Peek A Boo I See You (Emma Frost #5) Read online

  But Thomas couldn't have prepared himself for what was waiting for him behind that door leading into the kitchen. He didn't even have a clue walking home. Instead he thought he had somehow gotten himself in trouble and that was why he was sent home, that his mom was waiting for him in the kitchen with the proper punishment.

  Oh God, they know about the soft gun I accidentally fired from my tree house and hit a woman on her bike, causing her to fall. They know it was me!

  But it was much worse than that, Thomas realized as soon as he met his father's eyes in the kitchen. In that moment everything broke down, everything shattered in his young life.

  CHAPTER 3

  "HEY, YOU'RE that new girl. Edwina, right?"

  Linda climbed onto the fence to better have a look at the supposed monster that everyone in her class was talking about. She wasn't disappointed. The girl on the other side was disgusting, even more than she had heard she would be. Her head was weird and repulsing and almost hairless. Gross, she thought to herself as she studied her. The girl was squatting in the yard and didn't seem to react to Linda's approach. What was she doing anyway? Linda leaned in over the fence to get a better look. The girl hardly moved, she was holding her arms around her knees in the strangest position. How was she even able to sit still like that? She looked like a small ball or balloon when she sat like that.

  Then she moved. Linda gasped when Edwina reached out and grabbed a butterfly, forming a small cave for it between her hands.

  "What are you doing?" Linda asked.

  Edwina only scowled in Linda's direction, but never answered or even looked at her. Linda wasn't used to that. She scoffed.

  Edwina now opened her hands and Linda could see the orange and black butterfly. It tried to escape, but Edwina held onto its wing so it couldn't fly.

  "Don't do that," Linda said. "Don't you know that butterflies can't fly if you touch their wings?"

  Edwina still didn't react, she kept holding on to the wing, then pulled out a needle from her pocket and pinned it through the wing, leaving a hole. The butterfly fluttered its wings frantically as Edwina pulled the needle out and watched as the butterfly tried to fly again, but failed miserably.

  Appalled by her actions, Linda yelled at Edwina. "Don't do that. What did the butterfly ever do to you?"

  That was when Linda saw Edwina's eyes for the first time. She lifted her head and looked directly at Linda with a deep beastlike growl. Linda gasped and pulled back, jumped down from the fence and walked backwards, her heart was racing in her chest. Then she turned and ran.

  "Moooom!"

  Linda's mother was cooking dinner in the kitchen, and looked up as Linda entered pushing the door open with a loud bang.

  "What's the matter, sweetie?" she said. "You're all pale. Please don't tell me you're coming down with something like your father. He's been in bed with a fever for three days now. Fever and strange ulcers in the mouth that won't seem to go away. You don't have that, do you?"

  Linda breathed heavily and shook her head. "That girl ... the girl next door ... the new one that Ms. Lundtofte has taken in." Linda stopped to catch her breath. She had never been much of a runner and it always left her breathless even if it was just for a few feet. Linda wasn't into sports and she knew she should be, since she had been slightly overweight most of her life, but it just wasn't for her.

  "What about her?" Minna asked, half distracted by the potatoes that were boiling and spilling water on the stove. She turned down the heat.

  "Mom," Linda said with serious voice to let her know this was important. This was very urgent and required all of her mother's attention. "She is torturing a butterfly. She stuck a needle through its wing and now it can't fly."

  "Well she's probably just playing," her mother replied with her back turned to Linda, pulling the roast from the oven that soon filled the room with its wonderful smell and made Linda forget about everything for a few seconds.

  "No, Mom. You're not listening. She was being really mean to that poor butterfly and then she growled at me."

  Her mother turned and looked at her. "Growled at you? Are you sure about that?"

  Linda nodded eagerly to make her point. "Yes, Mom. She sounded like Hansen's old dog when you walk past their house and it growls at you from behind the fence. You know, you always tell me it means it wants to warn you to not come any closer. You know that kind of growl. I was afraid she was gonna bite me."

  Minna laughed lightly in the way her husband always had loved, the way he found to be enchanting, back when they were young and still very much into each other. "Now you're just making up stories," she said and pinched Linda's chubby cheek. "Now go and wash up. Dinner is in five minutes."

  "But Mooom," Linda said in that reproachful way only children can.

  Her mother shushed at her. "Now do as you were told," she said with a tired tone to her voice from days of taking care of everything in the house by herself.

  CHAPTER 4

  MARIE-THERESE ENJOYED her new life even with one more mouth to feed in the house, up until a couple of weeks later when the problems began.

  Until then Edwina had been as easy as they come. She kept out of the way most of the time; she hardly ate anything so she wasn't much of an expense either. Marie-Therese had finally quit her job like she had always dreamt of and now she could do what she pleased all day long. The kids were in school and when they came home she would tell them to go to their rooms and keep quiet so she could watch her soaps without being bothered.

  Marie-Therese wasn't one of those women who enjoyed cooking, but luckily one of the kids was. Ida had turned out to be quite the pleasure to have in the house. She would cook and even clean up afterward. All Marie-Therese had to do was to go to the grocery store and shop, which was one of the few things she truly enjoyed since down there she could get the latest gossip from Mrs. Hansen who knew everything there was to know about everybody in Arnakke, and then some that nobody else knew.

