The Key (9 page)

Anna-Karin is crying on Vanessa’s shoulder, while Vanessa is stroking her back. Minoo takes in the uncomplicated physicality that comes so easily to Vanessa, despising herself for being unable to show warmth, even when one of her friends needs it more than anything else.

‘I’m off to look for coffee,’ Minoo tells no one in particular.

‘Get some for me too, please,’ Linnéa says quietly.

Minoo takes out her mobile once she is in the corridor. She badly wants to talk to her mother. But there are signs up everywhere showing an ancient mobile phone scoured out with an angry red cross. She jogs along the corridor towards the door to the stairwell.

The ceiling lights are off, but the stairs are lit by that extraterrestrial glow. Minoo dials her mother’s number, hoping that she isn’t on a late shift. She wishes that her mum still lived at home and did her doctoring in Engelsfors hospital. That she was here now.

‘Hi,
azizam
!’

Minoo hears voices in the background. A barking laugh that could only come from Aunt Bahar.

‘Mum …’ Minoo begins.

Suddenly the full force of the night’s events come crashing down on her. She chokes on the words.

‘
Bacheye aziz
,’ Mum is saying. ‘Has something happened?’

The phone crackles, her mother’s voice is so fractured that Minoo can hardly understand her.

She starts walking up the stairs.

‘It’s Anna-Karin’s mother,’ she says.

‘What about Anna-Karin? It’s very bad reception.’

Minoo moves towards the window and the reception improves a little.

‘She collapsed. Anna-Karin’s mother did.’

‘Relax, Minoo. Breathe. And then talk to me.’

Minoo realises that she is practically hyperventilating and forces herself to breathe normally. And then the words flow. Everything seems more real when she can tell Mum. She has to fight not to burst into wild tears.

‘Mum, do you think I did anything wrong? Do you?’

‘Minoo …’

The crackling drowns her mother’s voice and Minoo keeps walking upstairs to ground level. She goes out into a corridor.

‘Can you hear me?’ she says into the phone, but gets no reply.

Walking quickly now, she passes openings into dully lit corridors and arrives at a small café. The tables inside are decorated with plastic flowers in little vases. It is closed.

‘Can you hear me now?’ Minoo asks.

‘Now I can hear you,’ Mum says, sounding relieved.

‘What if I did something wrong, if I made it worse? Do you think I did?’

‘It sounds like you handled it really well,’ Mum reassures her.

Minoo can tell by her voice that she is in doctor mode.

‘You did exactly the right thing, Minoo.’

‘But, Mum, what could it have been?’ Minoo asks. ‘Do you think it was a heart attack? Or a stroke? What could be so sudden?’

‘There are lots … I can’t tell without …’

Minoo’s phone goes dead. She checks the display. Transmission error.

She tries to reconnect but fails. Then, as she pockets the mobile, she spots a coffee machine just outside the café.

This machine works and the smell of instant coffee makes things feel a little more ordinary. Minoo fixes four mugs of
café latte
, then attempts to carry them all without burning her fingers.

She walks slowly to avoid the coffee slopping over, wondering how she’ll manage to open the door to the stairwell.

She is aware of the darkness in the corridors leading off the main one. And the silence. Shouldn’t somebody be around? Just to keep an eye out?

She takes an uncertain step and splashes coffee on her right hand. Stops and swears loudly. Blows on the hot liquid. Starts walking again.

And then she hears it. Coming from behind her in the corridor. The sound of breathing. Minoo stops, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end.

She has no reason to be scared. This is a public place. Presumably someone else is out hunting for coffee. Someone who breathes very loudly, with an effort.

Minoo turns to look.

The first thing she notices is his hospital-issue clothing. White shirt with the local authority logo. Floppy grey pants. It takes her several seconds to recognise him.

In her nightmares, he has always looked the same as when she first knew him.

The mugs of coffee fall from her hands and hit the floor so that the contents splash her jeans.

Max.

He seems to have aged a whole lifetime. His body is emaciated. His pale skin has a sickly yellow tinge. His hair has been shaved and his head is bare and skull-like.

