Fire, page 6
‘There is one thing I’ve been wondering about. Why can’t Cat tell you why that grave is so important? It is your familiar after all. How can it know things about you that you don’t know yourself? I mean, first the bank deposit box and now this.’
‘I so wish I knew,’ Nicolaus says and pulls his fingers through his hair. ‘Don’t misunderstand me. I do believe that the gravestone is significant. Otherwise, Cat would not have led the way for Linnéa Wallin. But, no, to start digging in consecrated ground …’
He stops and lowers his voice.
‘I don’t know what is concealed in that grave. But please promise me not to interfere with it. Promise.’
Minoo can’t make herself say the words needed for a lie. Instead, she nods quickly and leaves, hurrying back down the corridor.
When Minoo returns to the hall, she sees Linnéa, who stands in front of the noticeboard and examines the ‘COMMUNITY’ poster. She is wearing a black dress with puff sleeves and a long necklace that looks like barbed wire.
Minoo goes to look at the poster over Linnéa’s shoulder.
‘Have you heard anything about this?’ Minoo asks.
‘No. But “Positive Engelsfors” sounds so typically Helena,’ Linnéa says and points with a bright green nail at the picture of Elias’s mother. ‘That’s how she was going on all the time. Like, you know, “Pull yourself together” and “When a door closes a window opens”. Or “Look on the bright side of life”. People with real problems unnerved her completely.’
‘People like … Elias?’ Minoo suggests cautiously.
Linnéa nods.
‘People like Elias.’
‘Strange that she decided to become a minister.’
‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but most people are so fucking strange,’ Linnéa says.
Adriana Lopez is on her way down the stairs. She is moving quickly and passes them. She looks like her usual composed self as she hurries towards the assembly hall where she’ll soon be welcoming the new pupils to the senior school.
‘We’re to meet in the fairground this Saturday and start the lessons again,’ Minoo says.
Linnéa rolls her eyes skywards.
‘Oh, yeah. Great. We’ll be allowed to start on “defensive magic” at last.’
‘Not sure,’ Minoo says. ‘She seemed like she was up to something. Talked about how there would be changes.’
‘Whatever. The magic lessons could hardly get more pointless. Have you talked with Nicolaus, by the way?’
‘Yes, I have. He’ll never agree to do it.’
‘He’s scared. He doesn’t know what’s in the grave but he’s afraid of what we might find,’ Linnéa says and then adds quickly: ‘It isn’t as if I read his mind on purpose … but sometimes I’m not quite in control.’
Minoo looks into the other girl’s dark eyes. She feels ill at ease, as always when Linnéa’s capacity for mind-reading is mentioned. She can still recall painful moments when Linnéa must have known what Minoo thought.
‘But we have no choice,’ Linnéa continues. ‘We’ll have to do it without telling Nicolaus.’
As Vanessa steps inside the classroom, she looks around for Evelina and Michelle. They haven’t turned up yet. It makes her quite unreasonably irritated. After all, they don’t know that she’s just about to boil over and simply has to talk to them about what she saw last night.
When she left for school this morning, Nicke still hadn’t come home. Vanessa couldn’t bear meeting Mum’s eyes across the breakfast table. Part of her wanted to shout out what she had witnessed. This was her chance to get rid of him. At last. But there was another part of her, a side of herself she hardly recognised, which made Vanessa hold her tongue. That part of herself could not endure the thought of her mother’s grief.
Vanessa collapses on a seat at the very back. Just then, Evelina and Michelle, clinging theatrically on to each other, make an entrance into the classroom.
They sit down on either side of Vanessa. Evelina draws a deep sigh.
‘Christ, I’m knackered. Didn’t sleep last night.’
‘Her parents have been on the phone again, talking to each other,’ Michelle explains.
‘I thought the whole point about divorce was that people didn’t have to fight each other all night long any more,’ Evelina says.
Evelina’s parents divorced several years ago. Since then, she has been living with her mum. Her dad is a long-distance trucker and hardly ever back in Engelsfors. Which doesn’t stop him phoning up from all over Europe to voice his opinions about how Evelina’s mum is bringing up his daughter.
