"Look Anna, if this is about the money, then I am willing to …"
"It was never about any money. I don't need your blood money. Valdemar doesn't need your blood money. We don't need anything from you. We don't want anything from you." Anna paused and looked at Michael's chest. "Except for your heart."
Then she lifted the scalpel and sank it into his skin. Michael screamed as he watched Anna make an eight-inch incision cut down the center of his chest wall. Then, she cut his breastbone and opened his rib cage to reach his heart, when suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
"We don't want to be disturbed," she yelled, but the knocking didn't stop.
"Room service," the person outside yelled. Anna took off her gloves, walked to the door, and opened it just enough to peek out. "We didn't order any …" Then she paused. The face greeting her on the other side of the door was suddenly very familiar.
"So Bill Durgin is a woman, huh?" The man said. "Well I'll be damned."
57
August 2012
"Peter, please, don't do this to me." Peter had put me in a straitjacket and was now tightening it on my back so I couldn't move. Then, he tied me to a plank of some sort.
"You know, I found this among a bunch of equipment in the basement recently. I believe it must have been used back when the place was a mental hospital. It's exciting to think about who might have worn it before, don't you think? It could have been a famous historical person."
"I doubt it, Peter."
Peter laughed. "Well, maybe not. But I do have a feeling about this place. You know, back when you first left me, I came out here and often spent weeks here, just walking the hallways and discovering the place. I have made many friends here. The place is filled with history. Like that doctor that I told you about. I have met him. He killed himself after killing more than a hundred patients here doing all kinds of experiments on them. He shot himself and his family in room 237, but every now and then, I meet him in there. He has a big hole in his head from the shot right here, and there is blood all over the walls and floor, "Peter said and put a finger to his forehead with a grin.
"Peter, you're hurting me. It's too tight," I said. "Please just let me go, will you? Let me and Julie go. You don't want to hurt us, I know you Peter."
Peter lifted his camera and took a series of pictures. "There you go. The first one for the wall. The one where you start pleading for your life." He giggled in delight. "Isn't this fun? Oh, did you know that back when this place was a hospital for the mentally ill, they simply called the patients ‘lunatics’? It's the truth; that's what the doctor told me. Back then, the mentally ill were people who had to be put away, they were an embarrassment to the family, so they were often forgotten once they arrived here at the asylum. So, the dear doctor could perform any experiment and treatment he pleased. No one ever cared."
I stared at Peter, wondering how I was ever going to get out of this. Julie was still downstairs and I just hoped that she would stay safe. "That's all very interesting, Peter, but what are you going to do to me?" I asked, thinking it would be best if I kept the conversation going. Maybe an opening would come. Maybe I could talk him out of it.
"Oh, I have something extraordinary planned for you, Rebekka, dearie. Don't you worry about that. It's going to be spectacular."
Peter walked towards a small box covered by a cloth. Peter looked at me with excitement in his eyes and pulled the cloth off.
"Ta-da."
A small cage appeared underneath. Inside of it was a huge rat. He was staring at me with empty black eyes and vibrating whiskers. I had always hated rats more than anything in this world. Any nightmare I’d ever had, always contained at least one rat. Peter knew that.
"Peter. You know I hate rats. What are you doing with that?" I said, with my heart in my throat.
Peter opened the cage, took out the rat, and held it in his hand. I started breathing heavier, gasping in fear of what he was going to do with it.
"Isn't he a beauty?" Peter said and lifted the rat so I could better look at it. "It was actually the doctor who came up with the idea. He told me that he used rats in many of his experiments. See, back in the late eighteen hundreds, when this place was an asylum, the doctor thought rats were able to find diseases in the human body and eat them. One of his many theories was that mental illness was caused by something growing inside of the patient, overshadowing the patient's way of thinking, making them think they saw things they didn't and making them filled with fear and so on. So, his theory was that the rats would be able to detect the disease in the body and remove it like trash from a garbage can."
"So, what did he do?" I asked with a shivering voice.
"You'll see," Peter said. "It's very simple really." Peter grinned and found a metal bucket. Then he placed the bucket on top of my stomach and put the rat underneath it.
I felt sick to my stomach just thinking of the creature on top of me. Peter then found an old Bunsen burner that reminded me of chemistry lab in high school.
"Peter what are you doing?"
Peter found his camera and took another series of pictures before he turned on the Bunsen burner, then started heating up the metal bucket. "Peter I don't like this," I cried. "What are you doing?"
"As the container is being gradually heated, the rat will begin to look for a way out. The only way out is through the patient's body. Digging a hole, by gnawing its way through the straitjacket and then your skin, will probably take a few hours of agonizing pain for you. And then result in certain death."
58
August 2012
It didn't take long before I started feeling the rat gnawing on the straitjacket. The thought of those teeth soon nibbling my skin scared me to death. My entire body was shivering in fear.
"Peter I promise I'll … I'll do anything for you."
Peter stroked my head gently. "Oh, but dear Rebekka. You just aren't well, are you? You need to be cleansed. The doctor told me how I could cure you."
"But Peter," I cried. "This will kill me. You told me so yourself."
