fixing a broken smile

chapter 18

Isaac was on his way back from the graveyard to his house, sulking basically the entire way there. He had waited two hours, but then nothing. There was no sign of Maddie at all. Which confused him completely since he had seen her in her room only a half hour before they were suppose to meet. A part of him knew that that should worry him, but another part of him felt rejected. He felt like he should have known better then to think that Maddie would actually go to a school dance with him. He had really thought that she would go with him, though. He had wanted to believe that they had really made up over what had happened between them that night.

Something seemed off about her not showing up, though. Something didn't feel right to him, but he didn't know what it was. As he was coming up to her house, he noticed something really off then. The living room light inside of her house was flickering. His eyes scrunched up in confusion as his feet seemed to have a mind of their own as they stalked walking toward her house instead of his own. As he got closer to the door, he could see that something else wasn't right. The front door was opened a crack, something he knew Maddie and her dad were both always so careful to keep closed. He glanced back over at his own house and saw that all of the lights were out inside of it. His dad was already out cold for the night, he knew that before he had left for the night.

He paused in her door way and slowly pushed the door open. He peeked his head inside, only to find it basically all in darkness besides the flickering light in the living room. He took a deep breath before moving into the house. "Maddie?" he asked out, only to get silence in return. As he crept further into the house, he could hear a faint sound of crying coming from the next room. "Maddie, it's Isaac. Are you in here?" he asked out again, hoping that the crying was in his head and that it wasn't coming from his friend. He followed the noise to the living room and he felt his heart stop beating. It was completely trashed. Tables were flipped over and glass was shattered and broken on the floor. The lamp had been knocked over and it was broken, which explained the flickering light.

He panicked when he didn't see Maddie yet. He moved further into the room until he froze suddenly. He could see the top of her head sticking out from behind the couch. "Oh, god," he breathed out in a panic as he hurried over to her. He rounded the couch and fell down to her side in a second. Her hair was covering her face and she was no longer making any kind of noises. She wasn't even moving. "Maddie?" he asked out to her quietly as he reached out to brush her hair away from her face. She seemed to come to life upon feeling a hand on her once again.

"No! Stop hurting me, daddy! Please!" she screamed out.

She swung her hand back, pushing him away from her with everything that she had left inside of her. A sob broke loose as she shrank back from him and curled up even more. She just wanted him to be as far away from her as he could be. He didn't dare to try and touch her again. "Hey, hey, hey, it's alright, Maddie. I'm not going to hurt you. It's Isaac. It's just me, Maddie. You know that I wouldn't do that to you. You know that I won't hurt you." he told her as he let his hands hover over her. He wanted to hold her, give her some kind of comfort, but he didn't want to touch her. She didn't want him to touch her, and he wasn't going to unless she said other wise.

She cried out into the rug underneath her face, and Isaac felt like crying right with her. From what he could see, her entire left side of her face was bruised, and he didn't even want to see how the rest of her looked. He looked around the room. It was a complete disaster of a mess, and he suddenly felt guilty. Maddie had been going through complete hell this entire time while he was thinking that she was standing him up. He needed to get her help, but how was he suppose to do that? She was in no shape to go by his bike. It wasn't like he could call 9-11 either. Her dad would only get more upset with her for involving the police, and he would rat him out to his own dad and he would get double the punishment too. So what in god's name was he suppose to do?