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The Notebook, part 2
He stared at the photo, not being able to move his eyes away from it. All the years Nikolas had owned the house the angel's wings had been broken, so the statue must've come with the house. Perhaps it was one of the few things that really had. That could only mean that Nikolas hadn't taken the photo. The handwriting below the photo was Nikolas', there was no doubt about that. Konstantin couldn't understand how the house could be the reason the angel lost its wings. He removed the tapes holding the photograph in place and turned it around.
Lara stood up when she saw him paying attention to the photograph. She took a few steps toward him so she too could see the picture and the notebook.
Konstantin sensed her coming closer but was so interested in the notebook that he didn't really care. The few words written in the back of the picture made him even more interested. The handwriting wasn't Nikolas' this time and for some reason someone had written, 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me'. Konstantin chuckled. He didn't need to be religious to know that the wrods were from the Bible. It seemed that someone who believed in the man upstairs had inhabited the house over twenty years before Nikolas, or at least the date behind the picture claimed so. As far as Konstantin knew the house was older than that.
After eyeing the photo a while Konstantin took the notebook and continued going through it. There were a few papers filled with writing taped to the next page and they had long ago grown yellowish. The handwriting was probably the same as behind the photo but Konstantin couldn't say for sure. One was written hastily while the other had been written like the writer wanted to show off with his or her penmanship. The date in the upper right corner of each paper stated the raw fact that they belonged to the same person. How Nikolas had come across these items Konstantin didn't know, but that didn't make them any less interesting. He removed the tapes and began reading the writing that, in some parts, had suffered so much that it was unreadable. The text was written on ink or so Konstantin thought, because some parts of it had spread like it had been in contact with water or some other liquid. The writing itself looked like the writer hadn't had enough time and had to write really fast.
"It happened again during the night", Konstantin read aloud. "The past two days the noise has become louder and louder like tormented whispers in an empty room. The voices reverberate through the house as if searching for a victim they can disturb and frighten. Today...I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself staring at bright red eyes burning with hatred. A shadowy figure sitting at my bedside watching me, looking at me like I was its next prey. It didn't do anything more than stare at me, not even blink. Its breathing was rough and somehow it sounded like it was trying to control itself. It was counting but only repeated the same number..."
Not wanting to disturb him, Lara stood quietly, although it was hard to her. The large part in her that loved everything not from this world wanted to ask all the questions swarming in her mind. The rest of her wanted to hear what else had been written on the few pages of someone's diary. The pages themselves looked like they had been torn out of the book. Why, she couldn't tell.
He skipped the rest of the writing concerning that day and moved to the next entry. It was written a couple of days after the first one and the writer seemed more relaxed, like he had discovered a way to hide from the shadowy figure or stop it from coming. Again he read aloud so that Lara could also hear what was written.
"The exorcist came by today and stayed almost six hours. He told me he sensed stronger evil in the house that he had ever met in his career. If I hadn't seen what I saw and heard what I heard I wouldn't have believed him but now he had my whole attention. If there was heaven why shouldn't there be hell? This being that visited me at night was surely from the deepest circles of the place. The exorcist stood a long while in my living room staring at the wall that stood between the living room and a large closet, mumbling prayers and smoothing holy water on the wall. If the situation hadn't been what it was I would've laughed..."
Wall between the living room and a closet? He couldn't remember any closet being there and he was quite sure there wasn't one. According to the diary entries one had existed. Again Konstantin left the rest of the page unread and moved to the one following it. There were again a couple of days that separated the diary entries from each other.
"...It didn't work. After the first night I began to hear the voices again and last night the being sat by my bed once more. It sighed heavily and kept repeating the same number, three. Its breathing was shallow and voice distant like the powers that bound it to this world were weakening. At first light I left the house and went to church to pray, and after it I took a long walk to calm myself down. At the local antique store I found a statue of a crying angel. The piece's name was 'Innocence Lost' and I could clearly see what was meant by it. Something had happened that made the angel cry, perhaps all the evilness inhabiting this world had caused it. I purchased it, hoping it would offer me some protection against the shadowy spirit. I also took a picture of the statue to hide under my pillow."
Konstantin moved to the next diary entry. It was the last one and it was written two days after the one before it.
