Psycho Thrill--Girl in the Well Read online

“Later,” Henning says.

  “Mrs. Falkner!” Johanna shouts. Volker winces.

  “The temperature inside is the same as it is outside,” Henning ascertains and goes further into the hall, following the dully shining trail that leads into the kitchen. In the light of the flashlight, flies are startled out of the dark spots. The kitchen door is open. No one answers.

  “Mrs. Falkner?” Johanna cries a second time. Volker enters the hall, Henning pushes open the kitchen door and shines the light inside.

  “Shit!” he hisses and looks over at Johanna. The kitchen is full of humming and buzzing. Startled flies are whizzing through the air. The floor is covered in blood. The table and two chairs are overturned beside it … articles of clothing and towels are also soaked with blood. Hundreds of dead flies cover the floor. The light lingers on a dark lump of flesh. It’s too dark and bloody to recognize it at first. The pounding of their own hearts fills Johanna and Henning’s ears.

  “That’s an afterbirth,” Volker whispers. “The placenta.” Volker was present at the births of his sons and can recognize it.

  “How …?” Johanna doesn’t understand.

  “Mrs. Falkner was pregnant?” Henning is stunned. He hadn’t noticed it.

  “That can’t be, Henning. We just saw her a few days ago. She was totally emaciated!” Johanna shakes her head.

  “On this day, the holy whore is brought into being. The mother whore!” Volker whispers. “That’s what it said, isn’t it? This is not the normal birth of a child, Johanna. This is something else.”

  “This is something else,” Henning repeats weakly. The beam of light wanders through the kitchen and lands on the statue of the Virgin Mary standing on a cabinet. They gasp upon seeing it. The figure of Mary looks as if it has burst from the inside at the middle of the body. She is shimmering with blood and flies are circling around her. And she was previously childless, but now has a child in her hand. A girl. The girl opens her eyes. Johanna, Henning, and Volker run out of the house screaming.

  Excerpts from the interviews of 09/10 in Naherfurth

  Method: Door to door questioning by Henning Lambertz, Johanna Ebeling, and Volker Strathmann. Basic opening text as follows: Hello, we are researchers at the Ethnological Institute in Hamburg. We are gathering information for a project. Do you know Mrs. Falkner? When did you see her last?

  “Mrs. Falkner? She’s from the Kreuziger Farm, right? I saw her on Tuesday evening. On the bus. She was going to Hamburg and had a child with her. A girl, maybe four or five years old. I hadn’t thought anything of it, but you know what? I winked at the child just like this. And when she looked at me I felt uneasy. The child was somehow … tainted and evil. My name won’t be mentioned, right?”

  Addendum: Since 09/08, Mrs. Sabine Falkner has been missing.

  Since 09/09, Lukas Falkner hasn’t had another seizure.

  END

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  BASTEI ENTERTAINMENT

  Digital original edition

  Bastei Entertainment is an imprint of Bastei Lübbe AG

  Copyright © 2014 by Bastei Lübbe AG, Schanzenstraße 6-20, 51063 Cologne, Germany

  Written by Vincent Voss

  Translated by Sharmila Cohen

  Produced by Uwe Voehl

  Edited by Toby Axelrod

  Project management by Lori Herber

  Cover illustration: © shutterstock / Richard Peterson / Lario Tus; Oliver Sved; Dmitrijs Bindemanis

  Cover design by Christin Wilhelm, www.grafic4u.de

  E-book production: Urban SatzKonzept, Düsseldorf

  ISBN 978-3-7325-0213-4

  www.luebbe.de

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