  Lately they had talked a lot about Thomas Bastrup, Marie-Therese's neighbor who had been very sick for weeks, with a fever that didn't seem to go away. And so they did again on this day.

  "It's God's punishment for a sin he has committed, mother would have said," Marie-Therese told the older woman with the curious eyes that saw everything. Even if Marie-Therese really didn't believe things like this, she thought it sounded good and Mrs. Hansen liked that kind of stuff. She had liked Marie-Therese's mother, too.

  "The good Lord's eyes see everything," Mrs. Hansen replied. "Even the inside of your heart. He knows what lurks on the inside."

  Marie-Therese nodded, but hoped she wasn't right. She didn't like the idea of God knowing what was inside of her heart, or her mind for that matter. She didn't want for him to know the impure thoughts that often kept her awake at night. Thoughts her mother always told her were from the devil, thoughts of sweaty torsos, men in different shapes and sizes, taking her, holding her down and ... well the kind of thoughts that were repulsing and had to be kept under the covers in the darkness. Marie-Therese couldn't stand the thought that God should know what was really inside of her.

  "He has to repent," Mrs. Hansen said. "Repent for whatever it is he has done that is keeping his body sick. I have prayed for him, I tell you that. Can't bear to see that poor woman alone with the kids and struggling to keep the house together."

  "Well, there is nothing more you can do," Marie-Therese said before she left the store.

  As she walked down her own street and could see her house in the distance she realized that maybe it was about time she began focusing on her own life before she was the next subject of discussion in Mrs. Hansen's store.

  In the front yard of her house she found Edwina, sitting on the doorstep and oh, the horror. Her eyes were closed, she was grunting, her hand was in her pants, moving inside them, masturbating. Right there outside the house, for everyone to see this ... this ... atrocity, this impurity.

  Marie-Therese could hardly breathe as she stormed t
owards the girl and slapped her across the face, then dragged her inside and beat her up with a coat hanger.

  The girl was bleeding when she sent her to her room, still panting heavily from the effort. Edwina was shrieking, almost howling, in her room all night.

  The next morning Marie-Therese found Edwina lying on the floor where she had left her the night before. She was still whimpering. Marie-Therese kneeled beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

  Edwina lifted her head and barked at her, startling Marie-Therese, frightening her with those glowing green eyes and breath as cold as the icy winds at winter. Marie-Therese got up, backed towards the door while the eyes of death stared at her, promising her an eternity of screaming and endless pain.

  Marie-Therese closed the door behind her with a gasp, and then locked it with the key wondering if she would ever dare to unlock it again.

  CHAPTER 5

  THOMAS GOT WORSE on the night they heard the girl howl from next door. He couldn't quite distinguish between reality and what was part of his dream, but he was certain he heard her shriek and whine like a dog being beaten. Then he heard her howling all night and it kept waking him up, causing him to shiver in both cold and fear.

  Minna held a cold cloth to his forehead and gave him pills to try and knock the fever down, but nothing helped. The fever kept rising as the girl's howling grew louder. Thomas looked at his wife feeling strangely dizzy and perplex and then he asked her to tell him what he did for a living, since he had tried hard to remember, but simply couldn't. Minna knew then she had to call for an ambulance.

  Thomas was taken to a secluded area where they told him he would be in no contact with other patients until they were certain he wasn't contagious. They took blood tests and injected all kinds of stuff in him. He saw it all through a daze, a blurry mass of people moving, hands touching him, and distant voices talking to him.

  The next thing he saw was light. He was being taken somewhere on a stretcher, rolling down a hallway with many lights, blinding him and he closed his eyes again, longing for water and sleep. When he opened his eyes again he saw his wife. Minna was standing next to his bed, talking to a doctor, nodding with a serious look on her face. They didn't notice he was awake.

  "We're going through everything but I really can't say anything till we have all the results back. I'm sorry, Mrs. Bastrup. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of this," a strange voice said.

  Thomas heard his wife sigh deeply and speak with an exhausted tone to her voice, that only he would recognize.

  "I sure hope so."

  Thomas sensed the doctor leave and fell back into the sea of stars he had been bathing in for as long as he could remember now.

  It was bright daylight when he opened his eyes again. A nurse was looking at his chart and discussing it with another nurse. They too didn't notice he was awake.

  "It looks just like it ..." one said.

  Thomas blinked his eyes trying to focus, but his eyes wouldn't obey him. He saw the two nurses in a distant blurry picture between his half shut eyes. He couldn't see their faces properly, but their voices he could hear loud and clear.

  "I know. It's terrible," the other nurse said.

  "I mean he has all the symptoms of HIV. His immune system has completely crashed."

  "Sure sounds like it," the other nurse replied. "Poor guy."

  "Poor wife, I'd say."

  "Yeah. Especially poor her."

  As the voices again became distant Thomas dozed off wondering like he had done so many times since the fever started who he was and what he did for a living. The next time he opened his eyes for just a few seconds before he dozed off again, he wondered who that girl was, sitting next to his bed, holding his hand and crying. Then there was nothing but blackness again and Thomas began wondering what was reality, the blackness and stars or the glimpse of light and people that he saw every now and then.