"A loud crash woke me in the middle of the night, and then I heard sobbing. I jumped up from my bed only to meet the blazing red eyes hovering over me. The creature only said one word: "One", grinned with its rotting teeth and disappeared. I gathered myself and rushed to my study where I believed the crashing voice had come from, and was confronted with a sight I couldn't believe was possible. Pieces of marble lay on the floor and a single real tear rolled down the angel's cheek..."
One. The creature had been counting from ten to one. Konstantin looked at the upper right corner of the last paper again and for a moment he felt like he had crashed into a brick wall. The last date was exactly one day before Nikolas' death but twenty years before it. One.
"One...", he said quietly, as if wanting to know how the word sounded in his ears. "One"
His voice was so quiet that it was hard for Lara to hear it. To her it sounded like mumbling, a combination of letters forming a word not known in any existing language.
"What did you say?" she queried. Leaving things sounding important in the dark wasn't a part of her character. She needed to know. Her life wasn't dependent on it, but her mind was. It needed mysteries, it lived on them. All her life she had tried to avoid becoming an example of what her upbringing could create - a boring noblewoman sitting day after day by the fireplace waiting to be served by the staff of the house. The few glamorous events she could take part in didn't sound inviting to her. She was most at home in the middle of an adventure relying on her guns and wits, relying on something that wouldn't be needed in a noble life.
"This..." he pointed at the last diary entry "...was written by someone one day before Nikolas' death exactly 20 years ago. Someone who lived here" Konstantin replied slowly.
Lara could feel the excitement caused by everything mystical growing inside of her. She loved that feeling. It made her more aware of her surroundings. It made her see everything as a threat. Suddenly running through a hallway was filled with danger where poisonous arrows left their resting places, trying to pierce her skin. Konstantin's voice gave her the shivers. There was something in it that told her he was going toward the deep end of the ocean, the end he had never been to. It was more likely someone would drown in the dark waters than find what they were looking for. She, on the other hand, had learned to swim no matter what kind of storm there was.
Konstantin turned the page once more and was confronted with a couple of diary entries by Nikolas. Greedy for information, he began to read the first one.
"I've noticed a change in the sun medallion I discovered years ago. When it was removed from the wall it was as cold as the first snow but recently I've felt it grow warmer..."
That's it. There was no wonder Konstantin couldn't remember any closet - there hadn't been one for a long time. When Nikolas moved to the house he made renovations, including taking down some walls, or at least Konstantin remembered hearing him say so. Perhaps that sun medallion had been hidden in one of the walls. He swallowed hard and then grabbed the diary entries of the unknown person. As he had remembered the few papers telling about the existence of someone who had lived in the house mentioned the wall between the living room and the closet. The wall that wasn't there anymore. The wall that Nikolas had probably taken down. A small smile crept to his lips. All the years he had known Nikolas the man had managed to keep something like this from him. The German man had known how to keep secrets. Konstantin could only begin to imagine what else had been hidden in Nikolas' mind. All the things he had known and kept as secrets would remain that way for
eternity to come.
"...Its surface emitted faint light, like something inside it was glowing but the covering made it weaker. The metal was like clouds in front of the sun that tried in vain to shine through them. I placed it in a wooden box which I hid behind the books in the bookshelf so that no one would see it, for I wanted to study the hieroglyphs on it in peace."
"Hieroglyphs?" Lara asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Although she had bad memories of Egypt, she had always found its mythology - as well as any other - very interesting, and in the end, what happened to her in Egypt wasn't the fault of the mythology.
Konstantin shrugged his shoulders. He had never studied hieroglyphs, there had been no reason to. His interests had been directed toward the Nephilim race, their language and its multiple variations. In addition to that he had learned to speak German because of his friends, the ones he could really call his friends. Others were just a social disguise, a wall to hide his true self behind.
"On some sun medallion..." Konstantin started but fell quiet as fast as he had opened his mouth. He darted up from the chair and went after his backbag not minding Lara's questions about his rather odd behaviour. It didn't take much rummaging through the bag to discover what he sought - the metallic object that reminded him of the kind of sun children drew. Because of the room being lit he saw the small smile on the face of the sun...no, it wasn't a smile. It was a grin showing the teeth of the sun and, if he wasn't completely wrong, Konstantin saw a mischievous look in its eyes. A strange line of markings surrounded the face of the sun, and Konstantin had to slit his eyes to see that they were hieroglyphs. Was this the medallion Nikolas had found, and if it was, why was it buried with him? Had he found something out that needed to be kept a secret?
