an insight into what sort of things the man would make him do before he eventually killed him. He began to wonder if he would be better off if the man would just kill him and get it over with.

The boy stood there terrified once he had finished cleaning up, wondering what the man would do with him next. He seemed so angry, angrier than he had ever seen anyone before.

The brunette yanked the mop from Madison’s hands and took it back to where it had been before returning to the boy, regarding him with a dark frown.

“I tried to be nice to you, I fed you, gave you this nice dress to wear, and this is how you repay me?”

“I c…I couldn’t h…help it,” the boy stuttered, instinctively backing away, but the man grabbed him, shaking him so hard his head began to spin.

“How dare you, you ungrateful bitch!”

The killer shoved Madison then, so hard that he fell, landing on his bad shoulder with his hand twisted awkwardly beneath him. The boy heard more than felt the bones in his wrist crunch sickeningly and he cried out in agony.

He was barely given time to register the pain before the brunette was on him once more, grasping him by his arms and dragging him to his feet. He encased the slender wrist in his large fingers and squeezed, drawing more cries from his captive.

“If you can’t sit at the table and eat nicely, then you won’t get any food.”

Madison was dragged back to the closet by his broken wrist and shoved in roughly so he fell to his knees. He instantly put his arms out to stop himself, jarring his injured wrist and shoulder excruciatingly.

“You’ll stay here until I can decide what to do with you,” the man growled, kicking Madison in the side before he slammed the door closed and stormed off.

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