The Circle (12 page)

‘Four,’ says Vanessa, pointing at Rebecka Mohlin, who suddenly appears behind Anna-Karin.

Rebecka is wearing her baggy tracksuit trousers and a fleece. She stands there, huddled up, looking at the others.

Something grasps against Minoo’s arm, and she spins around with a pathetic little shriek. Linnéa is standing behind her. She’s still wearing her black hoody. Her eyes are bloodshot and her gaze unsteady. ‘Minoo, what’s going on?’ she asks. ‘Is this really happening?’

‘It looks like it,’ Minoo answers.

‘I’m losing my fucking mind,’ she whispers, glancing at Vanessa and Nicolaus.

‘No, you’re not.’

Linnéa doesn’t listen. Her grip on Minoo’s arm tightens when she catches sight of something behind her.

Minoo turns and sees Ida Holmström walking towards them, her blonde hair cascading over her shoulders and a white lace nightgown fluttering around her. She seems to have stepped out of some black-and-white horror film, with the silver heart at her throat glinting in the moonlight and her eyes staring vacantly like a zombie’s.

Minoo looks at Nicolaus, who mumbles to himself as he runs his fingers through his grizzled wavy hair.

‘There’s only supposed to be one of you!’ he exclaims. ‘As it was written, “The Chosen One shall come to the sacred place in the glow of the blood-red moon.” There I am to meet and guide her …’ His voice drops to a whisper. ‘There can be only one of you. How am I to know which?’

He falls silent. Minoo realises that someone has to start asking the right questions. ‘Was everyone brought here like some kind of radio-controlled robot?’

The resulting silence speaks volumes. Minoo feels an enormous sense of relief. Whatever’s happening, it’s not just happening to her.

‘Okay. That means we’ve all come here “in the glow of the blood-red moon”.’

‘Wait,’ says Nicolaus. He sounds breathless.

Minoo can see that he’s struggling to clear the banks of fog in his head.

Suddenly the words are pouring out: ‘We have been awoken from our torpor for a reason. The Chosen One shall
lead
the fight against evil, and I shall guide her. The Chosen One possesses enormous powers, and she alone can save us all from destruction.’

Anna-Karin brushes her hair away from her face and looks at Nicolaus. ‘The rest of you can go home,’ she says. ‘I’m the Chosen One.’

Anna-Karin’s heart is pounding so hard that she thinks it’ll explode when everyone looks at her. Even though Nicolaus has mentioned evil and destruction, it’s more frightening for her to speak in front of the girls. But she has to be brave. She knows that what she’s about to say is true. ‘I can make people do things. It happened yesterday and today,’ she says. She’s speaking too quickly – she knows she sounds stupid.

‘Maybe someone should call the psychiatric hospital,’ Ida says, with a cackle. She seems to expect the others to join in, but no one does. No one laughs at Anna-Karin. Just Ida. Vile, despicable Ida.

It happens again. Anna-Karin’s fear melts away, exposing a bedrock of raw hatred, incredibly powerful and hard. She is the Chosen One. And she’s going to show them.

Speak the truth
, she commands.
Speak the truth about why you read that poem in the auditorium today
.

Ida turns pale when her lips start to move. She tries to force them together, to stop the words, but they spew out of her like vomit.

‘I read that poem because I wanted everyone to believe I cared. But I don’t care. I think it’s just as well that people like Elias commit suicide.’

Minoo and Rebecka just manage to grab Linnéa before she hurls herself at Ida.

‘I didn’t mean …’ Ida whispers, and clasps her throat. She looks at Anna-Karin. ‘You made me say that, you fucking freak!’

‘You!’ Nicolaus exclaims in relief, and turns to Anna-Karin. ‘You are the Chosen One!’

‘Excuse me,’ says Vanessa, ‘but I became invisible the other day.’

Anna-Karin gets angry again. Doesn’t Vanessa realise it’s Anna-Karin’s turn to be the centre of attention?

‘I didn’t do it on purpose,’ Vanessa continues, ‘but it happened. Twice.’

Nicolaus looks at her in horror. He can’t dismiss her yet.

