Rebekka Franck - 03 - Five, Six ... Grab Your Crucifix (21 page)

“Do you believe that?” I asked.

Mette nodded. “I think they both died that night and Edwina has come back from hell to take us all with her.”

“So you think that’s why some of you are dying?” I asked. “Because as far as I know you’re suffering from radiation sickness. You have somehow been exposed to polonium 210.”

She nodded with her eyes closed. I could tell the pain was back. She moaned slightly. “She did it to me somehow. I don’t know how, but it is her. She won’t stop till she has killed all of us who hurt her back then. The Priest, Hans Christian, Soren, Isabella and me. We all put this on ourselves. We deserve no better.”

I searched in my purse and found a notepad and a pen. Then I noted the names she had told me. “Were there others?” I asked.

“No,” she said still strained. “Wait. Yes there used to be another man in the leader-group. He left after the first ceremony when Edwina became pregnant. He told the Priest he didn’t want to be a part of it anymore.”

“What was his name?”

“Bjarne Larsen.”

Mette’s face became suddenly torn in agony as a new wave of pain rolled in over her. She was gasping for breath and bending forward. Her body was shaking in convulsions, gagging and soon bloody vomit spurted out of her.

I ran to the door and yelled for a nurse to come in. Soon the room was filled with nurses and doctors. The seizure continued and they frantically tried to stop it. I heard them yell as I slowly backed outside to not be in their way.

From behind the door I heard Mette scream. “I see her, I see her. She’s here to get me! Don’t let her take me!” Then her voice drowned in the sound of her vomiting again. I closed my eyes and bowed my head. The sound of her fighting for her life was horrific. I knew it was a fight she would eventually lose.

A few seconds later Mette Grithfeldt was declared dead.

Chapter 45

I cried desperately when I finally threw myself in Sune’s arms at the inn. I cried for Mette Grithfeldt, for my dad and I cried for Edwina and all the cruelty she had met in this world.

Then I told him the whole story, every little detail that Mette had told me. Sune teared up as well as I spoke. I was sitting in his arms on our bed, talking with a low voice in order to not wake up the kids. Sune opened a small bottle of red wine from the mini bar and poured us each a glass.

“Do you want to go onto the balcony and smoke a cigarette?” he asked his voice thick with grief.

I nodded. I felt like a hypocrite, but I didn’t care. It didn’t matter right now. I really needed a cigarette, I craved it.

Sune brought a pack and held the lighter for me as I lit it. It was irritating how much I enjoyed it. Especially since I knew I was going to regret it the next day, I always did.

“So what is really going on here?” asked Sune, glass of red wine in his hand. We had put on our big jackets. His fingertips were already red, as was the tip of his nose. I could see his breath in the air as he spoke.

“I have no idea,” I said. “But something is definitely going on. Something really strange.”

“We have four dead people in the church - or sect - whatever you want to call it,” he stated.

“Four?”

“Yeah. I forgot to tell you. There was another one. They found him yesterday morning. I checked the police report earlier today that’s how I know. It’s not a story the media care about anymore apparently. His name was Soren something.”

I went inside and found my notepad in my purse. “Soren Sejr?” I asked when I came back out.

“Yes. That’s him.” Sune inhaled his cigarette.

“Another of the leaders from back then,” I grumbled. “Now they’re all dead except Isabella Dubois and Bjarne Larsen.”

“Bjarne Larsen? Wasn’t he the guy you visited a couple of days ago and talked to his son?”

“I think so, but I don’t know. It’s a pretty common name. It could be someone else, but then again, I don’t believe in coincidences. Besides it would explain how he knew so much about religious sects. He called them ‘Ranters‘ which isn’t something everybody knows what is. I know I didn’t until I looked it up.”

“Could Edwina still be alive?” asked Sune.

“I have thought about it,” I answered. “It’s definitely possible. Maybe she came loose from her chains somehow and took the baby and disappeared.”

“So maybe she’s getting her revenge?” Sune said.