Perhaps the notebook would offer an answer to both of the questions or at least the first one, he thought, and rushed back to the table where the notebook lay. Lara had taken a seat and was now eyeing at the pages of the book, but stood up as soon as Konstantin returned, letting him have the seat. She had learned long ago not to put her nose in something as personal as this, and could sense the sparks in this one. If she went too close no one knew what might happen. She could only wonder why he acted in such a very different way when his son was concerned.
Konstantin laid the medallion on the table, not paying any attention to it. When he went back to reading the notebook Lara grabbed the medallion to examine it closer. She, unlike Konstantin, was skilled in the art of reading hieroglyphs. Having better eyesight than Konstantin, she had no trouble seeing the markings on the medallion. She handled the object with care and devotion as if the the medallion itself was priceless. In her eyes it was. It was an object of great value, an object that needed all the love and care she could give.
He noticed Lara reaching out and taking the medallion but decided to let her have it for a while. He was quite sure she could understand the writing on it. He looked at the date on the first entry and was surprised to see that it was months before Nikolas' death. He continued reading the notebook, his brain screaming for a reason for his friend's demise. Many of the following entries contained nothing that made Konstantin interested and he skipped a few of them entirely, not even bothering to look through them. After turning a couple of pages he found a later entry that was written little over ten days before Nikolas' death.
"I remembered the medallion this morning. Guess 'Out of sight, out of mind' worked in this case. I didn't remember its existence 'cause I couldn't see it constantly. It stayed hidden behind the books for weeks and months, and was only found again because of my need to reorganize the bookshelf."
At this point Konstantin laughed. He remembered all too well Nikolas' hatred toward cleaning up. Perhaps in this case someone had told him to do it, otherwise the bookshelf must have been a terrible mess. The house itself had always been tidy. Guess Nikolas kept it that way because of his love toward the building.
"The first thing I noticed wasn't the heat of the object but the glowing red eyes that hadn't been there before. I don't know whether it really happened or whether it was just my imagination, but for a moment it felt like the sun was looking at me. I shoved the object back in its box and rushed to make a phone call to the person who sold me the house. It was the daughter of the woman who lived here before me. She couldn't tell me anything about her mother's last weeks of life but surrendered the items she had inherited from her mother to me. Most of it was of no use but one item gained my interest - a diary. It was obvious that it wasn't the woman's because all the entries had been written before her moving to the house. I called the daughter to ask again and the only answer she could give was that the book probably came with the house. The person who had lived there before her mother had been a loner, and no one had wanted his items after his death"
Konstantin was even more interested. The two former owners had died and so had Nikolas. He continued reading the diary entry.
"As I opened the book a single photograph fluttered to the ground. It was a picture of my study almost exactly how it was today. Few pieces of the furniture were different but what caught my eye was the statue of an angel that had come with the house. In the picture her broken wings were flawless. Not a single crack could be seen on the complete wings and the whole statue looked like new."
The next entry was a few days later, exactly nine days before Nikolas' death.
"I finished reading through the diary late last night. Some time during the night I woke up, only to find the shadowy figure which the entries told about sitting by my bed. Sitting and staring, not doing anything but saying the number nine over and over again. It was hard to determine whether I was awake or sleeping for the atmosphere in the room was dreamlike. It was the creature's eyes that shocked me the most. They had the same red glow as the medallion as if they were one and the same. The first thing I did after waking up this morning was ensure that the box which held the medallion was shut tight and padlocked before I left to meet my friend at the police station."
Police station. The deceased man was full of surprises. Konstantin had had no idea that Nikolas had been friends with the police but perhaps he himself wasn't the only one with secrets. The next few entries described almost exactly the same events as the ones written by the unknown man, but the one that was written five days before Nikolas' death differed.
"The lists arrived today and I wasn't at all surprised at what they had to say. They only confirmed the fact I already knew was true. I was dying."
Konstantin swallowed hard before continuing.
