by Cora Clark
I turn and look towards the door to the cellar again. I am brave, everyone always told me that. I walk up and open the door, now hearing thumps coming from downstairs. I pick up the flashlight which always hangs on a nail on the other side of the door and turn it on. I light up the steps as I walk down, now realizing the noise is coming from even further down.
Through the floors.
I wrinkle my nose, wondering what could be hiding under the floors.
As I take a few more steps forward, I trip on the edge of a carpet and nearly fall flat on my face. I turn the light to the carpet and notice a handle I had never seen there before.
Curious, I pull on the handle, and the hatch creaks open…
I woke up and instantly turned to face Hayden. Feeling my stomach churn, I snuggled in close and bit back the tears.
“Are you okay?” Hayden whispered.
I shook my head as I buried my face in his chest. “Dreams.”
He stroked my hair. “I am sorry I can’t do more than what I am to help you.”
I felt a tear escape, and I turned my gaze to the ceiling. “Where do we go when we dream?”
“What?”
I sighed. “Where do we go? Are dreams random for everyone except me?”
“No, Tavia, they are random for everyone. You are just going through a lot right now. Your memories are coming back because you are here again, and your brain is trying to make sense of it all.”
I knew he was right. “I wish I could make them stop. I realize now that I found the girls down there, and Dad probably felt like he had to do something about it before I told anyone.”
“I hope you are not making excuses for him…”
I scoffed. “No. Of course not. But how did he know I would lose my memory? That’s very convenient, don’t you think?”
Hayden kissed my forehead before saying, “I don’t think he meant for you to lose your memory. You barely survived.”
“What did he mean to do then?” I knew the answer, and it caused my stomach to churn. He meant for me to die. “Don’t say it,” I whispered.
“I won’t. Now try to go back to sleep. I’m right here with you.”
I turned my back against him and shivered in comfort as he held me. I could feel his breath on my neck, and shortly after, I drifted off to a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Seventeen
Finding Suspects
Both Hayden and I got taken back to the police station for questioning. I wasn’t sure of whether or not they suspected we had anything to do with it, but I did my best when trying to answer their endless questions.
I sat in the interrogation room, which was surprisingly pleasant, not at all like the ones in movies. The walls weren’t grey, and the room didn’t only hold a table and a couple of chairs. It was pleasant. Greenish walls, a painting of a snowy mountain, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee.
I held my hot cup in my hands as the investigator walked inside. He was wearing casual clothes and looked like any other regular man in town.
He smiled as he sat down. “Do you prefer English or Swedish?”
I smiled. “Either, but English is probably best.”
He nodded. “Sure. How’s the coffee?”
I took a sip, then placed it on the table. “I had forgotten how nice Swedish coffee is.”
He smiled with his eyes, then looked down at his papers. “Octavia Hanes, twenty-nine, lives in London, England?”
“That’s me.”
“And you are the daughter of Robert and Hannah Hanes.”
“Did you know them?”
He shook his head. “No. My father might have.”
“They are both dead now.”
He met my gaze with icy-blue eyes. “Robert, too?”
I shrugged. “I actually don’t know. He left when I was little.”
“So he could still be alive, then.” It wasn’t a question, more a statement.
I bit my lip as I waited for the next question, feeling the nerves kick in.
“You were in an accident at age ten, lost your memory.”
I put on an innocent smile. “Yeah, so, unfortunately, I probably won’t be of much help.”
“I think you can be of more help than what you think.” He leaned his elbows on the table. “The first time we spoke to you, you said you had been having dreams about the cellar. You knew about it before the accident. We never asked you to go into detail, of course, as you were understandably shocked at the horrible discovery. But are you okay to talk about it now?”
I swallowed. “What do you want to know?”
“What did you see?”
I sighed. “Look, for the record, I am basing everything I say on dreams. The memories come in flashes, mostly when I sleep. I don’t know how much of it is actually true.”
“That’s okay. What did you see in your dreams?”
I eyed the dark liquid inside my cup. “I woke up in the middle of the night, heard a noise, and walked down the cellar. I stumbled on a piece of carpet and found the hatch. Then I think I went down there and saw the girls. I remember one of them more clearly. She had red hair.”
The investigator, I thought his name was Jerry, nodded. “One of the girls indeed did have red hair.”
I felt sick as he confirmed it. “Wow. How did they…” I cleared my throat. “How did they die?”
Jerry looked through his papers. “Thirst, and starvation.”
I felt the room starting to spin, and I placed my face inside the palm of my hands. “Oh, God…”
“This is really important, Octavia. Do you remember anything else?”
I shook my head. “No. I remember Dad telling me I couldn’t tell anybody about what I had seen. Then the accident happened. He tried to kill me.” The words stung as I said them and any love I had ever felt for my dad completely left me at that moment.
“Are you sure he tried to kill you? The records say it was an accident.”
“I don’t think it was. The doctor said I had head trauma, and that he waited for a whole minute before jumping in after me.”
