Fire (49 page)

Be a man, you wimp. You hate this slag as much as I do.

The baseball bat looks heavy in his hand.

You heard me. Jump. I thought all you psychos wanted to kill yourselves anyway.

The water is running so swiftly under the bridge, black and gleaming like oil.

Someone should fuck you first but we don’t fancy catching Aids.

And she falls through the air, falls, falls and she knows she will die.

Ida gasps for breath when she hits the water.

Ida opens her eyes. She is lying on the cold floor of the toilets. Linnéa’s face is floating into sight above her.

‘You saw,’ Linnéa says with tears running down her face. ‘You saw it, didn’t you?’

Ida can still feel the icy-cold water closing around her. Her whole body is shaking, she can’t stop shaking.

‘No,’ she hears herself say. ‘He couldn’t ever, he couldn’t, not ever …’

But he could. She knows that now.

Ida stands up, then leaves quickly and runs back upstairs. She has to get away from Linnéa and from Erik, away from the whole school.

But Erik is waiting for her in the entrance hall. The bell has rung, the first lesson has started. He is alone, nobody else is there to watch them. He walks towards her and when Ida meets his eyes, she is on the bridge again and he wants to kill her.

‘What’s the matter with you?’ Erik says.

One of his hands reaches for her.

‘Don’t touch me!’

Ida hears her own scream echo between the walls as Erik takes hold of her upper arms.

‘Calm down!’ he says.

She looks straight into his eyes and thinks that she no longer knows who he is.

Except, it’s not true. She has known all along who Erik is. The difference between the past and this present moment is that she has never seen him like this, from the other side, as it were. The way his victims have always seen him.

So many victims over all these years. His, and
hers
, too. ‘Come, come, kids must learn to put up with bit of rough and tumble,’ as Ida’s father used to say to the few parents who phoned up to complain. ‘I bet it’s just six of one and half a dozen of the other. As usual.’ And Ida knew she would always get out of trouble for as long as she stayed among the winners. Belonged among those who count.

‘Let me go!’ she says.

Erik tightens his grip on her arms, so hard that her eyes fill with tears. She feels her magic power come alive inside her. It crackles around her as if she is fully charged with static electricity. Every hair on the back of her neck is standing on end.

‘You’re behaving like a fucking psychotic!’ he says.

The discharge is so powerful that Erik is thrown backwards. He crashes into the wall and slumps to the floor. He stays there, looking around with a confused expression on his face.

Someone takes Ida’s hand. Linnéa.

Come on, run. We can’t stay here.

Linnéa pulls her along, out through the main entrance. They run together across the yard, past the dead trees and through the school gates.

There is no turning back.

Ida will never again be one of those who count.

She has crossed to the other side now.

Minoo can hardly believe her eyes, when she is close enough to the dance pavilion. Many bizarre things have happened in the fairground, but this takes the biscuit.

Linnéa and Ida are sitting close together on the edge of the stage. Ida’s head is resting on Linnéa’s shoulder. True, Linnéa doesn’t look exactly relaxed, but she seems to be tolerating the situation well enough.

Minoo heard that Ida and Linnéa left the school together suddenly that morning. Their disappearance is already part of the mythology that is growing around the recent events. It is the only subject people talked about today, in the corridors, classrooms and dining area.

At the end of the last lesson, Minoo heard Hanna H say that Ida had tried to push Erik down a flight of stairs. Apparently, Ida and Linnéa had been doing drugs together and Ida had a bad trip. Hanna H was so, so worried about Ida, of course. But, still, not really surprised because Ida has been behaving weirdly right through second year, don’t you agree?

Linnéa looks up when Minoo comes closer. Ida doesn’t move. She looks quite wasted. Her eyes are swollen and red-rimmed.

‘How are things?’ Minoo asks cautiously.

Linnéa glances at Ida.

‘It’s been a long day,’ she says and looks up at Minoo.

She hasn’t said a word all day. I took her back to my place. She hasn’t had anything to eat or drink. While I cleaned the flat, she just sat staring at nothing. More or less like she is now.

Minoo nods, doesn’t comment.

The ritual must be carried out at twilight and the sun is already low in the sky. They haven’t got much time now.

She takes a quick look at Linnéa’s heavily made-up face.

‘How are you feeling?’

Linnéa chews on one of her nails. The black varnish is flaking.