“It is one of my theories. It is after all quite suspicious that it is all of the leaders from back then who are being killed. One of them, Hans Christian, wasn’t even in the leader group anymore. He left after the birth of the baby, or was thrown out because he tried to stand up to the Priest. Today the leader group has lots of new members. I remember from my research about them that they are nine leaders now, but only people who were part of the group back then, have died. That’s a little too coincidental if you ask me.”

“I agree,” Sune said. He drank from his wine and stared at the church across from the street. “But Edwina must be what? Twenty-six, twenty-seven?”

“Yes, that’s about it. But I don’t understand why Mette kept saying she saw the girl in her room the other night. She told me she jumped out the window and ran from her. That’s why she ran out in front of my car,” I said. “When she died I even heard her scream that she saw her again.”

“That is strange,” Sune said. “Maybe she was dreaming?”

I sipped my wine. “Maybe,” I said.

“So what do we do now?” Sune asked.

I leaned over and kissed him. “Tomorrow I’ll call the SIS and tell them about the water post. Then I think I’ll pay Bjarne Larsen another visit, I fear that he might be the next victim. Either him or Isabella Dubois, but she is harder to get in contact with.”

Chapter 46

Isabella Dubois was kneeling on the floor. She was clinging on to her silver crucifix asking God to help her and lead her, guide her in the right direction. She wanted to help this church walk in the right direction.

“Forgive us father for we have disappointed you, we have strayed from the path you have given us to walk in. We have been weak and let evil in among us.”

Then she stripped off her shirt and took the whip and began whipping her own back leaving big bloody stripes. She moaned in pain but continued undaunted. Pain came before gain. If anyone knew that it was Isabella.

“Please God forgive us, have mercy on our souls for not obeying your commands,” Isabella pleaded while crying.

Then she swung the whip once again and moaned in pain and agony. She bent over crying, groaning.

Then she put down the whip and smiled while she kissed her crucifix again and again. She fell to the tiles on her knees in praise of the good Lord, and then kissed the crucifix again and again showing her love and humbling herself to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies whose battle she had devoted her life to fight. The battle against all evil here on earth. The battle to outcast the devil.

“I am not worthy, dear God. I am nothing but a humble servant. Please anoint me and grant me the grace to teach my people and direct them,” she said while crying and kissing her crucifix. “They are lost in this world, they are like lost sheep who need to be found and directed.”

Isabella had heard from God for the first time on the night the Priest had taken her virginity. When he was panting and puffing on top of her she had heard a small still voice inside of her mind. It spoke to her and told her to not be afraid. “One day, one day soon I will exalt you,” it said. “I will make you a great leader of this church.”

All God wanted Isabella to do was to endure the trials put upon her and wait patiently, and then he promised to guide her to victory, to glorification. She was going to lead all these people, she thought every day looking at all of them filling herself with pride, because God had a special plan for her. She might have to endure pain and humble herself right now, but soon, soon she would taste the sweet taste of triumph.

God hadn’t let her down. He had been there through all of her trials, every night when the Priest came to her room, He was there with her, holding her hand, whispering comforting words in her ears, telling her that soon, soon she would be lifted up, soon they were all going to obey her commands and worship her instead.

Her loyalty and obedient behavior had soon paid off. The Priest had grown quite fond of her and soon she was elevated to sit at his table when they ate and she was allowed to have meat and wine with her food. Soon she became a part of the leader group and helped make the important decisions. God showed his faithfulness because she did what he told her to, she obeyed every word and she endured hardship with a happy mind and attitude, because she knew the reward was coming one day. When that thing happened, when that girl, that Chernobyl-kid, arrived at the camp Isabella had sought God’s wisdom. She had prayed and heard from Him that now it was her time to flourish. She needed to take over and guide the Priest and the rest of the group in what to do.

“There will be resistance,” God had told her. “Some won’t like it. But that’s the Christian life. You will always be persecuted and ill-treated. But know that I am with you. Know that I am your God.”

