Fire (61 page)

Disgusted, Vanessa turns away and catches sight of Michelle and Mehmet as they come in through the main entrance. While Michelle says something to Mehmet, she pulls down the zip of her jacket. And Vanessa spots something glittering at the neckline of Michelle’s sweater.

A silver pendant, the metal symbol.

‘Michelle!’ she calls. The crowd in the lobby falls silent.

Michelle turns from Mehmet to look her way. That glance pierces Vanessa’s heart like an ice pick.

Michelle whispers something to Mehmet and he shakes his head. Vanessa feels certain they are saying something about her.

Someone bumps into her, so hard she almost falls over.

‘Can’t you look where you’re going?’ she says as she turns to see who it is.

And meets Robin and Felicia’s eyes. Behind them, the rest of the crowd stands in silence, staring at Vanessa.

She is used to being stared at. Lots of people don’t like her and that’s fine by her. She’d rather people reacted to her than failed to notice her.

But nobody has ever before faced her with such hatred. And there are so many of them. The whole cluster is like one single, many-headed creature.

She starts walking away and hears excitable whispers behind her back.

‘She’s such a slut,’ a voice says.

‘What do you think, how many abortions has she had in the last twenty-four hours?’

Felicia and some of the other girls start tittering. Vanessa doesn’t want to hear another word. She gives them the finger over her shoulder and increases her pace.

Tommy Ekberg, arms crossed over his chest, is waiting for her by the lockers. His pea-green shirt is more unbuttoned than ever and the silver amulet is buried deep in his mat of curly hair. It’s so thick, it looks as if his pubic hair covers him all the way to his collarbones.

‘I want a word with you,’ he says. ‘In my office. Now.’

‘Why?’

‘Your mates are already there.’

‘My mates?’

‘You’ll come with me now!’ Tommy roars.

Vanessa is shocked. Tommy’s shirts are normally the only noisy thing about him. She has never before even heard him raise his voice.

‘Fine, I’m coming,’ she says. ‘But calm down.’

Linnéa jumps when the door is pulled open. Tommy Ekberg shoves Vanessa into the room, and then points wordlessly at a folding plastic chair that is waiting for her next to Linnéa. Minoo, Anna-Karin and Ida are crammed together on the sofa.

‘When I heard about the rumours you have been spreading about two fellow pupils in the school, at first I didn’t think it possible,’ Tommy begins while Vanessa settles down. ‘Such vicious gossip. Such blatant malice! And then I come in this morning and what do I see? That appalling poster. That was the final straw!’

Tommy stands, arms akimbo, eyes fixed on Linnéa. The contempt in his eyes, the hatred he clearly feels for her, almost frightens her.

Is it
his
hatred? she wonders, looking at the amulet. Or is it Helena’s, or Krister’s?

All Linnéa knows is that Tommy is convinced that she and the others are guilty. There is obviously not a trace of doubt in his mind.

‘I want you to know that I take this up front and very personal,’ he says. ‘Whatever you do to my pupils, my school, you also do to
me
.’

‘But we haven’t done anything,’ Anna-Karin says.

‘Lying will only make it worse for you. I know what you lot are about. Do you think I haven’t noticed how you try to sabotage the good atmosphere in this school?’

‘They must have done the vandalising of the poster themselves,’ Minoo says.

‘And why would PE members blacken the name of their own people?’ Tommy asks sneeringly.

‘In order to set us up just like this!’

‘Do you think I’m completely stupid?’ he shouts.

Minoo stares anxiously at him and Ida starts crying quietly.

‘Do you really want us to reply to that question?’ Vanessa says.

Tommy’s rage has reached such a pitch he can’t breathe normally.

‘Look, the truth is that none of us has done any of this,’ Linnéa says hurriedly. ‘We are being harassed, for Christ’s sake.’

Tommy marches up to her and puts his bright red face close to hers. His breath smells sweet of chocolate.

‘You have to root the weeds before they suck up all the goodness in the garden,’ he says.

They mustn’t get away with this
.

His thought echoes so loudly through Linnéa’s head, it seems unbelievable that no one else hears it. Tommy straightens his back and storms out of the office.

‘Don’t think of going anywhere,’ he shouts before the door slams behind him.

‘What’s he going to do?’ Minoo asks Linnéa.

