The Toy Prince

3. Ursula

The first question the police officer at the door asked would forever stick in Ursula's mind.

"Has the clock chimed?"

"Excuse me?"

"Has the clock chimed?" he repeated the question again but Ursula didn't understand it anymore the second time around. "Miss Silber, before you saw the men in the house did the clock chime?"

She had to think about her answer before she spoke. "Yes it did."

The officer nodded. "OK. I need to come in and check the house."

"Of course." She moved aside so that he could come inside.

She went and sat down on sofa as the police officer looked around the house. She wasn't sure what to make of the man except that just having him there made her feel safe. He was younger than she'd expected, no older than his mid-twenties, and he spoke to her in English with a light German accent. He was near the exact opposite of Niklaus – six foot, brown hair and brown eyes.

When he came back into the parlour he sat down beside her. There was a grim expression on his face that concerned her. She hadn't looked very far for her Oma so maybe she hadn't been kidnapped and was hurt somewhere in the house.

"What is it?" she asked. Even to her own ears her voice sounded small and scared.

Before he answered the radio on his shoulder crackled. "Excuse me," he said, leaving the room. He came back a few minutes later and he wasn't alone.

"Hello Ursula. It's been a long time since I have seen you. You're looking well though," the woman who'd joined the police officer said. She looked familiar and it took Ursula a moment to recognise that it was her Oma's best friend, Josephine Ritter.

Josephine smiled when she saw the recognition on Ursula's face.

"Adler, why don't you be a dear and make everyone a cup of tea. I need to explain what's happening to Ursula."

"OK."

Adler left them alone and Josephine crossed the room to sit on the armchair opposite Ursula. A thousand questions burned inside of her but she couldn't bring herself to talk. Why was a police officer listening to Josephine? How had she even known to come here? Last she remembered Josephine had been a lawyer in the city and was not a police officer.

"You have a lot of questions."

Ursula blinked at Josephine's question. "Why are you here?"

"Adler alerted me when he received the call. I came as quickly as I could because I knew that you would need my help."

"How can you help? Surely the police are better equipped to find out who's took Oma," Ursula replied.

Josephine sighed and sat back in the armchair. "There's a lot you don't know about Annelie so that's why I'm here to tell you what happened. A group of five men broke into your house and they took Annelie to a place called Konigreich."

"Konigreich? I've never heard of it."

"You wouldn't have. It's a country hidden inside a pocket of reality that exists alongside ours. It can only be entered or exited through that clock which chimes whenever that happens. That's why Adler asked if it had chimed."

Josephine stopped talking, watching her expectantly. Ursula closed her eyes and tried to calm her thoughts when really all she wanted to do was shout at Josephine that she was insane. Hidden countries in extra realities? Science fiction much.