by Willow Rose
“Did you get what I wanted?” Lisa asked.
Merethe nodded. How did her hair manage to always get so greasy? Lisa frowned. People were just so…so unsanitary.
“Good. And she’s out there in the crowd?” Lisa asked.
“The package is delivered, the eagle has landed,” Merethe said, trying to sound clever. “I found her walking up from the beach. I did as you told me and paid her five hundred kroners to come to the debate.”
“Good. Money always talks. Now, take my purse and go out and do your job. Don’t let me down,” Lisa said, and pulled out a needle from her pocket and poked it in the air towards Merethe to show her what would happen to her son if she didn’t do as she was told. Merethe whined and grabbed the purse. Lisa burst into loud laughter when she saw the look on Merethe’s face. It was just too funny.
Lisa cleared her throat just as her opponent Jonna Frederiksen showed up. She looked older than last time. She was smiling widely as she approached Lisa.
“So you wanted a rematch, huh?” she asked.
Lisa chuckled. “Not that I need it, old lady, but yes. I have asked to be heard once again. This time, you won’t know what hit you. This time, I will win.”
The old lady laughed. Lisa imagined grabbing her around the neck and just strangling her right there. She fought the urge.
“Well, we’ll see about that,” Jonna Frederiksen said. “Good luck.”
“Oh, I don’t need it.”
70
November 2014
“THEY’RE HAVING ANOTHER debate downtown.”
I looked at Sophia. We had been all over town looking for Christoffer and Jonna Frederiksen when we found a small notice on the ground telling about the debate. I looked at my watch.
“It’s about to start. We have two minutes.”
Sophia followed me as I ran up Main Street towards the square. I was panting heavily, and realized I was in worse shape than I had thought. I had called Morten and Allan while in the car and told them to look for Christoffer as well. I was so afraid of what he might do. It would simply ruin his life.
“We gotta hurry,” I said, gasping for breath.
We ran into the square just as the editor of Fanoe Times took the stage and started talking to the many people that had arrived. I was quite surprised at how many had shown up for this event, even though it was a last minute thing.
Morten came running towards us, waving his arms. “They’re starting now,” he yelled.
“I know,” I said.
All three of us hurried towards the stage and stood in the back while the editor in chief presented the two candidates. Everybody clapped when he said their names, and seconds later, Lisa Rasmussen and Jonna Frederiksen stepped out. Lisa was waving like she had already won the entire election. She was smiling like the picture on her posters and moving her arms like she thought everybody had come just for her.
I spotted Officer Allan joining the crowd as well, then glanced around me to see if I could spot Christoffer anywhere, or if I could see anyone wearing a Slender Man costume.
“Any news?” Officer Allan asked when he approached us.
On stage, Jonna Frederiksen had started her speech. A few people in front of me shushed us.
“I can’t see him anywhere,” I said.
“You really think that little kid is capable of killing someone?” Allan whispered.
“I didn’t until I read all the online chats. This guy is very good. He knows how to push the right buttons on these kids.”
“So, you believe the others were killed by the teenagers? Each one a different killer?” Allan asked.
“Yes. And all the victims knew each other. They were all in the car that hit Per Larsen.”
Allan looked surprised. “Wow. I didn’t know that.”
“I read it in a letter from Helle Larsen to my grandmother. After the accident, Per Larsen’s life was completely ruined.”
“Yeah, well I saw him. He’s in bad shape,” Allan said.
“He wasn’t until the car hit him,” I continued, while Jonna Frederiksen made some excellent points on stage and people started clapping. I looked at Lisa Rasmussen. She looked completely unmoved. She was still smiling like she had won the whole thing.
“I see,” Allan said. “So we might be looking at a revenge-motive here?”
“It appears so. It’s a little too coincidental that three of the four in that car are now dead, and we know that someone has persuaded Christoffer to kill the last.”
“I see what you mean,” Allan said. “But who the heck is telling these kids to do these things? Who is this Slender Man?”
“That’s the big question,” I said. “It can’t be Per Larsen. Maybe his parents? Whatever happened to his mother and father?”
“They’re both dead. Ulrik Larsen’s daughter told me they died ten years ago. She said that only Peter Larsen was left. Apparently, she knew nothing about Per Larsen’s existence.”
“Could she have done it?” I asked.
Jonna Frederiksen was done with her speech and the crowd started clapping. I spotted Dr. Sonnichsen. She was standing very close to the stage. I pulled Allan’s arm and pointed. He nodded to let me know he had seen her. I smiled. This time, she couldn’t get away.
“I’ll grab her as soon as the debate is over,” Officer Allan said, just as Lisa Rasmussen took the stage.