‘I don’t know.’

She tries to up the range of her power, catch more of his thoughts.

Now she hears it again. The same thought as before. And yet, not the same.

They mustn’t get away with this.

‘Hang on, wait,’ she says and gets up.

‘Where are you off to?’ Vanessa says, but Linnéa doesn’t answer.

She opens the door and looks along the empty corridor. Stands still and listens. The only sounds are distant voices from the classrooms, steps of someone running in the stairwell.

She closes her eyes and releases more power than she has ever dared to do before, ever been able to do.

It is like sticking her head into a beehive. The sensation is as it felt in the beginning, before she knew anything about her power, when she still thought she was going mad, that all her years of anguish and chemicals had finally ruined her brain.

So many people, so many thoughts. But in the middle of the buzzing, the same thought recurs, over and over again.

They mustn’t get away with this.

Above her, below her.

They mustn’t get away with this.

It is a mantra repeated endlessly, from different directions, everywhere in the school.

They mustn’t get away with this.

They mustn’t get away with this.

They mustn’t get away with this.

Hatred is such a temptation. How good it would feel to let go and enter into it, to be allowed to hate without limit, unthinkingly. Linnéa is almost pulled along and she shuts her power down. Opens her eyes. An eternity seems to pass before there is silence inside her head once more.

The soles of her shoes grind against the floor when she turns and looks back at the others.

‘They’re all thinking the same thing,’ she says. ‘We’d better beat it.’

She looks over her shoulder and sees Tommy and Backman at the far end of the corridor, approaching briskly.

‘Come on!’ Linnéa shouts and the others leap up from their seats, finally energised.

Like a herd of terrified animals, they rush out from the headmaster’s office, down the spiral staircase and out into the ground-floor corridor.

They swing round a corner and there is Kevin, waiting for them.

They’re here!

Instantly, the thought rattles onwards through the school, like a row of falling dominoes.

They’re here! They’re here! They’re here! They’re here!

Kevin grabs hold of Linnéa’s jacket, but Vanessa gives him a push and Linnéa tears herself free.

They run into the lobby. Footsteps behind them in the corridor. Footsteps coming down the main staircase.

They mustn’t get away with this.

They push their way out through the main doors and keep running

I deeply, truly detest this school, Linnéa thinks.

When they get to the City Mall, Minoo has such a bad stitch it feels as though a red-hot iron stake has been plunged into her side. She can hardly breathe, except in little shallow gasps, and she stops, bending over with her hands on her knees.

‘What are we supposed to do here?’ Vanessa says. ‘The Crystal Cave doesn’t open until twelve o’clock.’

‘I thought we could hole up in there,’ Linnéa says and points at Sture & Co.

Minoo turns and looks at the darkened pane in the glazed door. Remembers the talk about drug dealing and knife fights. The wasted figures who stumble into the street after an afternoon session, people who are banned from Götis but don’t yet have to seek refuge in Storvall Park. She hopes Linnéa doesn’t pick up what she’s thinking.

‘We could go to my place and wait,’ Minoo suggests.

‘No, too dangerous,’ Linnéa says and shakes her head.

‘What, do you think they’ll come after us with pitchforks and burning torches?’ Vanessa says.

‘I wouldn’t rule it out,’ Linnéa says earnestly, before going along to knock on the door of Sture & Co.

A thin man, with a nose like a largish cauliflower streaked with red, comes to the door. He recognises Linnéa and smiles.

‘Hi. I know you haven’t opened yet, but is it okay if we hang out here for a bit?’ she asks.

‘No problem,’ he says and lets them in.

Once inside, Minoo looks around. The walls are covered in mirrors and flesh-coloured woven wallpaper. When they walk on the wall-to-wall carpet it gives off the stink of cigarette smoke. Grubby curtains, originally in a yellow check, have been pulled across the windows and prevent any scrutiny from the outside.

Linnéa leads them right into the back of the space, where there are small cubicles with dark brown wooden tables, marked all over with scribbles and carvings.

Minoo sits down inside one of the cubicles. The vinyl upholstery creaks underneath her when she slides over to sit nearest the window.

‘Has anyone got any money?’ Linnéa asks. ‘We’ll have to buy something.’

