Queen Of Hearts (Part Four of The Wonderland Series)

by Robert Hill

“Shotzie?”

  The woman yelped, and it felt as if someone had pushed up against the door.

  “Was ist losse, Ursula?”

  Lupita knew it was Johann who had come into the room, and had startled his wife.

  Ursula must have gone away from the door, as her voice suddenly sounded further away. She was speaking quickly and hysterically, but it was all in German.

  “Schnell!” Johann could be heard saying, whatever that meant. And then he started yelling, quite firmly in German from some place closer in the bedroom to the bathroom, but still a bit distant.

  “He is asking who is in here,” whispered Gebrihl. “He says he is calling the police, and wants to know who is hiding in his bathroom.”

  Lupita whispered back. “You can understand him?”

  “We have been amongst you for thousands of years, we know most all of your languages,” he replied in a whispered tone.

  Bernie and Lupita were both pressed up against the door now in an attempt to keep it barred in case Johann had a key or tried to force his way in. Lupita could still hear Johann talking quite threateningly. It was not exactly the Johann she knew, but then she imagined if someone was trapped in her bathroom, she might sound a little mean, too, provided she had not gone running to safety, and hysterically calling for the cops instead.

  “Let’s just get out of here,” Bernie whispered and he started calling Raul again.

  Johann was still yelling at the door from a few feet away. Possibly the lack of response on their side of the door had emboldened him a bit. Then Lupita could hear that Ursula was back in the room.

  “She is on a telephone,” said Gebrihl. “She is talking to the police, telling them she has an intruder.”

  “Yes, no kidding,” whispered Bernie.

  “What’s going on?” Lupita asked, glancing at the cell phone pressed against Bernie’s ear.

  “I don’t know,” he replied. “He’s not answering.”

  “What do we do?” Lupita asked, looking at Gebrihl.

  “Do not fear. No harm will come to you.”

  She turned toward the bathroom door. “Johann, it’s me, Lupita,” she said loudly.

  “What are you doing?” Bernie whispered harshly as he attempted to put his hand over Lupita’s mouth, but she stepped away from him.

  There was a sudden silence in the bedroom as Johann stopped making threatening noises, and Ursula stopped in mid-sentence on the telephone.

  “Johann, I’m sorry, but it’s me, Lupita from the mirror.”

  Then Ursula said something, appearing to be speaking to Johann.

  Johann responded, but his menacing tone had dropped to almost a squeak, like a timid rat.

  “Johann,” said Lupita. “Can I talk to you? I can explain everything.”

  “Lupita, vhat are you doing here,” Johann responded, his voice still cracking. It reminded her of Alejandro when he was a teenager, and his voice had started to change.

  “I can tell you everything,” Lupita said, as she unlatched the lock to the bathroom door.

  “Okay, but why are you here?” Johann asked. “How did you get here?”

  “Just let me come out.”

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bernie shaking his head, urging her with his eyes for her not to do it. Lupita raised her eyebrows at him, and then she glanced the other way at Gebrihl, who had started to fade in obscurity, becoming invisible as he hovered behind her.

  Lupita went to open the door, but Bernie pressed his hand against the door to stop her. “What are you doing?” he whispered.

  “We can’t get out of here,” she replied. “This is my fault we’re here. Please, let me –“

  “Lupita –“

  “Call Raul,” she said, and then indicated with her eyes for him to pull his hand away from the door.

  Bernie just glared at her as he pulled his hand away, and stepped behind the door so he could not be seen while at the same time he again attempted to contact Raul on the phone.

  Lupita opened the door and stepped forward into the doorframe to face Johann. He was standing there, sweat beading on his forehead, but otherwise looking as handsome as she last saw him in the mirror. He was dressed in a well-tailored, black business suit, but his red tie was pulled loose, and he was holding a club loosely in his right hand.

  His wife, the woman Lupita had not known he was married to the numerous times she had spoken with him through the Mirror Anomaly, was standing a few feet behind him just within the doorway to the bedroom. She was blonde, and a little heavy set, but with piercing blue eyes that looked like if they were laser beams that they would cut Lupita into two pieces right at the neck.

