Run run as fast as you can (Emma Frost #3)

  Lisa wiped a tear off her cheek and realized she was driving in circles. She had no idea where to go. She couldn't go home, since they would probably look for her there. She couldn't go back to her family, since they all thought she was a vicious killer. It hurt her so deeply that they would think that about her. Yes she had a temper and yes she couldn't always control it, but the people she killed had deserved it. They had it coming and she was doing everybody a favor by removing them. She didn't kill Simone Beaumont, who had, in fact, been Lisa's friend and the one she liked best in the group. Didn't they see her tears when she received the news that she was dead? Didn't they feel her pain? She was sincerely upset when it happened. Didn't they know that? Okay so she had fantasied about hurting Sophia now and then, especially since she was the one spilling coffee all over her car right before the accident, right before they hit that woman in the street and killed her with the minivan. But she hadn't done anything about it. She really didn't plan to either. And whatever happened, Lisa certainly didn't deserve to be treated like that.

  Like a common criminal.

  Lisa stopped the car in a parking spot, then got out and started walking up the street. She was really hungry and needed something to eat and drink. Preferably a smoothie or something organic. She walked towards her favorite café. Café Mimosa, where the faces were always smiling and the service impeccable. She pushed the door open and entered. The waitress named Julia smiled.

  "Hi Lisa," she said. "You're early today. Grab a table and I'll be right with you."

  Lisa took in a deep breath and smiled back. She really needed Julia's friendly smile today. She decided to sit in the back so no one would see her from the street. Julia came out, still smiling. It brought tears to Lisa's eyes.

  "So what can I bring you today, Lisa?" Julia said and looked around. "Where is the baby today? Are the rest of your group coming as well?"

  Lisa sniffled. "Its just gonna be me today."

  "Well that's okay. Nice to have a couple of hours to yourself, huh? So what will it be? Do you need a few minutes to check the menu?"

  Lisa shook her head. "No. I know what I want."

  "The usual?" Julia asked. "Salad and a smoothie?"

  Lisa opened her mouth to say yes, but hesitated. "You know what? Maybe I should try something new for once."

  "Sure?"

  "Give me a burger. The biggest you have. And put cheese on it. And fries. Oil dripping fries. And bring me a Coke with that. Regular coke with sugar. After that, I'll have a banana split with loads of chocolate sauce. Please make sure none of it is organic or gluten free, would you?"

  Julia stared at Lisa like she had just fallen from the moon. Then she shook her head. "Sure. If that’s what you want."

  "It is. Thank you."

  "No problem."

  Julia left and Lisa stared at her own face in the mirrors that were covering the walls. It had been awhile since she last saw herself properly without the fake election smile. She had gotten old.

  Well so what? I'm forty-three and have a young baby. I'm entitled to look old. I'm entitled to eat a cheeseburger every now and then if I want to.

  When the food arrived Lisa ate greedily. Never had a meal that tasted this good. She stuffed her face with fries and could hardly close her mouth to chew. Other customers arrived and stared at her while she was eating with her fingers, licking the grease off of them and flushing it all down with a Coke. She didn't care that they looked. For once in her life she didn't care what anyone thought of her. She stuck her tongue out at them and laughed. Never had she felt this free.

  It wasn't until halfway through the banana split, which she ate with her fingers, that she realized it wasn't only the other customers who were staring at her. So was the strange man she had seen at the café before. He was sitting at a table next to hers, giggling. As she looked into his eyes, she realized she had seen him once before. Eight months ago. When he got up and walked to her table, she remembered how her eyes had met his right before she took that fatal turn while yelling at Sophia, driving straight into that woman.

  "Hello Lisa," he said and grabbed the chair across from her. "Finally we meet face to face."

  56

  November 2013

  I KNEW WE were going in the right direction just by looking at Victor. He was in more and more distress the closer we got to the house. I parked the car in front of the house and asked him to stay inside of it. The house looked empty. I knocked on the front door and when no answer came I walked inside. Most of the rooms were empty except for an old bedroom where I found women's clothes spread all over the floor. It smelled horrible and stuffy in there, like the windows hadn't been opened for months.

