Free Easy as One Two Three (Emma Frost) by Willow Rose

happened?" I asked.
    "I talked to some guy for a little while waiting for the party to begin. I remember we discussed what was going to happen. None of us had been to a party like this before. There were free drinks, so we had a couple of shots to get us going, then a cocktail or two. Still, nothing happened and I was beginning to think nothing ever would. That it was just another dull party, but soon something did."
    "What happened?" I asked and looked into the girl's eyes.
    "The lights went out."
    "Then what happened?"
    "Then someone screamed."
     

21
    April 2014
    " W AS IT LIKE A fake scream? Like they were having fun, playing a game, or what?" Morten asked.
    "I thought so at first, but then I realized it wasn't. Soon others started screaming and panic spread in the darkness. I tried to walk towards the door, but when I got there, it was locked. I couldn't see anything. There were no windows."
    "Why haven't you told the police all this?" Morten asked. "They don't even know about the party, do they? Or that Mads was there?"
    Sascha shrugged. "I didn't think it mattered. He was hit by the car in the street when he left the party. It had nothing to do with us."
    "Back to the party," I interrupted. "Everybody was now screaming and trying to get out of the doors, right?"
    "Right. But they were locked."
    "What happened next?" I asked.
    "Well, that's the strangest part. I thought it was all part of the game. I kept waiting for the lights to go back on and the game to begin. You know, someone lying on the floor pretending to be dead and then we had to figure out who among us did it. But the lights never came on. Instead, there was a thud and another scream. I heard voices in the darkness and then people fighting. People were screaming and whimpering and wondering whether it was part of the game or not. I was standing close to the door when suddenly it was kicked open and people started storming out. Light came into the room from the outside, but I never saw what had been going on in the room, since people left in such a hurry. It was really a disaster. Not very well planned."
    "So, did you see when Mads left?"
    "I suppose he was running just like the rest of them. I didn't see him in the crowd. That hall was emptied pretty fast and people scattered."
    "So, no one was hurt? Why were they screaming then?" I asked.
    "I have no idea. Maybe it was just all a joke. I really don't know," Sascha said.
    "You said there were voices," I asked. "What did they say? Could you hear what they were talking about?"
    "They seemed to be arguing about something. There were a lot of different sounds and people screaming. But they sounded like they were arguing."
    "Do you remember anything they said?"
    Sascha shook her head. "Not really. Yes, there was something that I'm pretty sure was said. It was the number eleven and something about it being able to bring light in the darkness." Sascha looked like she didn't really believe it. She shook her head. "I don't know. Maybe I heard wrong. It might have been something else."
    It didn't sound like anything we could use, but I wrote it down anyway. I felt frustrated as I looked at my notes. I wasn't getting any closer to my daughter with this. It was all very strange and didn't seem to have anything to do with the accident. But at least now I knew why Mads might have been running from the theater and into the street. He might have been scared in the darkness and, just like the rest of the party, he ran as soon as the door was opened. Maybe there really wasn't much here for me to discover. Someone played a prank on these people that caused them to run. Mads was just unlucky enough to run straight into my daughter's car.
    "Just to clarify," I said. "You didn't see Mads run out into the street and get hit by the car?"
    "No. As far as I know, it happened behind the theater. I ran the other way. I wanted to go home and I live in the opposite direction."
    "So you never saw the car that hit him or what happened