AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, sweet Christ. Where are you?”
“At the house. I haven’t left the house.”
“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“I’ll open up the gate.”
Ursula claps her hands when I end the call. Her fingers fly over the computer keyboard, and she opens a window on the screen, something to do with security. She taps a red button, turning it green. “Gate open now!” she crows. “You call him! You finally call Master! Gate open for Master.”
“Klaus Herzog is dead,” I say. “I cut his throat with a steak knife and watched him bleed out on a dining room floor.”
“Nein, nein, nein,” she says.
I take the computer and open up a search engine. All I have to do is type in my name and Trap’s. A dozen copies of the video scroll down the page, links to websites all over the world.
I choose the first one, labeled, “Uncut! Unedited! Every drop of blood!”
I hit Play.
I know the recording by heart now. The moment I seize the knife. The instant Herzog’s blood arcs into the air. The first time I stab his body, the second, the hundredth time, and the screen shows the entire bloody mess.
Ursula howls something in German. She reaches for the computer, but I snatch it away. I don’t want her touching anything, erasing anything. I need to keep her “movies” to remember everything that happened in this house from hell.
Ursula tries to scratch my face, but I bat her hand away. She tries to grab my hair, but I rear back and she can’t get a real purchase.
But I can grabherhair. I can yank out the tight bun that pulls the skin tight beside her eyes. I can twist her neck until she’s staring at the ceiling, and I can shake her like she’s a floppy doll.
“He’s dead, you crazy bitch. And nothing you do will ever bring him back.”
I open my hand and her head hits the table. I grab the computer and stalk to the front door. My lungs fill with fresh air as I step onto the porch, and for the first time in two weeks, I feel clean.
41
ALIX
* * *
Ten minutes.
Twelve minutes.
Sixteen.
I keep opening the computer and checking the clock. Trap said it would take thirty minutes to get here. I feel like I’ve been standing outside for hours.
The house is eerily quiet behind me. I expected Ursula to chase after me. I’m standing with a clear view of the door so I can defend myself if she attacks. But she hasn’t come outside, and when I look through the tall ground-floor windows, I don’t see her moving through the house.
Twenty-one minutes waiting.
When I close my eyes, I hear Ursula’s head hitting the table again. I don’t think it was a deadly blow. I didn’t push her. I didn’t shove.
But what if she’s lying there, dying?
She’s a sick woman. Broken. But I have to be better than she is, don’t I? I have to help her, if she’s injured.
I check the computer one more time. Twenty-four minutes.
If I wait for Trap, he can check on Ursula. He can make sure she’s breathing.
