Fire (64 page)

‘Until now, I’ve been successful,’ he continues. ‘But I don’t know what they will do to me after this. Perhaps Alexander won’t be able to protect me.’

Viktor the self-sacrificial goody? Viktor the hero?

Minoo is more confused than ever.

The rain is heavier now. Viktor takes an umbrella from the boot and holds it over them both. They walk close together, her shoulder pressed against his arm.

She suddenly thinks of Gustaf.

Gustaf, who is probably at the school party. He will either be alone among hundreds of zombies, or a zombie himself. Minoo can’t work out which alternative seems the worst.

She remembers last night, when he took her hand and held it. She must not fall in love with him. He is Rebecka’s boyfriend. He will always be Rebecka’s boyfriend, even though she is dead.

The white house is standing out against the dark sky. With every step Minoo takes, her fear increases. They follow the white wooden fence to the gate.

‘I don’t know if I can go through with this,’ she says to Viktor.

‘Think positively,’ he says.

‘Brilliant joke.’

He opens the gate and they follow the flagged path through the garden, where a few snowdrops are popping their heads
up in the borders. At the front door, Viktor pulls a bunch of keys from his pocket.

‘Any guards?’ Minoo asks quietly.

‘No need,’ he replies and puts one of the keys into the lock. Opens the door and gestures to her to step inside.

Minoo can almost hear Linnéa’s voice.

Welcome to the House of Horrors.

‘What’s the matter?’ Viktor asks.

‘A moment of déjà vu, that’s all.’

The light rain feels ice cold against Anna-Karin’s face and she pulls up the hood of her duffel coat. She is with Ida, Vanessa and Linnéa, shivering in a clump of trees and watching the school, which is towering against the horizon.

‘What are they doing?’ Vanessa asks.

Anna-Karin closes her eyes and slips into the consciousness of the fox.

It is standing close to one of the windows of the gym.

The perspective from above is almost dizzying. Anna-Karin and the fox are watching the people milling around the hall below their level. The grey-green floor is full of dashes and lines. Different colours for different sports. Anna-Karin hates them all.

The fox’s sensitive hearing picks up the voices of the guests, loud and jolly. Everyone seems to be saying the same thing. What
fun
it is to be there. How
terrific
the decoration is. And what a
fantastic
evening it’s going to be. The only subject they can’t agree on is who is going to be chosen as the Young PE Member of the Year. Most of them think it’s going to be Erik, but Rickard is the runner-up. Some people have suggested Kevin. But all these guys are so
fantastic
it doesn’t truly matter who is the number one choice. After all, being in PE means that any right-thinking person can be a winner.

Tommy Ekberg and Ove Post, the biology teacher, are standing by the entrance to the gym. They remind Anna-Karin of the guards at the trial. The same watchful expressions. Kevin fills a glass for each new arrival from the punchbowl. In front of the wall bars, a long line of tables has been set out with loads of buffet food and stacks of yellow paper napkins. Robin and Erik are together hauling a large amplifier up on to the stage that has been constructed under one of the basketball nets at the far end of the hall.

‘They’re still getting the place ready,’ Anna-Karin reports and carries on looking for familiar faces in the crowd.

She catches sight of Gustaf. He’s sitting in the stands, talking to Felicia.

‘I’ve spotted Gustaf.’

‘Is he wearing the amulet?’ Ida asks.

Gustaf’s yellow polo shirt is buttoned all the way up.

‘Don’t know,’ Anna-Karin says.

She tries to read Gustaf’s expression, but he looks as hysterically happy as everybody else. Is he just acting?

The very bright strip lights are level with the window. They make the fox’s eyes feel uncomfortable. Now and then, an amulet catches the light as the guests mingle in the gym.

So many of them. And all the time, more and more arrive.

For as long as they’re wearing the amulets, they are enemies. But enemies that the Chosen Ones are out to protect rather than to fight.

Anna-Karin opens her eyes and turns to the others.

‘I think it’s time to move,’ she says.

‘Right, let’s go,’ Linnéa says and picks up a large stone from the ground.