"I paid for my grave spot today and asked them to bury a few items with me when I died. They must've thought that I'd lost my mind"
Konstantin couldn't read anymore. How had Nikolas known he was dying five days before it happened? How did it feel when you knew the exact date of your death? Surely it was one of the things you couldn't be ready for. You couldn't just decide that today you were ready to die, today all of your duties toward this earth and realm of existence had been carried out. That wasn't possible. Konstantin was sure that as the day grew near accepting it became more and more difficult. If he himself was to die tomorrow or a week from now he didn't want to know it, because he knew he'd mourn for all the things he didn't have time to set right. He'd grieve for all those people who thought he had died years ago not knowing he still lived but most of all, he would grieve for his son whom he never knew.
"What lists?" Lara asked from the sofa where she once again was sitting.
Konstantin had obviously either forgotten her existence of the fact that he read aloud.
"I don't have a clue," he repied in a quiet voice, turning the page once more, only to encounter two folded documents filled with writing. He opened the first one and found a short list containing six names, including Nikolas', whose name was the only one not followed by the word 'deceased'. As he examined the list closely its reason came clear to him. On the piece of paper were listed the six people who had inhabited the house and met their demise.
Slowly he unfolded the second document, which appeared to be thicker than the first one, and saw a longer list of names. It seemed to show the deceased people in Nuremberg between the years 1960 and 2003. Five of the names on the list had been underlined and to his amazement Konstantin recognized the names from the previous list. The first thing about them that caught his attention was the date of their deaths - each month and day was the same, only the years differed from each other. He couldn't believe it. There was always exactly ten years between the dates. Ten years. It took him a while to get over the shock that was caused by seeing the lists, and little did he know he was in for another one. Amongst all of the organ failures, cancers, accidents and diseases he made out five unknowns. Five unknown causes of death. Not caring what the time was he grabbed the hotel room's phone and dialed Wolfgang's number. There was one question he desperately needed an answer to.
"WHAT?" was the answer Konstantin got, and he knew that he had woken Wofgang up.
"Wolfgang, it's Konstantin." He could hear a deep sigh at the other end of the line.
"Don't you know what time it is?"
"I'm aware of the time being late but there's one question I need answered."
"Shoot," Wolfgang said sleepily.
"What was Nikolas' cause of death?"
There was a long silence at the other end and for a moment Konstantin thought Wolfgang had fallen asleep again.
"They couldn't tell," was the answer after the long pause.
"He just dropped dead?"
"Yes...if you don't mind I'll continue sleeping now. Bye."
A clicking sound told him that Wolfgang had hung him up. Konstantin stood there a long time holding the phone, looking at nothing in particular. Then he laid the phone down and turned to face Lara.
"You know what they say?"
"This is a poem but it doesn't really say anything that could help us with the location. It only mentions the Halls once. Dead end," answered the woman who sat on the couch.
"What does it say then?"
Lara grabbed the paper she had written the translation on while Konstantin had been on the phone and read it aloud.
"The Doom of men lies in the Halls
In the fiery pit where all the judgement falls
The hero waits as well as the fallen one
To learn will their souls burn or find the sun"
"In the darkness of the gloomy cave
I shall stand and watch their souls wail
What they have done in life shall make
The path they are doomed to take"
"The weight of the feather is the key
To unlock the doors of their destinies
And I watch the heros and villains fall
Standing by my master in the House of the Sun"
"That's all there was," she said in disappointed tone. Was this the only clue they had to help them in their mission to find the Halls of Doom? Was this where it all ended? They had run from the police, stolen a car and dug up a grave, only to find this worthless piece of information. She sighed heavily, stood up and lay the medallion on the table.
"The House of the Sun?" Konstantin asked, and received a nod from Lara. "How come it sounds so familiar?"
He didn't see Lara's face turning to him or the questioning gleam in her beautiful eyes. Konstantin's words had lit up a little spark of hope in her and that was all she needed. So many times before a little glimpse of light or a little clue had kept her going.
"You've heard of it before?" she asked more harshly than she had meant to.
Konstantin was going through the drawers of his mind. Where had he heard that name before? It took many minutes before it dawned on him.
"Maui," he whispered.
"What did you say?" Lara asked, not believeing her ears.
"Maui. We were there on our honeymoon, and she wanted to go looking around because for some reason she had always wanted to go there."
Lara stared at him. This wasn't the time to remember his honeymoon, for there were so much more important things to do.
"What does this have to do with anything?" she asked with annoyed voice.
"The volcano...Haleakala...covers most of the island."
"So?"
"Its other name is 'the House of the Sun'."
