Rising From The Ashes

Chapter 5

*two months later*

Ashley was trying to convince her to come meet her boyfriend. Madelyn had heard that she was dating Nathan Mathers. She had no desire to meet him any time soon. She knew that he was Eminem's little brother, but she didn't really pay much attention to anything else. She hadn't seen a picture of him. She was too focused on what was going on with the mess she was in with Corey. She had been trying hard not to piss him off lately because she couldn't take the beatings anymore.

"Mads, I want you to come meet Nate, please," Ashley begged.

Madelyn rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Mads," Ashley tried again as Madelyn's phone went off.

"I gotta go," Madelyn said.

"Corey?"

Madelyn nodded. Corey was a demanding asshole. She knew better than to keep pissing him off and be on the receiving end of his anger anymore. Ashley sighed heavily.

"I love you girl, please be careful," Ashley begged.

"I got this," Madelyn smiled.

She headed out of the house, preparing herself for his attitude when she got home. He had slowed down on letting his friends use her and spent more time verbally abusing her than anything else. There was the occasional slap though. He was already pissed when she walked in the door.

"Where the fuck have you been?" he demanded, the moment that the door closed behind her.

"I was out with Ashley," she said.

"You were out being a whore then. Just like her."

"No, we were shopping for her daughter."

"You're always out being a whore. Dirty slut. Did he get you off?"

"Corey, I promise I wasn't out doing anything but shopping with Ashley. There weren't even any guys near us."

"Lying slut."

He caught her across the face and she hit the door. It was instant lights out. She crumpled to the floor. He left her where she lay and stormed out. He was going to do whatever he wanted to do since she was already doing that on her own.

When she came to, he was still gone. She could feel the throbbing in her head and knew that this had to be it. She had to get out of there while he was gone or she would never survive. He would end up killing her one day. She ran to the bedroom and scrambled to pack as much as she could before leaving. She blocked Corey's number from her phone and called Ashley as she pulled out of the apartment complex.

"Hey chick," Ashley's cheerful voice entered her ears.

"Ash," she choked on her tears.

"Come to the house. What did he do?"

"He accused me of cheating. Then he hit me and I blacked out. He was gone when I woke up. I grabbed what I could and left."

"Come to the house. We got you, hun. He won't get his hands on you again."

Madelyn drove to Ashley's house. She knocked on the door. Ashley pulled it open and pulled her into a hug. She couldn't believe the state of the girl in front of her. She hugged her tightly.

"Come on, Nate's in the den. Let's go to the kitchen and see about getting you cleaned up a bit," Ashley said.

"Thank you," Madelyn sniffed.

"Of course hun. You are one of my best friends. I would always be there for you."

Madelyn nodded. Ashley took her to the kitchen. After the blood was cleaned up, they went to the living room to talk a bit more about what had happened. Madelyn already had a black eye forming and a handprint on her face.

"Hey babe, who's here," a man came into the room.

Madelyn recognized him instantly as the little boy from the foster home she went to first. She sat there staring at him.

"Oh my god, Nathan?" she asked.

"Madelyn Jaycobs?" he was just as stunned as she was.

"Wait you two know each other?" Ashley asked.

Nathan hugged Madelyn and nodded.

"We were in the same foster home for a while. The mom accused us of inappropriate behavior and I got moved. That's when Marshall got me anyway," he said.

"Wait did you two?" Ashley began.

"No, there were two others in the house who kept trying to do things to me and Nate protected me. They lied to their mother about what was going on. We were only eight years old at the time," Madelyn replied.

Ashley nodded. Madelyn stared at Nate. She really couldn't believe that her friend from high school was dating the boy that had protected her for so long during her first few months in hell.

Madelyn told Ashley and Nate everything that had happened in the last few years since she had seen Nate. He just shook his head and began to feel guilty about it all.

Ashley and Nate had insisted that she move into one of their guest rooms. They wanted to make sure that she was all right and that Corey wasn't trying to get to her. She had a new job so that he couldn't find her. Nate had gotten her a job at the recording studio that his brother used. She had never met his brother and she wasn't sure that she wanted to.

"Ash, I was thinking of looking for an apartment," Madelyn told her after a few months.

"Yeah?" Ashley asked.

They had her daughter to care for and she didn't want to be a burden. Madelyn nodded. The two girls decided to look together to find her a place. She was excited to be out on her own and not worrying about a man. She was doing her best to put herself back together. She needed to discover who she was before she could even think about meeting anyone else.