Chapter four
It was some time later when the bed started rising up to the air. Nick felt a little strange. He straitened up to check what's the source of his unease and saw the bed was floating. It wasn't so high so he figured he might as well try to get off the bed by jumping down. Suddenly he felt the bed started shaking and moving from side to side until he was thrown of it. He lay on the floor staring at the bed above him trying to catch his breath but then he realized that the bed is falling on top of him. He rolled just in time to manage escaping the deadly weight.
Abi woke up screaming. She looked around frantic, only to realize Nick was lying calmly next to her. A dream, she thought to herself. Thank god it was only a dream. Her scream startled Nick and he immediately sat down and asked "Abi, are you ok?"
She looked at him shaken from the sight she just witnessed and then replied, "Yes I'm fine, just a bad dream I guess. Sorry I woke you. Did you sleep ok?"
"Yes just fine." He looked at her and asked again "Are you sure you're ok?"
"Yes sure." She looked at her watch it was 06:30 am. She got up of the bed and went to her closet. She took out some clothes and went into the bathroom to get dressed. When she came back Nick saw her dressed in a sports outfit.
"Care to join me for a little workout Nick?"
He looked at her and said "Sure. I'll just go get dressed."
He went over to his room. The house was still quiet. He got dressed real fast and went out to meet Abi outside his room.
"Nick, do you want to go out for a jog or would you like to use one of the treadmill machines in our gym?" asked Abi.
"You have a gym in the house?" wondered Nick.
"Yes. It's in the basement. We also have an in door swimming pool."
"That's cool." Said Nick. "I don't mind working in doors if that's what you prefer" he continued.
She led him down the stairs to the first floor, where the living room was, and then she stood besides the fireplace pushed some unseen button and a hidden door was opened. She saw the surprised look on Nick's face and said, "There are a lot more secret places in this house. I'll show them to you later when we go over the security system of the house."
When they reached the gym Nick saw it was very well equipped and all the stuff was scattered around a big pool.
"That is really great" Commented Nick.
"I'm glad you approve."
They both got on the treadmill's first. He was really impressed with her ability to keep up with his pace.
After about an hour of running, they got of the machines and Abi looked at Nick then asked him "Wanna go for a swim?"
She took of her gym clothes. Nick was relieved to see she was wearing a bathing suit. She jumped into the water and he joined her. They were swimming for a while when suddenly they heard loud barking.
Nick looked up. There were two huge dogs standing by the pool barking at him. Abi swam towards the dogs and pulled herself out of the pool. The dogs jumped around her licking her face.
"Hi Sugar, Spice." She said. "Did you guys miss me?" Then she turned to Nick and said "They are used to sleep in my room every night."
Nick was standing in the water and was starting to pull himself from the water, when suddenly the dogs started making threatening sounds. Abi looked at him and said, "That's ok guys, Nick is a friend." The dogs immediately stopped their barking and sat down next to her.
Nick looked at her and asked "Is it safe to come out?"
She giggled and said to him "Sure Nick. You're perfectly safe"
He climbed out and sat next to her, petting the dogs. They seemed to enjoy themselves. It's been already 08:00 am so Abi said to Nick, "We should get upstairs wash up and get dressed for breakfast."
"Ok boys, go back out now" she said to the two dogs.
"They are not used to sleep outside, they usually spend the night at my room. Last night was the first time in yeas they spent out of the house. I guess things were so hectic last night I forgot to bring them in."
"Well they are magnificent animals" commented Nick.
"They sure are. Come on lets get out of here."
Nick followed her back up to the first floor and then upstairs to the bedrooms. She smiled at him before she left him at his door and went to her room.
About 15 minuteslater, she was dressed and headed down. She met Derek outside his room, dressed and on his way down as well.
"Morning Derek, did you sleep well?" she asked.
"Fine thanks" was his answer. He seemed a little uncomfortable.
"Are you sure?'
"Yes" he said, "I'm sure. Are you coming down?'
She avoided his look, and they went down together without saying another word.
They walked into the dining room and found everybody was already there. There were some new faces at the table, and Abi asked them "Did you guys introduce yourselves?"
"Yes," said to three.
"Derek, I'd like you to meet some of the other members of our house. You already met Ethaniel. This is Erick, he is our anthropologist and our linguistic expert. And this is Esther, we call her Eti for short, she is also a linguist and an expert in antiquities. And last but not least this is David he is a psychologist but unlike Rachel he is not skeptic, but he does help to establish if we are dealing with a real threat or just someone's imagination in many of the cases we handle."
Derek shook hands with them all then sat next to his daughter.
After breakfast all the members of the house went about their business.
"Rachel, Kat?" Abi came close to the older woman and then said "I have a friend, who runs a summer camp for gifted children. It's just 2 blocks from here. I was wondering if maybe Kat would like to join some of the kids there, with your permission of course."
Rachel looked at her daughter ad asked her "Kat would you like that?"
Kat looked at her mother then at Abi. "But I don't speak Hebrew. How will I get along with all of them?
Abi looked at her and said, "No problem, there are English speaking children in this place. There are always two instructors. One speaks in Hebrew and the other one repeats him in English. And as I said most these kids are gifted so they are bilingual. You will not have a problem getting along with them. They have all kinds of activities. They also go out on a field trip once a week to some other part of the country. And usually on this day they need extra hands so your mother or one of the others can join you and this way you can get to know Israel a little better."
"Mom, can I?" asked the little girl.
"Are you sure you can trust this man" was Rachel's response.
"Yes, I'm sure. I spent most of my summers at his camp, and loved every moment of it."