It isn’t possible, Minoo thinks. He has been lying in a coma for more than a year; one can’t simply get up and start walking … He takes a step towards Minoo.

She screams, then slips in the puddle of coffee, falls and hits her tailbone so hard that she stops breathing for a moment, just like the time she fell on the ice and he helped her up.

The fluorescent lights in the ceiling start to flicker.

Minoo
.

She looks up at him. His eyes are black, like crude oil. Black, like a bird’s eyes.

The lights crackle.

Minoo
.

His voice is inside her head. His bird’s eyes are watching her. Black smoke is billowing around him.

You will not get away
.

Minoo tries to concentrate. Tries to emit her own black smoke. But, just as in her nightmares, she is helpless. Against him, she’s helpless.

He takes another step forward and she pulls herself backwards with her hands, then tries to get up.

STOP!

Her body stiffens. She lies on the floor, supports herself on her elbows and looks at him as he comes closer.

He is surrounded by blackness now. Coils of smoke rise all the way to the ceiling. Behind him, smoke fills the whole corridor.

And he smiles.

They have blessed me once more. Their power is everywhere inside me. Soon, the portal can be opened. I am stronger than ever
.

‘Please …’ Minoo manages to say.

SILENCE!

Her jaws slam shut, her lips are pressed together.

Max is standing just beside her now. His unblinking bird’s eyes are fixed on her.

This time I am stronger than you are
.

He kneels at her side. His face is only a hand’s breadth from hers. He stinks of disinfectant, decay, and something much worse.

I am going to kill you now, Minoo
.

And inside her head, she hears his command, hears him order her body to stop breathing. The muscles that move her ribcage are paralysed. She tries to draw breath but nothing happens.

Max observes her.

At first, they promised that I could have Alice back. Then they promised me you. But you ruined everything. You chose your friends instead. You chose this worthless world rather than me
.

It feels as if she is back in the bathtub when Max tried to drown her. Her lungs seem about to burst. She tries to rouse her body, tries to make it fight back, but nothing happens. Nothing helps against this.

Max reaches out with his hand and places it on her cheek; ice-cold moisture touches her arm. Minoo’s field of vision is clouded with black spots.

We could have been together, Minoo. You and I. But you betrayed me. You deserve to die. Just as Alice did, back then. But they have promised that once I have helped them to open the portal, I shall have her back. And then she will be just the way I want her
.

Another smile. He looks like a wild beast. And, at last, fury explodes inside Minoo.

From deep inside her, the power of the guardians erupts. In an instant, her smoke envelops them both. Her paralysis lifts and she takes a deep breath. The rush of oxygen almost makes her dizzy. She hits out at his hand.

No …

Suddenly, she can see his new blessing. And it is flawed; something is wrong with it. Its flaring black flames are burning too intensely. Her instinct tells her that she must not even think of trying to put the fire out; instead she must get as far away from him as possible.

You don’t understand! You haven’t even a chance of winning!

She manages to stand. Her head is spinning and she supports herself against the wall. Starts backing towards the stairwell. Her chest hurts with each breath.

Stop. Don’t go
.

Max’s controlling thoughts only brush past her. She flicks them away like annoying insects. Meanwhile, she sees the black fire blazing around him where he stands with his claw-like hands held out.

Nothing is as you think
.

She continues backing towards the stairwell. Sees how Max’s body starts to shake.

Nothing is as you think. Noth
…

Max’s throat lets out a cracked, inhuman cry. He bends back and howls at the ceiling as the black fire grows and grows, closes around him, swallows him. He sinks to the floor, writhing. Demonic magic is consuming him.

Minoo turns and runs along the last stretch of the corridor, then tugs open the door to the stairwell.

She hears his screaming behind her, and can still hear it as she runs downstairs and into the A&E corridor. She closes the door behind her. Stops.

The only sounds now are ordinary hospital noises and her own laboured breathing.

With the pulse hammering at her temples, she walks towards the visitors’ room. The base of her spine aches. She can’t think how to explain this to the others; can’t think even how to take it in herself.

She stops in the doorway.