‘Are you all right now?’ Vanessa asks.
Once more, Evelina sighs from the bottom of an abyss.
‘Must it take, like, a hundred years before we’re supposed to be proper adults?’
‘We should live together, the three of us,’ Michelle says. ‘As soon as we’re eighteen. Do you realise what a good time we’d have!’
‘You wouldn’t have to put up with Nicke,’ Evelina adds.
‘But I might get rid of him anyway,’ Vanessa replies.
‘What’s that?’ Michelle asks. ‘What do you mean?’
Vanessa observes the curiosity in her friends’ faces.
They will say that she must tell Mum. And even though they would realise that her mum would be very upset, they wouldn’t see any other problems with the tell-Mum scenario. Like the fact that Vanessa could be the messenger everyone wants to shoot. Besides, Mum mightn’t even believe her.
There is an alternative, Vanessa thinks. Tell Nicke instead. Force him to admit all of it to Mum.
That seems to her to be the best option. But she hasn’t slept all night and doesn’t trust her judgement in the slightest.
She looks at Michelle and Evelina. She loves them but can’t talk to them about this.
‘What’s it about?’ Michelle asks again and twists a dark wavy strand of hair between her fingers.
‘Nothing, really,’ Vanessa replies. ‘Just wishful thinking.’
8
Linnéa manages to slip inside the classroom just before Petter Backman comes plodding along and closes the door behind him. She can sense him ogling her from behind her back and wishes she could shake off his sleazy eyes.
As soon as she had received her power, the art lessons became almost more than she could stand. Backman has always had a reputation for putting his arm around female pupils, rubbing up against them in a creepy way, but Linnéa has never actually caught him at it. He’s presumably too smart. But when he’s sitting at the teacher’s desk or patrolling the art room, he allows his mind free rein instead, with very detailed fantasies.
Olivia is sitting at the back, doodling on her sketchpad. Linnéa goes over to sit next to her. Might as well get this out of the way.
‘Where the fuck were you yesterday?’ Olivia whispers. ‘Why didn’t you reply to my texts?’
Her blue hair looks like radioactive spun sugar. Her heavily made-up face is paler than ever. Sweat has formed tiny runnels in the powder.
‘I forgot,’ Linnéa says.
‘Not answering is so totally mean.’
‘But you’ve hardly been in touch all summer.’
‘So, can I help that my parents force me to stay in the country the entire deadly holidays?’ Olivia looks hurt as she stares at Linnéa with big brown eyes which would look perfect in a Manga figure’s face. Linnéa can’t be bothered to say that she knows Olivia is lying. She has been spotted several times in the centre of town. Blue-haired girls aren’t that common in Engelsfors.
‘You went to Elias yesterday, didn’t you?’ Olivia asks.
‘Yes.’
Olivia carries on doodling in her sketchbook. Always the same kind of picture. A girl with huge eyes weeping black tears.
‘You might’ve phoned,’ she says quietly. ‘I was a good friend of his, too. I’ve been so anguished about having to go back to school. Like, it happened here.’
Linnéa notes the irony of having to carry on avoiding Olivia in order to be alone with Elias, even after his death.
The three of them got to know each other at the same time. They belonged to the same group and went to the same parties. Linnéa and Elias had been spontaneously attracted to each other, as if their friendship was predestined. But Olivia clung to them, shadowed them like a tiresome little sister who tries to be like her older siblings. And who is so keen to do the right thing that she always comes across as slightly off-key, slightly embarrassing.
If Elias talked about a band he had just found out about, Olivia would turn up in school the next day with its name inscribed on her arm in black ink, claiming that she had been listening to that band like for ever.
It was so easy to see through Olivia that Linnéa in the end stopped minding about her. Except that it still maddens her when Olivia chatters about her ‘anguish’ and her ‘problems’, like they’re cool accessories. In fact, her background is an Enid Blyton-style idyll. Mum, Dad and her two older brothers have all treated her as their sweet baby, the favourite, the little princess.
