Haunted

Angel's Son

Maddox opened the door to his new house and went inside. He only had two days to get settled before he went back to his tour and he wanted to get as much done as he could. He'd had all his stuff from California shipped and from the chaos he found inside it looked like everything had arrived.

"Don't worry, we'll get it all fixed up in no time," Clara was right behind him. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"Yeah, fun," Maddox's mouth felt dry. He hadn't expected his Mom to insist on coming with him to start unpacking or to plan to stay and supervise the work while he was on tour but she had.

"So many memories here," Clara pushed past him. "You're going to love it, Dax, it's so you."

"I think so," Maddox smiled. He really did love the place and it was kind of exciting to think about it being totally his. Even if it was just for a little while.

"Where do you want to start?"

"I don't know, maybe we should work from the top down?" he looked around. "Or no, maybe we should do the main level first. Bedrooms are just bedrooms."

"Whatever you want," Clara gestured for him to lead the way. Maddox decided the family room on the main level was the best room to start with and he and Clara started sorting through her stuff that was there to figure out what he wanted to keep and what should go.

"I never realized there was so much stuff in here."

"The longer you have a house the more stuff you get."

By the time Maddox had to leave for his tour again he and Clara had cleaned out most of the house and met with a designer to plan all the renovations. His stuff was still waiting to be unpacked but Clara promised to make sure all of it got done before Maddox finished his tour. It made him sick to think of his Mom spending all that time on the house he was just going to die in but she seemed so happy doing it he wasn't sure he should ask her not to. And he couldn't think up a good excuse.

For the last few months of Maddox's tour he tried to focus on just doing his best at everything. He needed to make everyone believe he was doing okay and that they shouldn't worry about him. But keeping up that act exhausted him. As much as he wanted to spend his free time planning, Maddox actually found himself sleeping almost every time he sat still for more than a minute.

"Maddox, I'm calling the doctor," Tim said after having to wake him up for the third time during one of their morning meetings.

"I'm sorry," Maddox shook his head. "Please don't, I'm really fine. I'll just stand up."

"I'm calling anyway."

Maddox faked his way through the doctor visit and the doctor seemed completely mystified that there was no explanation for why Maddox was falling asleep so much. He offered to run more tests but Maddox said no and left that out when he told Tim there wasn't anything wrong with him.

The rest of the tour seemed to go well. Maddox was only a little bit sad when he came offstage after his last show. Mostly he was just excited to be done and ready to be done with everything. The idea of not having to pretend ever again was just so nice.

Everyone who'd worked on the show gathered onstage after all the fans had left and Maddox did his best to say thank you to everyone for all their help. He had a hard time not saying the wrong things and making it obvious that this would be the last time he'd ever see them again.

"Finally," Maddox motioned for Eli to come stand with him. "I have to say my biggest thank you to this guy because we all know he does all the work around here," Maddox knew that was right because everyone was cheering for Eli like crazy. "He's pretty much the only reason I ever got anything done this whole time and I don't know how I'm going to manage without him."