by Willow Rose
Irene coughed and sat down on a bench with her towel around her shoulders. She wiped off the sweat from her face and pulled off her pink sweat band. Her hair was soaked and her cheeks all blushed. It had taken all of her strength to do the entire routine and she had a hard time calming her heart down again.
Don't give up now. Don't give up on me old heart. I need you.
The doctors at her last rehab center had told her she needed to stop it, stop the fitness or it would end up killing her eventually. In their opinion her heart had become too weak from the excessive drinking throughout the years and it wouldn't be able to cope with too much exercise or too much strain anymore. But Irene knew it wasn't the exercise that stressed the old ticker and made it weak. It wasn't the drinking either. It was that damn secret she was carrying, the one that had strained on her heart for so many horrible years now. But she had done the right things afterwards even if it was too late. She had turned her back on those people, even if it meant she fell into disgrace among those who were important on the island. But it was too late. Way too late before she finally stood up for herself. And that was the sorrow she had to carry for the rest of her life. A sorrow and sadness so deep it stressed her heart and she knew it would eventually wear it out. This secret of hers would one day end up killing her.
Irene sighed and got up on her feet. The heart was calmer now even if her pulse still felt high. She took her towel and walked towards the showers, where she could hear her ladies were just finishing off and getting dressed. She opened the door and entered.
"Nice job today, ladies," she said putting on her old TV-smile, the one that made her famous all across the country. The smile that was always the same no matter if she was doing push-ups on the floor or jumping jacks. Or if she - like now - was in excruciating pain from knowing her past would soon catch up on her one way or the other.
"See you next Wednesday ladies," she yelled at the women as they left one after the other.
A few minutes later she was alone, her smile still stuck on her like a mask for Halloween. Irene sighed deeply and sat down again.
"Poor baby," she mumbled and suddenly longed desperately after a drink.
Irene stared at the floor for a few minutes. Suddenly she shrieked out loud. A black hairy spider was crawling towards her on the bathroom tiles. Irene put a hand to her chest.
"Gosh you gave me a shock. Nearly killed me you stupid creature."
Irene grabbed one of her shoes, then smashed it onto the tiles killing the spider instantly.
Strange creatures those spiders, she thought and put the shoe away. Get in everywhere.
She wiped the remains off with a paper towel and threw it in the toilet. As she watched it flush down the drain, she thought she heard steps behind her and turned with a gasp.
I was right, she thought just before she was knocked out. It was my past that was going to eventually kill me. I just didn't know it would be this soon.
15
2012
Her head felt heavy as she opened her eyes. It was hurting badly from the blow she had received in the bathroom. Now she was back in the gym, and what was that? Oh gosh, she thought. I can't ... I can't move!
A face appeared in front of her. The eyes ... the eyes were so familiar. She had seen him before but never up close. Oh my God could it really be?
Oh but you know it is, don't you? You know who he is and you knew he was going to come for you one day. You knew all along.
"What do you want?" she yelled hoping someone somewhere would hear her, but deep down she knew it was in vain. Her gardener didn't come till Friday, her cleaning lady not until noon the next day. By that time ... by that time she could be dead.
Oh dear God. I didn't mean it when I said I wanted to go, when I asked you to take me home last night in my daze. I was drunk, dear Lord, I was so drunk. Now I'm sober and I want to live, I want to live.
"You know what I want," the man replied. He was smiling, laughing while looking at her tied up to the Total Gym XLS Home Gym. Her arms attached to the machine above her head, her legs tied to the bottom. Irene growled.
"I have money. I can give you money," she lied.
The man laughed. His pale skin looked so fragile, almost see through.
"I don't want your stupid money," he hissed.
"Nonsense. Everybody wants money. It’s all anybody ever wanted," Irene replied.
"Like you?" the man said. "Is that why you did it? Is that why you agreed to do it?"
Irene bit her lip, while thinking about that time they had offered her the money. It had haunted her every day of her life since that she had taken it, but she thought it was for the best for everyone. How could she know what they were planning to do? The money had been enough for her to start her own business, a business that had given her a glorious career. Yes she regretted what she had done every single day of her life, but she could hardly change the past, now could she?
She watched as the man danced around her until he stopped and pulled out a bag looking like the ones the chefs had at restaurants. He folded it out and a big set of sparkling knives appeared. Irene gulped. It was all about playing her cards right now. This guy meant business, but maybe she could appeal to his soft side, everybody had one, didn't they?
"Please don't hurt me. I'll make it worth your while," she said with her famous smile.
The man giggled. "It's already worth my while. Seeing you suffer is all I have waited for."
"Surely you wouldn't want to harm an old lady, would you?"
The man froze, then he took in a deep breath. He picked up a knife and a pair of surgical scissors. He lifted them both into the air and put them in front of her face so she could better see.
Irene shrieked. She felt her heart pound hard in her chest. Sweat broke out on her upper lip. She knew it was a long shot but she tried anyway.
"Sweetheart. I'm actually glad to see you. I have been so lonely ever since ... since ... well, I have been alone for so many years and I bet you have too, right? We could start all over, forget the past and move on. What do you say?"