There are moments when Linnéa feels that Olivia uses Elias and his alleged suicide to boost her status. As if the connection with him made her more authentic.
But at other times, like now, this line of thought gives Linnéa a guilty conscience. Olivia is the only one of the old crew who still keeps in touch with Linnéa, now that she has stopped partying. And they do have fun together now and then, although right now Linnéa can’t recall the last time.
The chains on Olivia’s tank top are tinkling as she bends to get closer to Linnéa.
‘I don’t want us to fall out.’
‘We haven’t.’
‘Good. You see, there’s something I want to tell you. I met your dad last Saturday, in Västerås.’
Linnéa stiffens.
‘And do you know what he said?’ Olivia goes on.
‘I don’t want to know.’
‘You must listen to this, honestly. It’s good news.’
‘Nothing to do with my dad is ever good news.’
‘He’s sober now.’
Linnéa’s eyes are fixed on the desktop, where someone has carved EFC Rulez.
‘He told me and I really believe him,’ Olivia continues. ‘He didn’t smell of alcohol or anything like that. And he looked kind of neat.’
I can’t bear this again, Linnéa thinks. Not again.
‘Look, what’s wrong with you?’ Olivia whispers and now she sounds cross again. ‘I thought you’d be pleased.’
Last autumn, Minoo had been keeping the place next to her free for just one, special person. For Rebecka.
Now, the place next to Minoo is empty.
It is true that they had been friends for just a very short time, but that was not how it felt. Did Minoo care so much for Rebecka because of the bond between the Chosen Ones? Or was it because Rebecka was the first real friend Minoo had ever had?
Ylva, the new class teacher, is checking attendance.
‘Minoo Falk Karimi?’ Ylva asks.
Minoo puts her hand up and her name is ticked off.
Ylva is in her thirties. She has thin, blonde hair, round glasses and all the charisma of a cheese sandwich.
Minoo suddenly realises that she misses Max. Just for a moment. And not Max the killer, but Max the teacher.
Now, he lies immobile in a hospital bed, just a few kilometres away but still unreachable. No one knows if he will ever come out of his coma.
Ylva finishes the register and instead starts to scare them systematically with tales of all the hard work they will have to do this year.
Minoo loses herself in memories again. In memories of Max. This time she doesn’t fight them. She looks for clues that she might have missed, but soon she can’t control the direction of her thoughts. Her memories lead their own lives. And suddenly she is there. She sees Alice, Max’s first girlfriend, in her room. Alice, who is so like Minoo.
‘Please, Max, go away,’ she is saying. ‘Didn’t you hear what I said? I never want to see you again.’
Minoo senses anger welling up inside Max. He wants Alice dead. He wants it passionately. And it is in this moment that his powers are aroused. He makes her climb up and stand on the windowsill, then makes her jump. The intoxicating feeling of power that fills Max also rushes into Minoo’s mind, although she only wants to scream.
Minoo grips the edge of the desk. The floor seems to be swaying under her feet. She closes her eyes, breathes deeply a couple of times until the world comes to rest around her again.
When she looks up, he is standing at the teacher’s desk. She knows him. He is the guy from the manor house.
‘I’m sorry I’m late,’ he says and smiles towards Ylva.
‘That’s all right just this once. Since you’re new to the school.’
She tries to look strict, but can’t hide a little smile. And she is blushing.
‘Class, this is Viktor Ehrenskiöld. He has just moved to this area and I hope you’ll all do your best to make him feel at home,’ Ylva says and then turns to Viktor. ‘Just find a spare place, please, and settle down.’
Viktor looks straight at Minoo. Despite the heat, he is wearing trousers, a shirt and a thin blue cardigan. Its colour enhances his eyes, makes them glow with an almost unreal, intense blue. Cornflower blue. He nods to Ylva, then goes and sits down next to Minoo.
‘I’ll take this opportunity to remind you that the places you have chosen today will be yours for the rest of the term. At least during my lessons,’ Ylva says.