"But then you'll be made immortal afterwards, Rebekka. Through my pictures, through my art, you'll stay alive for eternity."
Slowly I felt the straitjacket gave in to the rat's sharp teeth. "Peter please, don't do this …"
As I spoke, suddenly a sound interrupted me. Peter heard it too and turned to look. I couldn't believe my eyes. In through the door came Henrik Fenger. He looked like he had been through hell and back. His clothes and hair were soaking wet, his eyes looked like those of a mad man.
"Who the hell are you?" Peter asked. "What are you doing here? This is private property."
I wanted to scream for help, but somehow the expression on Henrik Fenger's face made me hesitate. I was whimpering while feeling the rat gnawing through the jacket and now reaching the fabric of my shirt. Next would be my bare skin.
"Thomas De Quincey, I presume?" Henrik Fenger said.
Peter growled and walked closer. "Who the hell are you? Who told you where to find me?"
"Anna," Henrik Fenger said. "You probably know her as Bill Durgin. I killed her a couple of hours ago. You told her to bring you her contribution, remember? She told me all about it before I slit her throat with her own scalpel. You were stupid enough to give her this address where she was supposed to bring the body of her son. Quite the wacko, huh? Trying to keep her dead son alive by putting in new organs? What a lunatic."
Henrik Fenger had developed a tic in his left eye and was constantly blinking now. I could feel the rat's teeth on the other side of the fabric.
"I don't know what you're talking about. We're kind of in the middle of something here," Peter said. He had clenched his fist and was waiting for the right moment to attack Henrik Fenger. Henrik saw it too, but he didn't seem the least bit scared. More like he was really angry.
"She was a loose end anyway, Thomas," Henrik said. "It was too easy to figure out where she was. She wrote, or rather Billy wrote that she was watching her
next victim eating soft tofu soup. Well anyone travelling in hotels in Denmark knows there is only one hotel that serves only vegan, organic food and that's Skal's Hotel in Vensyssel. See the thing is, everybody knows it, but it's the only hotel in Vendsyssel and there isn't a restaurant anywhere near, so you're kind of stuck with their annoying food, aren't you? So I figured that no man, and we knew all of her victims were travelling men, didn't we? Well cheating travelling men, that is. So, I figured that no man would want to eat tofu soup unless he was forced to, if you know what I mean."
"I really don't care," Peter said. He lifted his clenched fist and stormed against Henrik. He punched him and cracked his lip, but to my surprise Henrik didn't even move. Blood was running down his chin and he still didn't even stop smiling.
"Is that it, Thomas? Is that all you've got? ‘Cause I've gotta say, it wasn't much of a punch." Henrik lifted his clenched fist and slammed it into Peter's face. The blow forced him to stumble backwards. I gasped while watching Peter's eyes roll back in his head. His nose bled heavily. He landed on the floor and his head was still spinning when he sat up.
"Now try again, Thomas 'cause I really was looking forward to a proper fight. After all, you were the guy who gave Anna the idea that she should take my kidney, now weren't you? You are the guy I have been searching for. The mastermind, or should I say kingpin? Maybe you just need a little more motivation. Maybe if I told you I killed Karl Persson as well. And … uh … Michael Cogliantry and Alex Andreyer. Everyone in that pathetic little chat room of yours. I pretended to be Karl and then set up a meeting with each and every one of them. Told them we should go on a killing spree together. Guess it wasn't a complete lie, huh?" Henrik laughed.
Peter finally managed to get to his feet, then stormed towards Henrik, slamming his fist into his face, causing Henrik to fall backwards. Then Peter was all over him. I tried to move in my straitjacket and suddenly realized that the rat had bitten its way through what was holding my arms. Suddenly my arms were loosened and I was able to move them. My right hand was soon freed and I managed to hit the bucket onto the ground. I screamed as I saw the rat. It was still gnawing on my clothes, but as soon as it realized the bucket was gone, it shrieked and jumped for the ground. I twisted my body back and forth and soon, my other hand was free as well, and I was able to squirm out of the jacket. Panting, I put my feet on the ground and watched as the two men fought each other, panting, throwing punches, yelling and groaning.
I looked around me to see if I could spot a second exit and found a small door in the other end of the room, behind a part of Peter's macabre exhibition. I opened it and snuck through. I ran down the stairs, stormed into Julie's room, and found her on the bed. She had been crying. In her hand she was holding my cellphone that Peter had taken from me and left in the kitchen when he dragged me upstairs.
"I called the police," she said. "They should be here any minute."
Epilogue
I was holding my dad's hand when he woke up. Three days had passed since I had escaped the castle in Brabrand holding Julie in my arms. While we were running outside, we heard sirens blaring in the distance. We found the boat Henrik had used to get to the island and sailed away to safety while hundreds of officers stormed the house.
Apparently, Peter had put up a fight, so the officers had ended up shooting him, while Henrik Fenger was arrested for breaking and entering. He ended up paying a fine. The police never could find evidence enough to accuse him of any of the killings that I knew he had committed. The story had gone worldwide about the lunatic man alone in a castle on an isolated island who wanted to make the exhibition from hell. The kings' coffins were returned to the churches and I took Julie back to Karrebaeksminde to be with my dad while he was recovering.