The man turned his head like an owl and stared at her without blinking. The grin was gone. He was serious now.
Irene swallowed hard. "What ... do you intend to do with those things?"
"I intend to cut you open like a fish and take out your organs one after another. Then I intend to stuff that disgusting sweatband of yours down your throat before I leave you to bleed to death, if you're not already dead. How does that sound?" He asked like he was a waiter at a restaurant listing the day’s specials.
Irene gasped and looked at the knife in his hand. "Ww... Why?"
He leaned over so she could see his entire face. Then he whispered:
"Because I can."
16
2012
I woke up to the sound of someone screaming. It took me a few seconds to get back to reality from my very weird dream about my dad and before I realized the screaming actually came from within my own house.
"Victor!" I yelled and jumped out of bed.
I stormed into his room and found him crumpled up in the corner, shaking and screaming. I kneeled next to him.
"Victor, sweetie. What's wrong?"
But Victor didn't even look at me. His face was turned towards me and his eyes were looking at me, but he wasn't seeing me. It was like he was seeing something else, like he was still dreaming.
"Victor you're having a bad dream, wake up," I said and grabbed his shoulder forgetting how he never liked to be touched.
As my hands fell on his shoulders I immediately regretted having done so and pulled them away but it was too late. The eerie screaming increased and was now followed by him yelling:
"No! No! NO!"
My heart was pounding in my chest and fear grew that he was going to have one of his seizures. We were far away from a hospital and I began speculating if they had any doctors on call or anything here on the island since the nearest hospital was on the main land. Victor's
entire body was trembling.
"Victor, honey. Please listen to me. You're just dreaming. It was just a dream."
But he wasn't listening. He stared into the room, his eyes looking like those of a blind.
"Spider," he said. "Watch for the spider!"
I turned to look and see and spotted a tiny spider on the wall. I exhaled heavily and smiled. "I that the one you're afraid of?"
I walked to the bathroom and pulled some toilet paper out. I met Maya in the hallway with messy hair.
"What's going on? Why is Victor screaming?"
"Go back to bed, sweetie. It was just a small spider in his room. I'm removing it now so we can all get some sleep."
Maya made a frown. "Great. Now he's waking up the whole neighborhood over a spider? What a wimp."
"Just go back to bed, okay?" I said with a sigh.
Maya turned her back at me and started walking while shaking her head. "Spiders. Tsk. What's next, a beetle?"
I stormed back in Victor's room. "Mommy's gonna remove the spider now, okay?" I said. "Then we'll all go back to bed."
I reached over and tried to kill it, but it was too fast. It crawled across the wall. Victor's nightlight made it cast a shadow on the wall making it look much bigger than it really was. I heard Victor whimper behind me.
"It's okay, sweetie. I got it. Just need to try again."
Once again I leaned over and tried to catch it, but again it was way too fast for me. I cursed out loud. "Sh ..." I paused and looked back at Victor. "Mommy never said that, okay?"
He didn't answer. His eyes were fixated on the spider trying to escape. I sighed and turned towards it again. "Third time is a charm, they say," I mumbled and wondered why no one ever said that about marriages. I reached out and finally managed to grab the black spider between my fingers in the toilet paper. I pressed my fingers against each other as hard as I could to make sure it was dead, then opened the paper and looked at the remains. It had made a print on the paper.
"Kind of looks like a skull, doesn't it?" I asked and turned to look at Victor who had finally stopped screaming.
He didn't look at it, but kept staring at the wall. "No more spiders there, buddy," I said. "I'm going to flush this baby right out and then I'll be back to tuck you back in, okay?"
I didn't wait for his answer but walked into the hallway and threw the toilet paper in the toilet and flushed it. Then I walked back. Victor was still on the floor in the same position when I returned.
"Come on, buddy. Back to bed," I said.
Finally he looked at me with his wonderful blue eyes. "Mommy?"
"Yes, honey?"
"Can I sleep in your bed?"
I was startled. Victor hadn't wanted to sleep in my bed since he was an infant. And I couldn't imagine him being comfortable with being so close to another human being, even if I was his mother. I didn't know if it was a good or a bad sign.
"Sure sweetie," I said with a smile. I missed having him close to me. I missed being able to touch him.
Victor sprang up and ran towards the door. When we were back in my bed and I had tucked him in with his own blanket and put pillows up between us - his request so I didn't accidentally bump into him, I couldn't fall asleep.
"Victor?" I whispered in the darkness.
He didn't answer but I could hear on his breath he wasn't sleeping.
"Why don't you want to sleep in your own room?"
He took his time. Then his small voice said:
"Because someone was killed in there."
17
2012
She hated cleaning the gym. Every Thursday it had to be cleaned and that was today. Clara wasn't in the best of her moods when she drove the car into Irene Justesen's big estate. To be frank she was pretty tired of cleaning and especially tired of Irene Justesen according to whom Clara could never do anything right.
But she needed the money, didn't she? She needed that extra cash because her no for good husband had lost his job. That was over a year ago and still he hadn't found anything new.
"It's because we live on this stupid island," she had told him several times. "There are no jobs on this island. Why don't you go to the mainland and look for a new job?"
