Courageous: Afterlife Book Four (21 page)

W
ILLOW
R
OSE
is an international Best-selling author. She writes Mystery/Suspense/Horror, Paranormal Romance and fantasy. Originally from Denmark she now lives on Florida's Space Coast with her husband and two daughters. She is a huge fan of Stephen King, Anne Rice and Isabel Allende. When she is not writing or reading she enjoys watching the dolphins play in the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Her books have been downloaded in more than 400.000 copies.

Connect with Willow online:

http://www.willow-rose.blogspot.com/
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The following is an excerpt from
Willow Rose's International Bestselling Scandinavian Mystery/Horror Novel:
O
NE,
T
WO ...
H
E IS COMING FOR YOU
(Rebekka Franck #1)
.

ONE
,
TWO
...

HE
IS
COMING
FOR
YOU

Rebekka Franck #1

P
ROLOGUE

O
NE, TWO …
the song in his head wouldn’t escape. Sure, he knew where it came from. It was that rhyme from the horror movies. The ones with the serial killer, that Freddy Krueger guy with a burned, disfigured face, red and dark green striped sweater, brown fedora hat, and a glove armed with razors to kill his victims in their dreams and take their souls, which would kill them in the real world. “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” that was the movie’s name. Yes, he knew its origin. And he had his reasons for singing that particular song in this exact moment. He knew why, and so would his future victims.

He lit a cigarette and stared out the window at a waiting bird in the bare treetop. Waiting for the sunlight to come back, just like the rest of the kingdom of Denmark at this time of the year. Waiting for spring with its explosion of colors, like a sea of promises of sunlight and a warmer wind. But still the winter had to go away. And it hadn’t. The trees were still naked, the sky gray as steel, the ground wet and cold. February always seemed the longest month in the little country though it was the shortest in the calendar. People talked about it every day as they showed up for work or school.

Every freaking day since Christmas.

Now, it wouldn’t be long before the light came back. But in reality it always took months of waiting and anticipating before spring finally appeared.

The man staring out the window didn’t pay much attention to the weather though. He stood with his cigarette between two fingers. To him, the time he had been waiting ages for was finally here.

He kept humming the same song, the same line.
One, two, he is coming for you
.... The cigarette burned a hole in the parquet floor. He picked up the remains with his hands wearing white plastic gloves and carefully placed them in a small plastic bag that he put in his brown briefcase. He would leave no trace of being in the house where the body of another man was soon to be found.

He closed the briefcase and went into the hall, where he sat in a leather chair by the door to the main entrance.

Waiting for his victim to come home.

He glanced at himself in the mirror by the entrance door. He could see from where he was sitting how nicely he had dressed for the occasion.

He was outfitted in a blue blazer with the famous Trolle coat of arms on the chest, little yellow emblem with a red headless lion—the traditional blazer for a student of Herlufsholm boarding school. The school was located by the Susaa River in Naestved, about 80 kilometers south of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. As the oldest boarding school in Denmark, the school took pride in an array of unique traditions. Some of them the world outside never would want to know about.

The blazer was now too small, so he couldn’t close it, but otherwise he was looking almost like he had been back in 1986. He was, after all, still a fairly handsome man. And unlike the majority of the guys from back then, he had kept most of his hair.

His victim had done well for himself, he noticed. No surprise in that though, with parents who were multibillionaires. The old villa by the sea of Smaalands farvandet in the southern part of Zeeland was big and admirable. It could easily fit a couple of families. It was typical of his victim to have a place like this just as his holiday residence.

When he heard the Jaguar on the gravel outside, he took the glove out of the briefcase and put it on his right hand. He stretched his fingers and the metal claws followed.

He listened for voices but didn’t hear any to his satisfaction.

His victim was alone.

C
HAPTER 1

“
W
E’RE GOING
to be too late. Do you want me to be fired on my first day”? I yelled for the third time while gazing up the stairs for my six-year-old daughter, Julie.

“Go easy on her, Rebekka. It’s her first day too,” argued my father.

He stood in the doorway to the living room of my childhood home, leaning on his cane. I smiled to myself. How I had missed him all these years living in the other part of the country. Now he had gotten old, and I felt like I had missed out on so much and that he had missed out on so much of our lives too. It was fifteen years since I left the town to study journalism. I had only been back a few times since and then, of course, when Mom died five years ago. Why didn’t I visit him more often, especially after he was alone? Instead I had left it to my sister to take care of him. She lived in Naestved about fifteen minutes away.

Well there was no point in wondering now.

“You can’t change the past,” my dad would say. And did say when I called him crying my heart out and asking him if Julie and I could come and stay with him for a while.

I sighed and wished I could change the past and change everything about my past. Except for one thing. One delightful little blond thing.

“I’m ready, Mom.”

Her.

Julie is the love of my life. Everything I‘ve done has been for her and her future. I sacrificed everything to give her a better life. But that meant I had to leave it all behind—her dad, our friends and neighbors, and my career with a huge salary. All for her.

“I’m ready.” She ran down the stairs looking like an angel with her beautiful blond hair braided in the back.

“Yes, you are,” I nodded and looked into her bright blue eyes. “Do you have everything ready for school”?

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