Shadow Sister (29 page)

It feels like I’m floating and my body tingles all over, as if I’ve been wired to an invisible energy source. It’s blue around me and very bright. I move around, at the speed of my thoughts. My senses have never been this sharp and I’m aware of being on my way to a larger entity.

I’m dead. No, I’m not dead, I’m alive in the next stage. Death is not the end, it’s just another natural process. I’m the same person as before.

It is getting colder. A voice reaches me and I look ahead at the trembling apparition. It gets closer all the time.

‘Lydia,’ I whisper.

A cautious happiness bubbles up inside. I’m crying. She approaches slowly, until she’s standing right in front of me. She’s not pale or transparent, but just like she always was.

‘Elisa,’ she says with a smile.

I can’t get a single word out. We step forward and embrace. When I finally let my sister go, she seems to fade. I try to grab
hold of her arm, but my hand goes through it.

‘Don’t go away!’ I cry. ‘Please!’

Lydia gives me a loving look and nods towards something below. ‘You don’t belong here, Elisa. Go back. It’s better that way.’

When I open my eyes again, my eyelids are heavy and my lips parched. My eyes fill up with tears. For an instant, a short instant, I was with my sister again and now I have to go on without her.

I look around. It hurts to move my head. Everything is white. I’m lying in bed in a small room. There’s a drip set up next to my bed. The tube runs into my hand and is attached with a large plaster. I look at it, stupefied. Where am I?

I’m in hospital. I’m not dead.

I slowly recall how I ended up here and fear strikes my heart. Thomas!

Where is he?

I try to sit up, but fall back onto my pillow groaning. What did he make me take, and why am I still alive? I feel around for the buzzer. It’s not long before a nurse comes in. She hurries towards me with a big smile.

‘You’re back! Thank god! We were terribly worried about you.’ She grasps my wrist and takes my pulse, her eyes focused on the window.

‘That all seems to be fine.’ She smiles again. ‘How do you feel?’

‘What happened?’ I ask in a strange, croaky voice. ‘Where’s Thomas?’

Her smile is replaced with a frown. ‘Did he give you that rubbish?’

‘What rubbish?’ My voice sounds strange to my ears, as if I’m under water and every noise is distorted when it reaches me.

‘GHB,’ the nurse says, or perhaps she’s a doctor, because a stethoscope hangs around her neck.

‘GHB? That’s some kind of drug, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, but luckily it wasn’t that much,’ she says, ‘but we did have to give you something to neutralise it. All in all, you’ve been unconscious for quite a while.’

‘How…how did you know?’ I say.

‘Someone called to say that you were on your own at home and that you’d taken GHB,’ the doctor says.

‘Thomas,’ I mutter. Why did he give me drugs only to tell the hospital afterwards? He wasn’t planning on murdering me. So why did he confess about Lydia and then knock me out?

I’m suddenly very worried and I grab the doctor’s arm. ‘Thomas,’ I repeat. ‘Where is he?’

She looks down at me, full of compassion. ‘He was a good friend of yours, wasn’t he?’

‘Was?’ My voice sounds husky. Deep down inside I know they are using the past tense because our friendship is now over.

The doctor hesitates. ‘Shall we talk about it later?’ she suggests.

‘No, I want to know. Tell me, please,’ I insist.

She continues to hesitate.

‘He’s dead then?’ I say in a strangled voice.

She realises that I won’t be able to rest until I know the truth.

‘Did he commit suicide?’ I ask.

She nods. ‘He took GHB too, but in a larger dose. He was lying next to you in the bed. We couldn’t save him.’

In spite of everything, I begin to cry for Thomas, for the lonely, hung-up soul he was, who didn’t know how to get any more out of life than this. I cry until the tears run dry. From my bed I can see the hospital entrance and a stream of visitors coming in through the revolving doors, their arms full of presents and flowers.

It’s a lovely day. Outside the window, the heavy foliage of the trees sways in the breeze. The sky is blue and shimmers with warmth and promise.

I’m alive. Slowly a feeling of gratitude rises up in me, I’d thought that everything was over, but I’m still alive. I’ll have to manage without my sister, but not forever. I’m sure of that.

I gaze at the cloudless blue sky for a long time and I can’t stop a hesitant smile from spreading over my face.

SIMONE VAN DER VLUGT
was born in the Netherlands in 1966, and has been internationally acclaimed for her psychological thrillers. She is the author of
The Reunion
which has sold over 200,000 copies in Holland. She lives with her husband and two children in Alkmaar.

Michele Hutchison has worked in the publishing industry for ten years. She was born in the United Kingdom, and now lives in Amsterdam with her Dutch husband and two children.

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First published in Great Britain by Harper
Press
in 2010
1

Original text © Simone van der Vlugt 2005
English language translation © Michele Hutchison 2009/10
First published in Dutch as
Schaduwzuster
by Anthos, Amsterdam
First published in English by Text Publishing Co Melbourne

Simone van der Vlugt asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-0-00-730138-6

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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EPub Edition © NOVEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-007-30139-3

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