“Right. But it was never suspected to be a crime back then.”
“There was no reason to suspect anything else.”
Jerry scribbled something down in his notebook. “And then you lost your memory…”
I sighed and wiped my eyes, noticing they were tearing up. “I remember a man. I can’t really describe him. Hayden said he had seen him too. He came to visit Dad a lot, but only when my mum wasn’t there. Hayden said his father thought it all seemed a little strange.”
“Was he a work colleague?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.” The Russian woman popped into my mind. Should I say something about her? Would she be upset, knowing I told them about her?
“Anything else?” Jerry looked at me.
“I… um… I don’t know.”
“Octavia, it is very important you give me everything. Those girls, three of them, were locked down there for weeks. One of them was fourteen, another sixteen, and the last seventeen. All from overseas. We need to get to the bottom of this.”
“What do you suspect happened? Why do you think they were held down there?”
He threw his hands up. “My guess is as good as yours.”
“Surely you have some ideas.”
“Look, the only thing we have considered so far is the possibility of them being brought in for trafficking. Kidnapped in their countries and held in your house.”
I actually lost my appetite completely. I pushed the cup away from me and took a breath. “Human trafficking?”
“It’s more common than you might think. They were all here illegally.”
“My dad obviously was a prick, a monster, but I find it very hard to imagine him being into… that.” It was the truth. While it was extremely hard to imagine him purposely trying to kill his own daughter, I could not even picture him being into rape of young girls. It was too much.
“I am not going to sit here
and tell you he was into it. In fact, we don’t have proof of it yet, so it is only speculation.”
I nodded. “Right. I’m really sorry, but I don’t know anything else.”
“Anyone else in town who knew him?”
“My dad?”
“Yes.”
I thought for a moment. “Mikael, my uncle.”
“Do you have his number?”
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone, finding him in my contacts. “I don’t think he’d know anything, though. It’s my mum’s brother, not my dad’s.”
Jerry took the number and scribbled it down. “Thank you. Anything else that might help?”
My pulse pounded and my head swam in disgust. I felt sweat beading down my forehead. Screw it. “A woman has been sneaking around my house.”
This piqued Jerry’s interest. “Mhmm?”
“She’s Russian, didn’t give me her name. She said she knew her sister went missing somewhere in Roseberg. She once saw her enter my house, so she hung around, waiting for something to happen, so she could find out where her sister was. She said she had been watching other places too, not just the house.”
“And how do you know this?”
“I managed to talk to her the second time I saw her sneaking around.”
“Why didn’t she go to the police when her sister went missing?”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. “Look, I don’t know. She said she had no proof, and her sister was here illegally.”
Jerry gave me an empathetic look. “I don’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable, Octavia.”
I nodded. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just a lot to take in, this whole thing.”
Jerry started scribbling in his notepad. “Did she say who took her sister?”
“Yeah. She said a man took her, said he would give her a better life or something in Sweden. She didn’t trust him, so she followed them here.”
“Do you know where I can find her?”
I shook my head. “No idea. She wouldn’t even give me her name.”
Jerry nodded. “Okay, so the man you remember from your dreams, could it be the man who took her sister?”
I huffed. “Probably. I mean, it makes sense that it would be, I guess.”
“Okay, and you don’t remember his face?”
“No, not at all.”
“Okay, thank you, anything else?”
“I think that’s it,” I sighed.
He seemed to believe me. He smiled, picked up the papers, and then rose from his seat. “Are you staying in Roseberg?”
“I am, for a while.”
“Good. Thank you for cooperating. I will be in touch.”
I breathed a sigh of relief as I was left alone in the room. My coffee was cold, and I felt like my heart was going to explode. I needed to be with Hayden. I needed a shoulder to cry on.
I had never suspected anything like this to happen when I left Britain behind and decided to come and visit my family home.
Chapter Eighteen
Mikael Hammare
I really did try my best to relax and clear my head as I spent more and more time at Hayden’s house. The nightmares were slowly fading, not happening as often anymore, but I still couldn’t shake what I had seen in the house.
I never heard from Jerry to know whether or not Mikael knew anything about what had been going on in the house. While I would have liked to think he had nothing to do with it, in truth, who did I really know?
After Hayden left to meet a client early on a Monday, I picked up my phone and dialled Mikael’s number.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
I thought he wasn’t going to pick up. But then he answered.
“Hej, Octavia.”
I felt my nerves kick in. “Mikael. I guess you have heard.”
“How could I not? The entire town is talking about it.” He sounded angry.
“Well, yeah, it was a pretty big discovery.”
He was quiet for a moment, so I continued, “Did the police question you as well?”
“What do you want, Octavia?”
“I just wanted to talk about it.” I suddenly felt hurt, like he had stabbed me in the heart. Sure, we never kept contact, but he was still family.
“There is nothing to talk about. In truth, I think you should have never come back.”