‘I can’t explain it,’ says Rebecka, slowly. ‘But the accident in the auditorium today … it was me who did that.’

It’s harder for Anna-Karin to be angry with Rebecka. She likes her.

‘Have the rest of you experienced anything out of the ordinary?’ Minoo asks. ‘I mean, besides the fact that we’re all here.’ No one answers, so she continues: ‘I dreamed I was locked up in some kind of dungeon in another time. And in the next dream I was on a cart. And when I woke up my hair smelt of—’

‘Smoke,’ Linnéa cuts in.

‘Otherwise I haven’t noticed anything special,’ Minoo mumbles.

Minoo is used to being the best at everything, and Anna-Karin can see she’s disappointed that she doesn’t have any
amazing
new powers. She thinks she can hide it, but Anna-Karin sees right through her. She’s an expert. You become a very keen observer when you’re always in the background.

‘Neither have I,’ says Linnéa.

Everyone looks at Ida.

Please don’t let her have any powers, Anna-Karin prays silently. If she does, there’s no justice at all in this world.

‘I’m going home,’ says Ida.

‘Wait a minute,’ Rebecka says.

‘No! I don’t want anything to do with you, you fucking freaks!’

‘You haven’t had any strange dreams?’ Rebecka asks.

Anna-Karin can’t understand why Rebecka is wasting time on Ida. Nobody wants her here.

‘So what if I have?’ Ida screams. Then her gaze hardens. ‘Rebecka, we can still be friends if you come with me now.’

Rebecka doesn’t hesitate. ‘I’m staying,’ she says.

‘Just wait till I tell G about this,’ Ida says, and walks off.

But she doesn’t get far.

Ida looks like something from a cartoon, when she stops mid-step, as if she’s just walked into a wall. Rebecka can almost hear the
boing
you hear when Wile E. Coyote runs into a door that’s been drawn on a cliff face. She almost expects to see a cloud of little birds twittering around Ida’s head.

Ida staggers and remains standing there, her back still turned to the others.

‘Ida?’ Rebecka says.

Ida doesn’t answer. She just stands there, motionless.

And then she’s not motionless.

Her body is dragged back towards them, dangling limply a few centimetres off the ground as if by some unseen hand. Her toes brush against the ground as she moves through the air.

Rebecka slides closer to Minoo. Vanessa looks frightened and Linnéa backs away. Anna-Karin sneaks up to Nicolaus.

Standing together they form a loose circle, with Ida hovering in the middle.

Her head is hanging down and her face is slack. Steam is coming from her half-open mouth, as if it is very cold where she’s hovering. Everything becomes still again. A strange shudder spreads through Rebecka’s body. Her skin is covered with goose bumps and the hair on her arms stands up. It’s as if the air itself is charged with electricity.

Ida slowly lifts her head.

No, Rebecka realises. Someone or something has raised Ida’s head.

A string of white mucus oozes from the corner of Ida’s mouth and dribbles slowly down her chin, remains suspended there, then drips to the ground. Her mouth closes and she opens her eyes. Her pupils widen and stare vacantly in front of her, yet it feels as if her gaze pierces right into Rebecka, sees things inside her that not even she knows about.

‘Do not be afraid. You are in a protected place.’

It’s Ida’s voice, yet not. It’s soft and warm.

‘The enemy cannot find you here. It is only here that you
are
safe. It is only here that you may meet together. You must hide your friendship from everyone else.’

‘At school, too?’ asks Anna-Karin.

Ida’s face contorts into a grimace. ‘Especially at school. That is a place of evil.’

‘I could have told you that,’ Linnéa mumbles.

Ida looks around. ‘The Circle is seven,’ she says. ‘One of you is missing.’ A lone tear runs down her cheek. ‘Then the battle has already begun.’

‘Who’s missing?’ Nicolaus asks.

‘Elias,’ Linnéa whispers.

Ida nods. Nicolaus looks dismayed and Rebecka thinks she understands how he feels. A piece is missing. The puzzle will never be complete.

