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

“Bas, her question is regular and we should answer it. This would be childish. At least because we are not letting them go” - Felix pushed Koen away and pulled out an extension cord.

“Ok… Like I said during our first encounter, we are raising funds to finish one important...let’s call it a mission. Yes, funds. It’s all about money, right. And sometimes we even let our prisoners go. Not always, of course, but if they do behave well, we can do that. Sometimes they leave without a hand or a leg, sometimes without ears, but what can be more precious than freedom?”

“Why didn’t you get caught?” Lotte asked.

“Because people we let go keep their promise and never betray us. Because we follow them until the end even after they get free.”

“My parents don’t have any money”

“I’m sure they do. Were you talking about the conference in Nijmegen? Is it about pharmaceutical regulatory?

Lotte nodded back in response.

“Ha! You see? See now? You lied to me! Yes, you have just lied to me. I gotcha!” Bas exclaimed joyfully and applauded as if he was at the concert of his favourite band.

“Why? Even I failed to see the lies, didn’t I?” Koen asked.

“She said it was in Leeuwarden. But I knew it was in Nijmegen. I knew! Because this is where that jerk from VICI-Apotheek went yesterday. Wow, congrats, Lotte, you have just earned your first point! Come on, Koen!” Bas turned to Koen who was still holding a nail gun and pointed his finger down.

Koen walked around behind Alex and stopped right in front of Lotte, there was just one step between them. He pointed a nail gun at her. Kate failed to see what happened, but there was a sound and then Lotte screamed, definitely in pain. He shot her in the face. Suddenly Kate felt more power than ever and something pushed her forwards as if her inner engine started. She crawled as fast as she could investing all her power in it and stopped by Lotte’s chair. Luckily, her chain let her reach Lotte. She couldn’t stand up, but only embraced Lotte’s legs trying to protect her, and started moaning as loud as it was possible.

Koen was about to shoot again but Kate started shaking the chair and laid her head on Lotte’s knees.

“Oh wow so we have a defender here!” she heard Felix’s voice. “Pathetic enough, pathetic, pathetic, pathetic...”

“Too bad everything is pointless now,” Bas sighed. “She is my biggest mistake. All three bank accounts empty. Negative balance on the credit card, amazing. Didn’t know salaries at the embassy are so miserable.”

“And she has no parents or friends or relatives here. Too bad for you, girl, as you could be something more useful”.

Koen prepared to shoot another nail in Lotte’s face but at this point Kate kicked his leg so hard he dropped the nail gun on the floor. Felix grabbed Kate and chained her remaining hand to the leg of the chair where Lotte was sitting. He pulled her hair furiously as if he wanted to rip her scalp off.

“Why would you need ears if you don’t listen? You were told not to interfere, weren’t you? What are you trying to achieve? Trying to gain extra punishment for your ass?

Bas opened the toolbox and took out an axe which flashed in the dim light ominously.

“Second warning. We don’t forgive the fightback,” and with these words he chopped off Kate’s left ear with a single cut. At first she didn’t even realize what happened. Her clothes immediately soaked with blood again. Even that she wasn’t able to make sounds other than those a mute person can make, her desperate moan reflected all the pain the cold steel inflicted in her. She felt warm blood dripping down. The chopped ear didn’t impair her hearing and she could still hear the phrenetic laughter of the whole crew almost growing into roar. It even seemed that her hearing sharpened instead of delivering her from listening and perceiving things she hated most.

Bas unchained Kate and dragged her by the hair into a corner. He threw her on the bed, then grabbed a nail gun from Koen’s hands and shot her several times in the face. One of the nails ended stuck above her eyebrow but didn’t get very deep so it was a tolerable minor injury. Bas was sitting on a blooded chair and looking at Kate, cornered and unable to resist or confront them.

“I already start hating you. If I could, I would dissect your body and feed it to the dogs. You have no idea how pathetic you are. If there were more candidates, I would force you into fighting without rules. This is where I actually saw you for the very first time. This is why I started following you. This is why you became my target. Since you always won and Daan placed a bet on you many times, I couldn’t believe you never received your share. But I always knew you were cheating and it all was fake. All these “battles”. For fucks sake… So ridiculous, no need to go to the circus. And you think you would win if I forced you to fight? You are shame of Maastricht and will always be. And I will prove it. Just let me get more girls here. You will see what happens. We don’t have women there and sometimes we miss them, but you would be the last woman on the earth I’d ever touch. Absolutely disgusting”.