I nearly choked on my own saliva. “What?”
“Nobody needed that kind of news to come out.”
“So you did know about it?”
He huffed on the other end. “No, of course I didn’t. Your mother kept going on about how she could hear voices in the night, how she felt like there were people in the house. We all thought she was going mad. Now I know she was telling the truth the entire time.”
My heart went out to my poor mother. “That’s terrible. But why do you say the news should have never come out?”
“Don’t take what I say literally. My English not what it used to be.”
I nodded. “I understand. I’m sorry I called, Mikael. I just needed to know.”
“It’s one of those bastards who kept coming in and out of Roseberg. Robert was seen with them every time. Sitting together in cars, exchanging money at the bar, and even visiting the house. We all knew he was up to something, but we never suspected it to be this bad. Thought he was just selling drugs or something.”
I swallowed, not sure what to say.
“I understand it’s hard for you. If I can give you any advice at all, it would be to leave. Go back home. Never look back.”
“Thanks, Mikael.”
“Bye now, Octavia.”
I hung up and found myself staring at the white wall for what felt like hours.
Hayden had specifically asked me not to leave the house while he was gone. I knew I shouldn’t, but did anyway. I felt a nervous tingle in my stomach and found myself biting my nails as I paced the rooms. I opened and closed the fridge, forgetting what I was looking for, and even boiled the kettle for a cup of tea, only to forget I even wanted one.
I wanted to see Markus, the guy who used to work at the grocery store when I was a teenager. Hayden had said he still worked there, so it shouldn’t be hard to find him.
I wasn’t sure if he would know anything at all about my dad and the strangers who came to visit the town, to drop off the girls at the house, I assumed, but it was worth a try, and I would be back in no time.
I got dressed for the cold weather, called a cab, and went on my way to the grocery store.
The weather had really turned for the worse as I got there. The snow falling down from the sky was now mixed with rain and created disgusting puddles of wet, grey snow threatening to seep into my shoes. I tiptoed into the store and sighed as I entered.
It looked exactly like I had remembered it.
Just a normal store, really, but it still brought me memories of being a teenager. I used to go there just to look at the items on the shelves, not buying anything, just looking. Maybe Markus thought I was crazy back then. I mean, who goes and just looks at food?
I bit my lip, realizing how lonely I had been back then. How sheltered I had become after the incident in the boat.
“No? It can’t be!”
I turned towards the voice and felt a smile spread on my face. “Markus!”
Markus walked up to me, hands covering his mouth. His thick, blonde hair still lay on his head in the same messy hairstyle he had as a boy, and his blue eyes were just as bright. He walked up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. “Octavia! I heard you were back, but I never thought I would get the pleasure to see you.”
I shrugged. “Not a pleasure. I guess you heard the news.”
His head fell. “Yeah, I did. Horrible. I still can’t believe it.”
I nodded. “I know. I actually came to ask you some questions, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course, let me take you out the back, Hannah can look after the store while I am gone for a bit.”
I followed him as we went behind the counter and then back through a door. A young, blonde girl chewing bubble gum stood at the till fiddling with her nails.
Markus sat down at one end of a small table and gestured for me to sit down opposite him. “How have you been?” he asked.
I sat down and eyed the small kitchen around us. “Good. I moved to London. In case you didn’t already know that.”
He nodded. “Your mother told me. How’s London?”
“It’s good. Very different from here. How have you been?”
Markus folded his arms across his chest and shrugged. “Good I guess. Still here, as you can see, but good.”
“I am glad to hear it.”
“What did you want to ask me?”
I took a breath. “So, I have been told my father was seeing a lot of… strangers… coming to town for a few days, and then leaving.”
Markus nodded.
“I have reason to believe they were the ones… bringing the girls. And I wanted to know if you ever saw my father with them?”
“Oh, wow. It’s just such a long time ago…” he said while he moved his hand over the faint stubble on his chin.
“I know it is. But if you can remember anything… anything at all.”
He shook his head. “Nothing new. I knew he was seeing the strangers. Everyone knew that. I vaguely remember people gossiping about it when they came to the store. But I never thought anything of it.”
I nodded. “Okay. Sorry. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting.” I suddenly felt really dumb for being there.
Markus reached out and touched the top of my hand. “I understand why you want to know.”
I rose from my chair, really wanting to get out of there. “Thank you. It was really nice seeing you again, Markus. I have to go.”
He grabbed onto my arm as I turned around. “Octavia, is it true your mother knew about it as well?”
I frowned. “What? No! Of course not.”
Markus let go of my arm. “Oh? People are saying that… she knew, and that’s why she left Roseberg.”
I shrugged. “She didn’t know. She actually suffered quite hard from it all. She heard voices coming from the cellar, but everyone told her it was all in her head. If you hear anyone say things like that again, please correct them. She doesn’t deserve being talked about like that.” I didn’t wait for a response. I turned and left the store, getting a strange look from the girl at the till as the door slammed shut.