‘If evil prevails, the flames will engulf the world,’ says Ida. ‘You cannot afford to doubt. Evil is closer than you think. It is searching for you. You must train your powers, become stronger together. You need each other.’

Rebecka thinks she hears whispers of agreement coming from the forest. Like the concurring voices of invisible creatures all around them. In the next moment Ida looks straight at Rebecka, and a voice fills her head, a warm, loving whisper.

You must lead them, Rebecka. They won’t like it, but they need you. It is your task to deepen the bond between you. But it is our secret. No one else must know that I have given you this charge. Do you understand?

Rebecka can only nod. Ida looks at her gratefully, then turns to the others. ‘Trust each other. Trust Nicolaus. Soon
he
will remember more and be of help to you,’ she says.

Ida gazes sadly at Nicolaus. His ice-blue eyes are glistening. ‘Trust no one,’ Ida continues. ‘Neither your parents, nor your brothers and sisters. Not your friends. Not even the love of your life. And remember, the Circle is the answer.’

Ida sinks towards the ground. Minoo runs up to her. Rebecka and the others follow. They all gather around Ida.

‘Who are you?’ asks Minoo.

‘I am you. You are me. We are one. The Circle is the answer.’

‘What kind of evil are we to fight?’

No answer. Ida’s eyelids flutter as the foreign presence leaves her body. Everything becomes still. A faint smell of smoke hangs in the air.

‘Is she … is she dead?’ Vanessa asks.

Minoo cautiously lays her fingers against Ida’s neck. ‘No.’

‘So it’s possible,’ says Nicolaus. ‘You are the Chosen One. All of you.’

Rebecka looks at the others. Six people with nothing in common have been brought together by something huge and incomprehensible. All of a sudden it feels completely natural that they should be here together. As if it had always been meant.

Ida opens her eyes and stares at them.

‘How do you feel?’ Rebecka asks anxiously.

‘If you don’t let me go now, I’ll scream,’ says Ida.

11

THERE WASN’T ENOUGH
room for them all in Nicolaus’s old mustard-yellow Fiat. Since Rebecka and Minoo were closest to home, they had offered to walk.

Minoo glances at Rebecka out of the corner of her eye. Neither has said a word since they left Kärrgruvan. The silence is starting to become uncomfortable. Unless it’s Minoo’s imagination. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. Tiny, almost imperceptible signals can become so easily amplified in her head.

In school she’s never afraid to raise her hand because, there, she knows what she’s talking about. But now, alone with a pretty and popular girl like Rebecka, she is silent.

It shouldn’t be so difficult to find something to talk about after everything that’s happened tonight. But the more she struggles to think of something to say, the more stuck she gets. Everything sounds so lame, so dull. How do they do it, all those people who babble on seemingly oblivious to the fact that most of what they say is meaningless?

‘I hope we don’t meet anyone we know,’ says Rebecka.

Minoo nods, relieved that the silence has been broken. ‘Yeah. Good thing it isn’t the weekend. Not that there’s all
that
many people out then either, but the chance of us bumping into someone would be greater. It should be quiet now – it’s very early still, and most people are probably asleep. Unless someone’s out walking their dog …’

Minoo feels like hitting herself. It’s so typical of her. At first she can’t get anything out because she analyses every word. Then she removes the filter and blurts out whatever comes into her head.

‘Yeah, I guess it would have to be that, then,’ Rebecka says with a smile.

They’ve reached the national road.

Minoo makes very sure that no lorries are coming before she crosses.

‘Did you know Elias?’ asks Rebecka.

‘No. You?’

‘No. But I feel as if I did …’ Rebecka stops and turns to Minoo. Her face is framed with loose coils of reddish-blonde hair. Her eyes shift between grey and blue. Her skin and features are so perfect that she almost looks Photoshopped. It’s impossible to stop staring.

‘I don’t know how to explain it,’ Rebecka continues, ‘but it wouldn’t have made any difference if we had all been best friends before this. We still wouldn’t have known each other like we’re going to get to know each other now. You know what I mean? That we belong together in a way that has nothing to do with who we were before tonight.’