‘I thought I saw Erik on the way here. I realised it wasn’t him, but not soon enough. I went off into a real panic attack. That’s the very worst thing, you know. They’ve managed to tunnel into my head, undo me.’

‘You’re no way undone,’ Minoo says.

Steps approach on the gravel and Minoo turns to see. Vanessa and Anna-Karin climb up on the dance floor.

Vanessa goes straight to Linnéa.

‘How are you?’

‘Dunno. But still alive.’

Vanessa hugs her. She shuts her eyes for a moment before she lets Linnéa go. When she sees them together like this, Minoo can’t help hoping that Linnéa will dare to tell Vanessa about her feelings. She is quite certain that Vanessa’s response would surprise Linnéa.

‘Have you heard any more about the report of your break-in?’ Vanessa asks. ‘Like, have the police called or anything?’

‘Nothing. I’m pretty sure they won’t even bother to investigate. Anyway, the social has been in touch. Someone wants to see me tomorrow morning. I’m screwed, I guess.’

‘It’s not too late to tell them what really happened,’ Minoo
says. ‘You could explain that you were afraid of the guys and that’s why you didn’t tell the full story. And if you need a witness that you were pushed in you could always get in touch with Viktor and …’

Minoo’s sentence fades out. She can hear perfectly well how naive it must sound to Linnéa. But it is very hard to accept that Erik and Robin won’t be punished.

‘That would be pointless,’ Linnéa says. ‘The entire town has made up its mind already. My word against Helena’s. No contest. Besides, Viktor did save my life but I still don’t trust him.’

‘What about making Erik and Robin confess?’ Anna-Karin says. ‘I can make them. Just like we planned to do with Max.’

‘It was a stupid plan back then,’ Linnéa says. ‘And still is. You haven’t got the time to hang about controlling Erik and Robin throughout a long police investigation and then a trial.

We need you for other things.’

Minoo looks at Ida again. After all, it is her boyfriend they’re talking about. But her expression doesn’t change at all. She hardly even blinks.

‘I want them to die,’ Vanessa says.

‘Fine by me,’ Linnéa says.

Minoo goes quite cold inside. Must they have this discussion? They had it a year ago, when they kept talking about what to do to Max.

‘But then I’m not sure it is the best solution,’ Linnéa says after a while. ‘I was convinced I wanted to kill Max, but when I had a chance, I didn’t. I couldn’t. On the other hand, I don’t know how I’ll be able to bear seeing Erik and Robin around in Engelsfors.’

‘We’ll think of something,’ Minoo says. ‘Together.’

Linnéa nods.

‘As soon as this show trial is over and done with, we’ll sort
everything else, like Erik and Robin and Positive Engelsfors. And the demons,’ she says. ‘But now we’ve got to conduct this ritual.’

Vanessa roots about in her bag and produces a jar of ectoplasm.

‘Are you all prepared?’ Minoo asks.

‘Hard to say since we don’t have a clue what this ritual is for,’ Vanessa says.

Cue Ida, Minoo thinks. She’ll say something, come up with some objection, I-don’t-want-to, why-should-I.

But Ida is silent, just sits there.

‘All we need to know is that the ritual will help us get through the trial,’ Minoo says, wishing that she felt as much in control as she sounds. ‘All quiet back at the manor house?’

Anna-Karin nods. Her fox is keeping watch.

Vanessa hands Minoo the jar. Linnéa stands up and Ida hauls herself up after her.

‘The circle that binds,’ Minoo says and starts on the outer circle along the railing.

It feels quite different from the first time. Now, her hand slides easily across the worn wooden floor. It is
too
easy. Suddenly, she feels uncertain, as if she is only pretending.

The outer circle takes only a few minutes to complete. Nothing happens. She glances at the others.

‘Anyone feel anything?’

Anna-Karin, Linnéa and Vanessa shake their heads. Ida doesn’t even seem to have heard her.

‘Are you sure you’re doing it right?’ Vanessa asks.

‘There aren’t all that many ways of doing it,’ Minoo says as she goes to the centre of the dance floor. ‘The circle that gives power.’

She crouches to draw the inner circle. It forms perfectly, but still she cannot sense any magic.

‘Over to you now,’ she says and stands up.

One by one, they walk into the inner circle to draw the signs of their elements.

‘The sun has almost set,’ Anna-Karin observes.

Minoo takes the silver crucifix out of her rucksack. She has kept it at home since the seance.

‘Go and stand by the signs of your power,’ she says.

