I let out another sob, feeling absolutely helpless. There was nothing anyone could do to help.
“Famke, stop crying. There’s something I have to tell you. It’ll help us all, but I need you to pull yourself together for me. Please?”
She pulled her arm away from me and sat up. I rolled onto my back, trying to steady my breathing, as I wiped fresh tears away.
“When Kerstan and his girl were leaving. I slipped a note to them. No one knows this, but I’ve been in Luuk’s room. He’s used me for his own personal pleasure before and I’ve talked to him about things. Did you know that he has a brother named Theo? Did you know that Theo and Amity were very much in love? I wrote that down and got it to Kerstan when he was leaving. If somehow he can find Theo and bring him here, maybe this will all be over. Maybe this nightmare will end and maybe we’ll be able to get out of this with whatever dignity we have left.”
I looked at her like she had lost her mind. Why would Kerstan want to help us? Any of us? We weren’t his girls and Amity was just his fuck toy when he wanted.
“Give it time. We’ll be out of here soon,” she promised, before she went back to her bed and pulled her covers up over her head.
I wish I had her resolve.
Ten
Theo
I was standing in the airport asking myself for the millionth time why I had put so much stock into a random phone call.
I didn’t even know who the guy was and it was kind of hard for me to understand what he wanted, but what I did understand were two words that made my heart beat erratically; Amity Crane. As soon as he said her name and Amsterdam, I was booking the first flight flying over.
For all of her faults, I still loved her. I had every intention of making her my wife before she went temporarily nuts and partied her way into my little brother’s bed, but I loved her so much that I was willing to forgive that.
I just wanted her back. I felt a part of me die off when she left. She said she needed to find herself and I was so angry with her for leaving and not wanting to attempt to fix things right away that I pretty much threw her out of my life. But it had been three years already and this was the first I had heard of her whereabouts and I was going to bring my love home, no matter what.
As I went through airport security I felt myself getting a bit excited. By all counts, I knew this could be potentially dangerous, but Amity Crane wasn’t a common name and she said she’d be going to Europe. I could only hope that she managed to get clean after she got there and didn’t go to Amsterdam for the drugs.
I reasoned with myself that if I had gotten to this point, listening to a mystery man on the phone telling me where to find her, then I didn’t really give a shit. I just wanted to bring Amity home once and for all so we could start over again.
An hour or so later, I boarded the plane, popped some Dramamine, and let myself drift off to sleep. I figured that if I slept for the whole flight, I’d wake up refreshed and ready to go.
Some hours later I was jostled gently awake by one of the flight attendants. She smiled at me and told me that we had arrived. I thanked her, got to my feet, and reached for my backpack that I had slid into the overhead compartment. Once it was securely on my back, I exited the plane and went into the terminal.
This was as far as I knew to go, other than this I felt completely lost. Part of me was expecting her to be waiting for me when I got off of the plane, part of me was wondering when I would realize this was a cruel joke.
But when I saw a pristinely dressed man holding up a sign that said Theo Lennox, I realized this might not be a joke after all. I walked up to him and showed him my ID to let him know who I was and he told me to follow him.
“First time in Amsterdam?” he asked, once I had gotten situated in the backseat of his car.
“Yeah.”
“I hope you enjoy it then,” he said with a nod as he pulled away from the curb and into traffic.
“Thanks. I’m just here to pick up my girlfriend honestly,” I said, leaning back into the chair.
He glanced at me in the rearview mirror and nodded again. It was weird to me that I was so willing to go with this strange man that I didn’t know, in a car that belonged to someone I didn’t know, that I had put all of my faith in to get me to Amity.
Love will make you do crazy things, I thought to myself with a chuckle.
About forty five minutes into our drive we were in the heart of the city, only to be leaving it fifteen minutes later.
“Where are we going?” I asked him curiously.
“To your girlfriend,” he said, gritting his teeth on the last word.
“You know where she is?” I asked, leaning forward in excitement.
“In that house on the hill,” he said using his index finger to point.