71
November 2014
SHE THOUGHT SHE HAD found the best hiding place in the world. The numerologist knew the ground was burning under her feet, and had run along the beach thinking she could make it to the ferry before the police got to her, but when she reached the harbor she saw the police car parked and two officers checking all the cars that wanted to leave the island. There was no way she could get over to the other side right now. She had to hide somewhere on the island till it got dark, then find a boat or something and try to get to the mainland on her own. She had thought about many places to hide, when this strange woman had approached her and asked her to come to the debate and said she would even pay her five hundred kroner to do so. It suited the numerologist perfectly, since she would be able to hide for a little while in the crowd, and she really needed the cash. Cash was untraceable, and with five hundred kroners, she could get to Germany. They would never find her there. The numerologist wondered about the numbers. They hadn’t been in her favor this morning. She had known something would go wrong. She had never imagined that it would go this wrong, though. It annoyed her immensely that her plan had backfired. All because of that stupid dog. She really wasn’t happy about having to leave the island without having finished what she came here to do. But it was too dangerous for her to stay. She really wanted to kill Emma Frost, but she didn’t want to be caught doing so. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life in jail. It would be better to come back in a few months and finish it. It would be more of a surprise that way. At least she had managed to make her suffer. That would do for now.
The strange woman who had given her the money was standing next to her and was now cheering wildly as the second candidate took the stage. The numerologist laughed when she saw this Lisa Rasmussen take the microphone. She was smiling so strangely and so confidently, which was so odd, since no one seemed to like her or clap for anything she said. But the numerologist didn’t care. All she wanted was a cover right now, as the police were looking for her everywhere.
The woman next to her smiled oddly at her, and the numerologist felt a strange sensation in her body. She didn’t like the aura surrounding this woman or Lisa Rasmussen. There was an energy field surrounding those two that was off. Something was up with them, and it wasn’t nice.
The woman grabbed her purse and pulled something out, then handed it to the numerologist. The numerologist looked down at what she had in her hand. It was covered in a napkin.
“Here,” she said, and pushed it at the numerologist. “Take it.”
“I’m not taking that,” the numerologist said, looking do
wn at the gun that the woman tried to push at her.
“Take it!” the woman said.
“No, I won’t!” the numerologist yelled so loudly that Lisa Rasmussen stopped talking on the stage.
“Is something wrong down there?” she said.
It happened so fast that the numerologist had no idea how it happened. Suddenly, the woman yelled:
“Gun, she’s got a gun!”
The woman then pressed the gun into the numerologist’s hand and, while both their hands were on it, she fired the gun at Lisa Rasmussen, who fell backwards with a loud scream.
“Help! It’s an assassination attempt! Help!”
Then, the woman let go of the gun and it fell to the numerologist’s feet. She then threw herself at the numerologist as the crowd scattered and people started screaming. Seconds later, Officer Allan was on top of her, holding her down, while the numerologist yelled:
“I’m innocent. I didn’t do it!”
But the many people yelling and screaming as they fled the scene drowned her screams out.
72
November 2014
I COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT had happened. Dr. Sonnichsen had tried to assassinate Lisa Rasmussen? How strange was that? I had no idea she was after her as well. Why? As I drove back to the house with Sophia and Morten, I wondered what she was up to, and if she had just simply completely lost it. Lisa Rasmussen had been hit in the shoulder and was being taken to the hospital, while an officer had escorted Jonna Frederiksen away to keep her safe.
“We still haven’t found Christoffer,” Sophia said. “I have no idea where he is or what he’s up to. I feel so bad for him, Emma, I really do. He must be so lonely.”
I drove onto our street, and as I came closer to my house, I spotted someone sitting under the big oak tree on the lawn. Victor and Brutus were sitting next to him.
Sophia gasped. “Christoffer!”
I hardly managed to park the car before she jumped out and ran towards him. Morten and I both followed her and watched as she threw herself at him. Christoffer was crying and hiding his face between his hands. Victor and Brutus just sat next to him in silence.
“My God, Christoffer, are you alright? Have you done anything? Have you, kid? Have you done it?”
Christoffer shook his head. “I’m so sorry, Mom.”
“Sorry for what, kid? Did you do it? You didn’t kill her, did you?” Sophia asked.
Christoffer opened his backpack and pulled out the costume. Sophia looked confused. Christoffer shook his head. “I couldn’t do it, Mom. I thought about it all day and rode around on my bike with the costume in my backpack, but I knew I couldn’t do anything like this. There was no way. I’m such a failure, Mom.”
“Oh, my God, no, son. You’re not a failure. You have no idea how smart you are. I knew you would know better. I just knew you would.” Sophia wouldn’t let go of him. She hugged him and held him close. Then, she slapped him gently on the hair. “But don’t ever scare me like this again. You hear me?”
“I’m sorry, Mom. It was just…well the other kids in the game did it. They all bragged about how they had done it, and I was the only one who hadn’t…I wanted so badly to be more like them. I wanted to be one of them. They kept encouraging me to do it, and told me how fantastic it was.”
Sophia slapped him again. It wasn’t hard. “Don’t ever strive to be part of a group that does things you don’t want to. And no more computers for you for a long time, young man. You hear me?”
Sophia grabbed Christoffer around the shoulder and they walked home. I looked at Victor and Brutus, who were both staring at the ground. They were just so alike, those two, it was almost scary. But Brutus had certainly proved himself worthy as a member of our little family.
“Let’s go inside,” I said.
