Shame Of Maastricht by Marie N. Hallen (any book recommendations TXT) 📕

The men unchained Kate and Lotte, sealed Lotte’s s mouth and strapped them to the chairs so that they ended up with their backs to each other.

You Will Shine

Bas was standing aside and they both could see him. He pushed the chair Luuk was strapped to closer to them. The distance to both chairs where Lotte and Kate were sitting, was equal. “Alright, guys. What we are going to do now is not what I initially planned, but during the game I got so inspired that decided to charge the course of events a little.”

“Tell him already. We are getting things ready, almost done.”

Felix and Koen stepped out. Koen stood near Lotte and Felix approached Kate. Each of them was holding a syringe.

“Two women, one man. Three bodies, two lives. Listen to me carefully, Luuk! - Bas announced solemnly and pulled a gun on Luuk. ‘Each of them will receive a lethal injection of a poisonous substance. They will receive it simultaneously, right now. And there is only one dose of antidote so you can choose who will be saved and who will be gone forever. You will only have 30 seconds to make a decision. If no, they both will die, but then you die too. If you try to split the injection, it won’t work as it’s the basic dose. In the best case you will save yourself and someone else, so there will be only one victim. If the worst case, everyone will be dead as I will shoot you down.”

“In case if you don’t understand, Luuk,” Felix continued instead of Bas, “We are injecting them right now and you can only save one of them from lethal poisoning by pressing the button on this jet injector. All you need to do it stretch your hand and put it either to Lotte’s or Kate’s arm. Then you push the button.”

“Remember, you only have 30 seconds after the injection.”

“And we will let you go, this is the end of everything as no one is going to believe your stories. We are closing this place, thanks Kate’s card and your parents engagement we managed to receive the money we requested. I suggest that we place bets. gentlemen. This is getting really exciting.”

“Fifteen thousand, Luuk, that was grateful, I didn’t expect that much, to be honest. And we also made the same amount after selling the car. Unfortunately this won’t help me any more as my parents are dead now. Visser, that asshole Visser murdered them. You know what he did? He... He forced them into the car and let them die in a fake car crash. He used a remote control module. This is how he did it. You say I’m a beast? I want you to know that Matthijs Visser and his company are much worse. So since it’s all in vain now, we are letting you go and you can take one of them with you,” Bas finished his speech emotionally.

“I hope you understand us clearly. Here is a jet injector,” Felix freed one of his hands and gave him a jet injector. “Come on!”

Koen and Felix did their jobs simultaneously. Kate felt a needle in her vein but didn’t feel the injection itself. If death is so imperceptible, she found it totally acceptable. Here ends her way and all her achievements are summarized here, at this point. Help the rich one and cure the healthy one - she always remembered this old saying which basically motivated all her actions in these latter days. She consciously wanted to sacrifice herself in the name of Luuk’s and Lotte’s salvation and help them finally get home and enjoy their days together. After Kate and Luuk has their first date, she gave herself a secret promise and stuck to it until the end. A promise to do everything to make him feel happy, to save him, to protect him, to please him, to make him feel comfortable and loved, to keep him healthy, safe, warm, motivated, inspired, to make him smile, to take his pain, to share his sorrow, to give all her power, blood and resources for his well-being, even her own life if there was a need, to protect his loved ones. There was no other mission for her, no other purpose, no other objective. She will protect Lotte until her last breath, she will fight for her escape and freedom. Because he chose Lotte and if she is the woman who makes him happy, Kate will do everything to save her too and thus save Luuk’s heart and destiny. She would also protect his parents, shelter them and take care of them like of her own ones and this is why she let them access her bank account.

Kate would do anything for him, but wouldn’t do anything to survive in this world without him - after all, this was her own choice, also conscious and justified. Now the only answer was to disappear. The only way out of this wintery journey of sorrow. Soon Luuk will take Lotte home and they will spend the next weekend at his parents’. Lotte will probably get a new car and they will travel to Barcelona like they planned before. And she will go to the place which offers a totally different experience. She will fade away, evaporate and forget everything, leaving them all behind... Kate realized Lotte took her hand and she squeezed her hand in hers. “Is this the echo of goodbye?” she thought. “I’m not alive… I’m not alive anyway...”

“Luuk! Make your choice right now, time is up soon and the poison is fast” Bas reminded. “But you still can manage it.”

“One or two! Choose one or two!” Felix shouted but his voice sounded distant as if he was melting away.