But all her husband did was to make fun of her accent. Clara was German and had moved here to get a better life for herself. Gerhardt, her husband and her had met in Kassel where she worked in a restaurant as a waitress. Her mother had been sick at the time and Clara was fed up with taking care of her.
"Cancer eats more than just the patient," she used to say. "It devours the entire family."
Her father had left many years ago and she didn't have any siblings so Clara was stuck with the old sick hag and didn't have enough money or education to move away. Where should she go?
Then Gerhardt came along. A lot older than Clara, but with promises of a life, living on an island close to the ocean. Clara had never even seen the ocean in her life and now she got to live close to it. Close enough to walk to the beach? She was thrilled.
But a year later Gerhardt lost his job as a mechanic and since then he hadn't worked on much else but opening bottles and emptying them.
Clara sighed and parked the old van in front of Irene Justesen's private gym. It was huge, she thought. How could anyone have a gym that was twice the size of Clara's house, she thought to herself. It wasn't fair. The woman didn't even live in it.
Clara went behind the van and opened the back. She took out the mop and bucket and all her chemicals. If there was one thing Clara had learned while cleaning Irene Justesen's many houses it was that the more chemicals she used, the happier Irene Justesen was. Simply because it smelled cleaner, Clara had learned. How it smelled was more important than if it was actually clean or not. Clara suspected that Irene Justesen was losing her sight with age. But she also knew her well enough to never wanting to admit that she was in fact getting older and she would never wear glasses, not if her life depended on it. So Clara had learned how to cheat her and today she had planned to skip mopping the floor in the gym. She would just make sure the bathing area was clean and then clean the mirrors with her strong-smelling spray. That always did the trick. Clara chuckled. She could be back at the house and watch reruns of The Little House on the Prairie before lunch and still make a living.
"Beats going to an office every day and sitting and staring into a computer," she mumbled and found the key in her pocket.
She rolled her wagon with all her cleaning gear closer and put the key in the lock. She turned it and pushed the door open with her back first. She dragged the wagon behind her, reached to flip the light switch when she suddenly stepped in something. Something wet. She looked down. Was the floor soaking in something?
Clara smiled widely. It could be some water damage. Maybe a water pipe burst somewhere, maybe in the dressing rooms. That would be great. Then Irene Justesen would have to have it all fixed and that could take weeks. Weeks that Clara wasn't going to have to clean the gym. It sounded like music to her ears.
She leaned over and flipped the switch and looked into the gym to better take a good look at the damage, when she realized that the water she had stepped in was no ordinary water. It was blood. And not only was she going to miss The Little House on the Prairie, she was also going to lose her job.
As she opened her mouth to let out a horrifying scream that would reach far beyond Irene Justesen's mighty estate, the last thought Clara had was that at least Irene Justesen never had to worry about getting old anymore.
18
1977
One morning weeks later, Astrid heard footsteps close to the heavy iron door. She was asleep when the sound of life outside her strange suffocating world woke her up. Astrid opened her eyes and felt how her heart started pounding. Had they found her? Were they finally coming for her?
She stormed up the ten steps and started hammering on the door.
"HELP! I'M IN HERE!" she yelled with all her strength. The emotions suddenly appearing were overwhel
ming, almost overpowering. Could it be, could it really be?
Thank you God, thank you. They haven't forgotten about me. They are coming. Someone is coming!
There was another sound from behind the door. Steps from between the two doors leading to the world outside that she longed to see again for so long time, and almost thought she never would again. She hammered her fists into the door again, crying, feeling the rare feeling of relief, that this nightmare was about to end.
"Please help me," she cried letting go of all her emotions, her sadness, her loneliness, her anxiousness tricked by the thought that she would never feel the fresh air again or see the ocean, that she was going to stay in here till her body gave up.
Astrid felt the tears running down her cheeks as she heard a rattle outside, the wonderful sound of someone unlocking the door and opening it.
A hand in the door, the beautiful sight of another human being. Astrid was hyperventilating now, oh how she was going to enjoy being outside now, how she was going to look at the sky and watch the clouds dance, how she was even going to love the rain on her face.
"Oh God, I'm so glad to finally ..."
Astrid didn't get any farther with her sentence. Then she froze. The woman appearing in the door was well known to her. That wasn't what caused everything inside of her to freeze and all her hopes and expectations of being finally free to die. She even expected it might be her coming since the bunker was after all placed in her yard. No it was what she was holding in her hand that startled Astrid.
"What ... What ... are you doing with that rifle?"
"Making sure you stay put," the woman answered still pointing the rifle at Astrid.
"But ... but ... I thought ... But ... Why?" Astrid felt the desperation and despair once again.
"I have food for you," she said. "Food and water. Enough for you to get by for six months. Then I'll be back."
Astrid couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Six months? Wha ... What are you saying?" She could hear the anxiety and panic in her own voice, still she tried so hard to look for answers, to understand. "Are you keeping me here?" The words felt like razor blades in her mouth. It hurt just to speak them. She couldn't believe what was finally sinking in. "Have you locked me in here on purpose?"