Minoo walks towards the inner circle with the crucifix in her hand. And now she feels something. The cross is becoming warm, then almost hot.

There is a crackling noise as small, violet sparks start leaping about in the inner circle.

‘Shit!’ Vanessa says. ‘Now what? Are you sure this is a good idea? Why didn’t the guardians want to tell us what the ritual was supposed to do?’

‘Maybe because if we’d known we’d never have joined in,’ Linnéa says.

Sparks start flying again in the inner circle. The crucifix grows so hot that Minoo can barely hold on to it.

‘Right, this is the right time,’ she says. ‘When I step inside the circle, take each other’s hands. And shut your eyes when I tell you.’

Minoo takes a deep breath, steps into the inner circle and raises the crucifix in front of her, as the guardians ordered.

‘Now,’ she says.

Vanessa barely has time to close her eyes before a strong wind lifts her hair. It pushes itself in through her nose and mouth. Tugs at her clothes.

She almost loses her balance and worries that she is going to fall and pull Anna-Karin and Linnéa down with her. She fights to stay upright with the wind roaring in her ears. It feels as if it could tear her apart from the inside.

And then the wind stops blowing, as quickly as it began. The world falls silent again. Vanessa feels heavy. Her legs seem almost welded to the floor.

She hears the others breathe heavily.

‘I’m exhausted,’ Minoo mumbles.

‘Did it work?’ Ida says.

‘I don’t know,’ Linnéa says. ‘After all, the guardians never said how we would find out, one way or the other.’

‘Can we open our eyes now?’ Vanessa hears herself say.

But I didn’t say that, she thinks. It was my voice. But I didn’t do the speaking.

She gradually opens her eyes and realises that she is looking at her own face.

Vanessa is standing next to herself and holds her own hand. She lets it go.

‘What happened?’ she says, quite shocked, and hears that her voice is not her own.

The palms of her hands are sweating heavily.

‘Who are you?’ Vanessa asks, staring at the Vanessa who is standing next to her and biting her nails.

‘Linnéa,’ she says.

Vanessa can’t stop staring. It is like looking at yourself in the mirror but still not the same.

She looks down at the body she inhabits and sees a duffel coat, tracksuit bottoms and trainers.

She observes Linnéa who is looking around, apparently confused.

‘And who are you?’ Vanessa asks.

‘I’m Minoo,’ she replies. ‘But I’m sort of Linnéa, right? Who of you is me? Who is inside me, I mean?’

‘I am,’ Minoo says in a trembling voice. ‘But I’m Ida.’

‘What’s happened?’ Vanessa asks once more in desperation. Everyone turns to her.

‘You’re me,’ Ida says gently. ‘That is, I’m Anna-Karin now, and you’re Vanessa, really, aren’t you?’

Vanessa nods and a long, dark strand of hair falls into her eyes. She pushes it back.

‘At least, I was Vanessa just moments ago,’ she adds, speaking with Anna-Karin’s voice.

Minoo puts her pen down and looks at the others. They are seated in a semicircle around her, looking at an open notebook and trying to get their heads around what she has written.

The sun is fully set by now, but the circle of ectoplasm is glowing around them.

Minoo = Linnéa’s body

Linnéa = Vanessa’s body

Vanessa = Anna-Karin’s body

Anna-Karin = Ida’s body

Ida = Minoo’s body

‘This is correct, right?’ Minoo asks.

Her handwriting isn’t the same as usual. Linnéa’s hand has its own practised grip on a pen and won’t quite do what Minoo wants.

‘Yes,’ Vanessa says and starts fiddling with one of her cuticles.

She is Linnéa, of course.

And I’m inside Linnéa’s body, Minoo thinks.
I’m inside somebody else’s body!

It’s too weird. If she thinks too much about this, her head is going to explode. No, Linnéa’s head.

I must see behind their faces, try to think of their real selves or I’ll go completely out of my mind, she thinks.

‘When the guardians showed me how to go about the ritual, I was told that the effect would last for three days and
three nights,’ she says. ‘So that means that at sunset on the third day from now, we’ll be back in our own bodies.’

‘How can you be sure?’ Minoo hears her own voice ask, but it sounds so different, like hearing your recorded voice. ‘Imagine what might happen if something goes wrong and we’re left in these bodies for ever. Or, think about it, we might end up in the wrong one when the whole thing goes in reverse. Or simply disappear. Or, what if
my
body dies because Anna-Karin crosses the street in front of a bus.’