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The Queen of Hearts

Chapter six

Madison couldn’t speak. He couldn’t move…he couldn’t look at anyone, but most of all, he couldn’t accept what he was hearing.

He could feel his hands shaking and then suddenly he broke and the tears flooded forth. He couldn’t stop them, they spilled down his cheeks, falling in large drops onto his night gown and soaking through to his skin, but he couldn’t feel them. All he could feel was the pain, the intense, blinding pain that tore at his chest.

Madison barely felt Alysia’s arms go round him and he was pulled tightly to the blond’s chest, held closer than the other had ever held him.

A hand grasped his shoulder and he looked round with bleary eyes to find Detective Todd looking down at him.

“I’m sorry, Mr Fisher. We’re trying our hardest to find the person that did this.”

He couldn’t answer, he didn’t trust himself to speak without bursting out sobbing.

“We’ll leave you to grieve. We’ll be in touch when we find out more.”

“Thank you detective,” Alysia said weakly, getting to his feet and leading the two to the door. Madison barely heard the door close as he moved to curl up on the couch, pulling his legs to his chest. He couldn’t believe how much it hurt- just like when his parents had left him, but he felt closer to Jamie than he ever had to them. When he was with the boy was the only time he ever felt safe. After the day they had spent together, how close they had been, reiterating just how much they cared for each other, the news was utterly devastating.

“Maddy…”

Alysia perched on the edge of the couch, rubbing his hand over the boy’s back slowly. He was hurting himself, he had loved Jamie too, but he’d never been as close to the boy as Madison had. He knew they’d been friends for a very long time, been through all the best and the worst times together.

Madison’s body was still shaking, wracked with heavy sobs. He rarely cried so hard, but the one who could always pull him from his misery had always been Jamie, and now the boy was gone. It didn’t seem real, it didn’t seem like it could be possible. True, he had been reading about it, he’d had his fears but he hadn’t expected it to happen to anyone he knew, let alone to such an optimistic and kind boy as Jamie. What was worse was the face that Jamie had only gone to work because of him, covering his shift like a truly good friend would. If he hadn’t let the boy go to work for him, he would still have been alive.

“I’m so sorry honey…I know how much you loved him.”

Madison still couldn’t answer, he couldn’t do anything but cry. Eventually, Alysia let him be, pulling a blanket up over his body as he went to get himself a drink. He would have to call round a few people to tell them, including Rob, who he knew would tell Maddox. They’d do anything they could to get Madison off work that night, knowing he wouldn’t be able to work while he was buried so deeply in grief.

Rob arrived an hour later and Alysia lead him through to the kitchen, making him a drink. Madison had fallen asleep on the couch, curled up so tightly beneath the blanket. He looked so much younger, like a child.

“Thanks for coming, Rob,” Alysia whispered softly.

“It’s no problem Aly…I’m off tonight, so I’ll look after him while you go to work. I called Maddox already, agreed to work late this weekend so Maddy can get some time off.”

“You’re a good friend.”

They fell silent for a few moments then Rob sniffed, holding a hand to his eyes.

“I can’t believe he’s gone. He always seemed so alive, you know?”

“I know…” Alysia sank down to sit at the kitchen table, taking a sip of the hot tea he held in his hands. “I keep expecting him to come through the door at any moment…”

Madison didn’t wake up until after the sun set and he found himself still curled up on the couch, the blanket tight around him. Rob was sitting on an armchair, absentmindedly flicking through channels on the TV, more out of boredom than anything else.

“Hey honey,” he said softly as he saw Madison looked up at him through blurry eyes. “How do you feel?”

“It hurts…”

Rob slipped out of his seat, crossing to kneel next to the couch. He brushed Madison’s hair back from his face and pressed a soft kiss on his forehead.

“I know it hurts, Maddy…I’m hurting too…I can’t believe it.”

“How could it happen, Rob?” the dark haired boy asked, his voice hoarse and cracked. “How could it happen…to someone like him?”

Madison found himself crying again, tears sliding down his cheeks and dripping onto the couch cushion beneath his head. Rob stroked his hair gently.

“Let’s get you to bed, honey. It’s more comfortable than lying on this couch.”

The dark haired boy agreed numbly, struggling to his feet on legs that didn’t want to support him. Rob had to slip an arm around him and help him up the stairs to stop him falling.

The curtains were open in his room, allowing a streak of moonlight to fall across his bed. Normally he would have closed them, but he just didn’t have the energy and he moved to collapse on the bed, curling once more on his side. His pillow still smelled like Jamie, a fact that brought even more tears to his eyes.

Rob closed the curtain for him, flooding the room with darkness before he flicked on a light beside the bed.

“Just relax, Maddy, I’m going to bring you up a drink and something to eat. Do you want anything else?”

Madison was about to say no, but something stopped him. “Can you bring me…the bear on Jamie’s pillow?”

A few years before the two of them had taken a trip to Europe, something they’d saved for months for. It had been the best week of his life, they’d had so much fun visiting the tourist attractions, meeting the locals and sampling a vast range of foods. They’d found a small amusement park on their travels and after they’d spent some time on the rides, they’d stopped at a stall. The idea had been simple- throw a ball through a hole in a piece of wood to win one of the stuffed teddy bears that hung over the stall. Jamie had been so intent on having one that Madison had stayed there fifteen minutes trying to win one. When he eventually had, the brunette had been so happy that they’d gone straight back to the hotel and had the best sex of their lives.

