Shame Of Maastricht, Marie N. Hallen [read a book TXT] 📗

before he retired and opened his own workshop. When she was a kid, this mine no longer functioned, but the lamp on the top of the main facility kept shining every night, from dusk till dawn and when Kate went to bed, she could see that distant bluish light from the window of her room entangled in black branches of the trees by her window. This light seemed spellbinding for some reason, creating some magic vibe and she loved to stare at it when she couldn’t sleep. She also loved grandma’s old wooden cupboard with old multi-colored crockery, which her parents used on holidays only when they had guests. She remembered each pattern on each plate, loved each single item from that cupboard and its pleasant wooden smell, old books her parents used to read for her, loved all their neighbors and family friends who disappeared over the years, scattered by life. She remembered their sincere smile and eyes full of feelings she couldn’t see in other people’s faces as she grew older. Kate also loved to run in the fresh knee-high grass and feel its dew on her skin. Her parents used to take her for a walk to a small forest nearby which bordered on the green meadow. This forest (which wasn’t actually a real forest but rather some man-made natural area which at the same time could not be called a garden) was Kate’s first association with paradise with its cherry, apple and apricot trees once planted by old-timers, now deceased, beautiful grass and wildflowers. Especially in spring, when the trees were blooming, this place could boast its tender and dazzling beauty making it one of the most charming places Kate had ever seen. The air in this summer paradise was also something heavenly and healing making the vibe even more magic. She picked up cherries and apples from the grass and put them in her tiny plastic toy bucket.

Her granny used to cook the most delicious food she ever tried. Even simple things like soup or fresh salad had a unique and unforgettable flavor, which couldn’t be described by any words, and although Kate loved to cook and kept her granny’s recipe book to try to make her dishes taste the same or a bit similar, she never succeeded. No one knew how her granny managed to do this, as the ingredients she used were very simple and she never used fancy seasoning, exotic seeds or other additives. No one will ever cook like her granny. When you are three, you don’t always keep such simple moments in your heart forever, but Kate knew those were the best days of her life, probably because the overall experience was always positive at that time, until… until…

She saw herself walking through the paradise forest from her childhood memories with its magnificent lush nature and then crossing the sunlit meadow she used to enjoy so much as a kid. Although in this dream she was fully grown, she could still rejoice up to the nines finding herself in that holy place, unspoiled, like a temple of life with that magical and now nostalgic atmosphere. The meadow was covered with thousands big flowers, red and white, yellow and violet, pink and blue, and the trees were blooming like it was a never ending spring. She walked straight hoping to make it to the opposite side of the meadow, a place she never managed to get to as a child as her parents didn’t let her go that far. Now she was approaching it and finally saw a creek with breathtakingly beautiful banks, covered in lush greenery and even more flowers. Finally she got there. Why did her parents deprive her of the opportunity to see this paradise-like beauty when they lived there?

She couldn’t help admiring what her eyes finally saw and couldn’t fight the euphoria that flashed through her brain and heart like a pink lighting, making her pulse go insane and her heartbeat accelerate as fast as it could. Millions, billions of flowers everywhere, in the grass, on the bushes, small blooming trees with huge blossoms, blinding sunshine with thousands of diamond beams reflecting in the blue water and making each flower glow and irradiate golden luminescence, endless blue sky without a single cloud and no one else around. And the vibe, the vibe which was so distinct and tangible, enshrouding her with its transparent golden velvet and shimmering with a thousand voices of ethereal entities. She heard their singing more and more clearly, so familiar and so sublime, iridescent, entrancing, breathtaking, resplendent, stunning, mesmerizing, transcendent, fairy, with a million shades and halftones, echoes and reverbs. She could see and feel the ethereal sound which became material. She realized the singing came from the turquoise depths of the stream. A moment later her eye caught some movement deep inside and realized something was rising from the bottom and approaching the surface.

Suddenly everything vanished. She ended up in the dark room, sitting with her eyes open and staring in the dark velvet of the night. It was very cold for some reason. The temperature was decreasing slowly and it was hard to breathe. Someone was standing behind her. Someone or something? She could feel it was staring at her from the dark, from nowhere, waiting for her to turn around. She turned her head slowly and saw a tall dark figure behind her back. Now in front of her. Although it was pretty dark in the room, there couldn’t be anything more black than this sinister entity, perhaps made of the darkest matter, which kept its eye on Kate. “What are you?” she thought but couldn’t ask anything and remained mute with a question in her eyes. She couldn’t endure this terrifying glance as the entity kept staring at her. Kate closed her eyes hoping to make the ominous guest go away but could still feel its eyes. But did it even have eyes? Kate was afraid to look into them as it seemed to her it would devour her soul once their eyes met. Devour her soul? “What nonsense,” she thought and opened her eyes. The entity was still there and it made a step closer.

