Chapter 13

Won was sitting in his wardrobe and shining a little torch at the picture he’d taken of the journal pages. He’d padded his bed out to look like he was in it and was hiding to do as much as he could to avoid getting discovered. Now he had time to analyse the pages a bit better, he could see how it seemed a little more frantic than usual. It also didn’t start with the usual weirdly exact age of the twins and looked more incoherent than usual. He squinted to read the pages better, and as he couldn’t see the dates well enough he just started with the first one to the left. “I told Wilhelm about my theory. Today, Won got sick. He vomited. I’m worried. He was fine a few minutes ago. I think he might’ve eaten something bad. I don’t think he ate it by accident. I asked him if he ate anything weird, and he said that he only had a biscuit that Wilhelm had given him. I think my brother poisoned him. This proves that Won cannot see the future doesn’t it? Wim is worried and also doesn’t know what is happening. I made Won promise he won’t eat or drink anything suspicious his uncle gives him ever again, he promised he wouldn’t. I think I might die today.” Won stopped reading. He pocketed the photo and snuck out of the wardrobe. Won picked up the teacup that his uncle had offered him and shone his light into it. The bottom of his cup was covered in a thin layer of a slightly soggy white powder. It was giving off a strong smell, a lot like almonds. And then he suddenly realised why the small jar of powder had a familiar smell. He felt sick. His uncle had actually tried to poison him, and he didn’t know why he would ever do that. And with a sudden feeling of horror he realised that that must have been the reason his brother was sick. He ran out of his room, and he could see that the door to brother’s room was open. Won rushed in. There was no one in the room. He realised that he’d been too loud when he heard someone’s footsteps behind him. “Won? What are you doing here?” Won froze at his uncle’s voice. “Are you looking for Wim? He’s in my room, don’t worry about him and go back to bed.” Won felt a little bit of terror and obeyed, and he walked a little bit wobbly when he exited the room and rushed back to his own, not knowing what to do. He couldn’t leave Wim with his uncle, but how was he supposed to do that? Wim might not be in uncle Will’s room, and if he was, it was still way too risky to get his brother into his own room, especially since his uncle seemed completely capable of hurting them both. He closed the door behind him, wondering if he could go out and go warn Wim if he could sneak to his uncle’s room later. But he heard a small rustling of a shirt from the other side of the door, and he knew his uncle was secretly standing guard behind the door when he didn’t say anything or ask to come in. Won curled up into a ball with his back against the door, and hoped that his uncle at least wouldn’t be able to do anything to Wim if he stood behind the door for the rest of the night. But after a few long moments Won heard a rustling that told him that his uncle had left. He scrambled up from his uncomfortable position and felt a few of his joints crack. He scrambled out of his room and made sure that there was absolutely no chance his uncle was home. Then he ran to his uncle’s room and loudly knocked. “Wim? Are you in there?” He heard no reply, so he tried the door handle. It was still locked.