  On the walls I found clips from old newspapers taped to the walls. All were articles about some crash in downtown Nordby where a women had been killed. I remembered the accident since Sophia had been in the car when it happened. She had told me all about it and had a hard time moving on. Her entire mothers’ group had been in the minivan with all of their newborn babies. Lisa had been the driver.

  The many articles told me I had to be in the right place. But they didn't explain why Lisa wanted to kill the rest of the group.

  "Sophia?" I called.

  No answer. I walked to the kitchen, then another bedroom, through what was supposed to be the living room but now was nothing but a big empty room with dust and dirt on the wooden planks.

  "Sophia?"

  I walked outside on the gravel and looked at Victor in the car. He was pressing his hands hard to cover his ears. I tried to listen but couldn't hear anything. Then I looked at his face. He was staring at the garage next to the house with anxious eyes.

  "Sophia!" I said and stormed towards the door. It was locked. I tried to open it, but couldn't.

  I put my ear on it to listen, then heard a squeaking. It sounded like an animal. "The bats!" I turned and looked at Victor. "The bats are in here, aren't they?"

  I knocked on the garage door. "Sophia, are you in there? I'll come for you. I'll come and get you!"

  "Emma?" a voice yelled back.

  My heart skipped a beat. "Sophia? Are you in there?"

  "Yes," she cried. "Yes. Please, help me get out. The bats are biting me."

  "I'll be right there."

  I stared at the door and wondered if there was another way in. I walked around the building. It wasn't an ordinary garage. It was bigger. Probably built for tractors. It seemed big enough. I walked to the back of it and found a back entrance. I pulled the handle, but it was locked. I hit it and kicked it till my eyes saw spots. Sophia was screaming inside.

  "Get away from me you monsters!"

  I kicked the door again and this time it gave in. Some of the wood scattered and I could look inside the garage. I kicked it again and soon the hole was big enough for me to pass through.

  "Sophia!" I said. I found a light switch by the door and flipped it. I gasped. Sophia was lying on the floor of a big cage packed with bats. They screamed as the light went on and moved to the roof of the cage. The skin on Sophia's back was swollen and covered with red marks. I found the key to the lock hanging on a nail right next to the door and opened it. Sophia crawled out, still holding her hands above her head to protect herself. I closed the door in a hurry as soon as she was out.

  "Thank God," she moaned. "I really hate bats."

  The bats were flapping their wings and squealing like they were very dissatisfied with me taking Sophia away. I kneeled next to her and hugged her.

  "Careful. I'm kind of hurting here," she said.

  "I'm sorry. I'm just so happy to have found you. Who did this to you? Did you see who it was?"

  "I woke up in the cage. The last thing I remember was going outside last night before going to bed. I wanted to have a cigarette. Drinking alcohol always makes me long for a cigarette. So, I figured it would do no harm to grab one outside on your porch. But when I was about to light it, I was knocked out. I still have a huge bump right here to prove it. I think i
t was a baseball bat or something. It hurt like hell. Still does."

  "We need to get you to a hospital right away."

  "I'm not going anywhere. Except home to be with my children. Are they alright? Is Alma okay?"

  "They're fine. They're with my dad and Maya."

  "Lisa," Sophia suddenly exclaimed.

  "What about her? Did she do this to you? Did she somehow put you in there?"

  Sophia looked at me like I had finally lost it. "What are you talking about? It was a man who put me in that cage. A man who told me he was going to kill me like he’d killed the others. Then he told me why."

  "The accident," I said.

  "Yes. How did you know?"

  "There were a bunch of articles about it in the bedroom. Is he her husband?"

