Haunted

Echo

"Welcome to Miami," Kenny remarked, pushing his sunglasses down his nose to check out the two girls who were passing by in bikini tops.

"I love this city," Scooter laughed. Maddox rolled his eyes and looked around to see where his friends had gone. It looked like all the dancers were down on the beach and as Maddox watched Jackson pull his shirt off it was all he could do to stay where he was instead of walking toward him.

"Dax!" Justin called and Maddox realized he actually had started walking toward the beach. He turned around, hoping his face was just hot and wasn't also turning bright red. "What were you looking at?" Justin asked, laughing at him.

"Uh, I was just," Maddox started to say but his voice came out all raspy.

"No, stop talking," Justin ordered. Maddox glared but shut his mouth. It seemed like anymore Justin used "resting his voice" as a reason to keep Maddox from speaking at all. He'd gotten used to texting everyone around him instead of talking out loud.

"Should I call Trish?" Scooter asked Justin. Trish was Maddox's new vocal coach.

"I think he just needs to rest," Justin shrugged. "Yeah, call her, maybe she can put my mind at ease."

"I'm fine," Maddox insisted only to get hushed again.

But he wasn't really fine by the end of his show that night and after he'd come off stage he had to admit his voice was going out. No one and nothing, not even getting an extra long hug from Jackson, could make him feel better about that. It was too soon in the tour to be struggling and Maddox knew it.

"No games tonight, everyone get some rest," Justin ordered as they all went back to the hotel.

It seemed too good to be true when Maddox found himself falling asleep right away after climbing in bed. That's why it was only a little shocking to wake up to the sound of breaking glass.

"Dad?" Maddox asked. His voice sounded awful but it looked almost like Justin had broken the window. Blood dripped from his fist onto the carpet.

"Don't talk, Dax," Justin ordered. "I'm alright," he said but Maddox pointed to the blood dripping down his knuckles. "It's fine, I'm sorry I woke you."

Obviously Justin was too stubborn to listen so Maddox texted him, and then texted Justin's bodyguard.

Maddox: you're bleeding, fucktard.

"Language!" Justin said after reading Maddox's text message. Maddox rolled his eyes. He knew Justin didn't care if Maddox swore but everyone tried to keep him from getting into the habit of it so it never accidentally happened during an interview or around his young fans.  It was just one more reason Maddox wanted to be more like his mother, who was allowed to say whatever she wanted whenever she wanted.

"Text for help," Justin finally asked at the same time as there was a knock on the door. Maddox glared. Obviously he knew what to do. He got out of bed and followed Justin into the sitting room to watch Paul, Justin's bodyguard, as he dug all the glass out of Justin's knuckles.

"What did you do?" Kenny demanded, following Paul into the room.  

"I hit the window," Justin shook his head. "I just," he looked up at Kenny and then looked over at Maddox. "Look, I'm worried about Clara and Kylie," he said and Maddox knew right away he was lying, or at least only telling part of the story. No one punched a window because they were worried. "I just want this to go well for them, and I don't want to see anyone get hurt."

"Clara's got a good team," Kenny reasoned. "They'll take care of her."

"I know," Justin sighed. "But you know how she gets, there's only so much they can do with her," Justin glanced at Maddox again and Maddox knew that Justin was trying to keep him from figuring out whatever was bothering Justin. "And Kylie thinks she's exactly like her mom she just doesn't realize how sheltered she's been."