by Willow Rose
“Yes,” she sighed. “Yes, we’re doing it. We’re buying the house.”
Jonas shrieked happily and kissed her. She closed her eyes and let him hold her in his arms. She tried to imagine them in the house in order to drown out the unsettling thoughts that kept popping up in her mind. It was all just nonsense. It was just her being terrified of change. She had always been like this. It was silly. Jonas was right. What was the worst thing that could happen?
1
March 2009
THE FIRST TIME she saw him was on TV. She had read about him in the papers, but on the day the police took him to the courtroom for him to be tried was the first time she saw him.
Like really saw him.
Louise Tanggaard was watching the twenty-four hour news channel while chopping carrots for the stew she was cooking. Actually, she hadn’t been paying much attention to what was said in the broadcast, she wasn’t even looking at the screen when the reporter started talking, but when he suddenly told the viewers that the accused was now approaching the entrance of the courtroom, Louise was filled with an overwhelming desire to look up. She stopped chopping and stared at the screen in her kitchen that she’d had installed to be able to watch TV while eating with her cats, Lurifax and Lorianne. She had no idea what it was that made her stop and look, or what it was that made her keep watching. There was just something…no it was someone who drew her.
He was walking towards the entrance of the old building that was the courtroom in Copenhagen. Next to him, his attorney tried to keep the hordes of reporters and cameramen away. Some of them were yelling their questions out towards him, asking him if he had done it, if he had killed them and dismembered the bodies. They received nothing but a smile from the longhaired guy with the dark sunglasses.
What was it about him that made her look? What was it about this guy? Louise felt so drawn to him, even though she knew he was about to stand trial for having murdered his girlfriend and her two sons from another marriage. She grabbed a chair and stared at the screen, while watching the accused, Bjarke Lund, walk past the cameras. When his lawyer opened the door to the courtroom, Bjarke Lund turned to look directly at the cameras. He lifted his handcuffed hands and saluted. At that moment, Louise was convinced that he was saluting her, not the journalists. That he somehow knew she was watching.
And she knew, from that second, that she loved him.
The bodies were never found. Maybe he didn’t do it? Maybe he is innocent? No matter what, he must be feeling so lost. So alone.
Louise looked at the screen, as the face of the man she was now convinced she loved, disappeared. Lurifax approached her and jumped into her lap. She caressed him gently, while wondering about this guy. She grabbed the paper from the dinner table and started flipping the pages. There it was. There he was. Bjarke Lund was now looking at her from a black and white picture. Finally, she saw his eyes. He seemed to be looking back at her. The long beard, the ponytail, the leather vest…everything about him signaled bad news, but Louise felt differently. She felt like she understood him, like she knew him.
“You’re just misunderstood, aren’t you?” she asked, as she let one of her long red nails caress the picture. “You just need the right woman to help you get back on track. You’re not such a bad guy. You’re nothing like they say you are. I know you’re different. You’ve just never had anyone take care of you. But I could. I could take good care of you.”
The case was still being covered on TV, and suddenly, Bjarke Lund appeared in an interview which had taken place many years earlier, when he was accused of having killed his own mother. He was just a teenager at the time. The story had been the same back then. Her body had never been found. In the interview, Bjarke Lund had painted his face green with facial paint. “Because this is how the world sees me,” he stated, when the interviewer asked. “As pure evil, like the Wicked Witch of the West. In your eyes, I am the archetype of human wickedness. I have already been judged. I don’t need to stand trial. You have already decided that I did it.”
“So, did you do it?” the interviewer asked. “Did you kill your mother?”
“Have they found her body anywhere? Is she even dead?” Bjarke Lund asked.
“So, you didn’t do it?”
“Do you think I did it?”
Louise watched, as Bjarke Lund kept avoiding answering the question, and couldn’t stop laughing. This guy was smarter than the journalist, and soon the reporter gave up.
Lurifax tried to get her attention by rubbing himself against her. But, for the first time since Lurifax had come to the house on Fanoe Island, his mother had no time for him. She pushed him down and turned up the volume of the TV. Just the sound of Bjarke Lund’s voice alone made everything melt inside of her. Now he was talking about his childhood, growing up with a dominant mother whose many boyfriends often abused him. Louise nodded all through the interview, and knew exactly how he felt. She also knew what he needed.
Killer or not, just like everybody else, this man needed a woman’s love and care.
2
July 2014
THE REALTOR WAS waiting outside the house when they arrived. Marie and Jonas looked at each other and smiled. There couldn’t be a happier couple in the world, Maria thought to herself, as Jonas parked the car and they got out.
The realtor smiled widely and dangled the key in front of them, holding it between her long fingernails.
This is it, Maria thought to herself, feeling very excited and smiling from ear to ear. This is really it. You’re officially a house-owner. Married and now with a house. All grown up. If only mom were alive to see you. She would be so proud. So happy for you. This is all you ever dreamt of.
Maria looked at Jonas, then back at the key, still dangling on its chain between the realtor’s fingers.
“Who wants to do it?” she asked.
