Chapter 5: End of all hope

Steve was walking through a corridor of what appeared to be a very big house. It was probably night, because everything was covered in a blanket of darkness. He went up a stairs and came on the next landing with the same dark corridors. Steve wondered what he was doing here and decided to look out of a window to see whether he could determinate where he was. He held his breath when he did so. Out of the window, he saw a solarium full a blossoming plants, which looked horribly like the ones at Rose Red. However, he knew it didn't only look like it, he knew he was in Rose Red. The next thing he saw nearly made him scream. There hanging on a rope from a tree was he, himself. He had clearly hung himself there. Then he did scream, as a cold and pearl white hand grabbed his shoulder.

'Steve! Steve, listen to me!'

Steve opened his eyes and stopped screaming once he heard himself. He was strapped in his white blankets and his nose nearly touched that of his wife's. Nurses were running into the room to see what had happened. Steve dropped himself back into the cushions again and sighed. Meanwhile Ellen turned to face the bewildered nurses and explained them what had happened. They all eyed Steve with a look of sadness and then went away once more. Ellen turned to Steve and sat down next to his bed.

'Steve,' she started now calmly, 'We must talk. I have just talked to the doctors and we have agreed that you should go home now. Every night you keep awake the other patients with your screaming and it's not good for them, but neither for you. The best way for you to relax is in your house, our house, in Rose Red.'

Steve was still too tired to reply, even though they were all wrong. He didn't need, didn't want to go back. The only thing in the whole world that wasn't good for him was going back to Rose Red, because there death awaited him. They just didn't understand that his nightmares were about going back to the only house he ever dared to call home.

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There he was, once again trapped in the giant walls of the house. The doctors said he should stay at least one more week in bed and nothing was allowed but sleep, eat and read. The thing that annoyed him most was the fact that out of the window he had view of the Solarium. Another thing that was bothering him was the thing of not knowing anything, because he still didn't know what had happened after he passed out. Why did Ellen scream, had they found the body and everything else that could have happened? Therefore, after laying there in his bed for only two days of thinking and guessing, he decided it was time to ask all those things to his wife. She would hopefully take it all right and didn't get angry or anything else with him.

'Ellen, may I ask you something?' he started once she had walked in to bring his lunch.

At first, she acted as if she hadn't heard him, but when she had put down his lunch next to him, she sat down. She stared at the ground and sighed, as if she knew this had been coming. Then she looked up again in his eyes. Steve could see that she was fighting back her tears with great difficulty. At that moment, she started her story.

'I know you are going to ask me about the night of a week ago. I'll tell you everything, but please do not interrupt me. I'll start at the beginning with Corrine and the suspicion I had for what was going on between you two. I noticed that you were looking at her more often, then you looked at me and your thoughts were always flowing in her direction. At some point, something inside me cracked and I decided that I had to stop this before something really happened between you two. For me it was the end of all hope. Therefore, I watched the staff closely and once I heard that you had called for her, she was up the tower before she knew it. I had simply told her that I needed something from there and up she went without any fear after what had happened to Sukeena. Then I closed the door. She begged me to let her out and that she didn't want to interfere between you and me. She cried many tears and nearly screamed when I went away. Next, I hurried off to your room, when we heard her terrified scream and I thought it couldn't be true. You went away to see what had happened and left me all alone standing in your bedroom. Following thing I know was that I sat with you in the ambulance and in the hospital. Finally, back here in Rose Red all other things still had to be done and for now you were away, I had to do everything. The children, the staff, everyone was confused and in the house it was pandemonium. Again all the hope within me was gone and I thought we could never life here in peace. This however, will be a story for tomorrow because you need rest and you have to sleep now.'

It took Steve a few seconds before he realised that Ellen had gotten up and was walking towards the door.

'No Ellen wait, please tell me or I won't be able to sleep at all. Please don't leave me.'

Ellen turned her head and looked deep in Steve's eyes, who looked back determinately. It worked, because Ellen was walking towards the bed again. She took a sip of his glass of water, sighed once more and sat down.

'The body of Corrine has never been found again, but I made sure that it was as you wished and nobody alerted the police. Your other wish however, has not been for filled. Jake had clearly heard some of the staff talk about the happening and told me he want to leave the house and go to boarding school. If we didn't agree with him, he said he'd leave us himself. I told him we'd agree and he will leave next month. However, I made him swear he wouldn't tell anyone about what he knows and so I did with the staff. They know that if they tell anyone that they'll be fired and I'll make sure they never get hired anywhere anymore. That's all to tell I think.'

Steve's head did indeed start to get light, but there was one more thing Ellen hadn't told him and that he'd like to know.

'Why did you scream when I was gone to look what had happened to Corrine? You said the next thing you knew was that you were in the ambulance, but I'm sure you do know why you screamed at that moment.'

Ellen now defiantly looked away from his eyes and replied in a much quieter voice.

'I saw something that I couldn't have seen.'

Steve kept on looking at her, but it looked like Ellen wasn't intending to tell anything else. Therefore, Steve tried again, because he wanted to know what she'd seen.

'Ellen you can tell me, I'll believe you. I promise.'

A tear fell on the bedspread when Ellen opened her mouth to go on with her story in a whisper.

'I – I saw out of your window the Solarium and in there were no plants, but people. All transparent people of whom I've seen on old pictures that I've found here in the house. However, that was not everything; they seemed to be standing in a circle around something. Then a few of them made way and I could see what was there. There was a little girl, crying over her red-haired doll. She looked remarkably like Emma, only she had a shrunken arm. Next to the girl was another body of a young woman, covered in blood and shiny pieces of coloured glass…'

There now fell a silence, which was broken by Steve.

'April.'

'What did you say?' Ellen said looking surprised at Steve.

'The girl with the shrunken arm that you saw, was April. April was John and Ellen Rimbauer's daughter. She has disappeared in this house too.'

Ellen looked horrified by this new piece of information.

'Don't worry Ellen, will survive. I promise you with my whole heart that this house is not the end of all hope, we'll make it the house that it is supposed to be. Full of laughter and friends, starting with a inaugural in January,' Steve said.

Ellen gave him a weak smile and kissed him on the cheek.

'Now you have to sleep, sweet dreams,' Ellen told Steve and stood up.

Steve nodded, because he suddenly felt very sleepy. If he had just his eyes open a little bit longer, he could have seen how Ellen walked out of the room with a grin on her face looking happier then ever before. Rose Red was celebrating with her, because the Solarium was filled with beautiful flowers even though it was already September.

Chapter 6: A new 'shocking' beginning