  "That's what I thought when he started talking about it, but then he told me they used to live here. The woman and her husband. Apparently he loved her, but wasn't married to her. He kept saying he was watching over her or something. He told me he had followed us ever since the accident that killed his beloved and that he was killing us because we had been careless. Lisa was driving the car, so he is mostly angry with her and that's why he’s gone to get her now. He told me he wanted to kill us both at the same time. Just for the fun of it. Then he asked me if I was a good runner. I told him no and asked why. He said the weirdest thing. He said that whoever ran the fastest had the best chance of surviving. Anyway he was going to get her now, he told me. We must hurry."

  57

  November 2013

  "SO LISA. How do you want to do this?" the strange man with the very blue eyes asked. Lisa stared at him, wondering what he really wanted. Then she licked her fingers one by one to get the chocolate off.

  "I have Sophia," he whispered.

  Lisa didn't look at him. She kept licking her fingers like he wasn't there.

  "I killed Susanne. And Nora."

  Lisa chuckled. "Susanne isn't dead. And Nora was a cheating bitch."

  "I killed Simone too. I know you cared about her, didn't you?" The man asked.

  Lisa stopped licking and glanced at the man. He was smiling widely. Lisa knew that look. He was enjoying this. He wanted her to be afraid of him.

  "What do you want?" she asked.

  "I want you. You drove the car that day. You killed someone very dear to me."

  "You're not her husband. Her husband left with the kids after the accident. They moved to the mainland," Lisa said.

  "I'm not her husband. But I loved her. I loved her more than anything in this world. And you took her away from me. Just because you couldn't keep your eyes on the ROAD." The man said the last word while slamming his fist in the table. The other guests in the café turned to look at them.

  "What are you staring at?" he asked them. That made them turn away. Lisa chuckled. She kind of liked the guy.

  "So you want to kill me because I hit someone you loved with my car. Kind of lame, don't you think? A little cliché? I mean if you want to kill, then kill for a proper reason, have a cause for crying out loud."

  The man stared at her with a frown. "You listen to me, little Missy. In my pocket, I have a gun. And I'm not afraid to use it. You come with me in my car now or I will kill you here if I have to."

  Lisa wrinkled her forehead. Then she burst into laughter. "Good one."

  "What?" The man seemed perplexed. "You don't believe me? Well, see for yourself," he said and pulled the gun out of his pocket.

  "A gun!" someone said. Panic spread fast and the other customers screamed and soon the café was empty except for Lisa and the man.

  "Oh my," Lisa said with a wide smile. "You certainly are a big, bad boy, aren't you?"

  The man exhaled, then cocked the gun. "Don't make me do it," he said. "I just bought this gun from some guy who sold me it from the back of his car. I paid a lot of money for it. And I really don't want to have to throw it in the ocean because it’s considered evidence. Not now when I just got it."

  Lisa chuckled again. She picked up the spoon and ate more of her banana split. People had started gathering outside the window now. People were yelling; some dared to peek in. Lisa really couldn't care less, but the commotion seemed to make the man a little nervous.

  "Lisa. I'm asking you this one last time. Get up from your chair and walk with me through the back entrance. Now. Or I will shoot you."

  "What's your name?"

  "What?"

  "I asked you politely what your name was. You don't answer with what. You're supposed to say excuse me or pardon me. Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?"

  "God, I hate you," he said, clenching his jaw.

  "Well the feeling is mutual. You still haven't answered me though. What is your name?"

  "Thomas. My name is Thomas Hamilton. Remember it. Remember me. I will be the last person you see."

  "Well, you and Sophia, I guess."

  "What?"

  "You just told me you had her. You used present tense. I have her, you said. That indicates she is still alive."

  Lisa followed her last remark with her famous election- smile, when Thomas reached over and slammed the gun's handle into her face, knocking her to the floor. It hurt like hell and Lisa fought for a while to not sink out of consciousness. Thinking she was out cold, Thomas rose and stared at the crowd that had gathered outside. Meanwhile, Lisa managed to grab her purse and pull out the carving fork. When Thomas turned to look at her, she rose to her feet and planted the fork in his chest digging it deep until she felt it hit something vital, then she pressed it further in. Thomas gasped and stared at her with wide open eyes.