Maria drew in a deep breath. Should she be the one to take the keys? Or was that a guy thing? Did the man of the house expect to do it?
Jonas looked at her. “Go ahead,” he said. “You be the first.”
Maria felt a tickling sensation. “Really?” She kissed her husband and reached out for the key. She grabbed it and felt its weight. It had been almost two months since they’d signed the papers. Her unease hadn’t gone away completely, but she felt better about their decision with every day that passed, and as she stood there with the key in her hand, every doubt seemed to have vanished. It was just like Jonas had said. It was just worry and fear of change. Jonas had asked her to trust him, and that much, she could do.
“Go ahead,” the realtor said. “Enter your new home.”
Maria glanced at Jonas one last time before she walked towards the big wooden front door that she had adored since their first visit to the house. She could smell the ocean from behind the house. It was one of those rare warm summer days in Denmark. It would be her first time living on an island, but she had always loved the ocean and knew she would enjoy it.
She put the key in and turned it while holding her breath. Then, she pushed the door open.
The light coming from the other side of the house almost blinded her. The huge windows leading to the yard and the ocean brought in so much sunlight it was startling. She gasped slightly and stepped inside. Jonas was right behind her. She felt his hand on her shoulder.
“Welcome home,” he whispered in her ear.
“It’s even more beautiful than I remembered,” she said, slightly choked.
If only mother were here. She would have loved it.
The realtor entered behind them. “Home sweet home,” she chirped, and closed the door behind them.
Jonas kissed Maria on the cheek. Then he walked past her into the living room. “I told you there would be room for your mother’s old chair in the corner,” he yelled.
She followed him into the living room. He stood in the corner, smiling. “See? We can put it right here. And then the couch over here, and the TV on the wall like this. It’s going to be perfect.
You see it?”
“I do,” Maria said. “It’s going to be perfect.”
Jonas clapped his hands together. “The truck will be here in an hour. Time enough for us to empty the car first. Let’s get to it.”
The realtor thanked them and wished them the best of luck in their new home, then she left. All day, Jonas and Maria worked on furnishing their new home. With every chair and every piece of their life that was put into place, Maria felt more and more at home. Especially around noon when some of the neighbors dropped by with a bottle of wine and some home baked buns to welcome them to the neighborhood. That almost brought her to tears, and she couldn’t wait to get to know all of them better.
By the end of the afternoon, they had all their furniture in place, with help from the moving company, and they were alone at last for the first time. Now, it was just the two of them. Two young newlyweds with the beginning of an entire new life in front of them. It was both exciting and a little scary, Maria thought, while standing in the bedroom, surrounded by mountains of boxes and bags. She couldn’t wait to get all these things into their places and to decorate the house and make it their home. She couldn’t wait for them to start an everyday life here. A life where they went off to work in the morning, and couldn’t wait to get back to their cozy home in the afternoon. She could see herself having a life in this house. She really could. She could see herself having children here; she could see herself grow old here.
Jonas was right. It is perfect for us. Everything about it is just so…perfect.
They unpacked until darkness fell on the house, and they ordered a late night pizza from a nearby pizzeria. When it arrived, they sat on the carpet in front of the fireplace in the living room and ate out of the box. Their bodies were sore from carrying, and so tired from a long, but joyfull, day. Jonas had brought a bottle of champagne that he now opened. He filled their plastic cups.
“A toast,” he said, and lifted his glass. “To our new home.”
“No place like it,” Maria said, and they sipped their champagne.
They sat in silence for a little while, just staring at the high-vaulted living room with the huge windows leading to the yard and the beach. Outside, it was now dark…at least as dark as it got at this time of year, when the Nordic Lights kept the nights bright. It was getting late.
Maria felt tired. Exhausted even. But happier than ever. Jonas leaned over and kissed her neck. She closed her eyes and enjoyed his touch. She loved him so much. So deeply.
“Mmmm…”
“I love you so much, Maria. I can’t wait for the rest of our life.”
His hand opened a couple of buttons on her shirt.
“It’s a little late,” Maria groaned. “And I’m exhausted. Aren’t you tired?”
“Mmmm…” Jonas continued. He opened the rest of the buttons on her shirt and pulled one of her breasts out of her bra.
“Jonas. I’m really tired …” she didn’t mean it, and he knew it. They still hadn’t reached the point in their marriage when they stopped being all over each other. She loved his touches, and she wanted him all the time. Even now, when she was so worn out she could hardly move her body.
She wanted to have sex with him in their new house for the first time. Just not like this. Not on the floor. The bed was set up in the bedroom, and she wanted them to go in there.
Maria opened her eyes to tell him, but as she did, she let out a scream. Jonas jumped.
“What?”
Maria closed her shirt and held a hand against her breasts to cover herself up. “I saw something,” she said.
“What?” Jonas asked.
“I don’t know. It was out there, in the yard somewhere. Something was moving.”
Jonas combed his hair back with his hand. Then he laughed. “It was probably just a cat or a squirrel or something.”
“No,” Maria said. “It was bigger. It looked like a person.”
