The Toy Prince

2. Ursula

She woke up with a start.

For a full five seconds Ursula could not place where she was nor why she'd woken up. Then she saw the lilies and remembered that she was in Germany.

Slowly she sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and running a hand through her hair. That was when she finally realised why she'd woken up. The bracelet on her wrist had begun burning. It wasn't a painful heat, more left in the sun too long but was uncomfortable enough for her to sit up and take notice.

She tried to take the bracelet off but no amount of tugging would get it off. It was almost as if it was fused to her skin. Then it became unnecessary to take it off because the heat stopped as suddenly as it had started.

Brushing off the strangeness of the past minute, she lay back down but almost immediately sat back up again when the clock downstairs struck the hour. The Grandfather clock's chimes clearly reached her despite the distance between her room and the room where the clock was. The most unsettling thing was that the clock had been broken for years because her Oma had preferred it as decoration rather than functional.

Of course she could have just fixed it.

So why was she so scared? She was being paranoid because in her mind the clock was a sign that her stalker was here and he was taunting her. Irrational and completely ludicrous but fear robbed you of rational thought. She'd learnt that the hard way.

Next she heard the voices causing the fear level to skyrocket.

It took her a good minute to recognise that she could hear more than one voice. After that she was certain that it wasn't her stalker but either someone her Oma knew or at the very worst they were burglars. Either way she wasn't going to know if she stayed in her bedroom. She had to go and look.

With her heart in her mouth she cautiously made her way downstairs. The voices were much clearer now that she was closer to the source. Whoever it was they were speaking in German. Hers was too rusty for her to confidently make out what they were saying.

Ursula slowly walked towards the shouting. Surely burglars wouldn't announce themselves so obviously?

The shouting seemed to be coming from the parlour so that was where she headed. She stood in the shadows of the open doorway and peered inside. Five strangely dressed men were stood in the centre of the parlour, in front of the Christmas tree, heads buried in deep conversation. Her instincts were screaming at her that this wasn't good. She decided that now was time to back away and call the police.

She didn't end up making it very far.

Someone pulled her into the shadows, clamping one hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming and an arm held her completely still against her attackers body. In truth whoever it was didn't need to hold her. Her body was frozen in terror and her thoughts were similarly frozen.

All she could do was watch through the crack of the door as the men in the parlour moved out of sight. She could hear them talking, even catching the odd word that she could understand.

Journal, King, Conrad wants...

Snippets of a conversation that made no sense to her without the rest of the puzzle pieces. She strained her ears to hear anything else but the voices seemed to have completely stopped. The silence seemed to crash down on her and finally spurred her into action. She started struggling against the person holding her, wriggling left and right in an attempt to loosen her attackers grip.

To her surprise she was let go.

Instantly she turned around and struck out at the shadows that hid her attacked. Her fists weren't strong but they connected with someone who let out an oomph of surprise. Satisfied that she'd hurt him, she took off running towards the stairs. She had to get to her Oma, lock themselves somewhere safe and then call the police.

She ran up the first flight of stairs to the bedroom that her Oma slept in. She burst through the door, expecting to see her Oma already up or possibly still asleep. She was not expecting the bed to be empty and for the room to look like there'd been a fight in it.

"OMA?"

Ursula wasn't sure where she was going or what she was doing. Somehow she'd ended up back at the parlour only this time she flung the doors open to reveal an empty room.

"She's gone."

She turned violently at the voice.

The man behind her was not what she'd expected. He was tall, at least six foot, with dark blonde hair and a lean physique that she knew was deceptive. He was strong. She could still feel the ghosts of his hands holding her in the shadows. The clothes he wore were the same as the men she'd seen earlier – black and gold hussars jacket, white trousers and black boots – but why was he here when his friends had left? His dark blue eyes were appraising her, turning her fear to anger.

"Who are you? Where have they taken my Oma?"

"Niklaus," he replied, after a moment's consideration. "As for what's happened to Annelie, I don't think I'm the best person to explain."

"OK Niklaus, you are the only person here so unless you start talking I'm going to call the police."

He shrugged and leaned up against the doorway. "Go ahead. I won't be here when they arrive."

I'll call that bluff.

She stalked past him to the hallway where the house phone was. It had been so close to her the entire time she'd been standing outside the door like a useless statue. Shame burned in her cheeks and hot, angry tears blurred the numbers on the phone in front of her. It took her two tries to get through to someone because initially she dialled 999 rather than 112.

Trying to explain to the operator what she needed in her terrible German was another hurdle to overcome. The fact that Niklaus was watching her the entire time made her stumble over her words more often than she liked. When she was sure the police were coming, she put the receiver down.

"The police are on their way."

She turned to glare at Niklaus. Her anger seemed to amuse him because he chuckled and shook his head.

"You really are clueless aren't you?"

"You should leave before they get here," she snapped. She was being mocked by him and she didn't like it. "Get out!"

Niklaus pushed off from the wall, stalking over to her so that his 6ft2 frame towered over her. "I really am sorry Ursula. Things are only going to get worse from here."

She swallowed down her fear at how close he was and his ambiguously veiled threat. Niklaus sighed and took a step back, letting her breathe again.

"Just remember there was nothing you could have done to protect Annelie. They would have just taken you too."

Before she could speak the doorbell grabbed her attention, ringing three times in a row. The police had arrived quicker than she'd expected but she shouldn't have been surprised. Her Oma had asked them to keep a close eye on the house.

She returned her attention to Niklaus only to discover that the hallway was empty. Just like her Oma he had disappeared.