  Slowly the doctors managed to reduce the fever and soon Thomas had more awake hours. He still couldn't remember much about himself and his life, but he managed to talk to some of the other patients and realized that they all had HIV and needed help to boost their immune system. No doctor had told him yet, that he had HIV, but he was beginning to fear it.

  As the fever abated, he was overtaken by an anxiety that wouldn't leave. The girl had been back a few times since and he still didn't know who she was. One day he asked her.

  She gave him a deeply disappointed look and ran out of the room in tears. Then he wondered if she could have given him this awful disease. Had she given him this HIV?

  When his wife arrived later in the day, he asked her.

  "There was a woman here earlier. Do you know who she was?"

  Thomas might as well have punched Minna in the stomach. She was struck by such a pain it hurt him as well. Minna bit her lip. "I thought you might want to tell me?"

  "But I don't know. I don't. That's why I'm asking you."

  She searched his eyes as if to make sure he was telling her the truth. "You really don't know, do you?" she asked looking like every word that left her lips cut her with blades on their way out.

  "No," he answered.

  Minna sighed deeply, closed her eyes like she was embracing herself. "She's someone you've been with. You both work at the same company. Apparently the two of you were in love, if I'm to believe what she has told me so far." Minna drew in a deep breath. "She came when she heard you were in the hospital. She was here one day when I arrived. I only had to take one look at her before I knew who she was, what she was." Minna paused and inhaled deeply. "How dare you, Thomas!"

  Minna swallowed her pride and pressed back her tears. Thomas might not have been able to remember many things but he did remember what she looked like when she was holding back her tears. He grabbed her hand, she pulled it away.

  "I'm sorry," he said not remembering what he was saying sorry for. "I'm so, so sorry."

  CHAPTER 6

  MARIE-THERESE HAD no idea what to do with Edwina. She thought about her while swallowing her penicillin pill that she had gotten at the doctor's earlier in the day to fight an infection in her toenail, with a glass of water.

  Ever since the incident on the front step of the house and the following day when Edwina growled at her like a rabid dog, she had kept the girl locked up in her room, not daring to let her out. They had called from the school and asked where she was and Marie-Therese had told them she was ill, which in her eyes wasn’t far from the truth. She had Ida bring her food and water but didn't dare to walk in alone again. She considered calling the social worker, but dropped the idea again, since she would only lose the money and have to go back to work again. She really didn't want to have to do that.

  Now she was standing outside Edwina's door and putting her ear carefully to it, in order to hear if she was making any sounds. After the growling she had been so quiet in there for days, almost two weeks in fact, and Marie-Therese had started wondering if Edwina might be sick. She could hardly ask her, since she couldn't answer and she didn't dare to go in there and check on her.

  Ida who saw the girl on a daily basis had told her Edwina seemed fine, that she had given her some paper and crayons and ever since Edwina had been busy drawing and coloring. It filled Marie-Therese with some sort of relief, but she was still a little uneasy. You're overreacting, she thought to herself, afraid of turning into her mother, believing all kinds of foolish things, especially superstitious things. It had made Marie-Therese's childhood a living hell and she was not going down that path.

  As she stood with her ear against the door she suddenly heard a scraping on the other side of it. It sounded like nails being dragged across the wood. Marie-Therese gasped and pulled her head away from the door. Did Edwina somehow know she was standing on the other side? Did she know she was there?

  Marie-Therese gasped again and pulled away from the door, when she suddenly heard a moaning coming from inside of the room. A moaning sounding like ... oh God no, not inside of the house!

>   Marie-Therese picked up a broom leaning against the wall, fumbled with the key, and then blew the door open. Inside of the room she saw Edwina, sitting on the floor, grinning from ear to ear, her hand in her pants while staring mockingly at Marie-Therese.

  "Not in this house," Marie-Therese yelled and swung the broom at Edwina. She hit her several times in the head, but the girl didn't move nor did she stop what she was doing.

  "Stop! Stop! Stop!" she yelled frantically while swinging the broom again and again. "You disgusting little bastard, you monster, you ... you ... Filthy ..."

  Marie-Therese had to stop for breath. The girl didn't seem affected by the punishment at all. Marie-Therese felt like crying. She stared at the broom lying next to her.

  "Oh Lord," she mumbled thinking of all the times she herself had been beaten by the very same broom by her own mother. "I am about to become her. This is turning me into her."

  The realization felt worse than expected. But since everything else she had done so far seemed to be useless, Marie-Therese felt she had no choice but to turn to the only thing she had left. The only thing she would have thought she would never have to do again, not after her mother was gone.

  Slowly she sank to her knees and began to pray.

  "Oh Holy Spirit, I ask of you to forgive this girl. Please help us all," she muttered while grabbing the cross hanging around her neck that her mother had given her to protect her. She pulled it out so it became visible and as she did, she heard the girl hiss, sounding just like a cat. Edwina pulled away, as if a strong force punched her backwards. She was staring at the cross with her strangely glowing eyes.