"I really don't like intrusting my daughter's life in a strangers hands." Was Rachel's reply.
"How about if I called him over here for lunch so you can meet him and judge for yourself? The camp start's tomorrow morning."
"Ok."
"Good. Why don't we move into my office now to discuss more serious matters" said the young precept.
They all followed here into her office. She sat down and then begun speaking. "Until a few days ago I was unable to have access to city hall records and police reports. However as of yesterday, the legacy house has clearance to check both, which will probably help us solving this problem sooner. I will have to pull out all the records of this house. Who used to live here, when, and if there were any untimely strange deaths."
A knock on the door and Ethaniel came into the office.
"Great. Ethaniel you take the guys on a tour of the house and then show Derek and Nick our control room and the security system of the house. Alex I will need you help in studying the history of the house on the Internet, I that's ok with you."
"Sure" said Alex. "Anything I can do to help."
"Thank you I really appreciate this, but first take the tour with the rest of the guys. I need you all to know the layout of this place, where it is safe and where it is not. Ethaniel, you must show them all of the secret rooms as well, I don't know why, but I feel it is essential that you all know the house and all of it's hiding places. Just trust me on this" said Abi a serious look on here face.
"Ok guys, we'll start at the basement and go up, follow me ever." Ethaniel lead the group out of the precept's office.
She immediately picked up the phone to call her camp manager friend. "Hello, may I speak to Daniel please?" she waited a minute when she heard the friendly voice on the other side.
"Hello. This id Daniel Goldman speaking".
"Hi Daniel, its Abi. I was wondering if you could stop by here for lunch. I want you to meet some people and a young lady I wish to join your camp. Her mother would like to meet you before she trusts her daughter to you."
"Sure Abi. No problem, say 02:00 PM?"
"Ok, I'll see you then." She hung up the phone and turned her computer on. After a minute she felt she was no longer alone. She raised her head from the screen to see a small figure appear in the room.
"Hi mother" said Abi.
"Abi, you have to be careful. He is out there to get you."
"Who is out there mom, I don't understand what it is your trying to worn me about."
"He is close to you, and he will destroy you if you let him Abi."
"Mother who are you talking about, Derek?
"He will kill you. I tried to stop him but can't. They are lurking all around," said Eleanor.
"You're not making any sense mom. Why would Derek want to kill or hurt me?"
"Mark my words daughter. He is coming."
"He is coming" mumbled Abi. That means that it's not Derek. So who the hell can it be?
She raised her head again to ask the figure some more questions but she was gone. Great, she always disappears when I need her most.
Abi went back to work on her computer. Every time she found some bit of information she thought could help she printed it out.
About an hour later, Alex came back into the office. "HI Abi. Now what can I do to help you?"
"Well," said Abi, you can start by looking at these sites I marked where history of this house could be found. It's almost 300 years old. So just check anything that you think is useful and we'll go over it together later. Where are the rest of the group?"
"Well, Kat saw the pool and got hooked. So as soon as we finished the tour she and Rachel went down there. Derek and Nick are still with Ethaniel going over the security system and the control room" answered Alex.
"Good. I would like to hear what they have to say about it. I understand Nick was in charge of your house security and from what Derek says, he did a really great job."
"Yes, Nick is great," said Alex. She looked at the young precept and saw her sitting staring into space so she got into the net and started working on the sites Abi marked.
They have been working for two hours when the guys finally came back.
"So?" she asked. "What's the verdict?"
Nick looked at her and said "Who ever designed this security system can be really proud. The house is totally covered no spot left unwatched, except for the bedrooms. I do think you'll need to change that."
"You mean put cameras in the bedrooms? That would really be an invasion of privacy, don't you think?" asked Abi.
"Well, you can allow people to shut the camera down when in the room and they can turn it back on when they're out" was Nick's reply.
"Ethaniel? Do you agree with that?" asked Abi.
"Actually, yes. I think Nick is right. The bedrooms should be covered as well."
"Well I guess if you both think so I'll have to call the Security Company later" remarked Abi. "And now I think my members could use your help in the control room. We just got some stuff that need to be catalogued from the Jerusalem museum and I'm sure they can use both your expert opinions. I still have a lot of work to do getting through the police files. We'll talk of all our findings after lunch."
About 15 minutes later the phone rang. Abi picked it up saying "Hello."
She listened to the voice on the other side and her face frowned. She said to the person on the other side in an anxious worried voice "I'll be right there."
She turned to see Alex's worried face. "Is everything alright Abi?"
"I have to go somewhere. Please tell the rest if I'm not back by 02:00 PM to sit and have lunch without me."
She left the office and went to the garage, which was located at the back of the house. She called up to her dogs Sugar and Spice into her car and drove out as fast as she could.
Alex was puzzled her behavior, but she continued with her work.
Ethaniel came into the office looking for Abi. He was surprised she wasn't there. "Alex, do you know where Abi is? He asked.
"No, sorry. She got a phone call and left immediately. She did not say where or when she'll be back."
"That's strange, she doesn't usually get up and leave like that" he said.
"You don't know what will make her do such a thing? Sounds to me you don't know her very well" was Alex's response.
"Correction," he said. We don't know anything about our precept. She is a very private person. No one is aloud to invade that privacy and I wouldn't advise on trying, She'd bite your head off. There are a lot of secrets she keeps from us, from Derek, from the world."
"Well, maybe she has a good reason for the things she does, she is so much like Derek, reserved and not inclined to share her emotions and secrets with people she cares about, fearing they'll be hurt by that knowledge" said Alex and returned again to her work.
"I guess so" said Ethaniel and left the office heading back to the control room.