So she had told the others what she believed God had told her they should do about the girl, to save her from the evil inside of her. Just like God had prepared her for, some of the leaders didn’t like the ideas she presented. Some even protested, but not for long. The Priest had understood Isabella’s vision and he was behind it right away. He too believed it came from the mighty God himself. So he had listened and Isabella had managed to remove her worst competition from the position as the Priest’s right hand. She had managed to remove two of those closest to him, the very two who were supposed to take over once the Priest wasn’t there anymore. One left the church completely and the other was disowned by the Priest. Now Isabella was the sole heir to the throne.

Yes, God had been good and faithful in Isabella’s life and now he was being faithful again. He was slowly helping her by removing the last competition and resistance in the church that was left. She had no use for them anymore. She was ready to take the throne and claim her right.

Soon she was going to have her victory. What a sweet victory it was going to be. All thanks to the good Lord who would never abandon her and never forget his promises to her.

Isabella was interrupted in her praises when someone knocked at the door. She snorted in irritation and got up to open it. Outside stood one of her loyal leaders, one of those she had trained herself when he arrived at the camp as a teenager. He looked at her and bowed his head in respect as she had taught him to.

Behind him stood two police officers.

Chapter 47

Bjarne Larsen still thought of himself as a man of God. Even if he had left the church many years ago he still believed in God and in doing good to others. But he had long ago lost his belief in man.

People were in his opinion permeated and poisoned by evil. Especially religious people. They were by far the worst. That lesson had Bjarne Larsen learned many years ago. Religion was the worst thing mankind had ever come up with. It was the cause of most wars and most of the misery found in this forsaken world. Therefore Bjarne Larsen stayed far away from anyone who called himself or herself a religious person. But he hadn’t turned his back on God. Not entirely. He still believed in Him.

He just didn’t believe He cared about people.

“God decided to leave us all alone many years ago,” he told himself as he put water in the kettle and placed it on the stove. “Guess He just had enough of all of our nonsense and cruelty towards each other.”

There was a time when Bjarne Larsen believed that God cared about him and the rest of the people on this earth. Back when he was young and searching for meaning in life he had been part of the Danish Tvind empire - a left wing experiment founded by the mysterious Mogens Amdi Petersen. They were hippies and founded schools in Denmark and traveled to India and created The Necessary Teacher College. They drove in a bus following “The Hippie Trail” through Afghanistan in the late seventies where Bjarne Larsen had met many interesting people among them some who had introduced him to LSD. Bjarne decided then to jump off the bus and stay there a couple of years, but when the Russians invaded the capital Kabul in Seventy-nine he had to go back home to Denmark. By then he was an addict and he continued like that for a few years and thought he was going to be addicted for the rest of his life until he met Anders Granlund. They met at a concert in Copenhagen. Bjarne Larsen was high on drugs yet Anders Granlund had talked to him and started discussing the facts of life and death and suddenly brought the concept of God into the picture. Up until then Bjarne Larsen had never thought about God or even decided if he believed He existed or not.  At this point in his life Bjarne Larsen didn’t believe in any kind of divinity except for the divine fix of a drug. Suddenly this guy was telling him about how he believed that the devil used things like drugs to keep people from living out their true God-ordained destinies.

Bjarne Larsen had liked that. He  liked the idea that there was a plan for his life and suddenly he realized that he was in fact wasting his life away. Even if it was his favorite band playing at the concert, he had at that instant decided to go with Anders Granlund.

Back then “The Way” was an idea and Anders Granlund was nothing but a man with a vision, a dream. There was no camp and no church members. It was just him and a small apartment in Copenhagen that Bjarne followed him into. Anders locked him into a room for a week in that apartment and only provided food and water and a silver crucifix. Every day for hours and hours Anders sat outside the door and read from the bible while Bjarne knocked and banged on the door screaming for a fix, yelling that he needed drugs, but Anders never gave in to his demands and soon Bjarne was clean, the evil was driven out of him. Anders opened the door and brought Bjarne into the kitchen where he made a meal for him and congratulated him on his accomplishment. They prayed for Bjarne’s healing and Bjarne asked God to forgive his sins.