Jamie had named the bear Madison, and he made sure to have it in bed with him every time he slept.

When Rob brought the bear, Madison hugged it close to his chest. It smelled more like Jamie than anything else, but he didn’t cry again, just lay in silence, holding the bear close.

Life just didn’t seem real anymore, without Jamie in it.

Three days later, Madison was lying in bed when he heard a knock on the door. He was alone in the house, since both Alysia and Rob were at work and he just lay in bed, unable to sleep.

He had barely gotten out of bed since Jamie died, only to bathe and use the toilet. He used to enjoy the former, but not anymore- it all seemed so fake without Jamie there to enjoy it with him.

Madison had to drag himself out of bed, slipping his bare feet into the bunny slippers by the door and pulling on his night gown as he shuffled down the stairs to the front door. He was looking worse for wear, tired and haggard, bleary eyed and even more pale than usual- he wasn’t sure if he was up for company.

He pulled open the door, surprised to find Detective Todd standing on the step and the man turned to look at him, regarding his appearance with a slight sigh.

“Mr Fisher. Can I come in?”

Madison nodded, moving back to allow the man to enter before he closed the door. He then shuffled through to the kitchen to put the kettle on, allowing the detective to follow him as he wished.

“How have you been?” the blond asked and Madison just turned to look at him, his frown clearly indicating the answer. “I suppose that was a stupid question.”

The dark haired boy didn’t reply, just pulled two mugs out of the cupboard. A moment later, he placed a mug of coffee before the detective and sat down at the table.

“Are you alone?” Detective Todd asked and Madison nodded.

“The others…are at work.”

The blond nodded, sliding into a chair across from Madison and taking up the mug of coffee.

“I assume they work in the same sort of business as you?” he asked and the boy looked up sharply, but he just held up a hand. “I’m not here for that Madison…may I call you Madison?” He waited for the nod before continuing. “I came about your friend Jamie. I wanted to ask you a few questions.”

Madison nodded with a soft sigh. He had cried more about Jamie in the past three days than he ever had before. Every time he even thought of the boy it set him off again, but he’d found that day that there were just no more tears left.

“Did Mr Fields work with you?” the detective began, setting his coffee mug down on the table and taking a notebook out of his jacket pocket.

“Yes.”

“Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt him?”

Madison was a little surprised at the question. It was obvious that Jamie’s murder was part of a set of pattern killings, all done by the same person. It had said in the paper that Jamie’s body had been found with a playing card just like the others, but this one was the Jack of Hearts.

“No one would ever want to hurt Jamie…he was the kindest, most gentle…optimistic person I’d ever met.”

“How about a client?”

The dark haired boy looked up at the detective, who paused in his writing. Their eyes met, dark grey to bright blue and Madison wrinkled his brow in confusion. The man’s gaze was gentle, almost as if he cared about him.

“Some clients like to hurt us, yeah…” he said finally, “But not to go so far as killing one of us…”

“Can you think of a particular client who saw Mr Fields often who liked to do that sort of thing?”

Madison shook his head. While it was true that he didn’t know about every single client that Jamie had, he was confident that the boy would have told him about one who’d liked to hurt him.

“Do you have any clients that like to hurt you?”

He had to think for a moment, but he could only come up with one man- the one that saw him as a regular, the one that Jamie had taken for him when he’d turned up late. Sure the man liked to hurt him, got off on seeing him suffer, but he never seemed like the type who could murder anyone. He made up his mind to ask if any of the boys had seen Jamie being picked up by the man.

“No.” he lied after some time, looking down at the mug in his hands.

Detective Todd didn’t speak for a while, simply jotting down notes in his book. He knew Madison was lying to him, he just couldn’t work out why.

He questioned the boy a bit further but after a few minutes, decided to leave him. Madison looked as if he was on the verge of tears, sitting with his head down and his shoulders hunched. He didn’t look well, the blond noted as he rose quietly.

The detective moved round the table to lay a hand on Madison’s shoulder, squeezing gently. It was a moment before the boy turned to look at him, grey eyes filled with a pained expression and it sent a jolt of sympathy through his body. Here was obviously a young man that had led a hard life, most likely forced into prostitution because there was no alternative, perhaps his parents had died when he was young. And to make it worse, the one person in his life that had been able to make everything better was now gone. It made him want to wrap his arms around the slender frame and hold him tight.

“I know it hurts, Madison, but it won’t hurt forever. I lost my best friend five years ago…I couldn’t see or talk to anyone for days afterwards, but then it hit me that he wouldn’t have wanted me to be like that- he would have wanted me to go on with my life and remember everything he’d taught me. Sometimes it still hurts to think about him, I miss him so much, but I always have the memory of him to keep me going. Jamie will always be with you,” he placed his hand over the boy’s heart, “In here.”

With a small smile, he withdrew, making his own way towards the front door, leaving Madison to stare after him. The words made sense, Jamie never would have wanted him to cry and mope around, he would have wanted him to be strong, to hold his head up high and carry on with his life. But it was hard…without Jamie, his hope, his light, it was a struggle to resist the deep, depressing darkness.

He’d thought about suicide over the past two days, laying in bed thinking about how he could kill himself so he could join Jamie in the afterlife- if there was one. He could almost picture Jamie there with him, telling him he was an idiot for even thinking about it.

No, Jamie wasn’t a person who he could get over in a few days. It would take a long time for him to learn to live without the boy, to move on knowing that he was all alone in the world. His only hope was that somewhere, Jamie was looking down on him, honouring his vow to protect him forever.

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