"Sweetie," he mumbled and opened his eyes. "I'm so glad to see you."
"You're doing much better, Dad. Don't worry. The doctor says I can take you home, maybe tomorrow."
My dad chuckled. "No, that's not what I meant. I'm glad you're here because someone came in earlier. I told him to come later today so he could see you."
"Hi Rebekka."
I turned my head and looked into the eyes of Sune. I rose to my feet and let go of my dad's hand. "Sune? What are you doing here? Jens-Ole said you quit. I thought you had left town."
Sune smiled. "I was about to, but I wanted to say goodbye to your dad. He has, after all, meant a lot to me. He convinced me I should at least say a proper goodbye to you."
My heart was pounding in my chest. There was so much I wanted to say, but why? To make him stay? Was that what I wanted? Him to stay against his will just because I might or might not be pregnant with his child? I had my doubts.
"Did you hear about …?”
Sune nodded. "Peter? Yeah. I heard. Quite the story, huh?"
I exhaled. "The funeral is Friday. I guess we'll be there, since Julie needs to say goodbye to her dad."
"Naturally." Sune looked at me and sighed. "Well okay. I'd better … I should just … I mean we need to be in Copenhagen at three, so I should …"
"Stop." I looked at Sune. It had burst out without me even thinking. Our eyes locked. I gasped. My tongue felt so dry. I could hardly move my lips.
"Argh, for Christ sake," my dad grumbled. "She's pregnant and the child is probably yours."
My heart stopped. I wanted to yell at my dad for blurting it out like that. But then I saw the look on Sune's face.
"Is it true?" Sune asked.
"Well … uh … I guess it is. Yes, Sune, yes. I'm pregnant."
Sune's eyes grew wide. He was breathing heavily.
"You don't have to do anything, Sune. It's okay. After all it might be Peter’s."
"But it might be mine?"
"Well, yes. I mean we did try for a long time … and the dates fit. The doctor told me it happened by the end of June and there was no Peter then. Not until July."
Sune smiled widely. "I'm gonna be a dad again? We're going to be parents?"
"I guess so?"
Sune grabbed me around my waist and picked me up. He started spinning around with me in his arms. I laughed. He stopped and let me slide down slightly till my eyes were in front of his.
"I love you Rebekka Franck."
"I love you too."
Then we kissed.
THE END
Dear reader,
Thank you for purchasing Nine, Ten ... Never sleep again. This was the last and final book in my series about Rebekka Franck and her photographer Sune Johansen. I hope you have enjoyed their crazy journey as much as I have. It is with great sadness that I let them go. They have been a big part of my life for a very long time now.
But if you enjoyed this series then you might also enjoy my Emma Frost-series. I have included an excerpt from the first book Itsy Bitsy Spider on the following pages. Get the entire series by following the links below.
And don't forget to check out some of my other books as well.
Take care,
Willow
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Books by the author
Mystery/Horror Novels:
One, Two ... He is coming for you (Rebekka Frank #1) - http://www.amazon.com/One, two ...
Three, Four ... Better lock your door (Rebekka Frank #2) - http://www.amazon.com/Three, Four ...
Five, Six ... Grab your Crucifix (Rebekka Frank #3) - http://www.amazon.com/Five, Six ...
Seven, Eight ... Gonna stay up late (Rebekka Frank #4) - http://www.amazon.com/Seven, eight ...
Itsy Bitsy Spider (Emma Frost #1) - http://www.amazon.com/Itsy Bitsy Spider
Miss Dolly had a Dolly (Emma Frost #2)- Coming out October 2013
Run Run as fast as you can (Emma Frost #3) - Coming out later this fall 2013
Edwina -
http://www.amazon.com/Edwina
Horror Short stories:
Eenie, Meenie - http://www.amazon.com/Eenie, Meenie
Rock-A-Bye Baby- http://www.amazon.com/Rock-a-bye
Nibble, Nibble, Crunch - http://www.amazon.com/Nibble, Crunch
Humpty, Dumpty - http://www.amazon.com/Humpty, Dumpty
Chain Letter - http://www.amazon.com/Chain Letter
Paranormal Romance/Suspense/Fantasy Novels:
Beyond (Afterlife #1) - http://www.amazon.com/Beyond
Serenity (Afterlife #2) - http://www.amazon.com/Serenity
Endurance (Afterlife #3) - http://www.amazon.com/Endurance
Courageous (Afterlife #4) - http://www.amazon.com/Courageous
Savage (Daughters of the Jaguar #1) - http://www.amazon.com/Savage
Broken (Daughters of the Jaguar #2) - http://www.amazon.com/Broken
A Gypsy Song (The Wolfboy Chronicles) - http://www.amazon.com/A Gypsy song
I am WOLF (The Wolfboy Chronicles) - http://www.amazon.com/I am WOLF
Box Sets:
Rebekka Franck Series - http://www.amazon.com/Rebekka Franck
Daughters of the Jaguar - http://www.amazon.com/Daughtersof the Jaguar
The Afterlife Series - http://www.amazon.com/Afterlife
Horror Stories from Denmark - http://www.amazon.com/Horror Stories