Kate couldn’t see Lotte and couldn’t even guess or predict her emotion spectre, but was curious about it. Lotte should be happy now as the happy ending was so close - and she probably was as she was sitting still and stopped shaking. Apparently she already knew her future was saved just like Kate wished. Because it will be Kate who will leave the game giving them way. And Kate was also sitting still and tried not to look around and especially at Luuk. She closed her eyes and sighed. She will never know what he was feeling and thinking about in this very moment while making such a choice. How did it feel? Is it easy to make up your mind when you only have thirty seconds? What comes next? Is he even fully aware of what he is doing?

Luuk reached out and pushed the button as hard as he could. Kate felt a shot and twitched as the needle pierced her vein. She could barely breathe. The chair she was sitting on seemed to turn into a carousel and the floor was giving way beneath her feet. Someone released the straps on her legs and arm and she slid down onto the arm of the chair. With her head resting on her arm, Kate tried to manage the growing nausea, when she heard metal scratching and realized someone else was released. The carousel was going faster and faster and she was about to throw up on this carousel of existence.

“Congratulations, Luuk! It’s over now! Alright guys… The culmination is really bizarre, I must confess, so...”

He said something else but now the carousel was going even faster, clearly speeding and making the room and all the actors of this improvised bloody theater fuse into one whirling and nauseating slush of all shades of brown, spiced with flickering lights, chaotic metal clank and subdued voices. A little more and the carousel will throw her off right into this whirl. Before she could prepare to choke on the waves of nausea, she heard the door swung open and the police crew broke into the room. Kate, sitting in the chair nearly unconscious, heard several shots, cries and felt a smell of smoke. The premises seemed to start falling apart with the deafening thunder, and so was the nightmare existence of the last week - collapsing, crashing down together with the room, burning the bridges and erasing all the traces both at place and in her mind. Like a hurricane sweeps everything up only to carry it away and scatter around, so was everyone smashing up the furniture and equipment, using fragments as weapons and boards as shields. No one was going to give up. They were thrashing each other with metal rods and kept shooting and tossing Bas’s implements of hell. More shots. She heard someone drop the gun. Indeed, the police and emergency services were already there. They managed to reach the building and finally shot someone of the perpetrators trying to arrest the crew. Something caught fire just a few steps from where she was sitting. The room was ablaze. Kate felt being pulled off the chair and laid on her back on the stretcher. Someone carried her away down the long dark corridor. The blurry figures in bright yellow uniform probably were doctors. She tried to look around and passed out before realizing she was rescued.       

Kate woke up and saw a white ceiling. Everything was white there, just was different shades of white. It was a light spacious room. A ward with large windows, translucent light curtains with the bright rays of the sun trying to make their way through the sparkling green leaves of the trees, through the glass, through curtains straing in her face, blinding her. White bed sheets. The straps or chains on her body were gone, although there was something else. A drop counter. She started coughing and discovered her mouth was not sewn shut any more. She touched her lips and felt something sticky, probably some kind of ointment, but at least she could speak and smile again. Her stub was properly bandaged and taken care of and her head was also bandaged and the nagging pain was gone, probably after a good dose of painkillers.

A nurse took her to the bathroom where she could take a shower with the nurse’s assistance, wash her face and change clothes to the new ones someone brought into the ward. She also found meal and drinks delivered and probably this wasn’t hospital meal.

Kate looked out of the window and saw several buildings of Maastricht hospital, shining in the summer sun. Their windows reflected the endless blue sky without a single cloud. She was standing still, looking out the window, and couldn’t get enough of the summer sunshine she missed so much during her confinement in the dark basement. “A nice weather to go to the hell,” she recalled the lyrics of a song by one of her favourite bands. But this place in no way resembled hell. She could stand there forever and peer into the emerald surroundings, sparkling in the rays of light with all shades of green. Perhaps she was still under the influence of painkillers.

“You have visitors,” nurse said. “Come in, please.”

Kate turned around. A tall man wearing police uniform entered the ward.

“My greetings, miss Lemmens, ” he said. “I sincerely hope you're feeling better today but I will have to ask several questions. My name is Ruben De Vries and I would appreciate your contribution to investigation process as a victim and witness.”

“Yes, I do,” Kate went back to bed, the nurse covered her with a sheet and left the ward. - “Please tell me more! Are they alive?”

“All the perpetrators are arrested except Bas Verstraete who was shot after he started shooting back. Mr. van der Meer is is in stable condition in another unit. But unfortunately they murdered Lotte Dijkstra, she died from a cyanide injection.”

Kate’s heart sank. The relaxing and dopey effect from painkillers vanished and now she started to realize what happened and why she was there. How come? She tried to