Seven, eight ... Gonna stay up late (Rebekka Franck #4) (18 page)

I have to
admit
I was scared to death. This guy was so creepy and clearly insane that it
frightened me badly. I was hurt from the blow to my head and in constant pain.
It made it difficult to think. It felt like a dream, a surreal dream. It was so
unbelievable.  The strange man was showing me pictures of food and telling
me he was going to kill me, kill all of us, in order to prepare a meal for some
party? If it wasn't for the sincerity in his eyes when he spoke, I would have
thought he was joking, that he was just trying to scare us. But he meant every
word. I had no doubt after he spoke to me and went to talk to Camilla with the
book in his hand.  I tried to wrap my mind around this entire situation.
The box, the basement, the man, the girls and the strange machine he had the
Princess hooked up to. I felt awful for her, she was in obvious pain,
struggling for her life in that box. And there wasn't a damn thing I could do.

This can't be
,
I thought and tried once again to open the lid. There had to be some way out,
some opening. How did we get in here in the first place? I wondered. I felt the
sides and the corners. Yes, there seemed to be an opening, if I squeezed my
body and crumpled up by my feet, I could reach the end wall and soon I realized
that was where the opening was. The end could open up and that was the way he
had gotten us all in there. Slid us through. But even if I kicked it hard it
wouldn't open. It was screwed on with four screws on each side. Maybe I could
somehow work them from the inside? I couldn't see the back of them, so the
screws didn't go all the way through. Maybe if I tried with my nails, I
thought, maybe I could scratch the plastic enough to reach them from the other
side. I sighed resignedly. Even if I did manage to work my way through, it
would take too long.

I watched as the man walked towards Princess
Amalie. He squatted next to her and looked inside, like she was a fish in a
tank. The sounds coming from her box weren't nice, they were the sounds of
someone suffocating, choking. It was the sound of someone dying.

"Stop this!" I yelled and kicked the
box so hard it hurt my leg. The ceiling didn't move an inch. The man got up and
looked at me.

"You're killing the poor girl, can't you
see? She's choking!" I shouted.

The man tilted his head and approached me.
"Well don't you know that's the entire point?" He said with a gentle
voice.

"Why?" I cried. "Why is it so
important to kill her? To kill all of us?"

The man smiled. "Ah, we're doing that
now," he said. "We're doing the talk. The talk where I tell you all
why I am killing you? Well we might as well get it done with." The man
walked back to Princess Amalie's box. "Well, my dear, sweet Princess. You don't
know me, but believe me I know you. I know your family, because I used to be
part of it. See, my name is Allan Witt, but just like you I didn't used to have
a last name. I used to be living in the castle in Moegeltoender like you do
now. Actually I lived there until you were born. Until you changed
everything."

Allan Witt. The name didn't ring a bell to me.
If he was a part of the royal family, I would certainly know. "You used to
live with the Prince? How come?" I asked trying to keep the conversation
going, trying to buy us some time.

"I was born at the castle," he
answered. "I lived there the first ten years of my life."

"Were you parents working for the
Prince?"

Allan lifted his head, then shook it.
"No."

"Then how come you lived there? Are you related
to the royal family?"

Allan exhaled in an eccentric manner. He was
quite the drama-queen I realized. Maybe I would be able to use that to my
advantage, I thought.

"You could say I'm related. Very much
indeed."

"How come no one has ever heard of you? Why
have I never heard your name before?" I asked.

"Because I'm what they like to call a
'well-kept secret.' One that isn't supposed to slip out to the public."

"Why is that?" I asked.

Allan looked at me, then snorted. "You're
making me lose valuable time," he said. He began to walk towards the
stairs. Then he turned and looked at me again.

"You haven't heard about me, because I
wasn't supposed to exist."

Allan ran up
the stairs with grace and strength. Then he closed the door and walked towards the
garage. He opened it with the remote, and walked towards the corner where he
had the barrel covered by a large tarpaulin, one he used to have on his boat.
He pulled it aside, then found a garden hose and swung it over his shoulder. He
whistled as he bent down and lifted up the barrel and held it in his strong
arms. Then he carried it back into the house, when suddenly the front door
opened.

"Sebastian?" Allan said and looked at
the door to the basement to make sure it was closed. It was, but it wasn't locked.
He put the barrel down on the tile floor.

"Wow, that's a lot of Armagnac,"
Sebastian said while carrying in the bags and putting them on the counter.

"You're back early," Allan said.

Sebastian gesticulated resignedly. "Well, I
had to come home with the first load before I went to the next store. We don't
want any of these expensive delicacies to go bad, do we?"

Allan sighed relieved. For a moment he had been
afraid that Sebastian was already done. "Of course not," he said.
"Let me help you put the things away."

Allan grabbed the first bag and began unpacking.
"Someone's dressed for cooking, huh?" Sebastian said and looked at
Allan's outfit. Allan took off the chef's hat and put it on the table.
Sebastian went close and sniffed his breath. "Oh beginning the day with a
Chianti, are we?"

Allan chuckled. "It is after all my
birthday."

Sebastian clapped his cheek. It enraged him but
he kept his calm. It was all about getting Sebastian out of here again.
"Just don't get too drunk like at the last party we went to," he
said.