In Adriana’s house, everything is precisely the way Minoo remembers it. The smell that is unnaturally clean. The heavy antique furniture, in its proper place exactly to the millimetre. Minoo wonders if any of the people in the portraits are ancestral relatives of Adriana and Alexander. She follows Viktor through the dark rooms and up the creaking staircase.

What are the other Chosen Ones doing at this moment? Are they in danger?

Minoo and Viktor walk along the upstairs corridor and stop outside Adriana’s bedroom. They stand looking at the closed door.

What happens if I can’t do this? Minoo thinks. And if I succeed at all, what if I don’t remove enough and leave remains of memories behind that prevent her from being declared innocent? Or what if I remove too much? Maybe she’ll become somebody utterly different. Or a vegetable. Like Max.

What if I kill her?

‘Stop worrying,’ Viktor says.

Taken aback, she looks at him.

‘No, I can’t read your mind,’ he says. ‘But it shows in your face. You’re getting worked up. I know you can carry this off.’

‘You know nothing. Well, you know nothing about my powers anyway.’

‘But I believe in you.’

Oh, goody, at least someone does, Minoo thinks.

‘We’ve blocked the corridor with circles,’ Viktor explains.

He stretches out his hand and feels his way cautiously in the air. An electrical hiss and lights flash at his fingertips.

‘Ouch,’ he says and shakes his hand.

From his pocket, he pulls out a small transparent spray bottle. It is filled with something that looks like ordinary water.

‘But we must of course have access to provide her with food.’

He sprays into the air several times.

Where the fluid hits the power field, the air glitters. Viktor grabs Minoo’s jacket and pulls her through the shimmering area. She glances over her shoulder. The shining particles are extinguishing behind them. The power field between them and the staircase is intact once more. She is locked in.

‘We must hurry now,’ Viktor says.

He walks to the bedroom door, finds the right key, twists it in the lock and opens up.

The only light in the room comes from a plain, stainless-steel standard lamp. Adriana lies on the bed, staring at the wall. Her clothes are the same as at the trial. Her eye makeup has smeared a little. Her tights have torn and a long ladder has streaked up one of her calves. Her high-heeled shoes are on the floor where she kicked them off.

‘Has the time come already?’ she says dully and turns round.

She goes rigid when she sees Minoo and Viktor.

‘Minoo. What are you doing here? What are you doing here … with him?’

‘I’ll stand guard outside,’ Viktor says, walks out and closes the door behind him.

Minoo sits down next to Adriana.

‘They’re coming for me any time now. You must leave at once,’ Adriana says. ‘Don’t trust Viktor. He’s tricked you into coming here. It’s a trap.’

‘I will not leave you here, simple as that.’

‘Minoo,’ Adriana says gravely. She sits up. ‘Listen, I’m not afraid. I have made two choices in my life that I am proud of. The first was to leave the Council together with Simon. The second was to take your side and not the Council’s. I have accepted my fate.’

‘But we haven’t. We have no intention of allowing them to murder you. We are going to rescue you.’

‘I can’t escape—’

‘I know that,’ Minoo interrupts.‘There is another solution.’

She describes the plan and Adriana listens with a troubled look on her face.

‘Viktor thinks that if we succeed, the Council will revoke the sentence,’ Minoo says. ‘I must be honest now. I have no idea if I’m capable of doing this. But it’s your only hope.’

Adriana shakes her head.

‘No, I can’t let you run such a risk. If something goes wrong, you’ll have to live with it for the rest of your life. And even if you’re successful, I’ll become the person I was before. I’d rather die than live like that other self.’

‘The woman you were then
became
the one you are now,’ Minoo says. ‘There’s nothing to say that you won’t change again. And we will do everything we can to think up a way for you to break your bond with the Council.’

‘That’s impossible.’

‘Many things we thought impossible have actually happened.’

‘I can’t let you do this …’

‘If I did
not
try to help you, do you think I could live with
that
for the rest of my life?’

Adriana looks at her, in silence. Minoo listens to her breathing. Watches the pulse beating at the base of Adriana’s throat. Her beating heart. Her heart that the Council wants to stop.

‘I don’t want to die,’ Adriana finally admits. ‘I do my best to act courageous, but I don’t want to die.’ She thinks briefly. ‘Where will my memories go?’

‘I don’t know.’