Thank you for reviewing. It's nice to hear there are people who think my work is good.
The Notebook, part 2
He stared at the photo, not being able to move his eyes away from it. All the years Nikolas had owned the house the angel's wings had been broken, so the statue must've come with the house. Perhaps it was one of the few things that really had. That could only mean that Nikolas hadn't taken the photo. The handwriting below the photo was Nikolas', there was no doubt about that. Konstantin couldn't understand how the house could be the reason the angel lost its wings. He removed the tapes holding the photograph in place and turned it around.
Lara stood up when she saw him paying attention to the photograph. She took a few steps toward him so she too could see the picture and the notebook.
Konstantin sensed her coming closer but was so interested in the notebook that he didn't really care. The few words written in the back of the picture made him even more interested. The handwriting wasn't Nikolas' this time and for some reason someone had written, 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me'. Konstantin chuckled. He didn't need to be religious to know that the wrods were from the Bible. It seemed that someone who believed in the man upstairs had inhabited the house over twenty years before Nikolas, or at least the date behind the picture claimed so. As far as Konstantin knew the house was older than that.
After eyeing the photo a while Konstantin took the notebook and continued going through it. There were a few papers filled with writing taped to the next page and they had long ago grown yellowish. The handwriting was probably the same as behind the photo but Konstantin couldn't say for sure. One was written hastily while the other had been written like the writer wanted to show off with his or her penmanship. The date in the upper right corner of each paper stated the raw fact that they belonged to the same person. How Nikolas had come across these items Konstantin didn't know, but that didn't make them any less interesting. He removed the tapes and began reading the writing that, in some parts, had suffered so much that it was unreadable. The text was written on ink or so Konstantin thought, because some parts of it had spread like it had been in contact with water or some other liquid. The writing itself looked like the writer hadn't had enough time and had to write really fast.
"It happened again during the night", Konstantin read aloud. "The past two days the noise has become louder and louder like tormented whispers in an empty room. The voices reverberate through the house as if searching for a victim they can disturb and frighten. Today...I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself staring at bright red eyes burning with hatred. A shadowy figure sitting at my bedside watching me, looking at me like I was its next prey. It didn't do anything more than stare at me, not even blink. Its breathing was rough and somehow it sounded like it was trying to control itself. It was counting but only repeated the same number..."
Not wanting to disturb him, Lara stood quietly, although it was hard to her. The large part in her that loved everything not from this world wanted to ask all the questions swarming in her mind. The rest of her wanted to hear what else had been written on the few pages of someone's diary. The pages themselves looked like they had been torn out of the book. Why, she couldn't tell.
He skipped the rest of the writing concerning that day and moved to the next entry. It was written a couple of days after the first one and the writer seemed more relaxed, like he had discovered a way to hide from the shadowy figure or stop it from coming. Again he read aloud so that Lara could also hear what was written.
"The exorcist came by today and stayed almost six hours. He told me he sensed stronger evil in the house that he had ever met in his career. If I hadn't seen what I saw and heard what I heard I wouldn't have believed him but now he had my whole attention. If there was heaven why shouldn't there be hell? This being that visited me at night was surely from the deepest circles of the place. The exorcist stood a long while in my living room staring at the wall that stood between the living room and a large closet, mumbling prayers and smoothing holy water on the wall. If the situation hadn't been what it was I would've laughed..."
Wall between the living room and a closet? He couldn't remember any closet being there and he was quite sure there wasn't one. According to the diary entries one had existed. Again Konstantin left the rest of the page unread and moved to the one following it. There were again a couple of days that separated the diary entries from each other.
"...It didn't work. After the first night I began to hear the voices again and last night the being sat by my bed once more. It sighed heavily and kept repeating the same number, three. Its breathing was shallow and voice distant like the powers that bound it to this world were weakening. At first light I left the house and went to church to pray, and after it I took a long walk to calm myself down. At the local antique store I found a statue of a crying angel. The piece's name was 'Innocence Lost' and I could clearly see what was meant by it. Something had happened that made the angel cry, perhaps all the evilness inhabiting this world had caused it. I purchased it, hoping it would offer me some protection against the shadowy spirit. I also took a picture of the statue to hide under my pillow."
Konstantin moved to the next diary entry. It was the last one and it was written two days after the one before it.