  Lupita glared back, but not at Ursula. How could she? It wasn’t the woman’s fault that her husband had been flirting with her and had indicated something more during their numerous conversations. No, Lupita’s glare was for Johann.

  His shoulders slumped as he stared at her there in the doorframe of his bathroom. “Lu – Lupita, what are you doing here?”

  Ursula marched forward, and she started yelling at Johann in German. Johann turned away from Lupita and started speaking to Ursula. It was all in German, and Lupita could not tell what was being said. In turn, as he continued talking, Ursula’s responding tone was becoming angered and intense as she continued yelling at Johann.

  “He’s attempting to explain to her that you were a woman in their bathroom mirror whom he had been speaking with,” whispered Gebrihl in her ear from directly behind her. “Of course she does not believe him.”

  Lupita turned to look, but Gebrihl was completely camouflaged from her view. “What should I do now?” she asked, realizing that maybe she had made a mistake after all in coming out of the bathroom.

  “We should retreat,” he whispered.

  Lupita turned back to see Ursula had grabbed the club out of Johann’s loose grip, and she was lunging toward Lupita. Lupita turned and rushed back into the bathroom, and Bernie tried to push the door shut, but Ursula could not be stopped. She shoved the door back up against Bernie, smashing him against the wall, and pinning him between it and the bathroom door.

  “I can explain!” Lupita said as she cringed against the far wall of the bathroom, raising her arms up to protect her head just as Ursula barreled forward and swung the club in her upraised left hand.

  Lupita flinched, closing her eyes as the club came down in an arc toward the top of her skull, but then it never connected.

  She looked up, and saw the club still in Ursula’s hand, but it was frozen in mid-swing just a few inches from her head as if some invisible shield had blocked it. Then the club flew out of Ursula’s hand and tumbled end over end in a violent somersault through the bathroom before smacking against the clear reflection of the bathroom mirror beside Bernie.

  The impact shattered the mirror, causing fissures and cracks to radiate across it just as the club itself clattered to the tiles of the bathroom floor.

  Ursula lurched back, and started backing out of the bathroom. There was a look of terror on her face, and it appeared like she was trying to scream but nothing escaped her. As Ursula backed out into the bedroom, the glowing angelic outline of Gebrihl’s body became visible. Having shielded Lupita from Ursula’s attack, Gebrihl was now swiftly gliding in pursuit of the woman.

  Ursula reached where Johann was standing in open-mouthed shock, but then Johann grabbed his wife by the arm. Both turned quickly, yelling in German as if they had seen a ghost, and rushed out of the bedroom.

  Gebrihl stopped pursuing them and turned back toward Lupita, who was crouching against the far wall of the bathroom, just staring at him.

  “Come on let’s get out of here,” Bernie said, pushing himself free from behind the door and rushing over to her to pull her up.

  “Go where?” Lupita asked. “What about Raul?”

  “Still not answering. Let’s go,” Bernie insisted, as he grabbed her hand and started out of the
bathroom.

  “But the mirror – “

  “It is broken,” said Gebrihl. “Even if the paa’riel were activated, it would be unable to make the connection.”

  They raced out of the bedroom, and started for the front door, eyes cautious to the possibility that Johann and Ursula might still be in the house and may have quickly recovered their senses after having seen the glowing apparition of the ahel.

  Bernie pulled open the front door and they rushed outside, running out into the rainy street. When they had managed to reach the end of Sudstrasse, Lupita could hear police sirens somewhere in the distance, but they were growing louder.

  She stopped and tugged back at Bernie’s hand still clasped tightly about hers. “So, now what do we do?”

  He turned back to her. Bernie looked a little frazzled for an instant, but then brushed his free hand through his wavy, brown hair, and the worried look evaporated from his face. He transformed once more into her white knight.

  “I don’t know, but it will be okay,” he said. “I found you, and that’s all that matters for right now.”

  Lupita hugged him, and she kissed him on the cheek.

  Bernie pulled her away and smiled. “Come on, let’s find the train station.”

  “The train station?”

  He continued smiling. “There are officially one hundred and twelve known contactees. A few of them are here in Europe. We’re bound to find one of them that we can direct Raul to tune the Anomaly to make contact with again.”

  “How are we going to do that? We don’t have any money?”

  Bernie laughed, and then pulled out his wallet.