Vanessa sits on the sofa, holding Anna-Karin in her arms. Linnéa, who stands close by, looks up, and Minoo understands what has happened even before she hears Linnéa think it.

Ida is falling through the light; she falls and falls for what feels like an eternity.

Then, abruptly, she is standing somewhere high up, with a view across a deep blue sea. The sun is a glowing, white-hot sphere that colours the whole horizon red. Far below the rock she stands on, Ida looks out over lovely, serene beaches with not a soul in sight. This could have been the perfect holiday spot. That is, if it hadn’t been for the smell of manure.

She turns and sees an expanse of hilly grassland, scorched by the sun. Further up the slope above her, Ida identifies a vineyard, or something like that. Beyond it, a tower is just visible. Not far from her, several goats graze.

‘What the hell is this?’ she says out loud.

Then she spots a figure hurrying down the slope: a boy of her own age, with black curly hair and large, dark eyes. He would be kind of hot if it weren’t for his clothes. He is wrapped in a red cape and wears a darkish-green, knee-length tunic underneath. Worse, his feet are strapped into leather sandals – and that’s an absolute no-no for guys. He is carrying a sack on his shoulder.

‘Hey, please,’ Ida says when he has come closer. ‘Is this some fucking LARP?’

No response.

A man is shouting from somewhere.

‘Alkides!’

Two men appear at the crest of the hill. The guy glances over his shoulder. Speeds up.

‘Alkides!’ It’s the same voice. ‘Stop!’

Their language is completely different from the one used by the people in the grand gallery. But Ida understands this one as well.

‘Alkides!’

The man sounds really angry now. Alkides stops. And waits, tight-jawed, for his pursuers to catch up.

The two men are probably both in their fifties. The man who did the shouting has thick, raven-black hair and a large beard. His cape and tunic are dark blue. He is broad-shouldered, and his large hands look strong enough to crush someone’s head. The other man, who is simply dressed in a kind of white sheet, has grey hair and a grey beard. Round his neck, a small glass disc dangles from a leather strap. He holds a cylinder of leather in one hand and he looks like a schoolbook illustration of an ancient Greek philosopher.

Then it strikes Ida that he might actually
be
an ancient Greek philosopher.

Time and space are different for you now
.

One couldn’t accuse Matilda of exaggerating.

It is so fucking unfair that I have to be the one that this happens to, Ida thinks. After everything else.

The broad-shouldered man rips the sack from Alkides’s grip and empties its contents on the ground. A loaf of bread. A silver bowl with the signs of the six elements engraved in the bottom. A hunting knife with a black handle. A leather bag with something in it.

‘So, where do you think you were going?’ the big man says, staring threateningly at Alkides.

‘Home.’

The big man snorts and Alkides’s expression darkens.

‘Kimon, I’m serious,’ he says.

‘My dear boy.’ The grey-haired man hobbles a little closer. ‘His men would capture you within moments of your first steps on land.’

The goats are bleating as they start to trot slowly up the slope. They’ve probably picked up the bad vibes.

‘I
want
them to capture me,’ Alkides says. ‘I want them to take me to him. So I can kill him.’

Kimon snorts again.

‘Kill him? You? He’s not only one of the most powerful men in Athens, he is also the demons’ Blessed One—’

‘And I am the Chosen One!’ Alkides interrupts. ‘You’re to show me respect!’

The fury in Kimon’s eyes frightens Ida. But, even so, she is unprepared for what Kimon does next: he raises his gigantic hand and slaps Alkides’s face.

The blow is enough to fell him.

‘My dear boy,’ the grey-haired man says. ‘I understand how hard this is for you. But, as members of the Council, it is our duty to protect you, against yourself as well.’

‘You tell me to run away and hide, like a little girl,’ Alkides mumbles. He uses a corner of his cape to wipe a little blood from his mouth.

‘Only until the time is right for you to close the portal,’ the grey-haired man tells him. ‘That is when we will travel to Athens. And if you have to face the Blessed One in a fight, so be it. But not now. It is too soon.’

‘You can’t stop me,’ Alkides gets up from the ground. ‘I won’t give in, so you might as well let me go!’