"A loud crash woke me in the middle of the night, and then I heard sobbing. I jumped up from my bed only to meet the blazing red eyes hovering over me. The creature only said one word: "One", grinned with its rotting teeth and disappeared. I gathered myself and rushed to my study where I believed the crashing voice had come from, and was confronted with a sight I couldn't believe was possible. Pieces of marble lay on the floor and a single real tear rolled down the angel's cheek..."
One. The creature had been counting from ten to one. Konstantin looked at the upper right corner of the last paper again and for a moment he felt like he had crashed into a brick wall. The last date was exactly one day before Nikolas' death but twenty years before it. One.
"One...", he said quietly, as if wanting to know how the word sounded in his ears. "One"
His voice was so quiet that it was hard for Lara to hear it. To her it sounded like mumbling, a combination of letters forming a word not known in any existing language.
"What did you say?" she queried. Leaving things sounding important in the dark wasn't a part of her character. She needed to know. Her life wasn't dependent on it, but her mind was. It needed mysteries, it lived on them. All her life she had tried to avoid becoming an example of what her upbringing could create - a boring noblewoman sitting day after day by the fireplace waiting to be served by the staff of the house. The few glamorous events she could take part in didn't sound inviting to her. She was most at home in the middle of an adventure relying on her guns and wits, relying on something that wouldn't be needed in a noble life.
"This..." he pointed at the last diary entry "...was written by someone one day before Nikolas' death exactly 20 years ago. Someone who lived here" Konstantin replied slowly.
Lara could feel the excitement caused by everything mystical growing inside of her. She loved that feeling. It made her more aware of her surroundings. It made her see everything as a threat. Suddenly running through a hallway was filled with danger where poisonous arrows left their resting places, trying to pierce her skin. Konstantin's voice gave her the shivers. There was something in it that told her he was going toward the deep end of the ocean, the end he had never been to. It was more likely someone would drown in the dark waters than find what they were looking for. She, on the other hand, had learned to swim no matter what kind of storm there was.
Konstantin turned the page once more and was confronted with a couple of diary entries by Nikolas. Greedy for information, he began to read the first one.
"I've noticed a change in the sun medallion I discovered years ago. When it was removed from the wall it was as cold as the first snow but recently I've felt it grow warmer..."
That's it. There was no wonder Konstantin couldn't remember any closet - there hadn't been one for a long time. When Nikolas moved to the house he made renovations, including taking down some walls, or at least Konstantin remembered hearing him say so. Perhaps that sun medallion had been hidden in one of the walls. He swallowed hard and then grabbed the diary entries of the unknown person. As he had remembered the few papers telling about the existence of someone who had lived in the house mentioned the wall between the living room and the closet. The wall that wasn't there anymore. The wall that Nikolas had probably taken down. A small smile crept to his lips. All the years he had known Nikolas the man had managed to keep something like this from him. The German man had known how to keep secrets. Konstantin could only begin to imagine what else had been hidden in Nikolas' mind. All the things he had known and kept as secrets would remain that way for
eternity to come.
"...Its surface emitted faint light, like something inside it was glowing but the covering made it weaker. The metal was like clouds in front of the sun that tried in vain to shine through them. I placed it in a wooden box which I hid behind the books in the bookshelf so that no one would see it, for I wanted to study the hieroglyphs on it in peace."
"Hieroglyphs?" Lara asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Although she had bad memories of Egypt, she had always found its mythology - as well as any other - very interesting, and in the end, what happened to her in Egypt wasn't the fault of the mythology.
Konstantin shrugged his shoulders. He had never studied hieroglyphs, there had been no reason to. His interests had been directed toward the Nephilim race, their language and its multiple variations. In addition to that he had learned to speak German because of his friends, the ones he could really call his friends. Others were just a social disguise, a wall to hide his true self behind.
"On some sun medallion..." Konstantin started but fell quiet as fast as he had opened his mouth. He darted up from the chair and went after his backbag not minding Lara's questions about his rather odd behaviour. It didn't take much rummaging through the bag to discover what he sought - the metallic object that reminded him of the kind of sun children drew. Because of the room being lit he saw the small smile on the face of the sun...no, it wasn't a smile. It was a grin showing the teeth of the sun and, if he wasn't completely wrong, Konstantin saw a mischievous look in its eyes. A strange line of markings surrounded the face of the sun, and Konstantin had to slit his eyes to see that they were hieroglyphs. Was this the medallion Nikolas had found, and if it was, why was it buried with him? Had he found something out that needed to be kept a secret?