Allan fantasized about grabbing Sebastian's
throat and killing him right there. The very thought made him shiver with joy.
Maybe he should kill him next. To finally get rid of him. He didn't need him
anymore. Police would never suspect Allan of anything. Not the nicely dressed,
handsome, meek gentleman. No he was safe. And if they did, he would just kill
them as well. He was untouchable.

"Well I'll be off again, then,"
Sebastian said and kissed him on the lips.

The kiss left Allan numb. Sebastian waved with a
loose wrist and started walking towards the main entrance, when he stopped.

"What's that sound?" he asked.

Allan froze. "What sound? I don't hear
anything." Allan laughed nervously as Sebastian backed up and stood in
front of the door leading to the basement. "It's in your head, you're just
stressed out. Now get going, we're in a hurry," he said.

Sebastian turned and looked at him. "You've
been in the basement this whole time, haven't you?" he asked. "The
door isn't properly closed."

Allan looked up with wide eyes. Sebastian was
right. In his hurry Allan hadn't closed the door entirely.
Damn it
, he thought.

"Are you drinking wine in the
basement?" Sebastian asked. "What are you doing down there while
drinking your wine?" He put his hand on the door, then looked at Allan.
"Can I peek in?"

Allan sighed. Then he nodded. "Go
ahead."

"Are you sure?" Sebastian said with
cheer. "I don't want to push you to show me, it has to come when you're
ready."

Allan exhaled. "I guess I'm ready now. Go
ahead."

"Yay!" Sebastian cheered. Then he
pushed the door open with the palm of his hand. He took a step inside, while
Allan grabbed the kitchen knife, polished it in the towel, then approached him
slowly from behind.

Allan hesitated, waiting for his cue while he
watched Sebastian's body freeze. He stood completely still for seconds. The
only thing moving were his hands that were shaking like leaves on a tree.

Allan waited until the scream came before he
lifted the knife.

I heard noises
from behind the door and looked in the direction of the stairs where the man
had disappeared through the door. I had tried to talk to Camilla while he was
gone, but she had been struck with such terror, she was unreachable. She was
lying in her box, trembling while mumbling the same sentences over and over
again. It appeared to be some song.

Seven devils all around you

Seven devils in my house

See they were there when I
woke up this morning

I'll be dead before this day
is done

She kept repeating the last sentence over and
over again and hardly noticed that the door opened. I did however hear it and
looked in that direction as a new face showed itself. Relief overwhelmed me
when I realized it wasn't Allan Witt, but another man instead, a man I had seen
before, a man I knew from all the magazines and the paper's high society-pages.
Sebastian Devalnier was his artist-name, known in the fashion industry as one
of the most successful designers in all of Europe. Widely known to be a
party-animal and gay. He stopped at the end of the stairs and I realized by his
look that he had no idea what he had walked right into. At first I thought he
was with the royal family since he was known to be seen socially with them, and
maybe just maybe he was sent by Princess Amalie's father to find us, but as
soon as he began whimpering and screaming, I knew he had walked in by
coincidence not expecting to find us or this basement of terror.

Our eyes locked for just a second as I saw the
horror in his eyes and a second later spotted Allan Witt behind him with a big
knife lifted in the air, ready to stab him in the back.

That was when I screamed. "Behind you! Look
behind you!"

Sebastian reacted much faster than I had
expected and turned to face Allan Witt and the knife. With a quick movement, he
grabbed Allan Witt's wrist and managed to stop the attack or at least postpone
it. Allan Witt groaned and tried to pull his arm free. Sebastian kicked him
hard in the stomach forcing Allan to bend over and gasp for air. Then Sebastian
wrenched Allan's hand and managed to get the knife out of it. The knife landed
on the floor.

"You're forgetting who you're dealing
with," Sebastian said panting. "I used to live on the street. I used
to beat up guys like you. I'm used to watching my back and I know how to react
fast."

Then he lifted his knee and placed a perfect
knock-out under Allan's chin. Allan was thrown backwards and landed hard on the
floor. I couldn't see him anymore, but I could hear it when his head hit the
floor and then I heard the moaning.

Feeling the hope rise in me I stared with great
anxiousness at the two men as Allan now got up and threw himself at Sebastian.
The two of them were fighting massively, beating, punching each other while
panting and gasping for air. It seemed Sebastian was the strongest, he kept
ending on top of Allan to my relief. But Allan was the smarter one. As he was
down on the floor and Sebastian was punching him, he reached over and grabbed
the knife from the floor. I didn't realize it before it was too late. He raised
it in the air and with a fast movement plunged it into Sebastian’s chest.

"NOOOO!!" I screamed as Sebastian’s
body fell backwards down the stairs, bumping each step on the way. He landed on
the stone floor with the knife still in his chest. He was still alive but bleeding
heavily as he tried to grab the knife and pull it out. The sound of it leaving
his flesh made me sick as he pulled it out and looked at it, then turned his
head and looked at Allan as if to one last time ask him
Why
?

Allan panted and ran down the stairs. Then he
leaned over him and as life slowly oozed out of Sebastian, Allan closed his
eyes and took in a deep breath.

"NO!" I screamed again as hope fled me
and left me helpless.

Allan touched Sebastian's face with a wide
smile. Then he grabbed him by the neck and pulled him across the floor leaving
a trail of blood. He tied Sebastian's hands together with a rope, and then hung
him up on a meat-hook dangling from the ceiling. I watched with fear how the
blood ran from his body onto the stone-floor and made a puddle underneath.