Adriana nods.

‘Doesn’t matter,’ she says. ‘Go ahead. But, Minoo … don’t remove him. Simon. Without him …’

Her voice breaks.

‘I promise,’ Minoo says.

Adriana nods again.

‘I should have been able to predict the turn the trial would take,’ she says. ‘But I failed to realise how powerful the group of sceptics has grown.’

‘How can they twist the evidence like that? Can’t they get it into their heads that the world will soon go under? Don’t they care?’

‘They don’t want to know. To admit it would also be to admit that there are powers stronger than themselves. Events that they cannot control.’ She looks at Minoo. ‘In a way, this could offer you new hope. Keep a low profile and maybe they’ll leave you in peace. I truly hope that they will.’

She puts her arm around Minoo and holds her for a while. Traces of her perfume remain, a faint scent of roses.

‘I won’t remember this, will I?’ Adriana says as she sits back.

Minoo shakes her head.

‘I will miss you as you are now.’

‘So will I,’ Adriana says with a sad little smile.

She lies down on the bed and closes her eyes.

Minoo takes a deep breath and puts her hand on Adriana’s forehead. Whatever happens, she hopes that Adriana won’t be in pain.

She allows the black smoke to pour forth. It swirls around the bed, splits up and fuses again, forms convoluted patterns against the white walls of the room, enveloping them both in its ink-black whirlpool.

Minoo closes her eyes and allows herself to be swept along.

The rain has stopped. Ida leads the way as they sneak between the cars in the car park behind the school. She checks out the loading bay below the wide steel door that leads into the dining area. They accessed the school via that route just about a year ago. Entering the pitch black passage had felt like stepping straight into hell. At least the lights are on in the gym, she comforts herself. It doesn’t help much. Last year, they only had to face one enemy, and this time there are a couple of hundred.

And Erik is one of them.

Ida had thought Minoo was thick not to have realised that Max was evil.

She has always refused to believe that karma exists but lately evidence to the contrary seems to be piling up.

They reach the brick wall and Ida presses herself against it. She studies the fire escape’s spiral of black metal that twists up along the wall all the way to the top floor. It has a landing corresponding to each floor level.

‘Nicolaus might have thought of leaving his keys to the school behind,’ she mutters. ‘He should have worked out that we would have to fight the demons here again sooner or later.’

‘Better go for the door on the top floor,’ Linnéa says. ‘I don’t think there’s anyone around there.’

‘Are they all thinking the same thing?’ Anna-Karin asks.

‘No,’ Linnéa says. ‘They’re affected by something, but the effect is low-key just now.’

Ida has a look round. The shadows under the street lamps seem to be growing denser.

This is such a pathetic idea, she thinks.

Cautiously, Vanessa starts climbing the spiral staircase. Linnéa goes after her. Ida pushes past Anna-Karin and puts her foot on the bottom rung. If somebody emerges out of the shadows and starts chasing them, she doesn’t want to go last.

The slippery metal grids of the treads shiver under their feet. Ida passes the landing at the first floor and glances through the pane in the door.

Except for the spooky green light from an ‘
Emergency Exit
’ sign, the empty corridor is very dark. She has a vivid image of how something will materialise as soon as she has turned her back. A decaying face, pressed against the pane, staring at her, grinning hungrily.

Hold it, Ida, she thinks. Isn’t what you’ve got to do now more than enough? No need to invent more scary things, surely?

She fixes her eyes on her feet and refuses to look up again until she has reached the fourth and final landing.

Linnéa is peering through the dirty windowpane.

‘Fuck,’ she says. ‘It’s alarmed. I didn’t think the school could afford being wired up.’

They stand close together on the small landing. The wet, cold railing is hard against Ida’s back. One look over her shoulder tells her just how far down the ground is. The entire staircase seems to vibrate under them, as if it could soon work lose from its attachments. She doesn’t want to be here for a second more. She pushes her way to the door and looks in.

‘What are you doing?’ Linnéa says.

Ida immediately spots the little white plastic box on the wall just inside the door. A red light winks teasingly at her.

If everybody else’s power has become stronger and easier to direct, so should hers. She takes her gloves off, puts her fingers on the glass and concentrates.