Perhaps the notebook would offer an answer to both of the questions or at least the first one, he thought, and rushed back to the table where the notebook lay. Lara had taken a seat and was now eyeing at the pages of the book, but stood up as soon as Konstantin returned, letting him have the seat. She had learned long ago not to put her nose in something as personal as this, and could sense the sparks in this one. If she went too close no one knew what might happen. She could only wonder why he acted in such a very different way when his son was concerned.
Konstantin laid the medallion on the table, not paying any attention to it. When he went back to reading the notebook Lara grabbed the medallion to examine it closer. She, unlike Konstantin, was skilled in the art of reading hieroglyphs. Having better eyesight than Konstantin, she had no trouble seeing the markings on the medallion. She handled the object with care and devotion as if the the medallion itself was priceless. In her eyes it was. It was an object of great value, an object that needed all the love and care she could give.
He noticed Lara reaching out and taking the medallion but decided to let her have it for a while. He was quite sure she could understand the writing on it. He looked at the date on the first entry and was surprised to see that it was months before Nikolas' death. He continued reading the notebook, his brain screaming for a reason for his friend's demise. Many of the following entries contained nothing that made Konstantin interested and he skipped a few of them entirely, not even bothering to look through them. After turning a couple of pages he found a later entry that was written little over ten days before Nikolas' death.
"I remembered the medallion this morning. Guess 'Out of sight, out of mind' worked in this case. I didn't remember its existence 'cause I couldn't see it constantly. It stayed hidden behind the books for weeks and months, and was only found again because of my need to reorganize the bookshelf."
At this point Konstantin laughed. He remembered all too well Nikolas' hatred toward cleaning up. Perhaps in this case someone had told him to do it, otherwise the bookshelf must have been a terrible mess. The house itself had always been tidy. Guess Nikolas kept it that way because of his love toward the building.
"The first thing I noticed wasn't the heat of the object but the glowing red eyes that hadn't been there before. I don't know whether it really happened or whether it was just my imagination, but for a moment it felt like the sun was looking at me. I shoved the object back in its box and rushed to make a phone call to the person who sold me the house. It was the daughter of the woman who lived here before me. She couldn't tell me anything about her mother's last weeks of life but surrendered the items she had inherited from her mother to me. Most of it was of no use but one item gained my interest - a diary. It was obvious that it wasn't the woman's because all the entries had been written before her moving to the house. I called the daughter to ask again and the only answer she could give was that the book probably came with the house. The person who had lived there before her mother had been a loner, and no one had wanted his items after his death"
Konstantin was even more interested. The two former owners had died and so had Nikolas. He continued reading the diary entry.
"As I opened the book a single photograph fluttered to the ground. It was a picture of my study almost exactly how it was today. Few pieces of the furniture were different but what caught my eye was the statue of an angel that had come with the house. In the picture her broken wings were flawless. Not a single crack could be seen on the complete wings and the whole statue looked like new."
The next entry was a few days later, exactly nine days before Nikolas' death.
"I finished reading through the diary late last night. Some time during the night I woke up, only to find the shadowy figure which the entries told about sitting by my bed. Sitting and staring, not doing anything but saying the number nine over and over again. It was hard to determine whether I was awake or sleeping for the atmosphere in the room was dreamlike. It was the creature's eyes that shocked me the most. They had the same red glow as the medallion as if they were one and the same. The first thing I did after waking up this morning was ensure that the box which held the medallion was shut tight and padlocked before I left to meet my friend at the police station."
Police station. The deceased man was full of surprises. Konstantin had had no idea that Nikolas had been friends with the police but perhaps he himself wasn't the only one with secrets. The next few entries described almost exactly the same events as the ones written by the unknown man, but the one that was written five days before Nikolas' death differed.
"The lists arrived today and I wasn't at all surprised at what they had to say. They only confirmed the fact I already knew was true. I was dying."
Konstantin swallowed hard before continuing.