Victor, Brutus, and Morten all followed me, and I made hot chocolate for all of us, even though it was dangerously close to dinnertime. “What about Jytte? I asked Morten. “Weren’t you supposed to cook for her?”
Morten nodded. “Yeah, but she decided she would rather hang out with her new best friend Amalie from her school. She’s supposedly the biggest thing since sliced bread around here. So, I guess you’re stuck with me again tonight.”
I chuckled. “I guess I can’t complain about that.”
I made a wonderful dinner, and we had a nice evening together, even though Maya was still pretty angry with me. I didn’t care much. I just enjoyed knowing that Dr. Sonnichsen was behind bars and was going to stay there for a long time. It had been awhile since I had last felt this relaxed. Only one thing still bothered me. Even though we knew about the teenagers and what they had done, and I had told Allan to investigate it, we still didn’t know who the mastermind behind it all was. We still had no idea who this Slender Man really was. Would we ever know? Or was it going to remain one of those mysteries that was never solved?
73
November 2014
WE SLEPT IN THE next morning, since it was Saturday. I enjoyed reading the morning paper that was all about the assassination attempt on Lisa Rasmussen. Suddenly, it seemed that all the sympathy had turned, and now everyone was talking about how heroic Lisa Rasmussen was, and she was compared to big leaders in the world who had also had assassination attempts against them. It was very strange how the mood could turn like this. Furthermore, Jonna Frederiksen had decided to pull out of the race.
“Politic is too dangerous,” she was quoted as saying. “Life is too short.”
“I guess Lisa Rasmussen will end up being our new mayor then,” I said to Morten, while sipping my coffee.
He was still smiling after this morning’s wonderful sex. My body might be twenty pounds on the heavy side, but I still had it.
“I guess so,” he said.
Sophia came over a little later, carrying her son’s computer in her arms. “Here, take this,” she said. “I don’t want it in my house anymore.”
I looked at Morten. “I can’t have a computer in my house. Not while the investigation is still going on,” I said.
Morten shrugged. “It’s not the best of ideas.”
I looked at the laptop. It was a very nice laptop, and I really missed having a computer. I still had all of my stuff on the card in the hollow chess-piece. I could work on my book and get it finished.
“Maybe I can just keep it somewhere they won’t find it.”
“Suit yourself, Emma,” Morten said. “But I think it’s a bad idea.”
I grabbed the computer from Sophia’s hands, and she left to be with her children. I put it on the table and turned it on.
“You’re crazy for doing this,” Morten said.
I shushed him and he rolled his eyes before he continued reading his paper. I went to the bathroom, and when I returned, Victor was sitting by the laptop. His fingers were dancing across the keyboard while Brutus was watching from the floor. I watched Victor. It had been awhile since I had last seen him this engaged in something. Could it really be that he was so good with computers? It gave me hope for his future. I knew when Victor was interested in something, he would typically learn everything there was to know about it. Like with his trees and the rocks he gathered. He could end up being quite the computer genius if he wanted to.
A computer genius, huh? Even if he’s considered challenged in so many other areas? Who would have known? Hm. What if…
“I wonder,” I said to Morten.
“Hm? What’s that?”
“We need to go,” I said. “I’ll tell Maya to look after Vic.”
Morten protested. “Now?”
“Yes, now.”
A few minutes later, we were in the car. I was driving. I had found Per’s home online and set the GPS.
“So, why are we going to this home again?” Morten asked tiredly.
“There’s something I need to check,” I said.
“The guy is heavily retarded. I really don’t want to spend my Saturday looking at some guy drooling on himself.”
; “Morten, that’s not a nice thing to say. You don’t have to look if you don’t want to,” I said, and turned onto the small dirt road leading to the home that was located on what used to be an old farm.
A tall blond nurse greeted us at the door. She gave us a friendly smile.
“Per Larsen? Well, I’ve never. In all the years I’ve worked here, no one has ever came to visit him, and now he’s had two visitors in one week. I know the first was an officer, but still. Are you friends of the family?”
“We’re actually related. His mother was my grandmother’s sister. I just heard of his existence recently,” I said.
“Well, come in. Per’s in his room. He likes his quiet time here before lunch.”
74
November 2014
THE TALL NURSE KNOCKED carefully on the door to Per Larsen’s room, then opened it. “You do realize he can’t talk, nor understand what you’re telling him?” she asked before she let us in.
“Yes, we understand,” I said.
“Alright then. Per? You have visitors.”
An old man in a wheelchair looked at us from the corner of the room. With his hands, he pushed the joystick on the electric wheelchair to make it move forward.
“So, he doesn’t understand anything at all?” I asked.
Per Larsen stopped the chair. His head was hanging to the side, and he had trouble looking at us. Drool was running down his chin and had wet his clothes.
“To be honest, we don’t know how much he understands. He seems to get some of the things we tell him, yet at other times, there’s no connection at all. He just got the computer behind him a few months ago, along with all the rest of the residents at the home, and he seems to enjoy playing on it. So I guess he does understand some things. Now I’ll leave you alone. Call me if you need anything.”