“You’re just being paranoid again,” Jonas said. “Who in their right mind would be out in our yard at this time of night? I tell you, it was nothing. Or maybe it was someone. Maybe it was one of the neighbors looking for their dog or cat that has run off or something. This is a safe neighborhood, Maria. You met them today. They were nice people. Nothing strange about them. Heck, they even gave us wine and buns. Besides, this is an island. There’s only one way to get here and to leave here. There can’t be much crime. Not successful, that is.”
“I guess you’re right. But there was someone who was murdered down the street from here. An old lady. Two years ago. Right on this street, Jonas.”
Jonas sighed, and then looked at her with compassion. She hated that look. It always made her feel like a young child.
“Yes, there was that old story. We talked about it, but the killer was found, remember?”
“It was a police officer, Jonas.”
“I know. But he’s gone now, right? So, no more worries.”
“There has been other stuff the last two years…a lot, actually. I read about it the other day.”
Jonas leaned over and kissed her lips. “You read too much,” he whispered. “Now, let’s get to bed. I want to have sex with my wife on the first night in our new house, no matter who is looking at us from outside those windows. Let them look. Who cares?”
Maria chuckled and pushed him lovingly on the shoulder. “Oh, you…” she said. “You never take me seriously, do you?”
“Nah. Not really.”
He grabbed her hand, and pulled her up from the floor. He held her in his arms. She could feel how strong he was. She loved that about him. He was a real man. Big hands and long arms to wrap around her. He had been working all day on moving boxes and furniture, and not once did he complain that he was tired. He even had the energy to make love to her…even after a day like this.
Maria had grown up alone with her mother, since her dad left when she was just a young child. During her entire childhood, her mother had been constantly afraid…almost paralyzed by fear at times. She’d had her entire life destroyed by this fear…the fear of almost everything she could come up with, it seemed at times. Some days, it could be a fear of burglars entering the house, on others it was the fear of being attacked by some random stranger in the street or of eating something that would make her sick, of germs entering her body and killing her. It could be almost anything. But especially hard for Maria was her fear of something bad happening to her. It made Maria’s teenage years lonely and devastating…never being able to do what the other kids were allowed to. It became so bad in the end that her mother refused to go outside. The doctor called it a Social Anxiety Disorder and Agoraphobia, the anxiety of open spaces. But even worse, she forbade Maria to go outside as well, except to go to school or to grocery shop, since she didn’t dare to do that on her own. That was when Maria decided she would rather die than end up like her mother.
But it was easier said than done. Every day of Maria’s grown-up life she was fighting her own anxiety and, luckily for her, Jonas helped her tremendously. Especially after her mother killed herself two years ago. Jonas had been there, and he had promised he would take care of Maria. He told her she didn’t have to be afraid of anything anymore.
Her unease went away as he pulled her towards the bed and undressed her. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment. She was so happy she had him. He and his strong arms made her feel so secure. She felt like nothing in this world could ever touch her, could ever touch them.
For the first time in her life, she felt perfectly safe.
3
July 2014
JESPER MELANDER LOOKED at the couple having sex in their new home for the first time through the big window leading to the bedroom. He had the best view and enjoyed every moment of it. He knew they wouldn’t pull the curtains, because the people from the curtain company weren’t coming until the next day to put them up.
He watched as the husband climbed on top of his wife and entered her. He licked his lips and kept watching this delici
ous scene until the couple were done and fell to the bed moaning and breathing hard. It made Jesper Melander even more excited.
“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home,” Jesper Melander murmured to himself with a giggle, trying to sound like Dorothy in the old classic movie. He tapped his shoes together three times while repeating the sentence.
Jesper Melander loved the innocence of these people inside their new home. He loved their sense of security…the feeling of being home where it is safe and you feel so untouchable. That was what he dreamt of destroying.
He tilted his head as the lights went out in the bedroom and everything went quiet. Jesper Melander felt the knife in his hand and closed his eyes for just a second, taking in the fresh salty air mixed with the wonderful smells of the anticipation of a kill.
Jesper Melander opened his eyes and looked at the sleeping house.
“What a be-ea-u-ti-ful home. I’m never ever leaving again, Auntie Em,” Jesper Melander laughed. “Oh, you’ll never ever leave this house again.”
Jesper Melander walked up to a window in the back leading to the basement. It was slightly ajar. They hadn’t been into the basement yet. Of course they hadn’t. They had just moved in. They hadn’t had the time to check all doors and windows yet. In a new house, you never know where they all are or how many there are, do you? No, you don’t.
Jesper Melander slid inside and ended up in an empty room in the basement. Quietly, Jesper Melander found the stairs leading up.
“Just follow the yellow brick road!” Jesper Melander started chanting and dancing up the stairs. “Follow, follow, follow…Follow the yellow brick road.”
Jesper Melander opened the door and walked inside the kitchen. With quick and very determined steps, he walked straight towards the bedroom. The door was open. Jesper Melander stopped by the bed and looked at the happy couple in their sleep. The husband was snoring heavily.