"I paid for my grave spot today and asked them to bury a few items with me when I died. They must've thought that I'd lost my mind"
Konstantin couldn't read anymore. How had Nikolas known he was dying five days before it happened? How did it feel when you knew the exact date of your death? Surely it was one of the things you couldn't be ready for. You couldn't just decide that today you were ready to die, today all of your duties toward this earth and realm of existence had been carried out. That wasn't possible. Konstantin was sure that as the day grew near accepting it became more and more difficult. If he himself was to die tomorrow or a week from now he didn't want to know it, because he knew he'd mourn for all the things he didn't have time to set right. He'd grieve for all those people who thought he had died years ago not knowing he still lived but most of all, he would grieve for his son whom he never knew.
"What lists?" Lara asked from the sofa where she once again was sitting.
Konstantin had obviously either forgotten her existence of the fact that he read aloud.
"I don't have a clue," he repied in a quiet voice, turning the page once more, only to encounter two folded documents filled with writing. He opened the first one and found a short list containing six names, including Nikolas', whose name was the only one not followed by the word 'deceased'. As he examined the list closely its reason came clear to him. On the piece of paper were listed the six people who had inhabited the house and met their demise.
Slowly he unfolded the second document, which appeared to be thicker than the first one, and saw a longer list of names. It seemed to show the deceased people in Nuremberg between the years 1960 and 2003. Five of the names on the list had been underlined and to his amazement Konstantin recognized the names from the previous list. The first thing about them that caught his attention was the date of their deaths - each month and day was the same, only the years differed from each other. He couldn't believe it. There was always exactly ten years between the dates. Ten years. It took him a while to get over the shock that was caused by seeing the lists, and little did he know he was in for another one. Amongst all of the organ failures, cancers, accidents and diseases he made out five unknowns. Five unknown causes of death. Not caring what the time was he grabbed the hotel room's phone and dialed Wolfgang's number. There was one question he desperately needed an answer to.
"WHAT?" was the answer Konstantin got, and he knew that he had woken Wofgang up.
"Wolfgang, it's Konstantin." He could hear a deep sigh at the other end of the line.
"Don't you know what time it is?"
"I'm aware of the time being late but there's one question I need answered."
"Shoot," Wolfgang said sleepily.
"What was Nikolas' cause of death?"
There was a long silence at the other end and for a moment Konstantin thought Wolfgang had fallen asleep again.
"They couldn't tell," was the answer after the long pause.
"He just dropped dead?"
"Yes...if you don't mind I'll continue sleeping now. Bye."
A clicking sound told him that Wolfgang had hung him up. Konstantin stood there a long time holding the phone, looking at nothing in particular. Then he laid the phone down and turned to face Lara.
"You know what they say?"
"This is a poem but it doesn't really say anything that could help us with the location. It only mentions the Halls once. Dead end," answered the woman who sat on the couch.
"What does it say then?"
Lara grabbed the paper she had written the translation on while Konstantin had been on the phone and read it aloud.
"The Doom of men lies in the Halls
In the fiery pit where all the judgement falls
The hero waits as well as the fallen one
To learn will their souls burn or find the sun"
"In the darkness of the gloomy cave
I shall stand and watch their souls wail
What they have done in life shall make
The path they are doomed to take"
"The weight of the feather is the key
To unlock the doors of their destinies
And I watch the heros and villains fall
Standing by my master in the House of the Sun"
"That's all there was," she said in disappointed tone. Was this the only clue they had to help them in their mission to find the Halls of Doom? Was this where it all ended? They had run from the police, stolen a car and dug up a grave, only to find this worthless piece of information. She sighed heavily, stood up and lay the medallion on the table.
"The House of the Sun?" Konstantin asked, and received a nod from Lara. "How come it sounds so familiar?"
He didn't see Lara's face turning to him or the questioning gleam in her beautiful eyes. Konstantin's words had lit up a little spark of hope in her and that was all she needed. So many times before a little glimpse of light or a little clue had kept her going.
"You've heard of it before?" she asked more harshly than she had meant to.
Konstantin was going through the drawers of his mind. Where had he heard that name before? It took many minutes before it dawned on him.
"Maui," he whispered.
"What did you say?" Lara asked, not believeing her ears.
"Maui. We were there on our honeymoon, and she wanted to go looking around because for some reason she had always wanted to go there."
Lara stared at him. This wasn't the time to remember his honeymoon, for there were so much more important things to do.
"What does this have to do with anything?" she asked with annoyed voice.
"The volcano...Haleakala...covers most of the island."
"So?"
"Its other name is 'the House of the Sun'."