They pool all their cash. Minoo pulls at one of the curtains and sneaks a look outside. The window faces into the Mall and from here they have a view of the Crystal Cave.

She lets the curtain drop back when Linnéa returns, carrying a tray with five cups of tea.

‘Sture says we can stay here as long as we need to,’ she says as she crams herself into the seat next to Ida.

They look at each other in silence. Minoo thinks about what’s just happened and the full extent of it begins to sink in.

‘What were they going to do to us?’ she asks Linnéa. ‘Did you sense anything?’

‘I don’t think they knew themselves. They hadn’t had their orders yet.’

The hairs on the back of Minoo’s neck are standing on end.

‘It must be the necklaces,’ Linnéa continues. ‘It felt as if they were all connected to each other. If one of them spots us,
all the rest of them will get to know at once.’

‘How many do you reckon are going to the school party tonight?’ Vanessa says.

‘Must be more than a hundred,’ Minoo suggests.

‘I think it’s more like two hundred,’ Linnéa says.

‘So if all of them are wearing the amulets, Helena and Krister have recruited two hundred pairs of eyes to keep a lookout for them,’ Vanessa says.

‘We aren’t safe anywhere.’ Ida’s voice sounds dead, as if she has already given up hope.

Minoo thinks about Gustaf. He promised not to wear the necklace. But what if he gets it into his head that he should, after all, in order to blend in more easily?

‘But remember the Council,’ Vanessa says suddenly. ‘We have to face two lots of enemies. Positive Engelsfors and the Council. What if we could turn them against each other? Helena and Krister have broken every magic law in the book. If we reported them – maybe, to Viktor – then the Council ought to try to stop them. Perhaps we could
use
the Council.’

‘I think it’s too big a risk so soon after the trial,’ Linnéa says. ‘Perhaps they won’t just be happy with taking away our title of Chosen Ones. They might just be waiting to catch us out over something else. If we’ve learned anything about the Council it’s that they use information whatever way suits them. We can only trust each other. Which is precisely what Matilda told us from the start.’

‘I miss Nicolaus,’ Anna-Karin says. ‘I wish he was here.’

Minoo nods, then checks her mobile. Still no signal.

‘Do your phones work?’ she asks.

The others shake their heads.

Minoo places the mobile in front of her on the table. She would like to phone Dad and warn him, but she couldn’t tell him what about. She would like to get hold of Gustaf and
stop him from going to the party. She would like to call Mum just to hear her voice.

Time moves endlessly slowly. Finally, it’s twelve o’clock, but there is still no sign of Mona.

Stress makes Minoo’s skin crawl. They have no time to lose. But they don’t know what they can do. So by one o’clock, the Chosen Ones are sharing a big plate of chips that Sture has let them have on the house.

By half past three, Minoo is close to tears. She has turned all their problems over in so many ways she can’t think at all any more. Anna-Karin keeps a silent watch over the Crystal Cave. Ida has fallen asleep at the table, her head resting on her arms.

Suddenly, she sits up. Looks around, dazed, then wipes a little saliva from the corner of her mouth.

‘She’s there now,’ she says.

‘Who?’ Minoo says. ‘Where?’

‘Mona,’ Ida says. ‘It must be her.’

‘But no one has gone into the shop,’ Anna-Karin says.

‘Maybe there’s another way in,’ Vanessa says. ‘Actually, that would explain a great deal.’

Minoo peeps through the window and sees the lights go on in the Crystal Cave.

‘There’s somebody in there,’ she says.

They all stand up simultaneously. They thank Sture as they hurry past and run towards the shop.

When Minoo enters, a nauseating smell hits her. The mixture of incense and cigarette smoke is so overwhelming it almost knocks out her other senses.

Most of all, the Crystal Cave resembles an over-stocked gift shop. The shelving looks ready to collapse any time soon under the weight of china angels and pyramids.

Behind the counter, a woman with big hair coloured a yellowy blonde stands counting receipts. A cigarette is gripped between her glossy pink lips.

And Minoo understands why the Crystal Cave is the perfect cover for Mona’s other activities. Nobody who sees her or her shop could believe that Mona is a
real
witch.

‘Now what’s up?’ Mona asks, looking at them all.

Vanessa locks the door and turns the sign round to ‘
CLOSED
’.