Kate was listening to him silently but what he said confused her more than anything she ever heard or expected to hear. She was generally good at fighting and would be able to give a strong fightback if not restrained and if the person was of a similar physique. She used to practice a lot of martial arts as a high school student back in the days, but never demonstrated any fighting skills in public. And of course she never participated in any street fights or underground fights without rules, betting or even tournaments. She never attended similar events either, never placed bets and didn’t know anyone who was interested in martial arts so it was obvious that Bas mistook her for someone else. Or maybe he was lying in order to conceal the true story about when and how he saw her for the first time. Or maybe he was simply out of his mind. She looked at Bas and put her forefinger to the forehead giving a screw-loose sign. Anyway it wasn’t possible to explain it was a mistake.

The torturers went away. Lotte was sitting in the corner and tried to pull out the nail from her cheek. It didn’t bleed much and finally she succeeded and covered the wound with a paper napkin. She wanted to move closer to Luuk who was still sitting in the opposite corner of the room, but couldn’t do it as the chain on her leg was too short. Kate looked up and noticed that Luuk was also deprived of the opportunity to move. Both his hands and legs were strained by chains. He didn’t lose the comfort of sitting or laying down but wouldn’t be able to walk around. She didn’t understand why they did it to him but could feel there was something really bad to come.

Until The Air Runs Out

Kate crawled to Lotte who was lying with her face against the wall. She wiped blood from her face and helped her rinse and bandage the wound with the rag, using the drinking water from her cup.

“Now we know there are just four of them without that woman,” Luuk broke the silence and slashed the metal pipe with his chain in anger. “Goddamn motherfuckers. I would choke them with my own hands”.

“Yes and they need money. I wonder if they found my parents. Don’t lie to them, Luuk. And if they have at least a few thousands euros, may they not be greedy otherwise this terror will never end”.

“It will never end, Lotte, you see. Whether they get paid or not, we will most likely get stuck here until the police show up. But this would be a miracle.”

“What do you want to say with this?” Lotte’s voice expressed resentment mixed with surprise.

“There is no point in all these donations. We will just sponsor this terrorist organization without any guarantees for our further safety. They don’t care what happens to us. Haven’t replied a question in time - get punched”.

“But we still have to protect our parents. Even if we are hopelessly lost, we need to prevent this from happening to mom and dad… And how could they know about Nijmegen.. I mean imagine how extensive their contacts are. They even realized I lied about my parents. I wonder if they realized I was talking about yours.”

“Well, you have already received a nail in your face. So you have already atoned for your guilt. I just don’t know what to say about mine now and what happens if they feel I’m lying. I mean I just don’t want to make things worse than now.”

“I don’t think it can get much worse. But if there is no chance police will somehow find us, we will have to do something ourselves… Can we attack them? I don’t know… There is no single trick we can do to escape.”

“Attack? Are you kidding? No way… Or then we have to kill all four at once.” Luuk’s voice sank to whisper in despair. He started sounding hopeless and this didn’t cheer up Lotte by any means.

“If we could nick something from that toolbox… Just something… Even a small thing could be helpful...”

“In this case you would have to provoke another torture action!” - Luuk smiled. “No way.”

“So what, what do you propose to do? Just to keep chilling and waiting? Until we say goodbye to all our limbs, sanity and lose our parents just because someone is too greedy to donate a couple thousand dollars?”

“Honey, I’m not greedy! I can tell them the truth, but are you sure our parents will still be safe after they pay? Or what if they keep asking more and more? And then?”

The door opened and Felix brough food and water. Lotte gave Kate a cup of water with a straw and looked at her while she was drinking, trying to overcome the pain.

“Where are your parents?” Lotte asked once Felix closed the door.

Kate felt really happy that her mouth was sewn shut and she wouldn’t have to reply, because she didn’t want to discuss this topic or disclose more information than they could. She was hoping that Lotte doesn’t try to make any signs or get her to interpret her answer with signs.

“Do you have any money? What do you have?” Lotte kept asking. Kate found her bag which lay hidden under the blanket and gave it to Lotte. Lotte opened it. There were just keys, passport, Kate’s phone which was now off, and a wallet with a few