“Leave me alone,” Kate thought. “I can’t tell you anything or comment...” She could feel the entity was breathing heavily and getting closer and closer. “What do you want from me?” with these thoughts Kate lay down, turned her face to the wall and closed her eyes, but still could feel that the entity was staring her while standing right behind her back. Soon she fell asleep again.

She wished she could go back to that neighbourhood and see the forest and the meadow again. Was there really a creek or a river? She will never find out. Not even in her dreams. She had never been to the other side, only dreamed about it. However, this place didn’t exist any more as there had been new houses and a road built, the construction sites devoured the virgin nature, the green grass, the trees and the whole meadow, leaving no place untouched. Everything was redeveloped many years ago after they moved. No chance to find everything as it used to be. But she will remember it. Until the end of times. She will also remember her grandparents and their friendly neighbours, their old and cozy house, small but warm, where the walls were breathing with love, absorbed love and irradiated love? Now her universes fell apart. Lotte, have you experienced something like this? Have you ever seen or felt anything like this? Perhaps something similar? She cried out with her thoughts, asking Lotte telepathically, repeating the almost rhetoric and futile question which will never be answered. After all, she could ask Lotte. But would it make any sense if she grew up in a different place? Or even if she did, Kate will never find out. Kate doesn’t even know if her relationship with Luuk is as passionate as hers. Again Luuk. All the thoughts led back to Luuk. It never ends. He is always in the way and she won’t be able to go ahead and move forward. And it’s not his fault, but hers. But she loved him desperately.

Kate woke up later than her cellmates. Lotte and Luuk have just finished their breakfast. They were sitting opposite each other and discussing something Kate couldn’t hear very well and didn’t even care. Same things different day, with the different words, empty and void.

“I don’t understand what they did and what she did,” Luuk said. “But mom will be back from Nijmegen on Tuesday. They have a conference tomorrow, remember I told you? It will last for 2 days and then they go home. I don’t want them to know where they are. They can make it to Nijmegen. Even to Antwerp if they want to. Mom’s business has seen exponential growth this year. Looks like they had a feeling about it”.

“They took our phones. It wasn’t really hard to figure out what our parents do. Mine aren’t so outstanding in terms of business, that regular doctor job you know… We are just a dynasty. They still pay that mortgage since 2004. Even if we all clubbed - mom, dad, me… No no no… Pathetic money…”

“Come on, less than 20.000 Euros?”

“Around that I guess. You know what a big spender I am. Shame on me, but yeah, would they kidnap and torture a group of people for pathetic 20.000 euros?

“I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but if they don’t get what they want, or even if they do, they will still kill us. And this is not the lowest amount they could make on kidnapping.”

“But I still don’t understand what it has to do with this girl. Who is she?” wondered Lotte.

“She is a financial attache at the US embassy. Based in The Hague. On a vacation now I guess. There was a reason to stalk her, so they were probably following her and decided to take us in case if things with her don’t work. But again, she’s just an attache, she doesn’t make that much. I don’t understand why they would target her, but not surprised why they abducted us”.

“Yeah, looks like mom will have to shake her bank account a bit…Goddamn poor girl… She doesn’t deserve being treated like that. Better not to mess with those guys,” sighed Lotte. “Are you sure these is no chance we escape? Do you think they will find us?”

“I don’t really want to be negative about it, but we don’t know how many of them are there. I thought there were three but then that guy showed up. And they have guns. Even if we kill someone, the others will be there in a few seconds... We should be patient first.”

“How do you think we can check it?” Lotte turned around and looked at her empty plate. “And the food isn’t the worst food I’ve had. Looks like they do bad things quite regularly...”

“I’m more curious about where we are… It doesn’t look like a factory I must say. I think we should make sure we are still in Maastricht. And what kind of building this is. It’s all about patience and attention. And one more thing, Lotte, don’t tease them. Just don’t. Please. You’ve already seen how it ends.”

“Good thing they didn’t chop her tongue off.”

“Yeah but you’ve seen what happened to her hand. If we drive them wild, our legs will be next. You know what’s bad, Lotte, she is on a vacation now. Another time I would hope that the embassy would notice her absence, but since she is off, they’re not gonna check it for a while. I wish I knew when the vacation ends”.

“Damn. Why? What for? What have we done? Lotte started weeping again. “I can’t… I can’t take it… And… And what if there are more prisoners?”

“No, I don’t think so. But we are