The world as we knew was collapsing before our eyes. Slowly without us being able to do anything to prevent it. Our free will was taken away from us. We became puppets, controlled by a higher power. All we wanted was to escape, to cut the threads th...
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Beatrice had mentioned earlier that she found a way to get out of here. Because she saw in me that I was wanted out of here. Did Robin feel the same? Did he also want to escape? Finally Robin broke his silence.
- How? How can you of all people know? Who are you really? After he said that, Beatrice suddently stood up with a smile as she brushed the dirt from her knees.
- I'm the one who will take you out of here. You don't have to worry about anything else.
With those words she turned and walked away from Robin. Thank God in a different direction than where I was hiding. Robin remained in his place and I felt a need to remove myself from the place. The crying i felt before had gone to rest. Instead, it had been replaced by a storm of questions. And I had no idea who to talk to about these.
-
It was like Beatrice read my mind that night. As we were cleaning up and getting ready for bed she caught me.
- Can we talk? she said in a whisper.
After that she looked around us, saw all the people nearby.
- Can we go out? I nodded silently in respons.
With a firm grip on my wrist, she led me to the front door. Outside it was a warm summer evening, we settled down on some chairs nearby. The silence at this time was pleasurable. I took a deep breath with my eyes closed. I leaned back in my chair and waited for Beatrice to open her mouth. Did she have any idea I saw her and Robin before? Heard everything they said to each other? Should I mention this to her? Curiosity was bursting inside.
However, the shame of having eavesdropped was far too great to be able to say anything. Beatrice smiled at me, she often smiled around me but never otherwise. It was something I had noticed this time together. When she talked to Robin, she had been serious.
The smiles she gave me felt always genuine. I liked that smile, her red lips in a porcelain white face. The hair she always kept loose caressed her face. With a look like that, she couldn't have a hard time getting whoever she pleases. She had wanted Gabriel and the next day she had him. I knew myself that I wasn't ugly, but I wasn't anything special either. My previous partners had called me cute. I was "sweet and kind", those were the character traits that followed me all my life.
A few minutes had passed but nothing had been said between us. I looked at Beatrice in wonder but she had her eyes on something in the distance.
- What did you want to talk about?, I finally said when the wait started to become painful. Beatrice moved, she raised an open palm in the air and put her index finger in the middle.
- Does it still hurt? she said without meeting my gaze.
It felt like the heart stopped for a brief moment as she continued:
- You thought it was just a dream, huh? When you got stung on your hands and feet? But how do you explain the pain?
Now she got up in the chair and leaned towards me. Her eyes locked on mine. I swallowed hard. Sweat began to seep out of my pores.
- We are controlled, every word we say, every step we take. We are marionettes, she spat out the last words.
I looked at her wide-eyed, trying to process what she just said. There that word came up again. The word from the dream. How did she know about all this? Now I understood Robin's question about who she really was? Did she have anything to do with this? A memory of a gray stairwell a few weeks ago came to me before a word Beatrice uttered. Frida's upset face came to me and then her words:
- We aren't his puppets that he can control and manipulate?
I wrapped my hands around my head and stared down at the ground. All these question marks threw me off balance.
- Please Beatrice, explain to me what is happening. Inside my head I shouted the words. But in reality they came out as a quite whisper.
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Tears dripped onto the grass, my whole body shook. The panic was felt in every part of my body. I felt a pair of arms hugging me. Beatrice had sat down beside me. Comforting me. I heard her words vibrate throughout my body.
- I'm here, Vendela, she repeated those words to me again. Don't be afraid, I'll take care of you.
