IN OUR BONES || EXPLICIT ||

Chapter 3

Water gently lapping at your feet.
But now you're sinking, what were you thinking?

- Mantra, Bring me the horizon.

When she went back to the house she found Miranda about done in the kitchen and setting the table for her.

"You're not eating with me?" She asked.

"No" was the flat reply she got.

Way to make a guest feel welcome.

"Where were you?" Miranda asked uninterested as she was setting the plate for Maddison. "In the garden" Maddy replied. Miranda paused for a second and looked up at her in slight surprise "Oh! Sorry about that" she said and moved to get back to the kitchen.

What? She frowned. But just as she was about to question her, she noticed the portion on the plate.

What!! How are these people even alive?!? Who the heck eats so little? To hell with seconds, at this portion, I'm gonna need fiftieths and sixtieths.

The only silver lining with the situation was the pantry stocked with junk food her eyes fell upon earlier, that she was so going to raid in the middle of the night.

When she was done with dinner, which was a lot sooner than she was used to, she made her way out to the foyer and saw Miranda putting on her coat.

"You're not staying?" Maddy asked, to which Miranda replied with a short 'no'. Maddy wasn't sure how she felt about that. It wasn't only a new house, but also a new country- which she couldn't even properly speak the language of.

"It's late, and looking at the weather, I am pretty sure that a storm is coming" she calmly said to her " You wouldn't want to get caught in that, especially when the only short cut is under construction" Maddy remembered the driver giving her some details about around the property.

She then turned and walked back, but just as she was about to climb up the stairs, she heard the sound of a coat being put on a rack.

She woke in the middle of the night. Cold sweat was pouring down her face. Her heart was beating erratically and her head was pounding. With a groan she shot out of bed and glanced at the clock.

It read 3:05 am. Good. Exactly what she needed. A sleep deprived first day in a new country.

But now that she was wide awake she decided to go down to the kitchen in hopes of finding a chocolate. Preferably with peanuts in it.

Now that she was free to look at the house without a nagging voice telling her to move it, she noticed that the interior was much bigger than what appeared from the front exterior. The stairs creaked under her steps as she made her way down. The wind was rumbling through the trees outside, which could perfectly be made out from the rustling of the leaves.

When she was done with the snickers that she was fortunate to find in the fridge. She turned to get back, but then a window caught her eye.

The lawn looks so much different at night. It appeared ominous and dark.

Just then something caught her eye. A shadow was moving near the front gates. She stepped up on her toes to get a better look, but was unsuccessful, which she had her small height and not six by six vision to thank for .

If I try using one of the stools, then perhaps I can-

Just then a floorboard creaked behind her. She turned around with a gasp, but found nothing but air. She turned back to try to look at the shadow, but it too seemed to have dissapeared.

That night she slept with all the windows and the door of her room locked tight.

______________________________________

It had been a total of 2 months that she refused to get out of bed, 5 since anyone saw her smile and 4 since she said anything more than she needed to.

Her family was mildly worried about her, but leading the extremely difficult and busy lives that they had, they couldn't take anymore time out of their schedules than they absolutely needed to.

So when Luke proposed the excellent idea of the change of scenery for Maddison, the averys could not have agreed more.

Maddison was studying for the upcoming finals, that she knew Noah and Olivia won't be able to take now, when she heard Luke enter the room.

She waited for him to state his business and then dissapear, but then he cleared his throat. "Whatcha doing?" He said.

"Chemistry" she said without looking at him. He cleared his throat again and walked up to her. He took off her glasses and sat in front of her on the bed. He then shut the book and placed it on the bedside table.

"Europe. What are your thoughts?" He smiled up at her. Any other day she would have called him out on his weirdness, but today she simply did not have the energy. "It's beautiful" she said.

"And what do you think about Sweden?" he asked again. "Same. I think it's pretty, and sounds peaceful" she said wistfully.

"And what would you think about spending this summer there?" He grinned. "What?" She said confused. "You know, there is this holiday house that my family owns. I mean, actually my mother's side, but since she was an only child, she inherited it. We used to visit it a lot when I was younger, but now it's collecting dust. Well, not technically, we do have a caretaker. But that's not the point. The point is we can have it all to ourselves." He said it all in one breath.

She looked at him with wide eyes and waited for his excitement to seep into her. But it didn't.

"I don't know" she finally said.

"Oh come on. This is after the finals. And just think about it. The cold weather, beautiful mountains, candy canes, the traditional jewellery and swedish candlesticks. And all of this for an entire summer. Are you sure you wanna miss out?" He whined.

She was already sold at the 'mountains'.

She looked at him and said "yeah, whatever" and then turned back to her book, when suddenly she was enveloped by the spicy pinewood cologne that Luke wore.

"I swear you won't regret it." He said into her hair. Then got up to leave. He stopped at the door and threw her a last look. "Take care" he smiled warmly at her, then gently closed the door behind him.