Kevin protests from the far end of the classroom.
‘Hey, miss! Is this effing primary school, or what? I don’t want to sit here all term!’
Levan, who is sitting next to Kevin, fiddles with his glasses but doesn’t say anything.
‘Well, we’ve all got our crosses to bear,’ Ylva says absently, as she skims through some papers in front of her. ‘But if not, how am I going to learn your names? Answer me that, eh … Kevin?’
Viktor opens his brown leather satchel and lines up notebook, propelling pencil and rubber on the desktop. Shifts the rubber along a few millimetres. Fascinated, Minoo observes him out of the corner of an eye.
Even at close proximity he might have come straight out of an advertisement. He is fully dressed but shows not the slightest sign of sweating. He doesn’t even smell. Not of sweat, not of perfume, nothing. As if there were no human body inside his clothes. Minoo suddenly feels acutely aware of being moist and sticky all over.
Viktor, finally satisfied with his little desktop arrangement, turns to her.
‘It seems like we’ll have to put up with each other for a while,’ he says.
There might have been a hint of a smile around the corners of his mouth, but the impression fades so quickly she thinks it must have been her imagination. Then Viktor turns to Ylva once more and seems to pay attention.
The bell rings for the break. Anna-Karin sees Minoo rise and hurries to catch up with her.
‘Do you have time to talk?’ Anna-Karin asks quietly.
Minoo nods and glances meaningfully towards the staircase up to the top floor.
They start walking without looking at each other, pretending not to be going to the same place. It is hard to get rid of last year’s fear that they might give themselves away to the demons.
Anna-Karin sneaks a sideways glance at Minoo. She asks herself if they are friends now, after all they have been through together, all they have been made to reveal to each other. Or is it simply fate that has forced them into each other’s company? Made them some kind of …colleagues in the struggle against the apocalypse?
New messages have been scribbled all over the door to the toilet. Pupils still make a pilgrimage to this place in order to write messages for Elias and Rebecka, or just to make some general point by leaving their marks. But the toilet is hardly ever used. Rumour has it that the place is haunted.
As Anna-Karin opens the door, her eye is caught by a couple of lines written in round letters.
DON’T WORRY!
BE HAPPY!
Anna-Karin steps inside and checks the cubicles.
‘No one here,’ she says. ‘Except us, that is.’
Her voice echoes against the tiled walls. Minoo doesn’t reply. She stands silently, looking at the window. Then at the washbasins. Along the wall where the mirrors used to be. The screw-holes in the tiles are still there.
‘How are things?’ Anna-Karin asks.
‘All right. It just feels strange to be here. What did you want to talk about?’ she says, fixing her eyes on Anna-Karin.
It’s her laser-beam gaze that looks capable of cutting through stone and steel. Anna-Karin clears her throat.
‘The forest,’ she manages to say. ‘It’s dying.’
Minoo looks confused.
‘But not because of the drought,’ Anna-Karin continues. ‘Something else is going on. Something is wrong.’
‘What do you mean?’
Anna-Karin feels frustrated. She wants to make Minoo understand. But how to go about it, since she herself hardly understands? She starts over again.
‘Something is going wrong with the forest and it might have to do with the dry hot weather, of course. But what if it is the other way round? What I’m trying to say is, could it be that the bad things happening to the forest are also causing the drought?’
Anna-Karin tries to interpret the look on Minoo’s face. Pitying? Thoughtful? Irritated?
‘All I thought was … well, that it might be worth thinking about,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘You know how everyone is talking about the unnatural heat … what if it really is unnatural? Like, supernatural?’
She shrugs, looks away. Regrets that she started on all this. ‘Forget it,’ she says.
‘No, don’t say that, it’s fine,’ Minoo replies. ‘We know nothing about what the demons are planning. We must be alert to everything.’
Anna-Karin wonders if she says this only to make the situation less embarrassing for them both.
‘Have you talked to Nicolaus?’ she asks.
Minoo nods.