  "What the …?" The gun fell out of his hand and landed on the ground. Thomas's body fell to the floor. Lisa picked up the gun and put it on the table. Then she approached Thomas and pulled out the carving fork from his chest, while closing her eyes and enjoying the sound of it going through his flesh once again. Once it was out, she stabbed it into his abdomen, then pulled it out and stabbed it into his throat.

  58

  November 2013

  I CALLED MORTEN from my car as we raced towards town. Sophia was moaning in pain from the back seat, while Victor had finally found rest and told me the bats had stopped screaming.

  "Emma?" Morten said. "Are you alright?"

  "I have Sophia. She's alright but she needs medical attention. Did you find Lisa?"

  "We just received a call from someone downtown telling us there is commotion at Café Mimosa involving that lady from the election poster. I'm on my way down there," he said.

  I looked at Sophia. "So are we. Listen. Lisa wasn't the one who took Sophia or killed any of the others in the mothers’ group. It was a man. He’s after Lisa right now."

  "Got it," Morten said and hung up.

  I took a shortcut and knew I could make it there faster. Five minutes later, I parked the car in the street in front of the café where a big crowd of people had gathered. I stormed towards it and elbowed my way through.

  "I can't believe what she did; if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it," someone mumbled.

  "And he even had a gun," another said.

  "She is one tough woman."

  "You can say that again. I'm definitely voting for her. She is exactly what this town needs."

  I reached the entrance and peeked in through the window. Julia the waitress was next to me, crying. "What happened?" I asked.

  "He had a gun. He threatened her. But she took him down. Emma I … It was … She was amazing. I can't believe it. He could have shot all of us, but she prevented it. She stopped him."

  I turned my head and saw Lisa sitting inside the café at a table finishing what looked like a banana-split while a man was lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

  "People, people, please clear the street! Make room for the ambulance to come through." I recognized Morten's voice and turned to look at him while people started walking away.

  "Are you okay?" he asked.

  I nodded.


  "What the hell happened?"

  I shrugged. "I guess Lisa saved the day?"

  Another officer approached him from behind. "Someone just told me she stabbed him with a carving fork when he threatened to kill her."

  "A carving fork?" Morten asked.

  The officer shrugged. "Apparently so."

  "Take all the statements you can. We'll leave the scene to the forensic team," Morten said.

  "Lisa is a hero?" I asked.

  "I guess so."

  Lisa licked the spoon clean, then finished her soda and got up from her chair. Slowly, she walked outside. The crowd gasped, then spontaneously started clapping and cheering for her.

  "Lisa for City Council!" Someone standing close to me yelled.

  "Lisa for Prime Minister," someone else yelled.

  "Lisa. Lisa. Lisa." others followed.

  Lisa smiled the same way I had seen her do on the posters, then lifted her bloody hand and waved to the people the same way the royals waved. After she had taken in the applause, she walked towards me. She looked me in the eyes, then spoke. "It's quite a mess. Someone might want to clean that up."

  EPILOGUE

  A WEEK LATER, Lisa Rasmussen was elected to the City Council with more votes than any earlier member. In her thank you speech on the local TV station, Lisa proclaimed that she was there to clean up the mess and that everybody could expect big changes in the town from now on.

  I turned off the TV and looked at Morten sitting next to me. Then we both chuckled. We were planning a new trip, to Greece this time where one of the missing girls, Tenna, had miraculously turned up. She knocked on the door of a shelter one night and asked them to call the police. After sixteen years in captivity, she had finally managed to escape her captors. She didn't even know what country she was in, since she had been sold so many times and hadn't seen much except the inside of brothels. Now her family had been informed and was going to go down there and take her home. Morten and I were going with them. It was the perfect ending for my book and a new beginning for the broken family.